Lukaris, Matt, and Knee-V are all right. In the Scriptures, we see faith and we see works. Paul speaks to the people of his age, the Jewish people, who were living under this Pharisaic mentality in which they felt the Law of Moses would save them. Obviously that's not the case. Paul wants to emphasize the fact that the "works" or "Torah" of Moses's Law will NOT save because nobody can live up to those expectations. And it's true! It's impossible to completely live the Torah! And with Torah comes not just behavioral expectations, but rituals and requirements and legalistic hurdles that Paul is telling the reader of his Epistles are dead because they are fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Paul is saying that faith is the main operation of the walk with Christ and he's 100% correct. No Orthodox Christian will disagree. Paul is saying that faith is 100% a gift, grace is 100% a free token given to us of God's love. NOTHING we have in the way of salvation is thanks to us! It's free! But it comes with a price, the blood of Christ Himself and His conquest of death.
Abraham is a prefiguration of all this. He lived prior to the Law and loved God with that free, imputed gift. And it's important to really look at the term "imputation" with Paul. In Protestant, western eyes, "imputation" is viewed through the prism of a prisoner who is horrible given a free get out of jail card that says he is something that he really is not--good. We get back to that Martin Luther analogy of a wedding dress covered in manure, which is a sickening imagery if you ask me and NOT one that God would approve of!
We are not rotting slime that God just "declares" good and lies about it. God cannot lie. God will not and cannot proclaim something good that is rotten. I think it's helpful to look at the Greek word
pistis that Paul uses. It is translated most appropriately as "faithfulness" rather than just "faith." In other words, just affirming or acknowledging or declaring Christ as Savior isn't an instant bar code scanned to "make" us righteous. We have to have
pistis, or "faithfulness" that is ONGOING! The loyal walk we have with the Lord is continual. It is a walk, a journey, abiding, like following a friend wherever he goes. it is companionship, faithfulness, shadowing, loving, and ultimately obedient. It is like an apprentice to a master craftsman. You show up, you obey his commands and do what he says. You watch his craft, mimic it, ask questions, participate, try to do the craft, admit to the master when you screw up and ask for advice, and you stick with the craft. That is how I view Paul's
pistis talk.
And which person does Paul point out as the epitome of
pistis? ABRAHAM! And rightfully so! Abraham exhibits the quality of simple faith and following and obedience that existed prior to the Law. And we must remember that the Mosaic Law is very legal, very ritualistic, very mechanical, and impossible to follow to the letter.
So in light of that, is faith just an affirmation or one-time declaration like we hear Protestants say, "I was saved back in 1977!" How? How is salvation a one-time affirmation? Is faith just intellectual assent? Because the Scriptures tell us that EVEN SATAN intellectually affirms and knows who God is! Is he saved then?
So instead of intellectual assent, faith is an ongoing walk that involves faith, worship, love, obedience, perseverance, admission of frailty, and so much more. It means trying to do good works while acknowledging that those works are done in God's grace thanks to God's grace and the salvific gifts we have are freely given, imputed, by Christ to us. Without those gifts we cannot do good works and grow in faith or holiness!
Orthodoxy is shown to be the True Faith for many reasons, and one of those proofs is how they never made the fatal mistake of dissecting truth into controversial semantic little puzzles. Faith is the nucleus, the engine that drives works. Works are evidence of the fact that we receive God's love and walk in that continual
pistis rather than just giving a dry affirmation or declaration. The engine is faith. Without the gift of faith, freely given us that we cannot generate on our own for the heck of it, we cannot do good works and respond to God. So why separate the works and faith? Do we do this in "real life?" I love my kids. FACT. I try to educate them, clothe and feed them, share the faith with them, play with them, entertain and give them smiles and laughter, protect them, care for them when they're sick, cherish them, and make them feel self-worth. Most of all I try to make them good Orthodox Christians. So, my love is there and the works are the first-fruits, the evidence, the product. How could I love them and then neglect them and do nothing? But that love is a gift, the impetus.
Faith and works, imputation, law, all these things have been so warped by the West.
And I guess this might sound bad to say----but I'm just SO GLAD to no longer be in either Catholic OR Protestant worlds to have to care about this stuff anymore! Becoming Orthodox made me so SANE and just grounded in real common sense theology in Christ. Thanks be to God!
