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neophyte
Guest
It looks like a marriage.
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mackbrislawn
Guest
So, Luther saw James in the light of Paul…but why not the other way around, and see Paul in the light of James? Or Paul in the light of the gospels?
I think he did. In fact, he looks at James in a way similar to Galatians 5:6. - faith working through love
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mackbrislawn
Guest
How about the gospels?
What about them?
I’d still like an answer to this
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AmbroseSJ
Guest
If that were true, then the Protestant mantra of “Faith Alone” would never have existed. It is a purely Catholic Doctrine to teach Faith working through Love. How then did Protestantism arrive at “Faith Alone?”
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Wesrock
Guest
I think it’s more complicated than simply faith and works, but about differences in thinking on how justification works: infused vs. imputed; active cooperation vs. passive cooperation.
I’ve quoted the Lutheran confessions, Luther’s Commentary on Galatians over and over here at CAf that shows you are factually wrong, at least about Lutheranism. What other groups that are typically referred to as Protestant believe may or may not be accurately described.
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James248
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Most of those seem to be mental gymnastics with the text by those who adhere to Sola Fide.
To you, perhaps Pope Benedict seemed more inclined to not dismiss it in that way
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James248
Guest
Pope Benedict added a very important qualification to his words. One which Luther’s statement “Go sin and sin boldly” clearly goes against.
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AmbroseSJ
Guest
Well, I had to expect that answer, unsatisfactory as it is.
But what I was getting at is that Luther was the original “Protestant” that came up with “Faith Alone.”
It is Historical fact, albeit muddied significantly by later developments in both Protestantism and Lutheranism. It is also a fact that “Faith Alone” continues to exist as a doctrine, courtesy of Luther, however confused the belief is now within Protestantism.
Luther’s Augustinian heritage tilted him in an “anti-Pelagian” direction which naturally included a horror of works contributing to our Salvation (as it justly should.) However, as some have noted, even St. Augustine’s interpretation of Galatians and Romans in defense of Salvation by Grace was stretching the text beyond its original intention.
First, your quote is wrong. From Luther’s letter to his friend Melanchthon.
What do you think he meant by that (and please don’t say he was giving permission to sin, because that is utter nonsense)?
Luther’s commentary on Galatians 5:6
Pope Benedict - General Audience, November 19, 2008
Benedict knows Luther speaks here in favor of faith in charity, in faith working through love.
Jon
And what I was getting at is that the teaching of faith working through llove is as much a Lutheran teaching as a Catholic one. In fact, I believe that Galatians 5:6 is the link to reconciliation on the doctrine of Justification.Well, I had to expect that answer, unsatisfactory as it is.
But what I was getting at is that Luther was the original “Protestant” that came up with “Faith Alone.”
It is Historical fact, albeit muddied significantly by later developments in both Protestantism and Lutheranism. It is also a fact that “Faith Alone” continues to exist as a doctrine, courtesy of Luther, however confused the belief is now within Protestantism.
Luther’s Augustinian heritage tilted him in an “anti-Pelagian” direction which naturally included a horror of works contributing to our Salvation (as it justly should.) However, as some have noted, even St. Augustine’s interpretation of Galatians and Romans in defense of Salvation by Grace was stretching the text beyond its original intention.
Jon
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James248
Guest
“No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to commit adultery a thousand time a day.” vs. “Nothing impure can come before God.”
Take your pick.
Take your pick.
It isn’t a pick. It is the reality of human existence on earth.
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”.
But these sins, no matter how grievous, cannot separate us from Him, because of grace.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. That’s how we come before God pure, not because we ourselves are pure, but because His grace makes us pure.
St Paul explains this as well in Romans:
Jon
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James248
Guest
St Paul also says in Romans 6:
6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments[a] of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace
Not only do we have to confess our sins to God, but after He has forgiven us, we can never go back again. Because we are free in Christ, we are free from sin. We can’t roll in the mud like pigs or go back to our own vomit like dogs. No one who commits adultery or murder a thousand times a day can claim this freedom.
Peter, the Chief Apostle and Vicar of Christ, saw the distortions of Paul’s theology done in his time. His advice is as applicable to us as it was to the first Christians.
4 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. 17 You, therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.[e]
If anything, both Apostles made it clear that freedom in Christ is freedom from sin, and freedom to live in His love, to partake of His divinity. To be with him in glory on the last day, not only must we confess our sins now, but must strive to conform to Him after we receive His gift of forgiveness. There is, with God’s help, a conscious effort to be blameless in those who truly receive His mercy. We must all remember Jesus’s advice: "“See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”**
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