When I was younger, still in school, I can remember that there was a difference between Catholic and Christian. If you asked someone if they were a Christian, he/she would say, “No, I’m Catholic.” I always found this intriguing, because I never said, “I’m a Protestant” unless I was asked if I was Catholic. It’s sort of funny now.I never practiced Catholicism, but I have beautiful friends who do. At different times, when I have been to a Catholic mass, I have loved the liturgy and language and ritual. I marvel when my friends who grew up Catholic say that they hated it as a kid, and yet I can feel a little cynical about my Protestant sub-culture at times too.
I had the most interesting conversation with a Catholic friend last week. She was explaining how she understood her faith as a kid. She said:
“I kind of thought that if I did something bad, I could go into confession, get it all off my chest, and then leave and do what I wanted. There was always another chance to confess, so that made living pretty easy.”
I was the opposite. My juvenile understanding was that if I told a white lie, and then got hit by a bus, I was headed to hell.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, that both misconceptions included that our faith was based on what we did? One of us thought that what she did didn’t matter, and one of us thought that what she did was all that mattered.
I used to have a professor in college who loved to say, “The truth is in the middle, Wendy” because I tended toward extremes. I think he may be right this time.
It says in Ephesians 2, “8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
What the Apostle Paul is essentially telling us is that good works are not the means of our salvation, but the necessary evidence of it. Thus, besides Christ, Christians (Catholics and Protestants) should be the best thing that ever happened to this world. Not only should we be the most gracious people – when you consider the grace that has been lavished on us (salvation) how could we be otherwise? - but we should be the greatest force for good on earth, because we are quite literally the proof of Him and what He can do. We should be right smack dab in the middle of it all, being and doing good.
12 comments:
I know I have the tendency to want to be right rather than righteous, and seek answers more than the truth. I say that upfront because I agree 100% with the post – we are saved by grace, not by works, and Christians should be the greatest force for good.
I had a professor in college who said to beware of the middle. If you were standing in a bucket of ice and put your head in a hot oven, you wouldn’t say, “on average, I’m pretty comfortable.” He also said, “If you give 110% in my class, you’ll fail.” He was a statistics professor if you haven’t already guessed.
I can’t think of a good analogy, but let me try this. I think your Catholic/Protestant example is like two people arguing over whether a flat earth ends or continues forever. Obviously, in terms of contributing to our salvation, our works don’t matter SOMEWHAT.
Between two human ideas, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. For God, I think the truth is somewhere past whatever extremes we can imagine.
Great post Todd and thanks for pointing me to this blog. It’s really insightful.
I also agree with the post. The truth that the Church (organized religion) sees is certainly shaped to be self serving. As is the truth that Man sees. Both seem to bind man with chains of doubt and self condemnation and take away our peace. Thankfully the Bible tells us that the "Truth will make us free"
I also agree that works have nothing to do in us obtaining salvation for salvation was purchased for us just over 2000 yrs ago on Calvary. But I am confused by you "SOMEWHAT" comment. What do you mean by that?
Anyway great post and blog.
Way
Wendy wrote, "One of us thought that what she did didn’t matter, and one of us thought that what she did was all that mattered. I used to have a professor in college who loved to say, “The truth is in the middle, Wendy” because I tended toward extremes. I think he may be right this time."
If the professor is right this time, then our works would matter toward our salvation a little bit, or a moderate about, or "somewhat." My point being that since our works don't have anything to do with it, the truth is not in the middle.
Now my guess is that Wendy is saying that our works simultaneously mean nothing and everything. Nothing toward salvation, everything toward exercising our faith. I would argue that that's not the middle. That's two opposite extremes, which is so typical of God.
Todd,
Very good point. Nicely done
WOW, guys. I wish I had been near my computer today. Great exchange.
"The truth is in the middle." Well, I really used it (and obviously not well :) to reinforce the idea that Christians should be in the middle of all the chaos of the world doing the works God prepared for us to do. I hope I normally tie things together better, but I suspect I have come up short. I guess, though, it could also be true that most of us see it in extremes - one way or the other, when God really is saying both grace and works are critical to the Christian experience. Whereas grace is a producer (of salvation) works are an inducer (of healing in the world). Works, in my opinion, are an involuntary response to grace - almost like when you have your reflexes tested at the doctor's office.
Nice to have you here, Way. A pleasure.
I am definitely only speaking for myself - works don't feel involuntary.
Wendy,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Our works are a response to Jesus living His life and working in us to will and to do his good pleasure (Phil 2:13) it is also His Grace that teaches us to do His will and to deny un-godliness (Tit 2:12). Also as Eph 2:10 states. “We are His workmanship.” I guess Paul put it the best in 1 Cor 15:10 “I am what I am by the Grace of God.”
Todd,
I can certainly understand where you are coming from. However, I think that the difference is our understanding of absolute and relative truth.
Wendy - I missed the significance of "this time" the first read through.
Waylan - Um, what? Our understanding of absolute and relative truth?
Both - If works are so involuntary, why aren't we (the Church) already finding truth in the middle.
Todd, This is what I mean by the difference between absolute and relative truth. When we serve God, when we sacrifice something for Him, when we face persecution for the name of Jesus in a relative since we fill like “we” have did something for God, and we have. God lets us feel the good feelings we feel when we do something for Him. You know what I mean, the joy that comes when we know that we have made a difference in someone’s life. However, if we don’t check those feelings with the absolute truth. That being the fact that it was God who worked that work in us, gave us the desire, the ability and the opportunity. Without God it would be impossible for us to do anything good. We could have pride form in our lives and we could end up as the Pharisee that stated when he was praying in the temple. “I thank God that I’m not as this man”.
I think the involuntary works thing is easier understood like this: The journey that we are on - the one to become like Jesus - is an inside out sort of journey. The more we open our lives to Him (one way to open up is doing His bidding or WORKS - caring and loving those He loves) He fills and changes us on the inside. Again - A PROCESS - but as we take in more of Him (my tribe calls it sanctification), we take on His heart and mind (having the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2:16). That, I think, is how and when things start to feel involuntary (the outside stuff begins to feel natural because the inside is being restored). Of course, it is never fully realized on earth, but I have had beautiful days of tasting it.
Sort of a cyclical thing. There are many days that I do things simply because I know they are the right things to do. Often, in the midst of doing them, I learn more about the heart of God. It's kind of like a sharing in His sufferings thing. When I choose to do so, when I look for the places God is working and cooperate with Him, I am often surprised to find myself transformed too.
I think you guys saying the same thing. God transforms us over time such that what we want to do is actually His will. Although we still have a choice in the matter or think we do, we’re necessarily choosing God. In that sense it’s involuntary.
But there still seems to be a missing piece. There should be millions of transformed people in the “middle.” So is the truth not really in the middle, or is God not transforming us enough to get there?
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