Posted on 01/04/2019 8:20:14 AM PST by Salvation
Rest on Flight to Egypt, by Caravaggio (1597)
At Christmas we celebrate the Word becoming Flesh, but what does this mean for us today? Fundamentally, it means that our faith is about things that are tangible. As human beings, we have bodies. We have a soul that is spiritual, but it is joined with a body that is physical and material. Hence, it is never enough for our faith to be only about thoughts, philosophies, concepts, or ideas. Their truth must touch the physical part of who we are. Our faith must become flesh; it has to influence our behavior. If that is not the case, then the Holy Spirit, speaking through John, has something to call us: liars!
Therefore, away with sophistry, rationalizations, and intentions. Our faith must become flesh in the way we act and move. God’s love for us in not just a theory or idea. It is a flesh and blood reality that can be seen, heard, and touched. The Word of God and our faith cannot simply remain on the pages of a book or in the recesses of our intellect. They must leap off the pages of the Bible and the Catechism and become flesh in the way we live our life, in the decisions we make, and in the way we use our body, mind, intellect, and will.
Consider the following passage from the liturgy of the Christmas Octave:
The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked (1 John 2:3ff).
Note some teachings that follow from it:
Faith is incarnational. What a practical man John is! Faith is not an abstraction; it is not merely about theories and words on a page. It is about a transformed life; it is about truly loving God and making His commandments manifest in the way we live. It is about loving our neighbor. True faith is incarnational. That is to say, it takes on flesh in our very “body.”
Too many people spout the phrase, “I’ll be with you in spirit.” Perhaps an occasional absence is understandable but after a while the phrase rings hollow. Showing up physically and doing what we say is an essential demonstration of our sincerity. We are body persons and our faith must include a physical, flesh-and-blood dimension.
Keeping the commandments is a sure sign. John said that The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments. Now be careful of the logic here. The keeping of the commandments is not the cause of faith; it is the fruit of it. It is not the cause of love; it is its fruit.
In Scripture, “knowing” refers to than an intellectual understanding. It refers to deep, intimate, personal experience of the thing or person. It is one thing to know about God; it is quite to “know the Lord.”
In this passage, John is saying that in order to be sure we have deep, intimate, personal experience of God, we must change the way we live. An authentic faith, an authentic knowing of the Lord, will change our behavior in such a way that we keep the commandments as a fruit of that authentic faith and relationship with Him. It means that our faith becomes flesh in us. Theory becomes practice and experience. It changes the way we live and move and have our being.
For a human being, faith cannot be a mere abstraction. In order to be authentic, it must become flesh and blood. In a later passage, John uses the image of walking: This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked (1 John 2:6). Although walking is a physical activity, it is also symbolic. The very place we take our body is physical, but it is also indicative of what we value, what we think.
Liars – John went on to say, Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar. This is strong language! Either we believe and thus keep the commandments, or we are lying about really knowing the Lord and we fail to keep the commandments.
Don’t all of us struggle to keep the commandments fully? John seems so “all or nothing” in his words, but his point is clear. To know the Lord fully is never to sin (cf 1 John 3:9). If we know him imperfectly, we still experience sin. Hence, the more we know him (remember the definition of “know”) the less we sin. If we still sin, it is a sign that we do not know Him enough.
It is not really John who speaks too absolutely; it is we who do so. We say things like “I have faith,” “I am a believer,” “I love the Lord,” and “I know the Lord.” Perhaps we would be more accurate if we said, “I am growing in faith,” “I am striving to be a better believer,” or “I’m learning to love and know the Lord better and better.” If we do not, then we risk lying. Faith is something we grow in.
Many in the Protestant tradition reduce faith to an event such as answering an altar call or accepting Christ as “personal Lord and savior.” We Catholics do it too. Many Catholics think that all they need to do is be baptized; they don’t bother to attend Mass faithfully as time goes on. Others claim to be “loyal” even “devout” Catholics yet dissent from important Church teachings. Faith is about more than membership. It is about the way we walk, the decisions we make.
Without this harmony between faith and action, we live a lie. We lie to ourselves and to others. The bottom line is that if we really come to know the Lord more and more perfectly, we will grow in holiness, keep the commandments, and be of the mind of Christ. We will walk just as Jesus walked and our claim to have faith will be the truth, not a lie.
Faith and works cannot be separated. This passage does not claim that salvation is by works alone. The keeping of the commandments is not the cause of saving or of real faith. Properly understood, the keeping of the commandments is the result of saving faith actively present and working within us. It indicates that the Lord is saving us from sin and its effects.
The Protestant tradition erred in dividing faith and works. In the 16th century, Protestants claimed that we are saved by “faith alone.” Faith is never alone. It always brings effects with it.
Our brains can get in the way here and tempt us to think that just because we can distinguish or divide something in our mind we can do so in reality, but that is not always the case.
Consider, for a moment, a flame. It has the qualities of heat and light. We can separate the two in our mind but not in reality. I could never take a knife and divide the heat of the flame from its light. They are so interrelated as to be one reality. Yes, heat and light in a flame are distinguishable theoretically, but they are always together in reality.
This is how it is with faith and works. Faith and works are distinguishable theoretically, but the works of true faith and faith itself are always together in reality. We are not saved by works alone or by faith alone; they are together. John teaches here that knowing the Lord by living faith is always accompanied by keeping the commandments and walking as Jesus did.
Therefore, faith is incarnational. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, really and physically. Similarly, our own faith must become flesh in us, in our actual behavior.
Enjoy this incarnational Christmas carol:
Verbum caro factum est The Word was made flesh
Porque todos hos salveis. for the salvation of you all.
Y la Virgen le dezia: And the Virgin said unto him:
‘Vida de la vida mia, ‘Life of my life,
Hijo mio, ¿que os haria, what would I [not] do for you, my Son?
Que no tengo en que os echeis?’ Yet I have nothing on which to lay you down.’
O riquezas terrenales, O worldly riches,
¿No dareis unos pañales will you not give some swaddling clothes
A Jesu que entre animals to Jesus who is born among the animals
Es nasçido segun veis? as you can see?
Monsignor Pope Ping!
How can this be a Catholic Caucus? Pope, Charles correctly identifies a short coming of Protestants.
He works in an Archdiocese that has been run by liars for decades.
It shouldn’t be a Caucus thread. I’ve reported it to the Moderator as an abuse.
Salvation Freepmailed me that he has asked for the title to be changed.
So, since he is surrounded by sinners, he must, therefore, also be a sinner. Or do you not believe in the saving power of Our Lord?
“The Protestant tradition erred in dividing faith and works. In the 16th century, Protestants claimed that we are saved by “faith alone.” Faith is never alone. It always brings effects with it.”
That isn’t the case. The Roman Catholic Church has, very sadly, missed the point. Because it ignores Ephesians 2 and many other verses, it argues that Protestants ignore James 2 and other verses. And then for all intents and purposes it negates and ignores Ephesians 2 and all verses about being saved by faith not by works.
No, Protestants don’t ignore any of it. We accept them both as true. We are NOT saved by works. But we know if we are saved, if we have truly been reconciled to God and converted to His way and His will for us, then we will do works. And that is the only way to reconcile both types of verses. There is no other way to accept them.
We are told by Jesus Himself that apart from Him, the vine, we can do nothing. And anything done outside f faith is sin. And that the Christian works we do are done by Christ living inside of us. So it’s a matter of being truly converted and born again.
The closely-related issue to the “faith versus works” question is whom do we credit for our salvation? Does the Lord alone save us, or do we get some of the credit? Because Protestants believe that the Lord alone saves us and gets the credit, and our works don’t count anything towards that, then we have to accept what Ephesians 2 and other verses say about us being saved by grace alone, through faith, which is not of ourselves, but a gift to us, so no man may boast.
So here is another way of looking at this as well.
God is light, the Bible teaches us. Can any of us claim to be an original source of light, like God is? Who else besides God can be an ORIGINATOR of light? Any light that we have in us, does any of it come originally from us, or does it ALL come from God? I know what I believe.
The song is in Old Castilian, as far as I can tell. It diverges significantly from the contemporary Mexican that is the standard for my congregation!
I’m sure Msgr. Pope would agree that he is a sinner. However, that does not mean that his commentary is wrong in important ways.
The Roman Catholic tradition erred in making SALVATION dependent on faith and works - a change from the ancient and Biblical understanding that we are justified and made righteous by the grace of God through faith and not our works. This doesn't mean that works have no place in our lives. As Mr. Pope said, genuine faith is not alone but WILL be evident in a changed life because of the indwelling AND sealing by the Holy Spirit. If our works of righteousness, though, are made a condition of salvation - as Catholicism and some other faiths do - then it is no more by grace because grace would no longer BE grace (see Romans 11:6).
It took long enough, didn’t it?!
Peter gave an altar call in Acts and a lot of folks responded.
When we profess faith in Christ....if He's not our Lord and Savior and it's not personal....then what kind of salvation is it?? Cold and aloof??
Jesus died on the Cross for my sins....that's pretty personal to me.
But I think this speaks to a greater problem in Roman Catholicism.....a distance between the lay Roman Catholic and God.
This is why I believe Roman Catholics think they have to go through Mary or some other mediator....they don't believe they can actually approach the throne of Grace or that God won't hear/answer their prayers.
The NT is clear...We can know for certain that we have eternal life and that He does hear and will answer our prayers.
13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5:13 NASB
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
But I've been noticing a trend among a number of threads labeled as caucus threads by Roman Catholics that aren't due to mentioning other religions.
I ask that Roman Catholics scrutinize their threads more closely or perhaps before a thread is able to be labeled a caucus thread it is reviewed by a mod.
Where do you find Catholicism making "our works of righteousness a condition of salvation"? If, as you said, genuine faith is not alone but will be evident in a changed life" then it follows that a faith NOT evident in a changed life is not genuine, and, as James writes, "such a faith has no power to save". And if you see that, then you agree with us far more than with Luther.
Justification in the Catholic view is fundamentally adoption through grace. You can't earn it at all, ever, period. It can only be given by God as a gift.
So does the Protestant Bible have the Letter of James in it?
I really don’t understand how protestants don’t believe the Letter of James.
As a former Roman Catholic I can attest to that being the case. That's why when I read a passage from the Gospel of John, I knew immediately that I had not been taught THE truth about salvation. In John 10:27-30 Jesus says:
The Holy Spirit opened my eyes and heart to understand that Jesus gives us eternal life and we will never perish or be plucked from His hands. I believed and trusted in Him that day and my life has not been the same since. It never even once occurred to me that I could go out and sin all I wanted because I was saved. I knew that faith in Christ changed me from the inside, from my very spirit and soul, and I wanted to live my life in a way that was pleasing to God, honored Him and brought Him glory - not in order to be saved but because I WAS saved by His amazing grace. I thank Him every day!
should have put this in the caucus because you know the “SINNING IS OKAY” brigade will have a field day....
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