=Melchior_;9799092]You just said three times that you can’t do it with faith alone, and that works are necessary.
Yes, I did, though myeyes are good enough to see it in the font I used.
The issue is what does it mean when we say through faith alone we are justified, and what role do works play.
The Lutheran confessions, in the Epitome of the Formula of Concord distinguish that justification is by faith alone, meaning there is no other source of justification than by grace through faith. The alone in faith alone refers to just that, and is not meant to be an exclusion of works in terms of how we act, what we do, how we respond as regenerate Christians to grace.
Faith alone means I don’t need to do a single thing, I just need faith, and the grace provided by said faith. I do not need to do anything. As soon as you add conditions to this, it is no longer “faith alone”, it’s “faith and XYZ”.
The first sentence is correct. Not only is there nothing we need to do, there is nothing we can do. It is by grace, a free gift, through faith, also a gift, that we access justification. By saying that justification is by grace alone through faith alone, but faith never is alone, we are not adding a qualifier or conditions. what we are saying is that, once justified, we respond to grace by beng obedient to Christ’s commands. The confessions call it the “new obedience”, not based in fear of the law, but based is joyful trust in Christ’s promise of salvation.
Unless faith alone means “faith alone and a bunch of other stuff but don’t worry because all you need is faith…and other things! But only faith. And other items”.
Again, the alone is specific to justification, so there are no other things we do or can do in this regard. But there is sanctification that must follow, a growth in grace, an obedience to Christ’s commands, that we do good works. Failure to do good the good works prepare for us to do is a rejection of grace - sin. And sin, unrepented and repeated leads to a loss of faith.
I think we agree more than most Lutheran and Catholic layman are willing to acknowledge, particularly in apoloegetics foums. So, as I’ve said before here at CAF, when a Catholic says we are justified by a faith that works through love, I say Amen, even though I know we view the notion of infused or imputed righteousness differently. And just like Catholics are unable to say faith alone, I have the same reluctant to say “faith and works”.
Jon
