***The verse from Galatians refers to freedom from the Law of Moses and the works that law calls for. It cannot be used to promote the doctrine of salvation by faith alone.***
You distinguish between attempting to be justified by keeping the Mosaic Law as opposed to doing generic good works?
***No Protestant would recommend doing bad works. ***
You seem to be unfamiliar with the Episcopalians!
:)
- or rather :(
***Good works is a part of that struggle. Salvation is a gift available to all believers; through works they cooperate with grace and many are justified by Christ in the end of their lives.***
We see good works as the result of salvation and not the "cause" of salvation. Good works can never secure justification as it is a free gift received by faith and not "worked" for. Sanctification is a cooperative affair. sanctification "requires" good works because it means that we are being made holy and goodness is a component of holiness. Sancitficaton is not achieved merely by human effort but is the natural byproduct of the Holy Spirit living within the believer.
***The act of conversion can be sudden, dramatic, and abrupt or it can be slow in coming and gradual.***
Agreed. But, interestingly, most of the NT conversions are crisis of one sort or another. This is because Jesus comes to "kill" us before he can make us alive.
***There is no point in avoiding the word "work" when it is something clearly asked of us by Christ Himself.***
I guess my avoidance of the word "works" is in relation to the context of justification. Within the context of justification the word is anathema.
See this...
Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What were his experiences concerning this question of being saved by faith? Was it because of his good deeds that God accepted him? If so, he would have had something to boast about. But from God's point of view Abraham had no basis at all for pride. For the Scriptures tell us, "Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous."
When people work, their wages are not a gift. Workers earn what they receive. But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.
King David spoke of this, describing the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared to be righteous:
"Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sins are put out of sight.
Yes, what joy for those
whose sin is no longer counted against them by the Lord."
Now then, is this blessing only for the Jews, or is it for Gentiles, too? Well, what about Abraham? We have been saying he was declared righteous by God because of his faith. But how did his faith help him? Was he declared righteous only after he had been circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? The answer is that God accepted him first, and then he was circumcised later!
The circumcision ceremony was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous--even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are made right with God by faith. And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
It is clear, then, that God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not based on obedience to God's law, but on the new relationship with God that comes by faith. So if you claim that God's promise is for those who obey God's law and think they are "good enough" in God's sight, then you are saying that faith is useless. And in that case, the promise is also meaningless. But the law brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)
So that's why faith is the key! God's promise is given to us as a free gift. And we are certain to receive it, whether or not we follow Jewish customs, if we have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, "I have made you the father of many nations." This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who brings into existence what didn't exist before.
When God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, Abraham believed him. God had also said, "Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars," even though such a promise seemed utterly impossible! And Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though he knew that he was too old to be a father at the age of one hundred and that Sarah, his wife, had never been able to have children.
Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything he promised. And because of Abraham's faith, God declared him to be righteous.
Now this wonderful truth--that God declared him to be righteous--wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was for us, too, assuring us that God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God, who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God."
-Rom 4 (NLT)
Thoughts?
Well, the faith is the key. The Catholic teaching is that works without faith is vanity; at the same time, faith without works is dead:
James 2 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Seest thou that faith did cooperate with his works and by works faith was made perfect?
23 And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God.
24 Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?
25 And in like manner also Rahab the harlot, was not she justified by works, receiving the messengers and sending them out another way?
26 For even as the body without the spirit is dead: so also faith without works is dead.
It is possible to create a kind of code language in which you declare that first, there is salvation, and then there are fruits of the salvation, and the fruits of the salvation are good works. We certainly can agree that, speculatively speaking, God, Who is outside of time, knows His elect and so His grace enables all good works, and frustrates the bad works that do not come from the operation of the free will. But this is an innatural reading of the entire Gospel, because the Gospel is written not from the eternal view of God but from the practical view of man. In that view, works are not predicated on the elect status, which is unknowable, but on the operation of the free will toward sainthood.
Man can reject the grace or he can cooperate with it. When he does, there is the fruit, and Christ promised to view it favorably. When he does not, there is sin, and then the judgement of Christ will weigh the sin against the faith. Despite the natural interest, even in the Gospel, to describe the dramatic and the unusual, there are clear passages that point to the gradual character of Christian faith: St. Peter walks on water the distance proportionate to his faith, the Apostles attempt and fail to heal the sick; St. Thomas and, repeatedly, St.Peter have lapses of faith; St. Paul dwells on the imperfections of his faith.
I put together a collection of verses, primarily from the Epistles, that point to this gradual buildup of faith, possible through grace, which is accomplished through works. But before I make the quotes, let me mention that th eissue is a bit like discovering a name of a continent on a map, which is spaced across the names of many geographical features and is diffucult to find only because the mental focus is on smaller print. If one is to summarize the pragmatic content of the Gospel in one word, that would be Christ's moral teaching, which is all about what to do and what not to do -- about works
***
Eph 2 8 For by grace you are saved through faith: and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God.
9 Not of works, that no man may glory.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.
Eph 4
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the word of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Until we all meet into the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ:
I Cor 4
11 Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no fixed abode.
12 And we labour, working with our own hands. We are reviled: and we bless. We are persecuted: and we suffer it.
13 We are blasphemed: and we entreat. We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all, even until now.
I Cor 15
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and unmoveable: always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord
II Cor 4
9 We suffer persecution: but are not forsaken. We are cast down: but we perish not.
10 Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies.
And then, of course, direct and clear references to the necessity of good works:
Mt. 16
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.
Phil 2
12 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but much more now in my absence) with fear and trembling work out your salvation.
13 For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will.
*** With fear and trembling work out your salvation.
St. Francis had a friend, who was overcome with worry. His worry was, -- Am I saved? St. Francis, upon learning of his friend's anguish, said: -- You are saved. Now, go do something about it.
Amen