The Work That Saves

These questions lie at the heart of a centuries-old religious debate in Christianity. Classically, the Protestant reformers said, “No,” to these questions, arguing that we are saved solely and utterly by God’s grace, His unmerited favor. The Catholic Church replied that “faith without works” is dead and that faith alone is insufficient.

This debate, with various twists and turns, has continued down through the centuries of Christian culture. At one point, there were complaints of “cheap grace,” where the exaltation of pure grace over works led to a very complacent and lazy Christianity. There were also periods of extreme reaction, with guilt-driven excesses of devotion.

Eastern Orthodoxy is a late-comer to this debate, but it is not a stranger. Contemporary Orthodox are quick to latch on to the doctrine of “synergy” and take sides against the cheap grace of Protestant Evangelicalism. Classically, Orthodox thought holds both that we are saved through the action of God (grace), but that we necessarily cooperated in that work (synergy=cooperation). For many converts, this balance has seemed attractive and a needed corrective to the feel-good theology of contemporary Christian culture. But it has a dark side.

That dark side is found in the echoes of the guilt-ridden specters of works-righteousness. How much cooperation is enough? For it is obvious that we do not pray as we should or give as we should – or do anything as we should. If our cooperation is required, are we failing? For many in our culture the answer is inevitably, “Yes.” They never do enough, anywhere at any time. Their lives are haunted with disapproval and shame, well-worn paths that rarely let them venture into joy.

But it is a mistake to embrace synergy as part of the classical Protestant/Catholic debate. It was an answer to a question asked in a very different context and in centuries that long-predated the modern conversation. Synergy is not a talking-point within the grace-versus-works debate.

Synergy is certainly an affirmation of the human role in salvation. Its most famous example is found in the ‘yes’ of the Mother of God in the Incarnation of Christ. Her acceptance and embrace of the heavenly announcement are seen as necessary components in God-becoming-man. God does not impose Himself upon human freedom. Our free response is required for the life of true Personhood that is the hallmark of salvation.

Synergy is properly seen as response rather than work. The whole life of salvation is marked by grace and is gracious in all its aspects. Consider this statement in St. Paul:

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness…(Rom 4:4-5).

There is a kind of work that has no wages and does not belong to the world of debt described by St. Paul. And it is this sort of work that is encompassed in the term synergy. That work can be described as gracious response. It is worth noting two instances in which the work of our spiritual lives is described:

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (Joh 6:28-29)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1Th 5:16-18)

In the first case, “work” is equated with believing. It means that the work we do is to love Christ and to keep His commandments. In the second case, the “will of God” is fulfilled in giving thanks for all things. The dynamic of saving grace in our lives is marked by becoming like God. God gives graciously and freely. We receive graciously and freely by giving thanks for all things.

In this manner, our own “work” is itself marked by a kind of grace. We cannot hear the meaning of grace in English, but in the Greek, it also carries the meaning of “gift” (it’s the same word). Gifts are never given with an expectation of return – they are gracious and free. But they are only rightly received with thanksgiving. This is true of the life of grace in the believer.

There is a highly moralized version of synergy, in which God is seen to give us grace, but we must do something in our lives to make it effective. In this model we are always judging the “results” of our “cooperation” with grace, and assuming that the lousy outcomes we see are simply our fault. This experience becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure and remorse. It is a distortion of grace-filled synergy.

I have written (and been criticized for it) about the “unmoral Christian.” My intention has been to unmask and disarm this false notion of synergy. We indeed are not saved through the “works” that Protestants tend to criticize. The “work” we do is largely a state of heart from which all subsequent grace-empowered actions flow. That state of heart is best described as “grateful thanksgiving.” The Eucharistic life is the true existence of the Christian. The giving of thanks is the first of all works and the sine qua non of the spiritual life. Everything that proceeds from the giving of thanks works to our salvation. That which does not proceed from the giving of thanks tends to work to our destruction.

There has grown up a virtual cottage industry of Orthodox commentary (particularly on the internet where all of us can self-publish). This commentary (including that by some priests) is often marked by poor theological training or understanding, by argument and debate, and by an extreme lack of experience in the actual guidance of souls towards healing and salvation. That is to say – much of it is worthless and some of it is actually damaging.

This can especially be true in discussions of synergy. The wrong treatment of such pastoral matters can produce despair and distrust in naive readers whose expectations have been raised through the reading of the lives of the saints and yet whose experience is marked by the same repeated moral failures that they have always known. Well-intentioned but ignorant writers argue that what is needed is yet more moral goading. I have been criticized for possibly lightening the moral load or suggesting that all moral effort is of no use.

One form of moral effort (the most common) is indeed of no use. It belongs to the same category as the works criticized by Protestant theology. We pray, with no understanding, laboring to complete a prayer rule that amounts to little more than “going through the motions.” We fast as though every slip were a matter of sin in need of confession. Some go so far as to carefully search through the labels on every grocery product, seeking for tale-tell signs of “milk products,” having invented for themselves a new yoke of bondage that turns Orthodox fasting into a new version of kosher. In short, there is a form of asceticism that is ill-taught and ill-practiced and produces either despairing Christians or oppressive Pharisees (sometimes in one and the same person).

The grounding of the Christian life is thanksgiving. If you cannot fast with thanksgiving, your fast will be of little use. The same extends to all Christian practices and commandments. The essential work of the Christian life is grateful thanksgiving. It is for this reason that Fr. Alexander Schmemann wrote: “Anyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation.”

There are very deep forms of asceticism, but even these are rightly rooted in the giving of thanks. In the 20th century, perhaps no saint is better known for his ascetical achievements than St. Silouan of Athos. He is known to have endured some 15 years of the experience of hell in his prayers. At its depth, he heard Christ say, “Keep your mind in hell and despair not.” His interpreter and biographer, the Elder Sophrony of Essex, however, is reported to have said, “If you will give God thanks always and for all things, you will fulfill the saying, ‘Keep your mind in hell and despair not.’”

The first duty of a spiritual father is to lead a soul into the practice of giving thanks. In this manner they will acquire the Spirit of Peace and be able to sustain the Christian life. But without thanksgiving, they will only fall into despair or delusion. Thanksgiving is the foundation of the Christian life. When this is understood and in place, other things can be properly understood.

For example, it is common to read in the spiritual writings of Orthodoxy (and to hear in the services) terms such as “self-loathing.” This is quite common, for example, in the Elder Sophrony’s work. It is very easily taken in the wrong way and those without a proper foundation will likely come away with a terrible distortion.

“Self-loathing,” in the sense that it is used, is not brought about by the contemplation of our sins (a moral condemnation and disgust with the self). It is rather brought about by the contemplation of God’s love and His fullness of being. It is only as we see ourselves in the light of God Himself, that we can “achieve” the “self-loathing” that Sophrony describes. But even this is joyful, because it takes place in the gracious presence of the grace-giving God.

Thanksgiving, as gracious gift, draws us into the very life of the Trinity. For it is that Life that is described by St. John Chrysostom in his Liturgy:

The priest prays: “…but account me, Your sinful and unworthy servant, worthy to offer gifts to You. For You are the Offerer and the Offered, the Receiver and the Received, O Christ our God, and to You we ascribe glory, together with Your Father, Who is without beginning, and Your all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.”

It is this gifting life of the Offerer and the Offered, the Receiver and the Received that we enter as we rightly give thanks always for all things. This is our work, our true synergy, without which we cannot be saved.

A decent enough, thoughtful article, though I may not agree with some of the short-hand & simplified descriptions in the lead-off paragraph and elsewhere throughout, I don't hold it against the writer, for one simply must begin somewhere.

I did read the article and think I understand what he generally intended to mean. I won't go through it line by line, but starting from the top, this at first blush would appear accurate;

Classically, the Protestant reformers said, “No,” to these questions, arguing that we are saved solely and utterly by God’s grace, His unmerited favor.

when it is framed as apposed or counterpoint to an over-simplified description narrowed to 'works', neither of the extremes as contrasted to one another are the more complete theological, and individual inwards understanding which those on either side of Protestant/Catholic divide can, or do hold.

What I would like to express, if I can find the right words, is a concept within Protestant teaching derived from Scripture and experience both that does leads to a particular sort of synergistic faith/works as the solution, yet also does leave it to be in final result utterly by God's grace and unmerited favor. one little-bittsy wrong-doing mistake if but in slightest degree can wipe out 10,000 attaboy's in comparison to and in light of the utter capital H Holiness of the Lord, rendering it still be a thing of Grace Alone even as love and relationship although not earning merit for additional grace, is not reliant upon earnings and meriting --- He loved us while we were yet sinners, the gifts of God being without repentance.. We cannot earn grace yet we may increase love. Does that make sense?

In attempt to make a long story short I'll put it this way;

It is useless to attempt to bring anything into the equation; of from man's part, and

then + the Lord's part to == "synergy" of those together

in either integer (dear Lord please forgive me for momentarily seeming to reduce your spirit to being mere integer) there are element or aspect which is not from the Lord as initial point of origin in the first place.

The unawakened sleeper does not rise (although he and his sleepwalking fellows may terrorize neighborhoods like zombie apocalypse).

Light cannot have fellowship with darkness.2 Corithians 6 and 1 John 1

In those chapters it speaks of not being unequally yoked together with unbelievers, and not deceiving ourselves, mistaking darkness for light. Yet also in 1 John 1 telling us again "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

As I focused upon those chapters, rather than having it all to be on the outsides of ourselves, if we were to turn it all inwardly in as an honest appraisal as we'll allow the Lord to show of us of ourselves, allowing the Word to be as sword dividing even the very marrow of our being;

It does seem apparent that sin still can live within us does it not? It surely does seem to get underfoot.

For my own part I know the Lord is present within me, yet I must confess that not all within myself is yielded over to Him. I tend to think Stephen Freeman was making mention of such difficulties, although describing that in ways differing than as I do here in effort to describe the situation.

Synergizing what with what?

The unregenerate man cannot respond for he is dead.

At risk of putting too fine an edge upon it while also possibly opening door for confusion of mixed understanding --- unregenerated portions of a man cannot join together in synergy with Him, albeit those things within which are of Him are as naturally synergized within us as new creatures in Christ ---- to whichever extent there may be His presence stirred and alive & moving within a person at any given moment.

We ourselves can hardly war against that which is not Him without that living presence which is more than spirit of ourselves. When deep calls unto deep then they may join together... for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

Yeah, i know, that's bold talk for a one-eyed fatman, eh? [hurrah for the man from texas]

The Lord does seem to refrain from pushing the issue, although He will (and does) come to knock on our doors. If any man open then He will enter in with them and sup with them. Yet can the visitation be resisted? Not by the portions of what has already arrived within us from Him.

At the same time the spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. We must be able to identify what is of Him. Scripture can help very much show His immutable nature --- what He doesn't like is not Him.

Then within ourselves, if we try to bring in dirty feet...we should not attempt to synergize the dirt that gets on us, with Him.

The entire world seems to be against believing on Him who was sent, even to varying extent internally so for those whom have otherwise outwardly and inwardly also genuinely been baptized.

As Paul wrote;

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

[link goes to entire chapter]

And one more

Galatians 5

And though we are called, and the spirit of the Lord birthed and present alive within, those portions within a man which are the sin still living within himself (even though he had indeed been stirred by God to new life) simply cannot join in synergy with the Lord. All attempts fail.

We simply must first clean the inside of the cup, yet we cannot(!) on our own but simply have to take to Him even our cup holding that upright to Him (in the light, in confession to Him, to ourselves, and to those whom are brethren) regardless of how humiliating and shameful the inward "parts" of that cup may be or seem to become, if it's not just our stinky feet stinking up the joint...

Ok, I know I cited scripture and lot's of that, yet it can be very good for the Word to speak and work as it will to whom it may

although those not regenerated (yet think they are) will not understand or else not recall what they themselves look like in a mirror after having caught glimpses of themselves, and I am not immune myself from suffering degree of lapse in that way.

Yet still, come what may, abide until He returns, which is the perseverance of the saints.

There is no “work that saves” other than to believe in Jesus Christ, trusting HIM for forgiveness of ALL sins, just as “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness”. God did the work in Christ, and offers the free gift of eternal life to those who trust in Him.

Lots of mumbo jumbo about “synergy”, but faith is placed in a Person who is ABSOLUTELY TRUSTWORTHY AND ABLE TO SAVE TO THE UTTERMOST! Do you believe that or do you think he needs your help? You can’t be just a little bit justified. It’s PASS/FAIL. Are you going to lift up your eyes to the bronze serpent and LIVE, or mock at the absurdity and PERISH?

Remove works from justification and every dead religion on Earth is CLOSED FOR BUSINESS. The fact that they are doing gangbuster business is a tribute to the flesh of man, forever opposed to God and refusing to consider His STEADFAST LOVE!

Just read Psalm 107 a few times and the charge laid down at the end, then tell me God accepts works for salvation. What’s at issue is BELIEF in HIS CHARACTER. Abraham had that before he did anything resembling a work, before he received the sign of circumcision. It was counted to Him as righteousness.

Works religion pretends to honor God, but in truth it calls Him a liar everyday by undermining and circumventing His clear Word! Such do not live by faith but trust in themselves, and want to bring you into their bondage.

“Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.”—Galatians 2

James 2
14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James was not saying we should work to show our faith he was just saying if we had the faith in God we would do what he said.

He was also not talking about religious ordinances he was talking about treating other people like human beings just as Jesus said.

Luke 6
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Mathew 25
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

On the other hand Paul was talking about those people who will try to make every one think they are so Godly by putting on a big show and with them it usually involves keeping religious laws.

1 John 3
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Matthew 21
28 But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.

29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.

30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.

The old saying is that a man is as good as his word and while we can think God for those few, we can also think God for those who ends up doing the right thing even though they may talk against it.

The only difference is that we can know what a man of his word will do but only God knows what the others will do.

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