The Relationship Between Works and Sanctification

[Carl Gobelman]

We all (I hope) believe that works do nothing to earn, or merit, our salvation. However, what is the relationship between works and sanctification?

[Harry]

Phil James said:

James, I think the distinction between 'Assisting' the Spirit and 'Cooperating' with him is unhelpful, pastorally.

What does that mean- practically.

Seems to me to be just another yoke to carry.

Why not just buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

It seem to me that the problem isn't in the degree of exertion, the problem is in believing God loves you because you've finally become lovable.

What has been designated Progressive sanctification takes both work and discipline.

Carl, in Romans, Paul says we'll be judged by our own works.

***

We've not completely 'received the free gift of salvation' until we are totally remade in the image of Christ.' Is it possible that in an attempt to emphasis the forensic guilt that comes with sinfulness, you've forgotten the abhorant misery and evil of being sinful?

What you said here is all Law which can not be fulfilled. You receive the free gift of salvation when you are baptized, nothing else is required.

[Ryan O'Neil]

Western Rite Catholics believe that we share in the righteousness of Christ as a free gift of grace. However, once established in grace, obedience to the gospel leads to a greater possession of righteousness.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Rom 6:16)

This of course all depends on the Spirit enabling us to fulfill the righteous demands of God's law.

For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. (Rom 8:3-4)

This means that righteousness is an unmerited gift as well as something progressively merited through obedience, which itself is the work of grace.

[JRKH]

Intersting response. I'm sure I would not have expressed it as well, but it demonstrates the "narrow road" we tread on our journey.

A few days agoe I was thinking about this and had this "inspirations" "Works" are related to salvation and sanctification in a similar way to a "job" someone has with a "company paid pension". Lets' see if I can articulate what I mean.
Person 1 shows up at a company and begins work. They haven't applied, or been hired, they just show up. Can this person expect a pension?
Person 2 shows up at the company, applies and is hired and then put to work. They show up and do all that is asked of them. Can they expect a pension?
Person 3 shows up at the company, applies and is hired and then put to work. However, they don't work well, are constantly late or no show at all and finally just quit coming altogether. Can they expect a pension?

The first person is like the "general theist" or nonbeliever who argues that their "Works" should earn them heaven (if it exists) regardless of their faith status. This is silly because you aren't accepting the salvation offered in the first place so don't get mad if God doesn't "Pay you".
The Second Person is the "Good Christian" who accepts God and Christ and tries to do all that God asks of him. His reward will be great.
The third person is the one who accepts God and Christ but then falls away eventually "quiting" his christianity.

Gee now that I write it out it sounds a lot like the parable of the sower and the seed. :-))

Anyway my point is that "works" are necessary (as James points out in his letter) but they need to be in the proper context and not seperated from Faith or Grace.

Peace
James


James Gibbons said:

Salvation is of the Lord. 100 percent.
So is sanctification. 100 percent.

Just as fruit is evidence of salvation (not currency toward it), so is fruit in the life of a believer the evidence that the Spirit of God is working at one’s sanctification (not currency toward it).

There are two problems one can encounter by “trying” too hard to be sanctified. One can resist the Spirit, which leads to carnality. Or one can try to assist the Spirit, which leads to legalism. The proper thing to do is to cooperate with the Spirit. Of course, this is almost impossible to do by our own will. To resist or to assist is sin (missing the mark). But it is sin that is forgiven under the blood of Christ.

Eventually, we will be perfect. I can’t wait!

[JRKH]

Sometime back, for a discussion on another board, I came up with a Heirachy for belief, faith, works etc. I've been told that some of my term/definitions are not exact, but I still think it gives a good overview of the interconnectedness of the various "terms" we use.
See what you all think.

Belief, Grace, Faith, Love and Works are interwoven pieces. They cannot be separated. They can only be placed in "order".

1. We begin with Grace. Grace is the supernatural foundation. The "seed" that God plants in every soul that enables it to find it's way back to God.
2. Then comes Belief. We must believe in something before anything else. If we do not believe in God, then the seed of Grace will not grow.
3. After Belief comes Faith. The difference between belief and faith, is simply this: I may believe in the existence of banks, but do I have faith in them. Faith gets into trusting and believing in the promises of God and believing in Jesus Christ and salvation through doing the will of the Father. Learning and developing our faith is nurturing and allowing the seed of God's grace to grow in us.
4. Then Comes Love. Jesus places Love as the Greatest and center of all of the Law and prophets. What we Love and covet is how we know "where our heart is". If we Love God and wish to do His will, then we will Love our neighbor unselfishly and wish to act in ways that are pleasing to our love - who is God Himself.
5. Then comes Works. If we believe properly, that is we have a trusting belief, then works will necessarily follow. If works do not follow then there is a problem with one of the above.

I added the bolding here just to ephasize the need for the other things in order to make the works truly "Christian" in nature.

Peace
james

[MarcoPolo]

Scripture explicitly says works are part of our justification (James 2:24). One of the things that makes us holier is endurance of suffering. Hebrews 12 speaks of God enacting discipline on His "sons" for the sake of their "holiness." Peter (1 Pt 2:20-21) tells us enduring suffering is something we can do.

So this is an example of how by grace, we can actually do a good thing such as bear suffering for the sake of the body of Christ.

Likewise, doing obedience and loving neighbor also sanctifies us:

1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

He confirms this in his second letter:

2 Peter 1:5-10 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

[David Jensen]

We are made holy (sanctified) when we are justified by God. According to Scripture, the just man is "justified still" [cf. Rev 22:11 - "he that his just (Gk dikaios), let him be justified still (Gk dikaioo eti)]. How is it that the just man may be made justified still? Through what Scripture calls "worthy deeds" or "meritorious works." Acts 26:20 - "repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy (Gk axios ergon) of their repentance."

What are meritorious (Gk axios) works (Gk ergon)? Christian tradition has describes such works as "works of mercy." Matt 25 provides examples of works of mercy: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me" (Matt 25:35). Those who do these works, shall "inherit the kingdom." In another part of Scripture, it says that men are "rewarded" for these meritorious works. For example, "that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward (Gk apodidomi) you." The word "alms" derives from the Grk word for "mercy." So "alsmgiving" is more accurately understood to be "mercy-giving." We are rewarded by God for our mercy-giving, and those who are sent to eternal punishment (cf. Matt 25) are punished for their lack of mercy-giving.

The word "merit" comes from the Latin "meritum" which is akin to the Greek "meros," which means, "one's part." Merit means "reward" or "recompense." Scripture does indeed teach that man is recompensed for those works he did on earth. However, there are two kinds of merit, one called "condign merit" and another called "congruous merit." Condign merit means "just pay for work performed." For example, as a military member, I am given payment. This is condign merit. All the grace that flows to man from God is due solely to the condign merit of Christ's redemptive work.

Yet, "congrous merit" is another kind of merit which is different from condign merit. For example, in addition to being paid a wage, a waitress also receives "gratuities." This word gratuity means that it is unearned in the sense of "condign merit," as so there would be no breach of strict justice if a waitress did not received a gratuity. However, gratuities are not unrelated to the work performed, but instead are "congruous" with good work. Another example is when a military member receives a medal for meritorious service. A military member does not have a strict right to receipt of a medal. Whether or not the military member receives a medal depends upon the kindness of the one giving the medal. This is what "congrous merit" is. It can never be earned in the condign sense, but is always "gratuitous." Condign merit always depends upon the kindness of the one who gives the reward. But is is rightly called a reward (merit).

As we have seen from Scripture, God does give a reward (i.e. merit) for good works. The faithful have no strict right to this reward, as it always depends up the kindess of the Gift-giver, "congruous" with the promises of the Gift-giver and "congrous" with one's deeds. Meritorious works are a fact of Scritpure, but is often misunderstood as the erroneous notion that we can "earn" gratuitous gifts from God. If that were so, they wouldn't be gratuitous. Nonetheless, God has said he would reward the faithful insofar as they perform worthy deeds (Gk axios ergon). Not any sort of work is rewarded, in the positive and supernatural sense. Only those who are already made just by God can be "justified still" and supernaturally rewarded for meritorious works. All such works have no supernatural value unless they are accomplished in Christ, as a participatioin in Divine love, prompted by Divine grace.

James teaches us that man is justified by works, insofar as faith is active along side works. He is not speaking of works having some natural motive, but only those works accomplished as a pariticipation in Divine love (caritas). Paul teaches about that faith which justifies, calling it "faith that worketh (Gk ergon) charity (Gk caritas)." These are two ways of saying the same thing. I dont' see why some Christians tend toward minimizing the contribution of works in our justification. Faith is completed (Gk "teleioo", made perfect, fulfilled, rendered full) by works (cf. Jame 2:22).

If one has a faith which is without love (caritas), it is not a justifying faith. Such a faith, being alone, is inperfect, incomplete, unfulfilled.

God bless,

Dave
Catholicus Maximus

[JRKH]

Having been through this discussion many times with "faith alone" protestants, we will eventually find that each side is saying the same basic thing.
1) We can do nothing worthwhile without God's Grace.
2) We must have faith in Christ
3) Then Having faith, and responding to Grace, we will act upon faith and grace to perform acts of mercy and Love, in other words "works".
BUT -
If we are not acting in Love and performing works of mercy - to putt it in "production" terminology, if our "output" is defective, we need to find the root cause. Are we lacking in faith? Not responding to Grace? Do we have unrepented sins that are blocking the flow of grace? Something must be wrong, if "Works" do not flow from faith.

Peace
James

[dutch]

I think sanctification leans more towards fruit of the Spirit, and works are outward expressions of charity (love). I show my faith by what I do, which flows from a circumcised (sanctified) heart. Both should be present in one born again, but neither earns ones justification.

[David Jensen]

Gary,

Gary Robert Simmons said:

Dave, forgive me in advance. I'm going to be nitpicky. I think you may be a little confused with the Greek and Latin there...Also, I don't see your point about the supposed relation between meritum and meros...

You are right, I got my Latin and Greek all mixed up there.

As for "meros", my intent was to get to the etymological root of the English word "merit" which derives from the Latin meritum and the Greek meros. Many Christians seem rather afraid of describing the reward for the works they do in Christ as "merit" because they think that automatically connotes that we somehow earned the reward apart from the gratuitous grace of God, which is incorrect.

Gary Robert Simmons said:

Concerning "deeds worthy of repentance..." axios is concerned with what is fitting or proper; I'm doubtful that it would naturally bring to mind the idea of merit.

The word "worthy" is synomous with "meritorious." So the passage can be alternatively translated "works meritorious of repentence." We are called upon by God to do such worthy deeds, yet many Christians, especially in Protestant circles, are reluctant to describe any of our works as being "worthy" or "meritorious" in a supernatural sense.

Gary Robert Simmons said:

Perhaps deeds worthy of repentance = penitent behavior.

I agree. I think this entails the "good work" which is described as the "obedience of faith" (Rom 1:5; 16:26), or "faith cooperating (Gk sunergeo) with works" (James 2:22), or else it cannot rightly be called "worthy." Only by loving Christ above all, and by take up our cross and following Him (Matt 10:37-38) can we be called "worthy."

God bless,

Dave
Catholicus Maximus

[Ryan O'Neil]

Earning anything from God can only be understood as getting a free gift from God's grace, and not an obligation.

because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up. (Gal 6:8-9)

[JRKH]

Now we are getting to the real relationship. The relationship between our Loving Father and ourselves.
If one reads the Gospels and what Christ instructs we will see action - always action.
Have faith - but then do something. Sow - Knock - Give - Sell - Follow - Carry your cross - Pray etc. They are all action words.
God gives us the tools, but the gain no benefit from them unless we pick them up and use them.

Peace
James

Gary Robert Simmons said:

If I understand this correctly, seeds don't grow unless a planter (like you or me) plants. That doesn't automatically mean it'll grow, though. God sends rain. It's up to him. But at the same time, you don't reap unless you sow. But, you know, it's God's choice to send rain or not. So it's still ultimately up to him.

Ryan O'Neil said:

Earning anything from God can only be understood as getting a free gift from God's grace, and not an obligation.

because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up. (Gal 6:8-9)

[David Jensen]

Gary Robert Simmons said:

I don't think "worthy" and "meritorious" are synonymous.

I understand, however Merriam-Webster disagrees with you.