Saved by Effort
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, 2 Timothy 1:9 NASB
Our works– Luther established a concrete barricade between faith and works. He was wrong. Because he thought of faith as cognitive agreement to certain doctrines, he could exclude any human effort in the process of salvation. In fact, for Luther salvation was not a process at all. Salvation was the immediate imputation of righteousness upon mental agreement. Sanctification was the process and it followed profession of belief. But Luther’s dualism between faith and works is not biblical. If faith is really allegiance to Yeshua as King, then the behavioral consequences of that allegiance are just as much a part of “faith” as the cognitive affirmation of loyalty. So argues Matthew Bates.
“It is clear here that the salvific pistis [faith] action is closely aligned with obedience so that it cannot be separated from it.”[1]
“ . . . the gospel is purposed toward bringing about the practical obedience characteristic of allegiance to a king. . .”[2]
Bates shows that the rhetoric of Paul’s letters and the gospels must be understood within the socio-political environment of the first century, and in that environment allegiance to a king and the consequent expectations of obedience are commonplace. Augustine and Luther drew distinctions that were not part of the sitz im leben of the apostles. As a result, Christian thinking has been derailed for centuries. Paul’s conflation of “works” and “grace” is the idea of Hebraic faith. There is no dichotomy. Even Yeshua’s own remark makes this abundantly clear.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
The King expects results. Verbal declaration, even accompanied by physical demonstration, is totally insufficient if it is not aligned with the King’s wishes. There simply is no separation of human behavior and divine grace. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” is exactly where we are. And it’s not always comfortable.
Topical Index: works, faith, grace, 2 Timothy 1:9, Matthew 7:21-23, Philippians 2:12
Good right . Skip. Be not hearers only but be ye doers of the word. I was told early in my walk with Yeshua, that when a given king would walk into his Temple courts, and the glory followed behind him, it was the people that he had conquered. I don’t know if this is correct or not but I like the imagery. And the statement, under the shelter of his wings, was meant to mean, under his laws, and precepts, also don’t know if the commentary is correct. But I like the imagery. Stay within the given boundaries, and follow all of his decrees.!
B. B. Brother Brett
I liked your interjections. I’ve always had a sense of that from Psalm 91. It’s a wonderful sentiment but because of our propensity to wander, “ prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love….” it makes it difficult to stay in protective custody. I find myself having to come back again and again to surrender. As Paul said presenting your bodies a living sacrifice. As Laurita says, it’s a matter of walking in ongoing fellowship with Christ, being aware of him and what he’s doing, where his heart is. We are people of his heart. It brings to mind what John said, “if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s son cleanses us from all sin”. Learning and submitting. Bringing ourselves into alignment with God. This requires obedience. There is no freedom without obedience. As Paul says, “we are a slave to whatever we submit ourselves to “.
Shalom!
Tim Keller has a very good sermon on Matthew 7:21-23. In short, he says:
—They said “Lord” so they had religion
—They said “Lord” a second time, so they had passion
—They we’re actively engaged in works
What was missing? He concludes “surrender”.
I was praying/running/walking this morning and thinking about what Skip had pointed out a while ago about the fact that the Hebrew has dozens of words for “prayer”, and almost all of them are about common actions. I was also thinking about where David says “if I forget thee, may my right hand forget her cunning”. I was lamenting about the busy times of yesterday where I felt that I had not been actively in conjunction with God; where I had been feeling alone, but didn’t recognize why. I need to know (experience) what the will of God is all the time so that I can be in agreement with it by my choices. Otherwise, I get to the end of the day and feel like I just wasted a day, no matter what I did or did not do. There are no ‘right’ actions or ‘wrong’ ones: there are only actions done in the right time, and the right way, for the right purpose (or NOT done because I was supposed to be doing something else). The only way I am going to get that right is to check in with my Yoke Buddy and see which way He is pulling, because He is supposed to be the wind beneath my wings. If I find myself just flapping along, it is going to be because I gee-ed when He hawed.
“Walking with God” is not a JUST cognitive exercise, that is so right, Skip, (although I think conscious recognition of Him moment by moment makes it easier to hear Him). Our entire day should be lived like a prayer: like a two-way conversation. If I slip into sloppiness, the chance goes way up that I will just end up following the flesh around and wondering why my barrel and cruse of motivation and purpose went dry and ‘my’ choices don’t seem to be ‘working’ – getting me ‘ahead’; whatever that means. I don’t feel satisfied.
So I tried praying David’s prayer this morning: that the actions of my work this day fail UP FRONT; that my “right hand forgets her cunning”, so that I will remember to ask for directions before I go plunging ahead into what I think is the next right thing to do. Now, why would I think I would know what that is, without checking to see where His will is? I am a very slow learner.
Nice. Thanks.
Laurita, You may learn slow, but you do learn well, deep and long. You are a blessing to us…all of us. Shalom.
All I can add is Amen
God has the upper hand. He does save.
We willfully comply. We are saved.
Salvation is a transformative gift whereby we obediently step out
of our natural selves thus allowing His Spirit to newly operate in us
with the same resurrection power he operated with in Yeshua.
That’s a huge difference from just human works. And “fear and trembling”
more than adequately describes anyone working with God’s power residing
within them! “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults,
in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, than I am strong.” 2 Cor 12:10
Oh thank you ‘Brother Skip “, even though I’m ‘too churchy’. In one of my men’s discussion groups (also includes women). is sometimes lead by a Lutheran Pastor, who also was,some year ago, the President of one of our local University’s. He alway starts out with, ‘We are saved by Faith alone.(period),
And I always respond, “(Name) that’s is not the end of the sentence”. and another ‘friend’ add’s “Here we go again”. So now I will read your rendition to the group— Maybe we can end our “here we go again” –he is set in his way. Shalom
Sugar Ray, excuse me, but your little group reminds me of an open AA meeting I used to be privileged to attend where at least once in the meeting someone was bound to crack what seemed to be the seminal insider joke. They would say “Quitting? Quitting is easy: I used to quit several times a day. Staying quit? Now, that’s the problem.”
I wonder if your friend also suffers from the “once saved, always saved” idea that it seems you have to employ to be able to think salvation alone – even salvation by faith – is going to get you anywhere. Salvation doesn’t even get you out of the parking lot. Salvation just gets you turned around and your engine cranked again. If you never actually step on the gas pedal, you will never reach the destination, which is not salvation, but holiness. Salvation is accomplished by faith, but what are we saved back into? The freedom to love again: the freedom to choose again: the freedom to cooperate minute by minute with heaven in the process of sanctification, which is the process of holiness.
Salvation does not make us holy any more than quitting makes someone into a non-alcoholic, etc. Staying quit – actually putting the vehicle in gear – the actions of sanctification; of progressive holiness; is what separates the sober from the stuck. Salvation does not work unless we work it. Salvation is about returning us to the ability to become holy, which we are told we must be to enter into the Kingdom at last, but holiness does not happen in our sleep.
I may have been all by myself when I was lost, but once I am returned to life, I need to start learning to do my part of acting like it. Salvation may be an action on God’s part, but sanctification is all about learning how to actively work with heaven. If I don’t ever get to that part, I can lose salvation as fast as I can get it and no amount of faith is going to overcome my refusal to start ACTING like (which is the actions of holiness, or sanctification) I am saved.
Shine on, brother! I love your stories!
Love you, I learn so much from you. We do have several recovering AA members but no, it’s just a bible study and we get carried away once in a while. My friend being a Lutheran pastor that is what he learned. And as you can guess I’ve learned also, It’s a long journey in which we will never arrive on this side. But we do not learn alone by ourselves. Shalom P.S. Careful never get an old (more mature) guy started—they have lots of stories.
Dear Sugar Ray,
I am glad the pastor is your good friend, too, and I guess my attempt at analogy was not very clear. You had made it clear that your group was not AA! What amused me was that what your friend said sounded like the AA joke in that quitting is like salvation; essential, yes, but not all that is required. Staying saved, to me, is like staying sober; it takes effort on my part. If I do not do my part (which is the cooperation of acting out my faith), His part of salvation is not enough.
I think Skip is saying that our part, which is faith – trust – BELIEF – is not as passive as we think. I agree. If you came to me and told me that you had changed your belief about where the sun came up: that now you believed that it came up in the west; but you still got up in the morning and oriented your travels, etc. around the sun coming up in the east, I would say that you did not really believe the sun came up in the west.
We act on our core beliefs, but I wager most of us do not know what those beliefs are very well, because trust (or, faith) is not built on cognitive info, but on experience. If you want me to trust you, you cannot tell me to trust you: you have to DO something to make me trust you. Then my experience has changed, and accordingly, my belief about you can, too.
The Bible teaches that we cannot manufacture belief; that it is a gift. But God leaves gifts of faith in front of every door: which is to say that He preemptively acts in trustworthy ways to everybody! But only some of us open the door and pick up (use) the gift by choosing to act on that trust. Salvation is for everybody, and all are given enough trust (by God acting in trustworthy ways) to appropriate it, but only some of us are actually saved. Noah and family had to actually get on the ark, and we have to act out our trust in God, too.
I think to the extent that what we say or think we believe does not line up with what we have experienced or done, we suffer what Skip pointed out, which is cognitive dissonance. Someone can SAY faith alone saves, but if they do not ACT saved, chances are they have not actually EXPERIENCED salvation, for only experience (which I think is what builds what we truly believe) can change the beliefs that drive our behavior. If I do not act saved, therefore, chances are I have not actually experienced salvation.
Most of us are “set in our ways.” One reason why theological debate is tiring, unending self-enhancement.
I think it’s quite easy to forget that God called Abraham to leave his family in Ur long before “Abraham believed God and God credited to him as righteousness.” Abraham was following God already. God had already been speaking to him. It was really a pattern of faithfulness in responding to the word of God–a demonstrated allegiance to God. Isn’t this the point Paul was trying to make to the Galatians? “You already have been set within the confines of the believing community and are on the King’s Highway of salvation. Why do want to go back XYZ’s way of getting into the community of the ‘saved'” through the secret handshake at the back door of Club J? Hello? Obedience to the King is righteousness!”
You see well Mr Mook. Thank you for the simplicity of your revelation 🙂 “THEN it will be righteousness for us, IF we are careful to obey……”
Yes, Luther was wrong, about many things but certainly about separation of action and faith. One should spend time reading the books of the Torah, especially Leviticus. Not an easy read but filled with instruction on how to act, behave and treat one another. All of these moral and ethical actions were summed up by our LORD Yeshua when He declared that the two greatest commandments are to Love God and love thy neighbor. Actions without faith is dead declares Jacob (James) vs. 2:26.