I'm not sure a single quote is sufficient to establish such a thing, especially when that quote comes from Origen who's ideas are questionable on several fronts.
If it were only Origen, then sure. It's true that Origen had some (in his speculatory work) peculiar ideas that he brought forward that we should take with a grain of salt, or outright disregard. Perhaps choosing Origen was mistake on my part.
Here are some other examples of this kind of language among the fathers:
St. Clement in his Epistle writes
"
And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." - Epistle of St. Clement, 32
"
This is complete and perfect glorying in God, when a man is uplifted, not because of his own justice, but because he knows he is empty of true glory, and made just only through his faith in Christ. In this Paul gloried, that he thought nothing of his own justice; that he sought that justice alone which comes through Christ, which is from God, justice in faith; and that he might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the sharing of His sufferings, and be made like Him in His death, if by any means he might himself attain to the resurrection which is from the dead. It is here that the whole top-loftiness of arrogance falls down. Nothing is left to you to glory in, O man; whose true glorying and whose hope is in mortifying yourself in all things, and in seeking for that future life in Christ, of which we have already a foretaste when we live wholly in the love and in the grace of God." - St. Basil the Great, Homily on Humility, 3
Now, for the sake of transparent honesty, we can also see that, for example, St. Clement wrote this:
"Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God. Let us clothe ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking, being justified by our works, and not our words. For [the Scripture] says, He that speaks much, shall also hear much in answer. And does he that is ready in speech deem himself righteous? Blessed is he that is born of woman, who lives but a short time: be not given to much speaking. Let our praise be in God, and not of ourselves; for God hates those that commend themselves. Let testimony to our good deeds be borne by others, as it was in the case of our righteous forefathers. Boldness, and arrogance, and audacity belong to those that are accursed of God; but moderation, humility, and meekness to such as are blessed by Him."
Of course I'd answer, in this case, that St. Clement here speaks of the difference between merely speaking, and in the actual doing--let us be justified by actually living what we believe, and not merely having words. From the Lutheran perspective, we would understand this as part of what sanctification means. It's what St. Paul means when he says "work out your salvation through fear and trembling". It's what St. Paul means when, after speaking of how we were saved by grace, through faith, not of ourselves nor by our efforts that nevertheless we were created for good works in Christ (Ephesians 2:10).
And it's, I'd argue, what St. James is talking about when he says "faith without works is dead", not that our righteousness before God is on the basis of our own moral ability; but that merely claiming to have faith, merely having the words pertaining to matters of faith, isn't going to do us a lick of good if we aren't actually being transformed by that faith--that faith working itself out through love.
For the Lutheran of course faith works itself out through love, good works are not optional but necessary; what the Lutheran position says, however, is that it isn't the works which render us righteous before God--that is what God does, God reckons us righteous before Himself, through Christ, by His grace, which He works and accomplishes and gives through faith (faith itself being a gift and work of God); the righteousness which we are now called to have, and indeed, do is not to persuade the Holy God of the Law to let us in; but rather to be out in the midst of the world doing the good things which God has called us to do, by the power of His grace, by the power of the Spirit, by the transformation of a life that is in Christ--so that now we set foot upon the stage of the world, before the great audience of our fellow humanity, so that even as we inhabit Christ through faith; we now inhabit our neighbor through love. And this comes straight from Fr. Martin's own pen, that the Christian is defined in two ways: faith in Christ, and love of neighbor.
The two are inseparable. The one who has faith in Christ loves their neighbor, there can be no other way, no exception, no alternative. Without love of neighbor one is not a Christian, even if they claim to profess Christ all day long. For at the Day of Judgment Christ will set those on His right and those on His left, and to them both He will say that He was hungry and thirsty, that He was naked and an immigrant, that He was sick and in prison, and whatever we did (or failed to do) for the least of these we did it, or didn't do it, to Him--and to those on His right He shall welcome them in; and to those on His left He shall say to depart to where there is fire, gnashing of teeth, to that place which was prepared for the devil and all his dark minions.
Those on the right say, "When did we see You hungry and feed You?" For these are the righteous, not on account of their works but on account of their faith who then do the works; in stark contrast to those whom Christ speaks about in Matthew 7 who go on saying "Lord Lord" pointing to their supposed good works, "Look at what we did! It was for You!" and who just the same as those on His left in Matthew 25, He will say, "depart from Me". For faith does not look to ourselves, but to Christ; and faith compels us to look at our neighbor with different eyes, and to walk with new feet, and to act with new hands.
It is not in glorying in what we have done, but glorying in what God has done for us; and as the Spirit changes us, transforms us, makes us new a new way of being human, one that looks like Jesus, is happening. On the Day of Judgment none of us will be able to petition the Almighty Judge that we were guiltless and righteous by our works; and yet on the Day of Judgment our works will speak loud, either for or against us. But it is not our works that get us past that finish line, but faith-it is by the mercy of God alone that He welcomes us in, for none of us will stand, on the basis of our works, guiltless on that Last Day--but the one who has faith will say, "I am unworthy and full of many sins" and the Judge will say, "Well done good and faithful servant"; the faithless and the wicked shall say, "See, I have done many good works and am therefore worthy" and the Judge will say, "Guilty, away from Me". The Grace of God does not find the worthy, but finds the unworthy; and because it is Grace, reckons the unworthy as worthy because of the One who is Gracious.
-CryptoLutheran
