I'm struggling to understand this concept. Basically as I understand it so far, salvation entails commitment, obedience and perseverance. But it has been criticized as teaching works based / performance based salvation.
And it's hard for me to get how one can describe it in a plain concise way that excludes performance. One of it's best known teachers, has said point blank that if his salvation was up to him in any way, he would not have it. So it's basically at this time clear as mud to me.
It's a fundamental question of what role we, if any, play in our salvation; as well as how we are defining salvation.
The doctrine of Justification by grace alone through faith on Christ's account alone, the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation, means that we are nothing more than passive recipients.
We don't do anything, not even in saying "yes" to God.
Which is why us Lutherans speak of faith as "extra nos", Latin for "from outside ourselves". Faith is a gift (as Ephesians 2:8 says) and thus faith comes from outside of ourselves, given to us as pure grace, and it is this faith through which we are justified. Therefore we are, as Luther put it, nothing more than a beggar before God. We have nothing, absolutely nothing; we are wholly dependent upon God's mercy to give us everything for our salvation.
So from that perspective, turning human performance or effort into a meritorious work undermines this most elementary doctrine of faith.
The role of good works, the role of our cooperation with God's grace, isn't to our justification before God; it is rather about our living out our faith in the world. It is not a justification Coram Deo (justification before God) but a justification Coram Mundo (justification before the world). That is, e.g., to feed my hungry neighbor, because my hungry neighbor is hungry and needs food, and it is good and right that they be fed.
We are righteous before God solely by the received, passive righteousness given to us as pure grace--the imputed alien righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. Which God appropriates to us by His grace, through faith, which is itself God's grace at work through His Means of Grace.
This is the only righteousness we have or can have before God in this life; because of the total inability of man to be righteous in accordance with the just and right commands of God in His Law; indeed sinful man before the Law is reckoned a sinner and condemned as such. And therefore any attempt to be righteous in accordance with the Law only reveals us to be sinners, and so the harder we try to be faithful to God's command, the greater our sin. Not because the Law is sin, but because the Law is a light and a magnifying glass exposing us to be the sinners we already are. Therefore no amount of striving to be righteous can amount in righteousness; there is only the unrighteousness of our sin exposed and laid bare.
Which is why it is only the imputed righteousness of Jesus that can make us righteous before God, since it is not based upon our works, our efforts, our obedience; but rather it is Christ's works, Christ's obedience. It is Christ's righteousness given to us as pure grace; and that is what makes it a passive righteousness, a righteousness received by us, passive, empty-handed and naked beggars.
Now then, does the justified person therefore have liberty to live in disobedience? Absolutely not. For we who belong to Christ and have been freely justified by God's grace are to walk in the new obedience. But this is living out our faith, this is living out our vocation, this is the good works for which we were created of Ephesians 2:10. Such good works are not for our justification before God, but again. Rather it is a faithfulness before the world, for the good and sake of our neighbor.
God isn't the One who needs our good works, it is our neighbor who needs them.
So then there is what we have received as pure gift, apart from ourselves, wholly by grace; and this is what makes us right before and with God; and it is this which we cleave to and place our full confidence in.
And there is the reality of our continued struggle, the old man and the new, as we carry our cross of discipleship. And in this struggle the Holy Spirit is always at work in us, and we have the faithful promises of God that we are being sanctified, being conformed to the image of Christ, and that the good work which was began in us shall continue until the day of Christ's glorious return. It is this that we, therefore, "work out our salvation in fear and trembling", as we carry our cross as disciples. Not as though our striving and efforts add to what Christ has done and which we have received as pure grace--that is sufficient, that is everything, and it is done already, for you and for me. But now in the reality of that, we live this truth and hope and faith into the world with love. And we strive against the flesh, drowning it in repentance, and being renewed day by day by God's mercy.
But this is so vitally important, it is THE distinction that must be made. That distinction which is between Law and Gospel. The Law says, "Do this" but it is never done; but the Gospel says "trust this" and it is done already.
The Law commands, it demands, and it is unforgiving. The Law simply says what is right. The Law says "Love your neighbor as yourself"; that is the command, and it says what it says and means what it means. And neither you nor I satisfy its just demand. We do not love our neighbor as ourselves. We don't love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. The Law commands, but then we don't do it. Even when we try to do it, we fail.
The Gospel is the already finished work and righteousness of Jesus, and that is now ours by grace. It is done and finished, and it is yours and mine, we can therefore trust it, believe it, have full confidence in it.
That which is commanded of you is Law.
That which is freely given and promised to you is Gospel.
The Law cannot justify you.
Only the Gospel can justify you, because it is Christ's own righteousness, which God makes yours through faith by His grace alone.
Maintain this essential distinction and dichotomy. Nearly all error arises when the distinction is eroded or ignored. And men begin treating the Law as Gospel, or the Gospel as Law. They therefore forget the harshness of the Law, or they forget the sweetness of the Gospel. And what arises in man from this confusion is either despair or hubris; and both are deadly weeds which, given opportunity, would choke out faith.
-CryptoLutheran
