Tuesday, June 28, 2011

THE SECOND PART OF THE SERMON OF SALVATION.

As Fr. Wells said, before posting Part I (below): "We have come to Article XI, 'Of the Justification of Man,' the fulcrum, pivot-point and hinge on which the other articles hang. This is the only article which cites one of the homilies for full discussion of the issue." So, when we discuss the Article, every reader will have had the opportunity to understand the homily it cites.
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YE have heard of whom all men ought to seek their justification and righteousness, and how also this righteousness cometh unto men by Christ's death and merits: ye heard also how that three things are required to the obtaining of our righteousness, that is, GODS mercy, Christ's justice, and a true and a lively faith, out of the which faith springs good works. Also before was declared at large, that no man can be justified by his own good works, that no man fulfills the Law, according to the full request of the Law.

And S. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians proves the same, saying thus, If there had been any law given which could have justified, verily righteousness should have been by the law. And again he saith, If righteousness be by the Law, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2.21). And again he saith, You that are justified by the law, are fallen away from grace. And furthermore he writes to the Ephesians on this wise, By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of your selves, for it is the gift of GOD, and not of works, lest any man should glory (Ephesians 2.8-9). And to be short, the sum of all Paul's disputation is this: that if justice come of works, then it cometh not of grace: and if it come of grace, then it cometh not of works. And to this end tend all the Prophets, as Saint Peter saith in the tenth of the Acts. Of Christ all the Prophets (faith S. Peter) do witness that through his name, all they that believe in him, shall receive the remission of sins (Acts 10.43).


Faith only justifies, is the doctrine of old Doctors. And after this wise to be justified only by this true and lively faith in Christ, speaks all the old and ancient Authors, both Greeks and Latins. Of whom I will specially rehearse three, Hilary, Basil, and Ambrose. Saint Hilary saith these words plainly in the ix. Canon upon Matthew, Faith only justifies. And Saint Basil a Greek author writes thus, This is a perfect and whole rejoicing in GOD when a man advances not himself for his own righteousness, but acknowledges himself to lack true justice and righteousness, and to be justified by the only faith in Christ. And Paul (saith hee) doth glory in the contempt of his own righteousness, and that he looks for the righteousness of GOD, by faith (Philipp. 3.9).

These be the very words of Saint Basil. And Saint Ambrose, a Latin Author, saith these words, This is the ordinance of GOD, that they which believe in Christ, should be saved without works, by faith only, freely receiving remission of their sins. Consider diligently these words, Without works by faith only, freely we receive remission of our sins. What can be spoken more plainly, then to say, That freely without works, by faith only we obtain remission of our sins? These and other like sentences, that we be justified by faith only, freely, and without works, we do read oft times in the most best and ancient writers. As beside Hilary, Basil, and Saint Ambrose before rehearsed, we read the same in Origen, Saint Chrisostome, Saint Cyprian, Saint Augustine, Prosper, Oecumenius, Phocius, Bernardus, Anselme, and many other Authors, Greek, and Latin.


Faith alone, how it is to be understood. Nevertheless, this sentence, that we be justified by faith only, is not so meant of them, that the said justifying faith is alone in man, without true repentance, hope, charity, dread, and the fear of GOD, at any time and season. Nor when they say, That we be justified freely, they mean not that we should or might afterward be idle, and that nothing should be required on our parts afterward: Neither they mean not so to be justified without good works, that we should do no good works at all, like as shall be more expressed at large hereafter. But this saying, That we be justified by faith only, freely and without works, is spoken for to take away clearly all merit of our works, as being unable to deserve our justification at GODS hands, and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man, and the goodness of GOD, the great infirmity of our selves, and the might and power of GOD, the imperfectness of our own works, and the most abundant grace of our Savior Christ, and therefore wholly to ascribe the merit and deserving of our justification unto Christ only, and his most precious blood shedding.


The profit of the doctrine of faith only justifies. This faith the holy Scripture teaches us, this is the strong Rock and foundation of Christian Religion, this doctrine all old and ancient Authors of Christ's Church do approve, this doctrine advances and sets forth the true glory of Christ, and beats down the vain glory of man, this whosoever denies, is not to be accounted for a Christian man, nor for a setter forth of Christ's glory, but for an adversary to Christ and his Gospel, and for a setter forth of mens vain glory.


What they be that impugn the doctrine of Faith only justifies. And although this doctrine be never so true (as it is most true indeed) that we be justified freely without all merit of our own good works (as Saint Paul doth express it) and freely by this lively and perfect faith in Christ only (as the ancient authors used to speak it) yet this true doctrine must be also truly understood and most plainly declared, lest carnal men should take unjustly occasion thereby to live carnally, after the appetite and will of the world, the flesh and the devil.


A declaration of this doctrine of faith without works justifies. And Because no man should err by mistaking of this doctrine, I shall plainly and shortly so declare the right understanding of the same, that no man shall justly think that hee may thereby take any occasion of carnal liberty, to follow the desires of the flesh, or that thereby any kind of sin shall be committed, or any ungodly living the more used.

First, you shall understand, that in our justification by Christ, it is not all one thing, the office of GOD unto man, and the office of man unto GOD. Justification is not the office of man, but of GOD, or man cannot make himself righteous by his own works, neither in part, nor in the whole, for that were the greatest arrogance and presumption of man, that Antichrist could set up against GOD, to affirm that a man might by his own works, take away and purge his own sins, and so justify himself.


Justification is the office of God only. But justification is the office of GOD only, and is not a thing which we render unto him, but which we receive of him: not which we give to him, but which we take of him, by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Savior, and Justifier Jesus Christ: so that the true understanding of this doctrine, We be justified freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by faith in Christ only, is not, that this our own act, to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ, which is within us, doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto us (for that were to count our selves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within our selves) but the true understanding and meaning thereof is, that although we hear GODS word, and believe it, although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread, and fear of GOD within us, and do never so many works thereunto: yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues, of faith, hope, charity, and all other virtues and good deeds, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that be far too weak and insufficient, and imperfect, to deserve remission of our sins, and our justification, and therefore we must trust only in GODS mercy, and that sacrifice which our high Priest and Savior Christ Jesus the son of GOD once offered for us upon the Crosse, to obtain thereby GODS grace, and remission, as well of our original sin in Baptism, as of all actual sin committed by us after our Baptism, if we truly repent, and turn unfeignedly to him again. So that as S. John Baptist, although he were never so virtuous and godly a man, yet in this matter of forgiving of sin, he did put the people from him, & appointed them unto Christ, saying thus unto them, Behold, yonder is the lamb of GOD, which taketh away the sins of the world (John 1.29): even so, as great and as godly a virtue as the lively faith is, yet it puts us from it self, and remits or appoints us unto Christ, for to have only by him remission of our sins, or justification. So that our faith in Christ (as it were) saith unto us thus, It is not I that take away your sins, but it is Christ only, and to him only I send you for that purpose, forsaking therein all your good virtues, words, thoughts, and works, and only putting your trust in Christ.


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fr Hart,

Is justification fluid and dynamic, or is it static... a one-time event? God never changes, but we certainly do. We can grow in grace, or we can fall away from grace. Since we are justified by His grace alone, and God can certainly withdraw His grace from us if He so chooses, is it reasonable to assume that we can be unjustified?

Susan

Fr. Wells said...

That is perhaps thr most important question one can ask about Justification.
Whereas sanctification is a continuing work within us, never complete in this work, so that we are always a work in progress, pilgrims in via, Justification is instantaneous, perfect, and final NOW.

That is not to say we are Justified once and for all, "the hour I first believed," for that would mean we have already been forgiven for sins not yet committed and possess a "get out of jail free" card for the rest of our imperfect lives. It means that whenever a sinner looks to Christ and trusts in His merits alone, He is totally forgiven all sins committed up to that point in time. Therefore the word "static" is not appropriate. The entire Christian life being an exercise in repentance, the decisive moment of Justification occurs many times.

"is it reasonable to assume that we can be unjustified?"

Can an earthly judge revoke a pardon? Is there douple jeopardy in God's courthouse? "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God." We can have peace only because His word of forgiveness is His last and final word.

Anonymous said...

Fr Wells,

Am I to understand, then, that Justification is neither static nor fluid, but repetitive in response to our repentance? That is, it is final for God, being in eternity, yet not final for us being sinners in temporal time? Is there a passage/s in Scripture that reflects your understanding of Justification?

You have asked, "Can an earthly judge revoke a pardon?" Well, 2 John 1:8 warns: "Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward." What is lost in this case?

Susan

Fr. Wells said...

The doctrine of Justification is set forth by St Paul in Romans 4--8, paralleled by the entire Epistle to the Galatians.

The text from 2 John has nothing to do with Justification, since our Justification is a gift outright,

Thanks for commenting.

Anonymous said...

Well, 2 John 1:8 warns: "Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward." What is lost in this case?

A full reward?

Caedmon

Anonymous said...

Fr Wells,

Mark Brumley wrote a wonderful article on the "ongoing" nature of justification that helped clarify some of my questions. Rather than paraphrase or send you to the web page, I have copied an excerpt here:

Back to Romans 5:1. Even though Paul refers to believers as those who "have been justified through faith," his use of the aorist doesn’t rule out a change in the state of justification by subsequent behavior, any more than other biblical uses of the aorist preclude a "past, completed" state of affairs from being altered by subsequent events.

Nothing we do as believers after our initial justification can change the fact that "we have been justified through faith" at some time in the past, but this doesn’t mean we can’t our alter justification in the present, whether by increasing it through "working out" our salvation (Phil. 2:12) or by forfeiting it through sin (1 Cor. 6:7-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:1-5).

In a nutshell, here is my understanding - we make our own beds only to the extent that we strive to love the Lord our God with all our heart, understanding and strength, and also love our neighbor as ourselves. We repent of our sins and HOPE to inherit the kingdom of God, but take nothing for granted for it is impossible to determine beyond doubt in this temporal world that we will be deemed righteous, justified, and at peace with God until we stand before Him at the Final Judgment.

Susan

Anonymous said...

That is not to say we are Justified once and for all, "the hour I first believed," for that would mean we have already been forgiven for sins not yet committed and possess a "get out of jail free" card for the rest of our imperfect lives. It means that whenever a sinner looks to Christ and trusts in His merits alone, He is totally forgiven all sins committed up to that point in time. Therefore the word "static" is not appropriate. The entire Christian life being an exercise in repentance, the decisive moment of Justification occurs many times.

Well put, Fr Wells

"is it reasonable to assume that we can be unjustified?"

Can an earthly judge revoke a pardon? Is there douple jeopardy in God's courthouse? "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God." We can have peace only because His word of forgiveness is His last and final word.


In light of your first comment above, I'd put it thus: We are justified in so far as we are in Christ and once sins have been forgiven, they are forgiven. However, if one doesn't persist in ongoing repentence and abiding faith, it is possible that one may become HARDENED from the deceitfulness of sins and ultimately depart God in an evil heart of unbelief (Heb 3:12-13), being "cut off" just like the unbelieving Jews (Romans 11:18-22). We have no condemnation IN HIM (Romans 8:1-4); our redemption/forgiveness of sins IN HIM (Eph 1:7) and the righteousness of God IN HIM (2 Cor 5:21). If one ultimately becomes cut off from the Vine (John 15:1-6), then one no longer has any of the benefits from being in Christ, and thus no longer stands justified, as his present sins are unforgiven. THANKFULLY, when we do sin, we have our Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1) by whom we may boldly approach the throne of grace (Heb 4:14-16) and we have the promise of God that if we confess our sins He is faithul to forgive us and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)

DT

Anonymous said...

To DT,

AMEN! I especially appreciate your final words of wisdom!

Susan

Anonymous said...

Susan and DT:

Your comments, please, on Romans 8:30. Thanks in advance.

Caedmon

Anonymous said...

To Caedmon:

Romans 8:30: Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

No one is predestined by God to eternal damnation. However, God predestined BELIEVERS for divine adoption (Eph 1:4). The elect are saved by grace (Gal 4:5) and eventually brought to glory (Rom 8:23). God did not consider our merits (Rom 9:10-11) when He predetermined our adoption in Christ. Predestination has no other cause than the will of God alone.

According to the Council of Trent sanctifying grace is not merely a formal cause, but "the only formal cause" (unica causa formalis) of our justification. The only threat to our salvation is our own will, which is free to reject the love of God and forfeit eternal life through sin (Rom 6:16).

Susan

Anonymous said...

Caedmon,

I don't have any further comments to add at this time to what Susan said about Romans 8:30 other than to say that I see nothing in this verse which contravenes the clear warning Paul gave to Gentile believers in Romans 11:18-22 (unless one imports a number of assumptions into one's interpretation of Romans 8:29-30).

DT

veriword: gratio

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Susan and DT. I, on the other hand, find myself compelled on the basis of Romans as a whole (among other reasons) to read this text in an Augustinian fashion rather than a Tridentine one. That's a debate we're obviously not going to settle here, and believe it or not I do take seriously the warnings of Romans 11: 18-22 (and all the others ones in the NT). But grace all the more abounds, the way I look at it.

I just finished Gerald Bonner's excellent study, Freedom and Necessity: St. Augustine's Teaching on Divine Power and Human Freedom. At the end of the book, he more or less concludes his argument as follows:

In a study of Augustinian predestination first published in 1855, J.B Mozley, brother-in-law of John Henry Newman and later Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and Regius Professor of Divinity, theologically orthodox but fair-minded and aware of the limitations of the human intellect, noted the ideas of Divine Power and human free will, while sufficiently clear for the purposes of practical religion, are, in this world, truths from which we cannot derive definite and absolute systems. "All that we build upon either of them must partake of the imperfect nature of the premise which supports it, and be held under a reserve of consistency with a counter conclusion from the opposite truth." The Pelagian (Caedmon - or Semipelagian) and Augustinian systems both arise upon partial and exclusive bases. Mozley held that while both systems were at fault, the Augustinian offends in carrying certain religious ideas to an excess, whereas the Pelagian offends against the first principles of religion: "Pelagianism . . . offends against the first principles of piety, and opposes the great religious instincts and ideas of mankind. It. . . tampers with the sense of sin. . . . (Augustine's) doctrine of the Fall, the doctrine of Grace, and the doctrine of the Atonement are grounded in the instincts of mankind."

I'm not exactly sure what Mozley means by the "religious instincts of mankind", but I would say the Pelagian and Semipelagian soteriologies (and their variants) tamper with basic Judeo-Christian religious instincts. It doesn't take a whole lot of Bible reading + ratiocination to come to a basic "Augustinian" position. Pelagianism, on the other hand, well, that takes real creativity.

Caedmon

Anonymous said...

Caedmon,

I read Romans in neither a Tridentine, nor Pelagian, nor even a "Semi-Pelagian" way...just to let you know in case you were wondering. :-)

DT

veriword: oportize ( I hope to use this one in a sentence some day)

Anonymous said...

DT:

Duly noted. I was replying there more to Susan's response.

Caedmon

Anonymous said...

Caedmon,

Pelagius denied that we inherit original sin from Adam’s sin in the Garden and claimed that we become sinful only through the bad example of the sinful community into which we are born. Conversely, he denied that we inherit righteousness as a result of Christ’s death on the cross and said that we become personally righteous by instruction and imitation in the Christian community, following the example of Christ. Pelagius stated that man is born morally neutral and can achieve heaven under his own powers. According to him, God’s grace is not truly necessary, but merely makes easier an otherwise difficult task.

Did I infer this particular heresy in my remarks? Such was not my intent.

Scripture indicates grace can be resisted. In Acts 7:51 Stephen tells the Sanhedrin, "You always resist the Holy Spirit!" (See also Sirach 15:11-20, Matthew 23:37). We can willfully reject the love of God.

"The Church formally teaches that there is a gift of final perseverance. [Trent's Decree on Justification, canon 16, speaks of "that great and special gift of final perseverance," and chapter 13 of the decree speaks of "the gift of perseverance of which it is written: 'He who perseveres to the end shall be saved [Matt. 10:22, 24:13],' which cannot be obtained from anyone except from him who is able to make him who stands to stand [Rom. 14:4]."]. Aquinas (and even Molina) said this grace always ensures that a person will persevere. [Aquinas said it always saves a person because of the kind of grace it is; Molina said it always saves a person because God only gives it to those whom he knows will respond to it. But the effect is the same: The gift of final perseverance always works]. Aquinas said, "Predestination [to final salvation] most certainly and infallibly takes effect." [ST I:23:6.]. But not all who come to God receive this grace.

Aquinas said the gift of final perseverance is "the abiding in good to the end of life. In order to have this perseverance man . . . needs the divine assistance guiding and guarding him against the attacks of the passions . . . [A]fter anyone has been justified by grace, he still needs to beseech God for the aforesaid gift of perseverance, that he may be kept from evil till the end of life. For to many grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given."

(The above 2 paragraphs were copied from an article written by James Aiken, a convert to Roman Catholicism.)

Augustine: "But even so, we still live by faith and not by sight, for we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope" (Confessions 13:13).

HOPE is the operative word, at least as I see it, Caedmon. I cling to it despite its waxing and waning with the joys and woes of this life, for what more can a mere sinful mortal do? God forbid I let go of it.

Susan