{"id":4609,"date":"2016-01-19T09:20:40","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T15:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=4609"},"modified":"2016-01-19T09:25:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T15:25:03","slug":"fighting-over-faith-and-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/fighting-over-faith-and-works-4609.htm","title":{"rendered":"Fighting over Faith and Works"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Faith<\/a><\/p>\n

Human beings love to fight and to form factions, and Christians alas are no exception. Paul warns against meaningless speculations and controversies, largely in vain, judging from the fights he had to deal with: I am for Paul, I am for Apollo, I am for Christ. During the Reformation, Christians decided to pick a fight about the relationship of faith and works. Reformers maintained with Paul that we are justified by faith, not by works; Catholics with James insisted that faith without works was dead and did not justify.<\/span><\/p>\n

On which side does the following writer come down?<\/span><\/p>\n

For what\u00a0reason\u00a0was our father\u00a0<\/em>Abraham<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>blessed? Was it not because he wrought righteousness and\u00a0truth<\/a>\u00a0through\u00a0faith<\/a>?\u00a0Isaac, with\u00a0perfect\u00a0confidence, as if\u00a0knowing<\/a>\u00a0what was to happen,\u00a0cheerfully yielded himself as a\u00a0sacrifice<\/a> Jacob, through reason\u00a0of his brother, went forth with\u00a0humility\u00a0from his own land, and came to\u00a0Laban\u00a0and served him; and there was given to him the sceptre of the twelve tribes of\u00a0Israel<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

All these, therefore, were highly\u00a0honoured, and made great, not for their own sake, or for their own works, or for the righteousness which they wrought, but through the operation of His\u00a0will<\/a>. And we, too, being called by His\u00a0will<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Christ Jesus<\/a>, are not\u00a0justified\u00a0by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in\u00a0holiness<\/a>\u00a0of heart; but by that\u00a0faith<\/a>\u00a0through which, from the beginning,\u00a0Almighty God<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0justified\u00a0all\u00a0men<\/a>; to whom be\u00a0glory<\/a>\u00a0for ever and ever.\u00a0Amen<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So we are justified not by works, but by faith. So taught Pope Clement I, the fourth bishop (88-99 AD) of Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he goes on to say<\/span><\/p>\n

What shall we do,\u00a0then, brethren? Shall we become\u00a0slothful<\/a>\u00a0in well-doing, and cease from the practice of\u00a0love<\/a>?\u00a0God\u00a0forbid that any such course should be followed by us! But rather let us hasten with all energy and readiness of\u00a0mind\u00a0to perform every\u00a0good\u00a0work. For the\u00a0Creator\u00a0and\u00a0Lord\u00a0of all Himself rejoices in His works. For by His\u00a0infinitely\u00a0great power He established the heavens, and by His incomprehensible wisdom He adorned them. He also divided the earth from the water which surrounds it, and fixed it upon\u00a0the immovable foundation of His own\u00a0will. The\u00a0animals\u00a0also which are upon it He commanded by His own word\u00a0into existence<\/a>. So likewise, when He had formed\u00a0the sea, and the living creatures which are in it, He enclosed them [within their proper bounds] by His own power. Above all,\u00a0with His\u00a0holy<\/a>\u00a0and undefiled hands He formed man, the most excellent [of His creatures], and\u00a0truly<\/a>\u00a0great through the understanding given him\u2014 the express likeness of His own image. For thus says\u00a0God:\u00a0Let us\u00a0make<\/a>\u00a0man<\/a>\u00a0in our image, and after our likeness. So God\u00a0made man; male and\u00a0female\u00a0He\u00a0created\u00a0them. \u00a0Having thus finished all these things, He approved them, and\u00a0blessed\u00a0them, and said,\u00a0Increase and multiply.\u00a0 We see,\u00a0then, how all righteous\u00a0men\u00a0have been adorned with\u00a0good\u00a0works, and how the\u00a0Lord\u00a0Himself, adorning Himself with His works, rejoiced. Having therefore such an example, let us without delay accede to His\u00a0will<\/a>, and let us work the work of righteousness with our whole strength.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We do good works because they are good, they are beautiful and desirable. God delights in his work, and so should we. Both God and man are \u201cadorned\u201d with good works. Good works are not a painful duty to win God\u2019s favor, but an overflowing of the goodness which is in God and which He has implanted in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Baptist minister, the Rev. Jack Carter, summarizes:<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul:\u00a0Faith<\/strong>\u00a0is complete trust in, and obedience to, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Works<\/strong>\u00a0are outward acts of ritual and adherence to a code to attain merit.<\/p>\n

James:\u00a0Faith<\/strong>\u00a0is belief in Jesus Christ, the resurrection, and salvation.<\/p>\n

Works<\/strong>\u00a0are spontaneous acts of love that spring from the fruits of the Spirit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think he and Pope Clement are substantially in agreement. There may be important points for Catholics and Protestants to enjoy a good fight about; this is not one of them.<\/p>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human beings love to fight and to form factions, and Christians alas are no exception. Paul warns against meaningless speculations and controversies, largely in vain, judging from the fights he had to deal with: I am for Paul, I am for Apollo, I am for Christ. During the Reformation, Christians decided to pick a fight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[508,644],"tags":[321,1240,1242,1177,1241],"class_list":["post-4609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-protestantism","category-theology","tag-catholicism","tag-faith","tag-pope-clement-i","tag-protestantism","tag-works","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4612,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609\/revisions\/4612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}