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?
That wasn't what was said. If you had read Faith Presses On's actual comment, you wouldn't have asked that. Maybe you should go back and read it.
What do you suppose Pope meant when he said, 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.?
I'm not arguing against - nor did Luther if you read his writings - that genuine faith is made evident by our walking in obedience. It is certainly what James teaches and does not contradict other verses in Scripture. But the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Catholics will not (usually) express assurance of their salvation, why is that? I know I never did. Is that possibly because you are taught that you must do works to merit eternal life? And that if you have sinned, you must go to confession and be absolved or you won't go to heaven when you die?
That is what I mean by making works a condition of salvation. There isn't really any difference if you say you must do good works to merit your salvation or you must do good works in order to keep your salvation. Either way, your works are made a condition of salvation.
It was, but had to be changed since it talks about “Protestants”.
BTW...there is no “SINNING IS OKAY” brigade on Free Republic.
God can only work to will and to do in the life of a believer who already has the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in them through faith in Christ.
We are saved first, then the fruit of the salvation, conformity to the likeness of Christ, follows and proves to the world that our faith is genuine.
It doesn't prove it to God. He already knows.
And the fruit that our lives show isn't simply obeying the law and doing good works. The pharisees did that and Christ called them white washed tombs.
The fruit is this.....
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
IOW, the character of Christ.
James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
Abraham was saved by faith, his faith being credited to him as righteousness simply on the basis of believing God, BEFORE he did any works.
Ironic, considering the title of the article.
When one of them shows up, let us know so we can correct his error.
The thread does not qualify for the caucus designation. It appears that you need to review the posting guidelines on the Religion Moderator's homepage.
Yeah, I know. ;o)
Dear Salvation,
Thank you so much for what you do here. Seems to me that if you weren’t doing good, you wouldn’t be the target of all these sickening attacks.
I agree with that completely.
“If you keep getting your feelings hurt”
You don’t hurt my feelings. You turn my stomach.
Stupidity and malice are nauseating.
Continuing to illustrate it is usually, though not always, the Roman Catholic who first resorts to the personal attack and/or profanity when the argument is against them.
I was thinking on this some more and wanted to add that your conclusion - "that a faith NOT evident in a changed life is not genuine, and, as James writes, "such a faith has no power to save" - is a misinterpretation I see often from works-based salvation promoters. James does NOT say what you claim - that "such a faith has no power to save". In fact, if you look at that whole chapter of James 2 in context you should see that he is speaking of how others view our professed faith. We know because Scripture tells us that only God can look upon our hearts while men can only look at the outward appearance. God doesn't need to see the good works of anyone in order to judge genuine faith. When James 2:14-18 says:
We probably know of people who are nice, kind and "good" yet who do not profess to be believers. It's obvious that works do not merit eternal life nor do they necessarily prove a person's inward spiritual condition. No, James cannot and does not contradict Paul's writings - they are both products of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Abraham BELIEVED God and that was what counted him righteous. God declared him righteous long before he proved the genuineness of his faith through his acts. And that is the point. Good works, obedience and holy living show to varying degrees a believer's faith but they do NOT merit salvation in any way. Those who do not have any evidence of repentance in their lives after profession of faith in Jesus Christ should as Scripture says:
My, my how sensitive some of our RC friends are these days! Maybe they are the snowflakes of Free Republic? I don’t see ANY attacks much less “sickening” ones against the poster of this thread. I guess they must be willfully blind to the frequent - and REAL - attacks Protestant and Evangelical Christians deal with here (e.g.; the derogatory statements in the OP).
LOL! Trolls turm my stomach and I have a strong stomach! I’m glad my life isn’t dedicated to being an internet troll, while they’re dreaming up ways to demean others in an attempt to make themselves look better, I think I’ll have a better time with my dogs and friends chasing quail after Mass
To anyone reading this thread who is NOT bigoted, and who is more interested in the "truth", than in trying to score meaningless, "truthless" points in a senseless online argument, here are some links to sources giving some authentic Catholic views and insights pertaining to the Gospel of John, as well as some links to obtain some related resources. May these links prove to be a genuine blessing for someone.
“I think I’ll have a better time with my dogs and friends chasing quail after Mass”
Boy, that really sounds great. What kind of shotgun will you use, if you don’t mind me asking?
I hunt most of the time with a Ugartechea sxs 28 ga, today I’m going to take out a 20 ga Fausti Dea SL just for a change of pace.
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