Saturday, October 9, 2010

I don't think we understand. . .

There is a reason I hesitate to talk on and on about good works. I don't think we understand what true, completely untainted good works are. I don't think we can comprehend these things - so I hesitate to come near any language that speaks of me and good without this being good because of Christ's own work and merit.

Right now, my good works are covered good works. They come from my being covered by Christ. It's almost like I am still riding a bike with training wheels on it. . . I cannot ride by myself, and I sort of understand what it is to ride a bike... but not really yet. Or maybe even a better image would be my father pushing me on the bike... but still, not there yet.

Now, in the resurrection, in the new heavens and the new earth - then will be the time that I do good works. And you know what - I won't care that they are "good" - because there'd be nothing else that I would be doing. There'll be no temptation of self-aggrandizing pats on the back, no mixed emotions, no cling of sin.

Right now, let me beat down my sinful nature. God will still put me to use. In the new creation, then I will do good works. Either way, I don't have to worry about the works I do... I will simply try to live in Christ.

7 comments:

Chad Myers said...

Good works are those works that are done, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit and through the infusion of "actual Grace".

We can resist the prompting and defy the Holy Will, or we can cooperate with it. All we can do is engage our will. The act itself (whatever it is), is credited to the Holy Spirit. We can either will against it or will for it and thus allow the good work to happen.

By repeatedly aligning our wills to the Holy Will and responding to the Actual Grace that the Holy Spirit gives us, we will be made sanctified by the Holy Spirit. When we reject or stray from this, this is known as sin and separates us farther and farther from the Holy Will (venial sin) or cuts it off entirely (mortal sin).

There is no "covering up". The works we do we actually do. We're not puppets. We either cooperate or we don't. We're not forced to do anything (a la Calvin's irresistible grace) good or bad.

If we persist along The Way, eventually we will receive our Salvation and Eternal Life promised for us. We will also find, in Heaven, that God has counted ever time we responded affirmatively to His promptings of good works and we will receive rewards.

If we ever take credit for a good work, then that is the sin of pride and the reward (merit) for that particular good work is lost. Also, any sanctification that would have happened as a result of that particular good work, will have been lost.

Good works do not earn, make, bring about, facilitate, merit, achieve, require, demand, or otherwise in any way obligate God to give us anything. They are purely from Him and through Him.

But we cannot receive salvation in the end unless we have responded to grace. This could be a last-minute response (a la the thief on the cross who did only one Good Work and that is to acknowledge and profess Christ's Kingship), or it could be a whole-life response where we must be constantly vigilant to respond ever to the Grace within us, following the Way and never allowing Pride to knock us off the path by taking credit for works or demanding recompense for them.

This is what James means by "See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." (James 2:24). We must have Faith, yes, but the Faith must be engaged in constantly responding to the Grace in our souls prompting us to do good works.

Rev. Eric J Brown said...

See, this is what I find distasteful about Roman Theology, why I think it is dangerous.

Good works are those works that are done, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit and through the infusion of "actual Grace".

I'm hoping that actual grace means grace that leads to action, rather than some sort of "you have grace, but not the REAL stuff, cause otherwise you would do more." All that does is create doubt, doubt based on my work.

I don't want to focus on what I do. Why? If we ever take credit for a good work, then that is the sin of pride and the reward (merit) for that particular good work is lost. When do we not?

Again, this is close, so close to how it is. I like to say "as soon as you are aware of doing a good work, it's no longer good." Why? Because I in my sinfulness will "take credit", will take ownership of the works, claim them as MINE rather than giving all glory to Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria is the "5th" Sola of the Reformation -- and if I look at my works, my sinful flesh is ready to jump in with wickedness and greed... and what is the worst is when I in my pride assume that I am not acting in such a selfish way.

But we cannot receive salvation in the end unless we have responded to grace. And again - it becomes MY work. . . unless I respond in the right way, unless I do the right work, make the right decision, the right choice - then salvation is lost. Even the thief on the cross - it isn't simply that he heard (and saw), and thus the gift of faith came and gave him life - no, This could be a last-minute response (a la the thief on the cross who did only one Good Work and that is to acknowledge and profess Christ's Kingship)". Again, it is drawn off of Christ and on to the individual - our eyes are pulled off the center cross and onto the side one.

Alas - James is right. Faith that has no works, faith that produces faith is dead. If you are a branch and you are attached to the Vine, you will produce good works, over and against and in spite of your sinful nature. But works are simply a fruit of being joined to Christ, joined to life, joined to salvation. Works are how we can see that a branch is alive, not the source of life of the branch.

So much deflection from Christ. . . let me simply look at Christ, and God will use me as He wills, for I am His workmanship, His creation in Christ. Only let me look at Christ, and see no other, not even (and especially not) myself.

Chad Myers said...

"this is what I find distasteful about Roman Theology, why I think it is dangerous"

Me too! I definitely don't like this Roman Theology you keep talking about. Fortunately it has nothing to do with Catholic theology, so we're good there. What you describe sounds a lot more like Pelagianism which was soundly denounced as heresy a long time ago.

RE: Actual grace - This is Thomistic language. Actual grace vs. Habitual (persistent) grace. Aquinas uses the term "habit" to refer to persistent states of people. It's more of that archaic language that proves such a stumbling block for Catholic/Protestant dialog. Actual grace is the kind of grace that you act upon. Actual grace isn't "in us", but is "done to us" by God. Habitual grace is a grace imparted to us through the sacrament of Baptism.

Rev Brown said: "I don't want to focus on what I do" -- a good policy. Just do good always. Be aware where you fail or miss opportunities and try harder. Let the successes pass to God. Your discourse on Pride is right on. It's a pernicious and subtle little bugger.

Rev Brown said: "it becomes MY work" -- no, you jumped to a conclusion again and misread what I said and, of course, I could be more clear but space prevents a full dialog on this matter.

When you say "unless I respond the right away unless I do the right work, make the right decision" -- you've added a bunch of stuff to what I said and, fortunately, we agree it's all wrong :)

The only real work that is saving is the act of will that aligns our will with God's. God will take care of the rest. We are given many decision points and must keep making the choice to go with God's will ever time or we will begin to drift away from God (but not necessarily lose salvation). Some acts of the will do separate us from God entirely, however.

As I quoted in another comment about all the things Scripture says you have to do to be saved, most of them revolve around having faith and believing. "Having faith" and "believing" are both verbs.

We don't *earn* salvation, but we can't just sit on a rock and wait for God to drag us to heaven. We must will for it to happen and follow the path laid out for us. We merit nothing but maybe some extra rewards in heaven. But getting to heaven in the first place is all Jesus Christ and our faith in him and following the grace in our hearts that lead to the good works of God done *through* us.

You said, " let me simply look at Christ, and God will use me as He wills,"

But you can't just sit there. God wills you do X or Y, you must will it also and then allow that grace to work through you. It's all about engaging the will through an informed conscience.

Rev. Eric J Brown said...

The only real work that is saving is the act of will that aligns our will with God's. God will take care of the rest. We are given many decision points and must keep making the choice to go with God's will ever time or we will begin to drift away from God (but not necessarily lose salvation).

The above is the very essence of semi-pelagianism. Just that little bit of my own work that leads toward things -- God Himself will align my will by the power of His Word. God will all me to faith, God will by His Word call me to repentance and restore me. Can I act in folly and endanger myself - yes. But I am not going to put my little finger in the pie.

After coming to faith, do I cooperate with God in doing good works. Yes. But again - if it is 99.9% Jesus at the start and just 0.1% me, the key, the crux, the things upon which everything turns is that 0.1% - me.

And with your last sentence - But you can't just sit there. God wills you do X or Y, you must will it also and then allow that grace to work through you. It's all about engaging the will through an informed conscience. I am not advocating abandoning the doing of "good". I am not saying one should seek to avoid showing love and care. Rather this - I'm not going to worry if they are good enough. They aren't. Like Paul, the good that I want to do, I don't, and the wickedness that I do not want to do, I end up doing. Oh wretch that I am, who will save me from this body of death?

Myself, by aligning my will to God's? Oh, wait. . . no. Just Jesus Christ.

Chad Myers said...

@Rev Brown: Hrm, I disagree about the Semi-Pelagianism charge.

Semi-Pelagianism's basic claims were: (1) the beginning of faith (though not faith itself or its increase) could be accomplished by the human will alone, unaided by grace; (2) in a loose sense, the sanctifying grace man receives from God can be merited by natural human effort, unaided by actual grace; (3) once a man has been justified, he does not need additional grace from God in order to persevere until the end of life.

What you describe sounds like there is no free will at all. That we are merely puppets.

As for the 0.1% - everything *NOW* turns upon you and your act of the will. Christ has done everything else.

Before Christ, you could have been 110% perfect and still wouldn't have merited Salvation. Now that Christ has merited for you, all that's left is your response to his offer.


RE: "but I'm not going to worry if they are good enough." - Agreed. If I ever worry about this, it is only for love of God, not because I fear I might not be saved or may not have earned enough Salvation Points.

Chad Myers said...

Hey, speaking of Salvation Points and Bonus Merit Reward Points, I just thought of a new computer video game:

"Pelagius 3D" -- a first person shooter where you blast sin and earn Salvation Points.

If Catholics or Lutherans try to play it, however, an error pops up and says "ANATHEMA SIT"

Rev. Eric J Brown said...

Man, in his sin, is bound, only free to reject God. We are spiritually dead in tresspasses, and there is no freedom to move in death.

It is only after we have been brought to faith and spiritual life by Christ that we are in any sense free....

What happens to a lot of the medieval theologians is that they assume that what is true of my will for my physical life (shall I wear a blue tie or a green tie -- I am free and can decide either way) must be true of our spiritual life. What they neglect is that none of us were born physically by our free will... neither you nor I CHOSE to be born. This was a gift given to us by God.

Likewise, neither you nor I CHOSE to be Christians - this is a gift given to us by God (hence the language of the "New Birth"). Now that we have this gift, we are free to act... and we may act contrary to His Will and do damage to this New Birth that He has given us, but by His Word we are called to repentance, forgiven, strengthened in the faith, and so on.

My faith isn't about me - it's always about Jesus.

Pelagius said it was about the will of the individual.

As you put just that touch, just that tinge of focus on the creation of faith upon the individual - I'd call that semi-pelagian (that's what semi there means - part pelagian, that it is partly God's work and partly man's work to come to faith).