Why say "Sola Fide"?

[Johan]

Then we’re not really obligated it would seem.

As said, it depends on what you mean by “obligated”. The motivating factor for a saved individual to do good works should not be fear of punishment or condemnation, but love. As Jesus told His disciples: “If you love me, keep my commands” (Jn 14:15). Likewise, Paul writes “For Christ’s love compels us” (2 Co 5:14). So I maintain that we are indeed obligated to do good works, but not in a do-or-die fashion.

Anyway, if our righteousness is not really connected to our… righteousness, such that we can be unrighteous and still be righteous in God’s eyes, what does it mean to be cleansed at justification, and made new creations, with God’s Spirit dwelling within? Hasn’t justice/righteousness been imparted or infused in some manner? Hasn’t a change taken place?

I think we can agree that our regeneration does not automatically make us inherently sinless individuals. The Catholic church would not have a sacrament of penance and reconciliation, nor would it teach that a post-mortem cleansing in a purgatory may be necessary, unless it believed that sin still lingers within us. The concept of an “alien” righteousness it not so alien (pun unintended) after all when we consider what it means. We learn from the Scriptures that there is “no one righteous” (Ec 7:20; Ro 3:12). It also would not make any sense to say that an ungodly person is simultaneously inherently righteous (Ro 4:5). Moreover, Paul states that his goal is to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law” (Php 3:9). So if our righteousness is not really our own, it must be credited to us from “outside”. To be “cleansed” is therefore to be regarded as blameless and acquitted of all charges of sin. And the latter notion is tantamount to justification, which is a forensic concept in the Scriptures. We are still inherently unrighteous, but God does no longer hold our sins against us. Paul explains that justification equals non-imputation of sin (Ro 4:6-8).

Much more could be said about this, for instance that this cleansing can be regarded as a transaction, but I will save space for now. You ask if a change has not taken place. Yes, it has, but as I stated above: it does not follow that we suddenly are sinless individuals who always act in the right way. We would not have to be led by the Spirit if that were the case. Indeed, it is even stated that God has to move us to obey His commands (Eze 36:25-27).

So what has really taken place is that we have obtained a righteous standing before God (despite still being sinners), we have been given a new heart (a new mindset characterized by faith in and love for God), and the Spirit is dwelling in us to move us to do God’s will. However, at no moment can we boast in our righteousness and say “God, I thank you that I am not like other people” (Lk 18:11). Justification by faith in the blood of Christ precludes all boasting.

 

[Johan]

Righteousness cannot be gained by the law but that certainly doesn’t mean that righteousness cannot be gained, the gaining of which being an object of faith, as if God couldn’t accomplish that, and wouldn’t want to. As I see it that’s just what the New Covenant proposes to do, to not merely forgive lawlessness but to ‘place God’s law in our minds and write it on our hearts.’

Again, the installation of God’s commandments in our minds does not automatically make us obedient to them. The location of the precepts is unrelated to whether we keep them or not. And the Law will never be generous enough to tell us “You are a righteous person”.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Ro 3:20)

Hence the need for the Spirit to move us. And it is nowhere stated that this relocation of His commandments is aimed at making us righteous - we already are, albeit having a righteousness that is not “our own”. Instead, this procedure should rather be connected to our subsequent walk with God. We do not walk in the good works He has prepared for us in order to become righteous, but because we are righteous (by faith) and desire to please Him.

 

[fhansen]

Again, the installation of God’s commandments in our minds does not automatically make us obedient to them. The location of the precepts is unrelated to whether we keep them or not. And the Law will never be generous enough to tell us “You are a righteous person”.

Ultimately we will be righteous, because God doesn’t create us to be sinners anyway. The precepts are located where God places them. We can still override them as they’re dependent on our continuous partnering with the Spirit as He abides in us and we in Him.

Hence the need for the Spirit to move us. And it is nowhere stated that this relocation of His commandments is aimed at making us righteous - we already are, albeit having a righteousness that is not “our own”. Instead, this procedure should rather be connected to our subsequent walk with God. We do not walk in the good works He has prepared for us in order to become righteous, but because we are righteous (by faith) and desire to please Him.

Justification isn’t only about forgiveness of sin but also about change in us. The foreign righteous, the “righteousness of God” is that which man is meant to have to begin with. Yes, He does make us righteous, as only He can. That’s the point. The moment Adam disobeyed God he parted company in terms of his moral authority. Adam became his own “god” for all practical purposes and the “knowledge of God” was lost for humanity. But, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Man immediately fell into unrighteous-into sin-from that moment on, unable to win the battle against the concupiscence that the door had now been opened to.

We’re here primarily to learn, and to confirm within us, one most basic lesson, “Man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope”, as Pope Benedict once wrote. We’ll still struggle, mainly as we struggle with the truth of that most central lesson. But the better we know God the more we love Him. And the more we love the more that sin is excluded.

 

[Johan]

Ultimately we will be righteous, because God doesn’t create us to be sinners anyway. The precepts are located where God places them. We can still override them as they’re dependent on our continuous partnering with the Spirit as He abides in us and we in Him.

Yet I find no indication in the Scriptures that the relocation of the precepts is a step toward us being all the sudden able to keep them. From the prophecy in Jeremiah it appears that this procedure is performed in order to make all individuals (belonging to God’s people) aware of God’s will - we no longer need any “middle man” to teach us.

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. (Je 31:33–34)

Another detail that needs to be taken into account is that Paul, rather than saying that the Law has been inscribed on our hearts, states that we have been released from the Law (and died to the Law) and now serve God “in the new way of the Spirit” (Ro 7:6). Elsewhere (2 Co 3:3) he alludes to Jeremiah’s prophecy when referring to the result of his ministry. This evidence taken together brings me to think that the torah inscribed on our hearts is in fact the Gospel. So instead of serving God by following a moral code specified in a number of paragraphs, we are led by the Spirit to do good works. One could even say that the Spirit has replaced the OT law in that regard.

Justification isn’t only about forgiveness of sin but also about change in us. The foreign righteous, the “righteousness of God” is that which man is meant to have to begin with. Yes, He does make us righteous, as only He can. That’s the point.

From a linguistic viewpoint, there is virtually no question that “justify” (δικαιόω) is a forensic verb meaning “to vindicate” or “to acquit”. Therefore, even Wisdom (most likely a reference to Christ) is said to be “justified by her works” (Mt 11:19), which is not an indication that He was a sinner who needed to be made right with God. I find no indication in the Scriptures that justification per se involves a change. It is “merely” a declaration, analogous to a person in court who has been freed of all charges.

 

[Johan]

We’re here primarily to learn, and to confirm within us, one most basic lesson, “Man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope”, as Pope Benedict once wrote. We’ll still struggle, mainly as we struggle with the truth of that most central lesson. But the better we know God the more we love Him. And the more we love the more that sin is excluded.

I do not disagree, but I would even say that the primary objective of becoming a Christian and being a Christian is to be united with Christ (hence the designation “Christian”) and learn to know Him. Everything else is subordinated to that goal. Paul even stated that his previous life as an exemplary Jew counted as “garbage” (σκύβαλον, could even mean “excrement”) in comparison to knowing Christ. That includes all our moral struggles. The quote in full:

I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Php 3:8–11)

So if we set our minds on seeking God and the righteousness that comes from Him through faith, and learn to know Him as He is revealed in Christ (cf. Je 31:34), the rest will follow.

 

[fhansen]

Yet I find no indication in the Scriptures that the relocation of the precepts is a step toward us being all the sudden able to keep them. From the prophecy in Jeremiah it appears that this procedure is performed in order to make all individuals (belonging to God’s people) aware of God’s will - we no longer need any “middle man” to teach us.

It has to do with man being reconciled with God. The OC was sort of a band aid in comparison to the NC, where communion with God is established, or reestablished. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” “For man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” This is what it means to live in the Spirit. We don’t suddenly become saints, because God doesn’t take way our will, but now we have the opportunity to do so because He’s given us His Spirit, the life of grace. And that’s how it works; it’s a struggle of the will as we work out our salvation. And to the extent that we overcome, to the extent that our wills become aligned with His, we are sanctified/perfected.

Another detail that needs to be taken into account is that Paul, rather than saying that the Law has been inscribed on our hearts, states that we have been released from the Law (and died to the Law) and now serve God “in the new way of the Spirit” (Ro 7:6). Elsewhere (2 Co 3:3) he alludes to Jeremiah’s prophecy when referring to the result of his ministry. This evidence taken together brings me to think that the torah inscribed on our hearts is in fact the Gospel. So instead of serving God by following a moral code specified in a number of paragraphs, we are led by the Spirit to do good works. One could even say that the Spirit has replaced the OT law in that regard.

The Spirit fulfills the law. That’s the meaning of Jer 31:32-34. The Spirit produces obedience by causing us to love as God does, which fulfills the law ipso facto, by its nature. The NC never had anything to do with being free from the law, but free from being “under the law”, with the law as our master, so to speak, which we’re then supposed to fulfill by our own efforts. Now God does it in and through us, the right way, because the law is just the letter, which kills; it cannot realize the righteousness in us that it defines; it cannot justify; only God can do that. The NC was never an escape from obedience, from the obligation to be righteous. The message is that man cannot do it on his own, apart from God. Adam effectively separated man from God and from then on man could do virtually nothing right. Now we come full circle as the time was ripe, because now man as been educated enough to barely begin to appreciate the light when he sees it-another part of the story.

 

[fhansen]

From a linguistic viewpoint, there is virtually no question that “justify” (δικαιόω) is a forensic verb meaning “to vindicate” or “to acquit”. Therefore, even Wisdom (most likely a reference to Christ) is said to be “justified by her works” (Mt 11:19), which is not an indication that He was a sinner who needed to be made right with God. I find no indication in the Scriptures that justification per se involves a change. It is “merely” a declaration, analogous to a person in court who has been freed of all charges.

That depends on whose dictionary one uses. Secular dictionaries, for example, agree that it can mean to show something to be right, but also to make something right or just. This is basic Christianity as the ancient churches east and west have received and held it to be from day one. And Wisdom is vindicated because she is right to begin with, not in spite of the fact that she’s unrighteous. A believer, OTOH, must move from being unrighteous to righteous in some manner in order to be justified, whether we believe this righteousness to be merely declared, or infused instead. But God’s purpose has never been to suddenly ignore injustice or unrighteousness in His creation, but to finally restore it. Otherwise He may as well have prevented Adam from sinning to begin with, or forgiven and restored him right away and just stocked heaven with the elect and hell with the reprobate in the beginning and avoided all the ugly pain, suffering, victimization, and death that ensued after the Fall. Instead there’s a reason for all that drama, a reason that directly involves the will of man, in his being molded, educated, made just, and finally saved.

 

[fhansen]

fhansen:

We’re here primarily to learn, and to confirm within us, one most basic lesson, “Man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope”, as Pope Benedict once wrote. We’ll still struggle, mainly as we struggle with the truth of that most central lesson. But the better we know God the more we love Him. And the more we love the more that sin is excluded.

I do not disagree, but I would even say that the primary objective of becoming a Christian and being a Christian is to be united with Christ (hence the designation “Christian”) and learn to know Him. Everything else is subordinated to that goal. Paul even stated that his previous life as an exemplary Jew counted as “garbage” (σκύβαλον, could even mean “excrement”) in comparison to knowing Christ. That includes all our moral struggles. The quote in full:

I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Php 3:8–11)

So if we set our minds on seeking God and the righteousness that comes from Him through faith, and learn to know Him as He is revealed in Christ (cf. Je 31:34), the rest will follow.

Well, I can’t disagree with that. And it doesn’t conflict with what I said. We’re here to learn of our need for God, to develop a hunger and thirst for righteousness in an unrighteous world, and Jesus comes to definitively reveal just Who He is. So that, as we humble ourselves in that need, with that knowledge and grace, we’ll be drawn to God, and enter communion with Him: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That relationship, itself, is the is the first and primary aspect of man’s new justice/righteousness, fully consummated as we come to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the measure of our righteousness, which is why the Greatest Commandment is what it is. And, again, to know Him is to love Him, and:
"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3

This is not mere academic knowledge; this is to know Him in the more direct and intimate and experiential sense. This relationship is established by faith in response to grace, which is sort of the reverse of Adam’s act of disobedience, that being an act of unbelief for all practical purposes.

 

[Mike1w]

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I will work out my own salvation in fear and trembling (Phillippians 2:12). If that requires faith and works both, fine with me. I never was one to boast on something that I am not a party to the causal factors thereof. I can do works with the faith that brings salvation, and still not boast on the works, the faith, or the salvation.