Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians

[Buzzbait]

Hello folks, first post her at Catholic Answers, so please be kind!

Lately, I have been wrestling with the Church Fathers, and turned to Philip Schaff’s collected works of the Fathers. I am currently reading Clement’s Epistle to the Corinthians.

I came across the part where Clement states that Christians “are not justified in holiness of heart.”

I am familiar with the Catholic doctrine of justification via infusion of grace, and am most familiar with it through the Augustinian understanding. Out of curiosity, would Clement’s statement not refute this dogma? (I am not trying to be combative, I am asking this out of true curiosity and in an attempt to better understand my fellow brothers and sisters.)

Thanks ya’ll for your help!

 

[Verbum]

Hi8 Buzzbait,

Here is the full text :

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.

ewtn.com/library/patristc/anf1-1.htm

All he is saying is that we not justified by anything but faith. This is most orthodox doctrine. Do you see something else here?

Verbum
Verbum

 

[thenobes]

Hello folks, first post her at Catholic Answers, so please be kind!

Lately, I have been wrestling with the Church Fathers, and turned to Philip Schaff’s collected works of the Fathers. I am currently reading Clement’s Epistle to the Corinthians.

I came across the part where Clement states that Christians “are not justified in holiness of heart.”

I am familiar with the Catholic doctrine of justification via infusion of grace, and am most familiar with it through the Augustinian understanding. Out of curiosity, would Clement’s statement not refute this dogma? (I am not trying to be combative, I am asking this out of true curiosity and in an attempt to better understand my fellow brothers and sisters.)

Thanks ya’ll for your help!

Yes, great selection. I believe it is taken from the paragraph:

32And if anyone will candidly consider this in detail, he will recognize the greatness of the gifts given by him. 2For from him[18] come the priests and all the Levites, who serve the altar of God, from him comes the Lord Jesus according to the flesh, from him come the kings and rulers and governors in the succession of Judah, and the other sceptres of his tribes are in no small renown seeing that God promised that “thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven.” 3All of them therefore were all renowned and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous actions which they had wrought, but through his will; 4and therefore we who by his will have been called in Christ Jesus, are not made righteous by ourselves, or by our wisdom or understanding or piety or the deeds which we have wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, by which Almighty God has justified all men from the beginning of the world: to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen

While we do believe that doing good works leads to a holiness of the soul, and sanctification, this is insufficient to save one if one has no living faith. Thus if we allow our faith to become a dead faith (ie have unrepented mortal sin) any previous righteous acts are counted as nothing. It is always God’s grace that makes righteous. He may use our previous Good deeds as a conduit, however.

Was it Ezechiel who was told by God that if the righteous man practices unrighteousness, God will remember his righteousness no more? And vice versa for the man who goes from unrighteousness to righteousness?

peace
steve

 

[Aelred_Minor]

Sounds to me like the orthodox Pauline doctrine that we are saved through faith in Christ rather than earning our salvation through natural good works.