Ralphy, what does this mean to you?
(your quote):
Good works follow salvation
The way you phrase it, and the way certain Protestant traditions view works, is such a false dichtomy. It sounds as if they just doggedly follow the believer around (as if he/she is totally unaware and has NO will to cooperate with God’s works, OR to utterly ignore those ‘set before us’). It’s not as if we’re ‘robotic’ christians that have no minds. They are not just a ‘side dish’…an afterthought. They are incorporated with our faith (faith AND works). There is no separation there. What about all those ‘saved christians’ who actually put forth an effort (if by ‘work’ we should define it was actually struggling/thinking/going-out-of-your-way-to-do stuff). I mean to say, that a ‘saved’ christian can ‘do’ works with intention and knowledge (their own will). Involving our own will doesn’t equate with ‘working’ in a useless and selfish sense. Working out our salvation can simply mean to be cooperating (via the will that God gave to each of us) in cooperation with His Works that he has purposely set before us (provided ways for us to do them).
I’m sure there are many times where ‘saved’ (let’s say Evangelical christians) have ignored, missed, or completely rejected a work that God had desired for them to do. It happens, because of our weaknesses. We can ‘talk ourselves out’ of helping someone (for a variety of reasons), or just refrain from doing something out of laziness (any number of different scenarios and reasons).
I’ve never understood, nor cared for, the Protestant concept of works just sort of ‘happening’, to the Christian who is ‘saved’. It does require some effort to keep ones’ eyes open and see our brother. ** “When did we see you…and not clothe you, feed you, etc…”** Maybe, sometimes, the saved Christian misses those opportunities. Saved christians aren’t God’s mindless puppets. Being in God’s grace (and staying there) requires CONTINUOUS penance, CONTINUOUS thought, observation, prayer…keeeping God on one’s mind all the time. For, the more we pray and have Him on our minds, the more capable we are of ‘seeing’ those opportunities, and in not missing them or rejecting them. Our wills are strong, and it takes living a life that is devoted to God (in developing holiness) that creates a soul that is capable of loving more and in forgiving more, and in doing God’s work more.
I just do NOT like the Protestant theology which is so saturated with the ‘easy’ life. "Once I make a ‘decision for Christ’, everything’s in the bag…and I don’t even have to do anything…because those good works will just land in my lap and …maybe I’ll do them, and maybe I won’t…it doesn’t matter because I’m saved------yet, I damn everyone else, that isn’t saved by the same ‘Evangelical’ decisional manner, and call their works useless (and man-derived). Everyone’s works, in some way, participates with Christ’s redemptive work. It finds a home in us, because we are temples of the Holy Spirit and are all God’s children. Everyone who shows ‘love’ to another, is participating in God’s love–for we are incapable of knowing love or expressing love, without God. He is love. Therefore, in some degree, we all participate in God’s Works, when we show our love of Him, by loving our neighbor (the two greatest commandments).
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Salvation is not only from sin, but for sonship – in Christ. **We are not only forgiven by God’s grace, we are adopted and divinized, that is, we “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). This is ultimately why God created us, to share in the life-giving love of the Trinity. **
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Confession is the beginning of glory, not the full desert of the crown; nor does it perfect our praise, but it initiates our dignity; and
since it is written, 'He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved,’ whatever has been before the end is a step by which we ascend to the summit of salvation, not a terminus wherein the full result of the ascent is already gained.” Cyprian, Unity of the Church, 21 (A.D. 251).
"doesn’t sound like, once someone says the Sinner’s Prayer, there’s no more ‘effort’ involved to keep in God’s Grace!!! We must endure (endure: To last: to persist; to suffer firmly or patiently; to bear)
“It is, indeed, to be wondered at, and greatly to be wondered at, that to some of His own children–whom He has regenerated in Christ–
to whom He has given faith, hope, and love, God does not give perseverance also.” Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace, 18 (A.D. 427).
Sounds like Augustine is speaking of ‘saved christians’ here (funny, he also speaks of them as needing to persevere–as if they can somehow falter (backslide into sin, as Protestants phrase it). What does that mean to the saved Christian then? To backslide? It sounds like it can jeopardize that relationship to me. Rebuking them, for thinking, perhaps, that everything is ‘in the bag’ at some point or another (when it means that they must endure, in faith and in love, until their last breath).
Big picture. So often Protestants take bits and pieces but MISS the BIG PICTURE. Salvation isn’t summed up in a Sinner’s Prayer, nor completed with one. It is “taking up one’s cross and following Jesus”, until the day we die.
