Posted on 12/05/2005 2:55:19 AM PST by HarleyD
In order to properly understand the importance of Luther’s journey to Rome in the winter of 1510, it is important to understand something of the place and standing of indulgences in medieval Catholicism. I bring that up even though indulgences were not, in fact, the reason Luther went to Rome. At the time, Luther was an up and coming young priest in his order and he accepted the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding indulgences without reservations of any kind. His opposition to indulgences would come later and when it finally did come it was really only directed toward those scandalous abusers of the practice like Tetzel. No it would be later, much later in fact, before Luther would finally call into question the sacrament of penance and the whole concept of indulgences. You see when Luther visited Rome in the winter of 1510, he longed to obtain for himself and for those he loved just about any and every indulgence he could. Still that is not the principal reason he went.
Actually, when Luther went to Rome in 1510, it wasn’t because of indulgences …it was rather because he was sent. He was sent as one of two representatives for his monastical order, the Order of the Augustinian Hermits. He was sent along with another monk to represent one side of a conflict over how the Order of the Augustinian Hermits ought to be organized and governed. Now the details of that conflict aren’t very important. Besides, Luther wasn’t even the principal representative or leader on the trip. He was the junior partner…in fact, he was simply a traveling partner…the Augustinians required monks travel in pairs. But that was all right with Luther. His secondary role allowed him a good deal of free time to see and to explore the glories of Rome.
Now when Luther visited Rome in the winter of 1510, he wasn’t really interested in any of the great archaeological sites tourists want to see today. He wasn’t really interested in the Roman Forum or even the Pantheon. No, when Luther visited Rome in the winter of 1510, he was only interested in the great ecclesiastical sites. That is, he was only interested in seeing for himself those religious shrines and holy places that provided opportunities to do works of penance and to gain indulgences. That is why, of course, I mentioned the fact that to understand the importance of Luther’s trip you have to understand something of the nature and place of penance and indulgences in medieval Catholicism. You see…many…most of the religious shrines and holy places in Rome had indulgences attached to them. When a person visited such a shrine and listened to a mass…made confession and received communion, they were eligible to obtain whatever indulgence was attached to the place. The indulgence they received then reduced the amount of time or temporal punishment that person or whatever person they designated in their place would receive in purgatory. As a result, Luther’s journey to Rome, more or less, took on the nature of a quest…a pilgrimage…meaning that Luther was striving to obtain as many indulgences as he could. So, Luther wanted to see everything. Of course, what actually happened was that he saw and learned a great many things that disappointed him. But before I talk about that, I think I ought to take just a minute or two and put into your mind something of the difficulty of Luther’s journey to Rome.
The trip from Erfurt to Rome is six hundred and thirty-four miles by air. But, of course, Luther did not take the trip by air. Nor did he travel by coach or wagon or even by mule. No, Luther walked…he walked the whole long way. Just so you can get a sense of the kind of distance we are talking about…the trip from Erfurt to Rome is just about exactly the same distance as a trip from Arlington to Denver.
Of course the walk in his day would have actually been a lot longer than six hundred and thirty-four miles and the principal reason for the additional mileage was that Luther would not have been able to walk in a straight line from Erfurt to Rome. There was a small obstacle in his way…a small geological obstacle otherwise known as the Swiss Alps1.
Now during their trip, Luther and his companion would have walked from one major city or town to the next. In that regard they would have been fortunate. Larger towns had monasteries and since they were monks, they would have been permitted and even welcomed to stay in any number of monasteries along the way and that would have been important because it would have resolved the problem of food and shelter for them. Of course, they would not have always been able to make it from one monastery to the next in a day’s journey and would have had to sometimes manage for themselves.
Now, I mentioned the Alps a moment ago but I ought to add that in Luther’s day, travelers did not especially enjoy scenic trips through the mountains like we do today. That would have been especially true in winter. The travel would have been dangerous and it was grueling. The Septimer Pass heading down to Milan was lined with a number, perhaps hundreds, of crosses where travelers had been killed along the way.2 Many of the wilder spots in the Alps were so terrifying they were given names of places from hell.3 Still, the two monks made it in one piece.
Right before the two men reached Rome, Luther had to be hospitalized for a stomach ailment. Still, the two men managed to make it to Rome in just a little over a month, which if you think about it was really not bad at all. That meant that they averaged about twenty to twenty-five miles a day.
Now I bring that up, not because I want you to become experts on travel in medieval times but rather because I want you to understand something of the personal sacrifice involved when pilgrims traveled in Luther’s day. It was a terrifying undertaking and it was exhausting. It was dangerous and the danger was not just related to thieves and robbers but to disease, and to difficult geography and to inclement weather. Now that raises the question, “Why would anyone purposely want to go through that kind of journey?”
The answer is that the medieval Catholic believed the spiritual rewards associated with such a trip were great. Individuals could, by making a pilgrimage, do works of penance that that would restore the baptismal grace they had lost in committing sin. They could also obtain indulgences, indulgences which helped do away the debt of temporal punishment…owed for sin.
Now the reason that happened…the reason penance and indulgences were important…was because medieval Catholics viewed justification like this. They believed that at baptism a person received the grace of baptism and that a person was restored to a state of innocence.
They also believed that after that whenever a person sinned a measure of that justifying grace was lost.
Over a period of time, a person committing a measure of sin lost more and more of their justifying grace. It is almost as if they viewed grace as a substance that “leaked out” when a person sinned…something like water out of a bathtub. Now if a person committed a mortal sin…all of the grace they had received in their baptism was lost.
The question then became and this was a very important question…what does a person do to restore themselves to the state of grace they had before. The answer was they were to do works of penance. The Council of Trent put it this way…
Now to state that as plainly as I can, the Catholic Church taught that when a person sinned they lost the grace that they had first obtained in their baptism. It also taught that a person could restore themselves to a state of grace by doing works of penance. Penance then was a sacrament in that it was the vehicle through which God’s grace was received, or perhaps it would be better to say received all over again. God’s grace was first obtained in baptism and then if lost reattained through penance.
Now I am spending some time here because I want to distinguish in your minds the difference between doing works of penance and procuring an indulgence. Penance had to do with justification. That is penance removed the penalty of eternal punishment.
Indulgences, on the other hand, removed the penalty of temporal sin. Now that is hard for a good Protestant to grasp. We do not separate the two ideas. We believe that Jesus’ death redeemed us from the temporal and eternal punishment of our sin. Although, we do freely acknowledge that God does sometimes chasten us temporally for our sin. Still, that is not how good medieval Catholics looked at it. They believed that sin had to be paid for both eternally and temporally. They believed that baptism and penance removed the eternal punishment for sin. But they believed that purgatory removed the temporal punishment of sin. That is, a fully justified person might not go straight into heaven until the temporal punishment of their sins was obtained.
That is what indulgences did. They sped up or in some cases removed the temporal punishment of sin in purgatory. Now that is not always what people heard. Sometimes on account of their ignorance or on account of the unscrupulous nature of the person hawking indulgences people heard, “Commit whatsoever sin you desire and obtain forgiveness for it.” But that was never the official position of the church. Still that happened and it happened, I think, a good deal more than the modern church is willing to admit. Now in case you think I am being unfair in my explanation of the difference between “penances” and “indulgences” let me read to you a quote from the online Catholic Encyclopedia.
Now you can see, I think, why Luther’s trip to Rome was important for Luther. Listen to what Richard Friedenthal writes:
There were all kinds of opportunities to obtain indulgences in Rome but not only was it possible to obtain an indulgence, it was possible to obtain a plenary indulgence, which meant that not just a part but the whole of temporal punishment could be discharged simply by visiting a shrine and listening to mass while there and making confession and receiving communion.
It was common for pilgrims to not only obtain an indulgence for themselves but also for their family members. This was especially true for priests…who sought for themselves the right to say mass in any shrine they could for saying the Mass for themselves gained them additional merit. Luther was to say later and you have to understand the way Luther was to get this, “Oh! how I regret that my father and mother are still alive! What pleasure I should have in delivering them from the fire of purgatory by my masses, my prayers, and by so many other admirable works!”8
Anyway, Luther visited all of the shrines…that is, all of the important ones…including the seven major churches of Rome. We don’t have anything like a daily log of his travels but we know enough to know that he hit all of the major spots. Luther was terrified at the lack of spirituality and decorum manifested by the Italian priests. He disliked them immensely and they returned the favor…thinking of him as lumbering, German oaf.
In one of the places where Luther was permitted to say Mass, one of the priests…the priest superintending the visitors who were performing the ceremony kept whispering, “Passa, passa, passa…” which is Italian for “Hurry it up…get a move on.” It irritated Luther immensely. But the Italians were used to visiting priests and the long lines of priests wanting to say Mass caused them to want to keep things moving. Richard Marius writes:
In another place, Luther recounted that one of the priests next to him had completed seven masses while he was still working on his first. The priest turned and spoke sharply to him saying, “Hurry up and send the Son back to His mother.”10
And in another place, when Luther was eating supper with a group of Italian priests he heard them brag openly about substituting in the Mass at the place where they were supposed to consecrate the bread these words, “Panis es, et panis manebis; vinum es, et vinum manebis.” Now, for a good Catholic such would have been blasphemous. What they were saying was, “Bread thou art and bread thou wilt remain.” The Luther added that the priests went ahead and offered the bread up for the adoration of the common people laughing all the while at their ignorance and superstition. It infuriated Luther. He later wrote, I was a thoughtful and pious young monk. Such language grieved me bitterly. If ‘tis thus they speak at Rome, freely and publicly at the dinner table, wondered I to myself, what would it be if… all — pope, cardinals, and courtiers — thus repeat the mass!11
But the behavior of the priests was really just a reflection of the lawlessness of the times. Many of the churches surrounding Rome were very difficult to get to because of bands of marauders that often swooped down on pilgrims robbing them of their money and offerings. In fact, while Luther was in Rome the situation had gotten so bad that the Pope had begun to send out a nightly patrol of three hundred horsemen to patrol the city. If they found anyone out on the roads they were punished. If they were armed they were immediately hung or thrown into the Tiber River.12
Now the most famous incident of Luther’s stay in Rome occurred as he climbed the Sancta Scala in one of pilgrimmages.13
It was one of the most important shrines in all of Rome. It was staircase and it was believed to be the very staircase Christ ascended and descended in His appearance before Pilate.
Now does any question come to mind with me saying that?
It should. Jesus ascended and descended the steps up to Pilate, if there were any steps, not in Rome but in Jerusalem and Jerusalem is 1,428 miles to the east. So the question that ought to come to your mind is, “Just how did a very large marble staircase wind up 1,428 miles away from where it was first installed?”
The answer to that question has been different in different ages. In Luther’s day, it was believed to have been magically transported from Jerusalem to Rome by angels. In our day, the faithful say St. Helen, who happened to be Constantine’s mother paid to have it removed and reinstalled in Rome.
Anyway, the Sancta Scala was enclosed in a small chapel just outside the church of St. John the Lateran. Pilgrims came from everywhere to climb the staircase on their knees and to kiss the steps and to pray an “Our Father.” Each step gained for the faithful pilgrim and indulgence of 9 years…that is, it removed nine years from a person’s stay in purgatory. There were certain steps that had crosses carved into them and each of those counted double. If a person climbed the whole staircase, and who could not climb the whole thing once there, procured for themselves or someone they loved a plenary indulgence, which meant a complete indulgence or release from all of the temporal punishment of sin to be suffered in Purgatory. Luther climbed the steps, all twenty-eight steps on his knees, kissing each step as he went and saying the necessary “Our Father” not for himself but for the benefit of his deceased grandfather.14
When he got to the top and tuned and looked back down his son Paul later wrote that Luther said to himself, “The just shall live by faith.” But I have to tell you I don’t think that is what he said at all. I don’t think he had come to that conclusion yet. In fact, I think he was still about five years away from his breakthrough understanding of the gospel. Besides, Luther himself says later that he stood up looked back down the staircase and said to himself, “Who can know if these things are so?”15
Now that was, I think, a remarkable conclusion for medieval Catholic monk to draw.
Luther had come to Rome with an innocence and naiveté and he was going back home to Erfurt a better, wiser, sadder man. Later he would say, He came to Rome with garlic and left with onions…which I think amounts to about the same thing. Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Luther was not yet a reformer…but the Lord had planted seeds of disillusions in his mind. He was no Protestant…he was still in every way a Catholic…but the Lord had started a rumbling deep down in his soul and the Lord intended that disillusionment to grow until Luther was altogether miserable. It would be necessary for the Lord to hollow Luther out completely before he would be able to receive and hold the truth of the doctrine of justification for himself. And Rome had had helped to push that process along. Luther was no longer quite so naive but he still believed in the medieval Catholic Church. He still believed that all that was needed was a strong reforming Pope to come in a sweep all the unbelief and unbelievers and put an end to all the abuses. But alas, that was not what was going to happen. The pope of the future, Leo X, was exactly the opposite of what Luther hoped for. The abuses were going to get worse and then the gospel was going to break in on Luther and subsequently on the whole world.
Still Luther could not yet see it coming. Still, he was hopeful that things might be made right.
A month after he and his traveling companion had arrived in Rome, they set off again across the Alps and back to Erfurt. When Luther arrived he was transferred almost immediately to Wittenberg, which a very small town in comparison to Erfurt. He was transferred, I think, because Von Staupitz wanted Luther’s talent near him and he himself had been transferred to Wittenberg to take the theological chair at the new university. Luther was able to finish his doctorate work there and on October 18-19, 1512 he graduated as a Doctor of Holy Scripture.
Within the year, Von Staupitz switched him from teaching philosophy to teaching the Bible. Luther started first with the Psalms and then followed the Psalms with Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. After that, he began to teach Galatians. Somewhere, during the Epistle to the Romans he came to his understanding of the gospel.
Now, the conflict for Luther and the breakthrough for Luther came in the word “righteousness” as it is used in Romans 1:17.
NIV Romans 1:17…For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God…I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners…Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place…desiring to know what St. Paul wanted.
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith…it is the righteousness of God revealed by the gospel, that is, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith…Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates…And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word “righteousness of God.” Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.16
What that meant practically was that baptism and penance for medieval Catholicism was the key. Baptism made a person intrinsically righteous and penance provided an opportunity to restore righteousness lost through sin.
Now, part of the misunderstanding stemmed back to Jerome’s translation of the Latin Vulgate. Whenever he translated the word for “to justify” he used the word Latin word “justificare” which is derived from two Latin words…”justis” and “facere” which when combined mean to “make righteous.”
BGT Romans 3:28…logizo,meqa ga.r dikaiou/sqai pi,stei a;nqrwpon cwri.j e;rgwn no,mouÅ
VUL Romans 3:28…arbitramur enim iustificari hominem per fidem sine operibus legis
The basic change is fundamental. Originally Luther regarded the precondition for justification as a human work, something which the sinner had to perform, before he or she could be justified. Increasingly convinced, through his reading of Augustine, that such an act was impossible, Luther could only understand the righteousness of God…as a punishing righteousness. But in this passage, he narrates how he discovered a ‘new’ meaning of the phrase — a righteousness which God gives to the sinner. In other words, God himself meets His own demand, graciously giving sinners what He requires them to have if they are to be justified. An analogy may help...
Let us suppose that you are in prison, and are offered your freedom on condition that you pay a heavy fine. The promise is real — so long as you can meet the precondition, the promise will be fulfilled. Catholic theology worked on the presupposition, initially shared by Luther, that you have the necessary money stashed away somewhere. As your freedom is worth far more than the money, you are being offered a bargain. So you pay the fine. This presents no difficulties so long as you have the necessary resources. But Luther increasingly came to share the view of Augustine that sinful humanity just doesn’t have any money. In that regard, Luther was correctly reading the Bible’s analysis of man’s condition. Now, you can see why that caused Luther a problem. Since sinners you don’t have the money, the promise of freedom have any relevance to their situation. For Luther, therefore, and for Augustine before him, the good news of the gospel is that you have been given the necessary money with which to buy your freedom. In other words, the precondition has been met for you by someone else.
Luther’s insight, which he describes in this autobiographical passage, is that the God of the Christian gospel is not a harsh judge who rewards individuals according to their merits, but a merciful and gracious God who bestows righteousness upon sinners as a gift.17
It is the gift of the Lord Jesus to all those that call on Him in faith and I wonder this morning…I wonder if even here there might not be someone that is still trying to work their way into God’s favor…or trying to work their best to keep God’s favor. If you are, you never going to make it. You are never going to attain to a level of righteousness that will please Him because all you righteousness, not all you sin…but all your righteousness is as filthy rags. But He has promised if anyone will come to Him He’ll not turn them away.
NIV Matthew 11:28…”Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Now do you know what that means? It means he’ll rest you from pursuing righteousness to gain God’s favor. It means he’ll give you His own imputed righteousness to cover you over like a pure white garment and that He’ll make you to be at peace with God. That’s what Luther rediscovered and what Paul preached and what many of us have come to know experientially. You can know it too, if you don’t…just come…not by works but by faith.
Let’s pray.
So that Last Supper thing was just a joke? And when Paul says "as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ", he was just kidding?
Nothing in the Bible says that the normative pattern for a Christian is a profession of faith apart from baptism and the other sacraments. God can make exceptions, but he also instituted those sacraments for a reason.
I don't quote "Catholic Theologians". When I quote, or if I paraphrase, I use the Catechism, the official teaching of the Church. As you may or may not know, individual theologians are NOT part of the Magesterium, the teaching authority, of the Church. Their "job" is to plumb the depths of current teaching, testing the limits of our faith, coming up with more current formulas of our faith. However, many go too far. Thus, while their opinions are interesting and perhaps illuminative, they are NOT the proper place to go to "quote" Catholic doctrine or beliefs.
I would like to note that Catholic Doctrine is not "variable" like Protestantism. Unfortunately, though, many Catholics are either not aware of their Church's teachings, or prefer to pick and choose what they think is the faith.
When you post your own conclusions which disagree with what the Church actually teaches, and you still hold to this view after shown wrong, that we don't believe "x" or "y", then isn't it fair to ask "why"? Is it not also fair to warn others that "the following is my opinion, although the Church 'claims' x or y"? Again, how fair would I be if I made the claim that Protestants are woman beaters because they believe women's place is in the home subservient to the husband? If I didn't stress that this was my opinion, but asserted it as fact, it is misleading, wouldn't you think?
IMO scripture must reign supreme. Scripture, unlike the whims of Popes and Preachers, is unchanging and if we adhere to scripture as the final arbiter of our doctrine and practices, and then call upon the Holy Spirit to teach us all things, then I believe we are safe. If, on the other hand, we put our trust in the arm of flesh we will eventually and inevitably drift off into unsound doctrines and unsound practices.
Scripture cannot be in contradiction to Apostolic Tradition. Since BOTH come from God, it is impossible for the two to contradict. This is what the Church teaches. We hold that there is no contradiction between the two. And implicitly, we are using Scripture as the "bar" to compare Apostolic Tradition, aren't we? Understand we consider "Tradition" as the original meaning of the word - teaching. As Paul says, this teaching includes BOTH oral and written.
I understand your concern that false traditions can be started. These are to be rejected, rightfully so. But I think it is important that a person keep an open mind that something MIGHT NOT BE FALSE. That is what, from my experience here, is not happening. They dismiss out of hand the possibility that Catholic traditions may be legitimately based on the Apostles' teachings, such as infant baptism. "Because it isn't in the bible" is a ridiculous argument, namely, because IT is not in the Bible itself. But the logic will continue to escape such people.
I BTW, IMO The protestant reformation was not only necessary but was long overdue. But then that is my opinion. I'm sure you differ.
I am honest enough to say that there were several positive ideas that came forth from the Reformation that has enhanced the Catholic Church or returned it to what its focus should be - for example moving away from an over-emphasis on Tradition to the detriment of Scripture. But now that the Catholic Church has reformed itself after Trent, why do people remain outside the Catholic Church? What are YOU protesting now??? Or do Protestants have other issues, other motives for their separation? It is not unusual for man to prefer himself over God. It shouldn't come as a surprise that this will continue. I pray it is just "invincible ignorance" and not willfully leaving the Church of Christ for some specter of it.
Regards
Do you dispute that the works of the Visible Church were not available to the thief, or that they are available to us, or that theft is a sin that separates from God?
A good point. One who feels they need to lie and misrepresent another's viewpoint, building a straw man, probably is insecure in their own beliefs but is not ready to explore the possibility that they might be incorrect. As usual, your points are quite fair minded.
Brother in Christ
I am disputing that works are necessary for salvation whether they are available or not.
It was not merely the theft for which this man was spiritually condemned. He was temporally condemned for theft and probably rightly so. But I'm sure his life, as yours and mine, was filled with sins of lesser or perhaps even greater magnitude than theft. Any of those sins separates us from God. It is Christ and Christ alone who can restore us apart from and unconditioned by anything we do.
It is by Grace you have been saved, through faith and not of works, lest any man should boast.
If you think you have contributed to your own salvation by your own hard work, then I think you are robbing God of the Glory that belongs only to him. Works are the evidence of salvation, they are not a requirement of salvation.
I'm not a protestant, and I don't think I'm protesting, but searching instead. But what I'm searching for is a way to believe -pretense of understanding and assent have failed me thus far- that my salvation is as inextricably linked to belief in infallibility, purgatory and the Immaculate Conception, as it is to the Mystery and Profession of Faith.
When they are available (you are not nailed to anything, are you?), and when and because you have faith in Christ, you should do what He asks us to do through His gospels, namely,
The disconnect between us and the Catholics, however, is that we steadfastly claim that none of these sacraments or actions enter into the conversion process. We Protestants tend to use a Pauline definition of justification, rather than James. (They don't contradict, but they do use "justify" differently.) Paul, and the Protestants, see justification as transactional, and rightly affirm that these sacraments and actions don't enter into the conversion process which is what we mean by "justification."
Catholics, however, tend to see justification as an ongoing process. They wouldn't deny that the sacraments and good works do not enter into the conversion process (well, they might for baptism, since it is held to wash away original sin). But, because Catholics see justification as a process making men more holy (that is, more in accord with the Virtues), they believe that works are absolutely neccessary for justification, and point to where James uses the word to mean that.
Protestants wouldn't deny that good works are necessary in order to conform oneself with the Virtues. They just don't use the word "justification" to describe it, but rather use a separate word "sanctification." For the Catholic, justification and sanctification are inseparable.
Unfortunately for us, when the Catholic Church was faced with Protestantism, no one at Trent seemed to see things this way. The version of Protestantism promulgated in Trent is every bit as much a strawman as any Protestant propaganda about Rome.
I agree that at the core the debate about the role of works is specious, at least with the Lutherans, because, of course, no Protestant suggests that we do bad works. But the outcome in religious praxis is drastic and keeps the Protestants away from the Sacraments of the Faith. Then, in order to create a bright dividing line where none should exist in theory, the doctrine of assured salvation through a single declarative act of faith is preached, which leads the Protestant to material sin of presumption. Thus the strawman imperils real souls.
" Works are the evidence of salvation, they are not a requirement of salvation"
It's so simple :)
I am arguing that the argument is very real and very serious, but in practice, very semantic.
Then, in order to create a bright dividing line where none should exist in theory, the doctrine of assured salvation through a single declarative act of faith is preached
Some Protestants (myself included) do not believe that just because you "prayed a prayer," you are ipso facto saved. As a Calvinist, I don't believe in once-saved, alway-saved because I believe in Perseverence of the Saints - that those who are really saved are discernable by virtue of the fact that they will endure to the end.
What do you mean by "requirement"?
It would be more accurate to say that works are not a pre-condition for salvation, but they are a necessary consequence.
That's a kind of truncated and primitive.
Justification == sanctification == holiness == becoming more deeply indwelt by the life of the Blessed Trinity. They aren't disconnected concepts, they're like different facets of the same diamond.
And when we talk about "works" or "good works," we don't include the sacraments at all. When a person is baptized, he is not performing a "good work". If any human is performing a good work, it's the minister doing the baptizing. But the real Person performing the good work is Jesus.
IMO whether or not you do those things will not affect your status as saved. If you steadfastly refuse to follow the instructions of Christ, I think it is an indication that you do not have saving faith however none of those things are necessary for salvation. Salvation is not contingent upon our works, but is contingent solely upon God's grace and mercy.
I believe it is signifcant that the first "convert" and the first man to enter into the Kingdom with Christ was nothing more than a condemned sinner who took nothing into the Kingdom with him other than his faith in Christ.
I also think it is significant that despite the fact that he did no rituals, did not get baptized, did not confess his sins, did not partake of communion, was not given last rites, did not tithe, did not do any works of charity, nevertheless he went directly to be with the Lord that day and apparently did not spend so much as an hour in any place called Purgatory. IOW he was immediately justified and sanctified and glorified by God entirely by a single act of faith and not by any works. IOW, when Christ said "it is finished" it was finished. Your salvation is contingent upon nothing more than the finished work of Christ on the cross. IMO if someone thinks their salvation is contingent upon them helping out God or otherwise doing things which will secure their own salvation, then they are robbing God of the glory which is his alone and taking away from the sacrifice Christ made on the cross.
Your faith is made manifest in good works, but it is by faith and faith alone that your salvation is secured. That is the method by which the Thief on the cross secured his salvation. It is the method proclaimed by Christ in John 3:16 and it is the method spoken of by Paul. It is... the gospel.
That's pretty close to the point I was trying to make - that Catholics see justification as a process including what Protestants call sanctification.
And when we talk about "works" or "good works," we don't include the sacraments at all.
Could you explain? Is this derived from the Catholic doctrine that the sacraments work ex operare operato?
Actually, let's look at this.
He didn't get baptized, partake of communion, or tithe, nor was he given last rites (as best as we can tell, anyway). He did, however, confess his sins - he admitted before Christ that he received the punishment his sins deserved. He also did a work of charity - defending an innocent man reviled by his executors.
I don't think you can tenably argue that the thief did't do good works. Those good works are the very reason we know he was the "repentant thief." (Gee, sounds like James.)
That's another argument for another day.
All these arguments are very abstract if viewed from the eternal Divine perspective. As long as it is clear that we are talking about the mysteries of predestination and Divine foreknowledge, you can say that the differences are bridgeable, and much is a consequence of the choice in terminology. For example, once faith is understood as faith formed by works of love rather than declarative faith, the 'sola fide' becomes a biblically acceptable doctrine. Once 'sola scriptura' is understood as reading the Scripture in the light of the patristic teaching and in the context in which it was written by the human writer, that becomes acceptable. Once grace is understood as transforming grace rather than a coat of paint, 'sola gratia' becomes acceptable.
Faith as a matter of ongoing conversion and spiritual effort then generates a hunger for the sacraments, charitable work, and self-sacrifice. We see it in all the converts. But this is exactly the point where Protestant indoctrination creates a mental block: "Oh wait, eating this is works! Praying this is tradition of men! Looking at that is idolatry! Confessing to a priest is clericalism!" So, -- and I repeat myself -- while much of Protestant soteriology is a permissible view on the same spiritual reality, Protestant praxis is very damaging. Presumption is just one wound it inflicts. The Zwinglian image of God as author of Evil is another. Radical individualism and self-propelled sectarianism is another. Megachurch mass hysteria is another. These are wounds on the body of Christ.
Thank you Jude. Quite so.
Also, according to the Catholic theology, his suffering on the cross was baptism of blood, and his proximity to Christ was his Eucharist and the Extreme Unction.
Nor would a formal performance of Christ's sacraments matter when the Master of the Sacraments was right there, body, soul, and divinity.
Surely Marlowe is not going to argue that the purpose of the Good Thief in the economy of salvation was to cancel the Sermon on the Mount or John 6.
I never heard of this. I figured the argument would be "baptism of desire," that, if the sacrament is unavailible, God is just and takes that into account.
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