1Corinthians 15:10
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.” (see also 1Cor. 15:58; Gal. 5:6, 6:7-9).
St. Paul again regards faith and the human cooperation of works (labor) as two sides of the same coin, both proceeding from grace.
No, here Paul is asserting his apostolic bona fides as can be seen from verse 9 and 11. the “them” he refers to are other apostles.
This passage has nothing to do with salvation or justification.
Elsewhere, the apostle writes of the “works of faith” and related concepts (1Thess. 1:3; 2Thess. 1:11; Titus 1:15-16).
Faith and works are not at all incompatible in all these Pauline passages.
I never said it was and no Protestant believes they are incompatible.
Standard Protestant belief is that faith does works. The famous quote from Luther is “I believe in faith alone, but not a faith that is alone.”
What Paul says in 1 Thess 1:3 says it perfectly: “work produced by faith” the same is true for 2 Thess. 1:11 and Titus 1:15-16.
In each case the idea is that faith issues in good works which is exactly what we believe.
What none of these passages say, though, is that good works form any part of the basis for our standing before God now that Christ has come and satisfied the justice of God perfectly and born the price for our transgressions.
Salvation is described as a struggle, a process, a goal—not merely an abstract, past, instantaneous event.
And so it is. Many people conflate justification and salvation but when we get into debate we should be careful to make distinctions:
While it is true that “without faith we cannot please God” and that faith is the very ground of our salvation; salvation as a whole concept encompasses everything from election to glory, including good works.
But these works are the proof of our standing before God which, founded in faith, is the basis for our salvation.
Again then, no one will disagree with you that the Christian life is a struggle against sin, that it is daily being conformed to the image of Christ (note that we are being conformed, not that we do the conforming) and that as believers, we do the works God has prepared beforehand for us to do.
What we disagree about is that these works add anything to the finished work of Christ in the establishment of our standing before God.
They do not save us but they are part of the process.
** As we labor faithfully as Jesus’ Disciples, we store up corresponding rewards (1 Cor. 3:8 1Tim 6:18-19): the idea of merit (which most Protestants deny).**
1 Cor. 3:8 refers to church planting and evangelism not to the merit of of works.
But to your basic idea, I think most Protestants understand there to be rewards in heaven based upon practical holiness. There may not be a lot of consensus about them but we all believe in them.
What this does not mean though, is that these works merit salvation itself. Thus Jesus speaks of the least and the greatest in His Kingdom. They are still in His Kingdom.
** It is by virtue of our union with our Lord Jesus Christ that our actions–worthless in and of themselves—become meritorious.**
You have not demonstrated this if by it you mean that they merit salvation or have anything to do with our standing before God.
** Protestants have tended to read Paul through the lens of Luther’s experience.**
Perhaps, but so far I do not see that he isn’t a better guide than you and I know he is a better guide than your church. I have seen what they have to say.
** Is it not evident in St. James Gospel?
James 1:22–“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”**
Indeed, and may we all be doers of the word.
James 2:14-26–"What does it profit my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works IS DEAD. Etc…James goes on to say "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."
This is a much debated passage. Does James contradict Paul?
No, they are talking about two different things.
In short James is saying exactly what Paul is saying (and what Luther and I say as well):
Good works are the proof of saving faith; i.e. they justify it.
When he says “you see that a man is justified” it is clear that he is not talking about justification before God since he draws no such inference. He never tries to show such a connection. He was writing to combat license and draws together faith and works, the latter as the evidence and product of the former.
** St. Paul does not contradict St. James as Luther thought, since he uses the word faith in the broader sense of a person’s complete allegiance to God with both mind and will. **
You’re right. He does not contradict Paul, but you misunderstand why this is so. Both apostles mean the same thing by faith and they mean the same thing by works, where they differ is in their use of the word “justify”.
Where Paul uses it to describe our standing before God in Christ, James is using it in reference to the faith our works justify or prove.
Theologians speak of the probative and soteriological uses of the word because, as I am sure you realize, context has a lot to do with how words are used and the nuances they reveal.
