Works of the Law vs. Good Works
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
"...knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law" (Galatians 2:16). It would seem clear from this verse that St. Paul is writing about "the works of the law" - that is, circumcision, following the dietary laws and observing the religious holidays spelled out in the Law of Moses; especially so when we consider these texts in Galatians:
"...when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles [the uncircumcised], and they to the circumcision" (ch. 2:9), and "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that works through love" ((ch. 5:6).
And yet, many fundamentalist preachers will insist - "Good works cannot save you!" - by which they actually teach you shouldn't do any good works because that might mean you're trying to save yourself by works, not by faith. They will quote Ephesians 2:8-9 - "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast." But they conveniently ignore the very next verse - "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them."
Such people (including Martin Luther) have big problems with the writings of St. James, brother of our Lord and first Bishop of Jerusalem - "But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected" (James 2:20-22). Faith that does not produce good works is dead faith, not living and saving faith.
These "anti-works" advocates deliberately ignore St. Paul's writings to Titus - "in all things showing yourself an example of good works" (ch. 2:7a), and "our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works" (ch. 2:13b-14), also "being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This saying is faithful, and concerning these things I desire that you affirm confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.... Let our people also learn to maintain good works to provide what is necessary, that they may not be unfruitful" (ch. 3:7-8, 14).
Martin Luther's strong reaction against the selling of indulgences to buy one's way out of purgatory led him to insist on salvation by faith alone ("sola fide"), not by works. But the only Scripture text mentioning "faith alone" is James 2:24 - "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone." No wonder Luther wanted to exclude the Epistle of James from his Bible! Luther hung his hat on Romans 1:17 - "For in it is revealed God's righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, 'But the just shall live by faith.'" This last phrase is quoted from Habakkuk 2:4 in the Old Testament and is one of the most quoted phrases in the New Testament. Faith is more than merely a mental assent to the facts that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for our sins and rose on the third day: faith is a way of life, it is righteous living!
And in ch. 2:6-7 we read - "[God} 'will repay to everyone according to his works': to those who by patience in doing good seek for glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life." God gives eternal life to those who do good works! How could Luther have missed these verses? Remember that Luther was formerly an Augustinian monk: It was because of the Augustinian misinterpretation of Romans 5:12 - "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, for in him [Adam] all sinned." (The correct translation is - "...death passed to all men, in that all sinned.") From his misunderstanding of this verse, Augustine deduced that all mankind is guilty of Adam's sin and therefore all mankind is totally depraved and incapable of doing any truly good works, unless and until being justified by God's grace. But this flies in the face of our experience that even non-Christians are capable of doing good deeds for altruistic reasons, not for hidden, devious or evil motives.
So we see here two problems. First, that people have confused "works of the Law" with "good works" - they have conflated these two different ideas to make them mean the same thing; actually, though, they are quite different and almost opposites. Second, fundamentalist preachers would say that St. Paul didn't really mean that people could inherit eternal life by doing good works because that would be impossible due to all people being guilty of original sin and thus are totally depraved and incapable of doing any good works. In reality, our human nature has been weakened by our ancestors' sin and thus we are prone to sin but still capable of doing good works.
The idea that Jews could be righteous by being circumcised, or tithing of all their possessions including their garden spices like mint and cummin, or not walking over the prescribed number of paces on the Sabbath, etc. is very much like the idea that Christians can be pardoned by saying 100 Hail Marys or 40 Lord have Mercys or fasting from four-legged meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. All these things might be valid spiritual disciplines to train us to be led by the Spirit and not by the flesh, but they shouldn't become laws, which if we break them we will be damned. The real laws are to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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"The Word became flesh, and dwelled among us. We beheld His glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Right at the beginning of his Gospel, the Apostle John describes the glory of Jesus Christ. A bit farther in this chapter, John tells us how that glory was revealed: "I saw the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on Him. ...I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God" (verses 32 & 34). This is the first "Epiphany" (revelation) of Jesus as the Son of God in His glory.
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In my first essay on this topic, "
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