In my Christian heritage and circles there is a great emphasis placed on grace. This is ot a bad thing. It is just that from the reformed tradition we still see that the greatest threat to Biblical Christianity is the preaching of salvation by works.
I think that the problem now, though, is that reformed evangelical Cristianity (as I know and define it) is so focused on grace that they exclude the necessity of works in the Christian life. I think that this has so pervaded our thinking that we misread and misinterpret important biblical passages.
Take for example the passage in Matthew 7 of the wise and foolish builder. Often the interpretation of this is that building your life on the rock (Jesus) is good and building your life on the sand (anything other than Jesus) is bad. So trust Jesus for your salvation and you have built your life on the rock. We make this passage a passage about grace and faith, but it is not about that.
The passage actually says:
24 "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."
Jesus has just given the sermon on the mount. This sermon is not passive. It is not about the grace of God and our faith in his salvific work as are passages in Romans and Galatians. It is all about doing things. Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecte you. Fast. Pray. Look content. Don't be a hypocrite.
Then Jesus finishes by telling his listeners that you are like the man who builds his house on the rock if you do what he says. Not if you trust him, but if you hear his words and then obey them.
It is the same in Matthew 25 where Jesus talks about the sheep and the goats. The only distinction between the sheep and the goats is how they have behaved in this world.
Just before Jesus speaks of the wise and foolish men in Matthew 7, he says this:
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'
23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'
I think that we seriously need to reevaluate our position on works. I don't think that we have it right.
In my next post I will clarify what I think about faith and deeds and their relationship to salvation, but I am interested to hear what others think as well.
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I think you're right Graham. I think we have gone so far down the salvation track that when faced with that passage and what it clearly says, people argue that Jesus preaches in the context of the old covenant, and so what he is preaching is the final condemnation of human-kind before he dies to save them.
ReplyDeleteAnd that has some merit, for instance in the Sermon on the Mount he says to be perfect as God is perfect. So the argument goes that we cannot be perfect, so the expectation cannot possibly be perfection.
But I cannot possibly accept that Jesus preaches anything that is not in-line with his view on the new covenant. By far the most natural and sensible way to read the sermon on the mount (as well as the myriad other works-expectation passages) is to say that Jesus expects his followers to do what he says in the SOTM and if they don't they're stuffed (in this case they've built their hope on the sand and it won't hold up for them).
I'm with you.
And I think it's scary stuff too. The I never knew you stuff immediately following the passage you mentioned could well apply to the Christianity you're talking about. People insisting they know God but not doing what Jesus said. Looking forward to your next post in any case Graham.
I agree too Graham.
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