The Question of Works (Part I)

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these! It’s good to be back after a fruitful start to my work week. Summer is in full swing here in Tennessee as attested to by the brutal streak of mid-90s weather we’ve had. After enduring several years of brutal (but beautiful!) West Michigan winters, I won’t complain! Over the past few weeks, I’ve enjoyed following the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting as well as the Presbyterian Church in America’s General Assembly. There were certainly some interesting developments from both camps. Maybe, I’ll devote a post to my thoughts on those assemblies here soon.

Diving in…

Recently, during a discussion on the faith, I heard a shocking statement. I was told that Jesus “never spoke of how to be saved”. First and foremost, I was blown away by the fallacy of this statement. In many instances in the Gospel testimonies, Jesus speaks of how to come to eternal life.  Just to point out a few:

John 14: 6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 3:3 - Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

I could go on and on. These are just a few examples (heavy on John tonight) in which Jesus Christ speaks clearly on the means of salvation. Although my friend’s statement on Jesus was just proved to be patently false, it did make me think a little harder about Christ’s earthly ministry. I certainly don’t claim to be a Bible scholar, but it seems to me that Christ’s earthly ministry (pre- death and resurrection) focused on the following areas.

1.       Teaching on salvation

2.       Teaching on morals

3.       Performing signs and miracles

Numbers one and three above are inextricably linked. More specifically, the signs and miracles performed by Jesus served to attest to His divinity.  His divine nature then gives credence to the fact that He is who He says He is - “the way, the truth, and the life”.  Signs and miracles were physical acts designed to show us that all things, most importantly everlasting life, can be accomplished through Christ. In a similar way, Christ now gives us the sacraments as a physical representation of His almighty power and grace.

So that leaves number two. Christ spent a good chunk of his earthly ministry instructing his followers on morality. Perhaps, the most famous teaching on morality is contained within the Sermon on the Mount.  From this monologue we get the beatitudes in Matthew 5: 3-10:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of            heaven.”

              Furthermore, Jesus tells us in Matthew 7: 21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

              Clearly morality is important to Jesus. If something is important to Jesus, it most surely should be important to us as Christians! Above, I made the assertion that the signs and miracles performed by Jesus are directly linked to His message of salvation. That begs an obvious question – Are the moral teachings and exhortations of Jesus also linked to His message of salvation? This question is one that served as the basis for the 16^th century Protestant Reformation. In fact, you could make the claim that this question is the very essence of the magisterial Reformation.

 Based on the Scripture I presented above (among numerous other passages), I believe there is certainly a  link or relationship between works of charity or morality and salvation. Now, before you stone me and accuse me of being a closet Roman Catholic – the relationship between works and salvation is NOT one of cause and effect – i.e. works are not the basis for our salvation.  Rather it is just the opposite – our salvation is the basis for our works. Salvation is no less than the merciful act of a sovereign God.

              Well, it’s going on midnight here in Tennessee. Today was inventory day at work, so I got into the office around 5:30 AM. Thus, I think my consideration of the relationship between faith and works will have to be carried over to another blog post. However, before our next discussion, I wanted to provide the two Scriptures that I will be looking at for much of my next post. To ensure I don’t take Scripture out of context, I plan to read through the entirety of Ephesians and James before writing part II of this post. I hope you’ll join me in that endeavor.

The first focus text is the classic Protestant proof text, Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The second is a lesser known passage from James 2:24 – “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”

              At first glance, these texts certainly seem paradoxical! In fact, Martin Luther was not at all enamored with the Book of James. There is some speculation that he wished to remove James from the Biblical cannon. It's also true that there was some dispute in the early church regarding whether or not James's letter was an inspired text. Nonetheless, the Book of James stands as part of the Word of God and thus must be contemplated. The reconciliation (the accountant in me is coming out!)  of these two texts is critical to understanding how the Christian walk is to be lived out.

I can’t wait to break this down in further detail soon.

In Christ,

Kendal May