North of the Shire

Something very powerful came to the forefront the other day as I listened to a formal debate on Sola Fide between John Martignoni and a Dr. James Saxon from the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia. (That debatecan be found here,and is free to download)

Without going into a complete repeat of the arguments of both sides it struck me that while John Martignoni is exactly right about the teaching of Scripture on this subject, there is another whole dimension that the Protestant is addressing with Sola Fide, beginning with Luther himself, that Martignoni does not even get into but really must be answered, not just for the sake of the argument or evangelization of Protestants, but practically for most Catholics as well.

What am I talking about? Well, it is the ever-present tension between “orthodoxy” and “orthopraxy”. This tension, in some respects, is magnified in the Catholic faith, particularly in the present age and culture. Simply put, how do we live it? What Jesus taught, and what the Catholic Church in turn repeats, is very radical. Are we radical enough? If we are serious Catholics, do we need to make a more radical commitment and change of life-style, and for each one of us, what does that look like?

The teaching of Jesus Christ and the Church is quite onerous if we stop and think and analyze it. Dr. James Saxon was right to point out the burden of following Catholic teaching. He, like Luther and many Protestant apologists, have found the way out of that burden by adopting Sola Fide. The realization that everything one does or does not do in their life has a bearing on the end result is daunting. It can lead one to, as Dr. Saxon put it, a “treadmill” of works, never knowing for sure if one is going to go to heaven or not. It can become a legalism of sorts, or a never-ending attempt to buy God’s favour with our pious works.

So, to end all of that, the Sola Fide doctrine just wipes out anything that anyone can do after their conversion to faith in Jesus Christ, good or bad, sin or not, and presto, no more sweat or worry. The close sister doctrine to Sola Fide is the logical extension of it, the teaching we call OSAS, or “once saved always saved,” which means that nothing one does can jeopardize one’s salvation having once been “saved” in that one time event of receiving Jesus Christ into one’s heart. It is almost impossible to discuss the former without reference to the latter, and indeed, Dr. Saxon does make that OSAS claim in his argument.

Martignoni makes the case from Scripture very well emphasizing the point that in Scripture, the only time “faith” and “alone” are found together it is to say that faith alone is not enough, as we recall in that famous passage from the book of James.
He points out that Jesus himself told us that unless we forgive others, the Father will not forgive us. Can we be saved without the Father’s forgiveness? No. Do we expect that once we are “saved” that people are not going to sin against us anymore? Clearly forgiving others is an ongoing process throughout our lives. A work perhaps? A possibility of losing our salvation?
He also reminds us of the famous teaching of Jesus regarding how we treat the “least of these.” He is crystal clear that those who don’t do those things will have rejected him. A hard teaching? Yes.
He also reminds us of Jesus description of himself as the vine, and us as branches. The warning is there to believers who “bear no fruit” that they will be cut off and burned up. Could bearing fruit include works? And how could anyone with eternal security be cut off?
Martignoni points out over and over the passages from the Gospels and also from St. Paul wherein believers are warned in no uncertain terms that they can lose their salvation by the things that they do or do not do. It takes a very selective reading to miss that message.

So where does that leave us, on that treadmill Dr. Saxon spoke of? It could, but it doesn’t have to, and that is the point of this entire discussion.

If we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only, how is it that we can do the things that are expected of us and not lose the prize at the end as St. Paul talks about? As at other times I come back to that place where Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden light. How can that be? Haven’t we just pointed out how difficult it all is and that there is a serious possibility that we might fall away and lose our salvation?

What is a yoke? It is an apparatus that ties two animals, oxen or horses together so that they will pull together. Jesus says his yoke is easy. Doesn’t that mean that he is going to yoke himself together with us? Yes, he means he is going to be right there, pulling the load with us. That is the point. In doing the will of the Father, he is right beside us. Perhaps this is a treadmill after all, a treadmill being the grain milling stone being turned by the oxen that are yoked together. If we are yoked together with Christ, the yoke is easy and the burden light.

The real story is that it is grace, it is all grace and it is always grace that enables us to do the “works” that Jesus requires of us. It is only through grace that anything we do is “merited” to us. It is another of God’s gifts to us, of which he is overflowing in abundance. He gives us a job to do and then helps us do it and then gives us credit for doing it. In the Church he has provided every ordinary means of grace to even just live the bare minimum of the life he requires and yet as we receive grace and seek out grace he multiplies it to us, through the sacraments of the Church and through the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Moreover, we have an army of saints who can and will pray for us and with us. Jesus own mother intercedes for us. There are hosts of angels to help fight the spiritual battles of our lives and above all, there is the grace overflowing in the Eucharist, wherein we draw strength from the very body and blood of Christ. That is, as John 6 points out, how we abide in him and he in us.

Instead of concocting a doctrinal insurance policy to try and lock ourselves in, we Catholics have to realize that our insurance is the Word himself. What is required is the humility and offering up of our own will to his, the losing of ourselves to him unconditionally so that we can then find ourselves and with him walk this life together in peace, doing the “works” through the strength and power of Christ himself.

So then, is it really something we do to merit our salvation or please God? It is God working through us, and then giving us the credit. These things we could not do on our own. Didn’t Jesus require that we be perfect? Isn’t that impossible? Only if we believe it to be so and ask for no help from Jesus to make it so.

John Calvin is famous for promoting the doctrine of total depravity. But should it not be called the doctrine of total poverty? The idea that we could never be washed clean of our sins, that we could never become perfected by God’s power is a bleak and impoverished doctrine that misses the power and intention of God. He wants to transform us, he wants to clean us up inside and out and he wants to help us to do the things that please him. It is only our stubborn will that stops it from happening. And it is only in thinking that we can do those things that God wants of us without his help, that we fall into the religion that Dr. Saxon rejected, which he mistakenly thought was the teaching of the Catholic Church.