annalex wrote:
“That we have the sacraments that purify us, and you Protestants walked away from that gift that Christ gave you — is not strength obtained by our own doing. The sacraments are the result of grace and not of our works.”
What a tangled web.
I responded to an earlier post that Martin Luther had more problems with the Roman Church than just justification by grace through faith. The above quotation illustrates some of those other problems, which are often not distinguished one from the other when one tries to put his finger on what is wrong with Roman teaching about salvation.
A very simple way to outline this is the following:
1) Salvation won for us: Jesus alone is the Savior. That is why He is called Jesus. That is why He is recognized as the Savior of the world. That is why He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, without whom no one has access to the Father. The salvation He obtained for us is complete. His words at Calvary, “It is finished,” must be understood this way so as to agree with all the rest of the Holy Scriptures of both the OT and the NT. Salvation, complete and full, was won on the cross of Calvary by Christ alone. In this Rome errs. Nothing needs to be added to the salvation Christ won for all. In fact, nothing can be added to it. Christ, and Christ alone, is the Savior.
2) Salvation given to us: Nothing of what was said above is changed. However, it must be realized that Christ won our salvation there (at Calvary) and then (nearly 2000 years ago). How does what He did there and then get to us here and now. This where the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments come in to play. It is Christ who commanded that His Gospel be proclaimed to the world, that is to say, the proclamation that all sins are forgiven for the sake of His bitter suffering and death, His substitutionary atoning sacrifice for us. It is Christ who commanded both baptism and the Lord’s Supper for those who would be His. Through these, that is, the Gospel and Sacraments, as through means, the salvation that Christ won then and there for the whole world is conveyed to us here and now. It is not a partial salvation that is conveyed, it is not a quantity of something that is handed out in bits and pieces. It is salvation full and free. In this also, Rome errs, for she does not understand grace rightly, and does not accept that Jesus has done all.
3) Salvation received by us: Nothing that was said above is changed. However, the salvation Christ won for us then and there, that is given to us here and now through Word and Sacrament, must be received. The means of receiving it is faith, faith pure and simple. Faith grasps the gift, the completed salvation of Christ given to us in Word and Sacrament. Such faith is, as Paul famously and so memorably said, “the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) The One who creates faith in the cold, dead heart of sinful man, which is a miracle as great as God creating heaven and earth out of nothing as Martin Luther wrote, is the Holy Spirit. In this also Rome errs, thinking each person must add to faith works, not grasping that it is the Holy Spirit works through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament to bring faith into our hearts, which faith makes us alive to God, alive instead of spiritually dead. It is this living faith in the heart of the now grateful child of God that desires to do want God wants, not what we want, in other words, truly good works. These works are truly good because there are not needed by the believer - his salvation is complete in Christ! - and are freely given away to our neighbor, whom the Father in heaven desires to bless through us, who are His workmanship, created for such good works.
So, what we have is salvation 1) won, 2) given, and 3) received. All are well supported in the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. None is in conflict or competition with the other. This is the fuller meaning of the reformation saying that we are justified by 2) grace through 3) faith for 1) Jesus’ sake. What Roman Catholics seem unable to believe is that which God says and promises, that true, heaven-sent faith will produce good works (good tree leads to good fruit).
Faith that produces no such fruit, is not true faith. This is the warning of James. But the warning in no way overturns the truth regarding salvation won, given, or received. It simply gives us Christians cause to examine ourselves, as Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 11 and other places) urges many times.
Why do we still have trouble after coming to faith? Because we remain in the world, which tells us sin is not sin, and holds forth every sort of reward that would draw us away from Christ. Also, we still have our sinful flesh wrapped around our now living, believing heart. It too desires to do what we know is wrong, and not do that which we know to be right. And, finally, the devil still walks about as a ravenous wolf, seeking whom he may deceive and devour. The only antidote to these three bitter and enduring enemies is the continued assurance of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament which imprints the crucified Christ on our heart, marking us as His, and reminds us that “it is finished,” thus strengthening our trust in Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.
This is a simple way to understand what the Bible teaches us about salvation. It is pure Martin Luther; and it is the reason he is so hated by pope and magisterium. What is more, it is pure Scriptural truth, and thus irrefutable, whether pope and magisterium think so or not.
SOLA GRATIA
SOLA FIDE
SOLA SCRIPTURA
SOLUS CHRISTUS
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
SOLA GRATIA
SOLA FIDE
SOLA SCRIPTURA
SOLUS CHRISTUS
SOLI DEO GLORIA! !!!!!!!! Amen to Luther...
What you stated is a personal philosophy vaguely connected to the scripture. In a few critical points you substitute what you (or Luther and many others) think and then you find a prooftext hera and prooftext there to appear to be "scriptural".
1) Salvation won for us [...] was won on the cross of Calvary by Christ alone. In this Rome errs
In this Rome agrees. There is no need for another Savior. But this not yet a salvation given, so we proceed.
2) Salvation given to us: [...] that is to say, the proclamation that all sins are forgiven for the sake of His bitter suffering and death [...] Through these, that is, the Gospel and Sacraments, as through means, the salvation that Christ won then and there for the whole world is conveyed to us here and now
That part, by itself, is true, -- that is why the Church is here, to proclaim the Gospel and to offer the Sacraments.
3) Salvation received by us: [...] The means of receiving it is faith, faith pure and simple
Christ spent a lot of time teaching that our sins are forgiven and salvation available to us conditional on our behavior. First, they are conditional on our forgiveness of tresspasses against us (Lk 11:4), conditional on our good works in general (Mt 25:31-46), conditional on repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16), conditional on not merely declarative but all-consuming, self-denying faith (Luke 14:26-27). Sins are forgiven not wholesale but by the Apostles, and so therefore by their assigns (John 20:23). So no, what you say here is very simple way but it has nothing to do with what the scripture teaches, so it is also a very wrong way.
Of course, Ephesians 2:8-9, the only scripture you bring in support, is an incomplete quote. The full quote explains what I just said: we are His "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them". Note the imperative "should walk". Good works are required for our salvation. We are saved by grace alone but not by faith alone. That, is the message of James -- not a "warning" that our faith might not be a dead one, but that such as it is faith is not sufficient for salvation alone.
What Roman Catholics seem unable to believe is that which God says and promises, that true, heaven-sent faith will produce good works (good tree leads to good fruit).
Why, yes. Faith will produce works. No one said otherwise. It would be height of insanity to "pick up a cross and follow Christ" without believing in Christ. But in order to be saved you cannot just wait for these works to be some kind of chemical product of the faith. You have to either do the good works or you will kill your faith, as St. James so thunderously states. "Why call you me, Lord, Lord; and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). Faith is what we do.
In short,
If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.