Initial Justification Made Easy

Initial justification

[Music] on the second Sunday of Lent for a year a the church chooses another passage from the letters of Paul that corresponds the matically to the gospel for today which is the account of Jesus Transfiguration his being unveiled on the mountain of the Transfiguration and giving the disciples a little glimpse of his glory a little foretaste of the resurrection and so the church today chooses for us a passage from Paul's second letter to Timothy in which Paul talks about the gospel of grace of salvation that points forward to the immortality that God is going to give us through the death and the resurrection of Christ so let's look at 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verses 8 through 10 it's a very short text for today but as usual with Paul short does not mean that it is shallow there's always something rich here so the context here is Paul writing to one of his young disciples Timothy who's been sent off to plant churches to build and to lead some of the early Christian communities in Paul's absence and Paul here is writing from prison so there are several epistles where Paul writes from prison Wright's ways and change he's called the prison epistles scholars will often group them together and second Timothy is one of them so the context here is that Paul's in prison he's writing to encourage Timothy and this is what he says do not be a shame then of testifying to our lore nor of me his prisoner but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago and now has manifested through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel okay so there are several aspects of this passage that stand out worth highlighting number one the context of suffering it begins here by Paul exhorting Timothy take your share of the suffering for the gospel literally here in the Greek Paul saying join with me in suffering right I think this is important point if you read through Paul's letters the idea that when a person becomes a Christian they would stop suffering is absurd precisely the opposite is the case for Paul through baptism dying and rising with Christ a person is configured to Christ crucified and resurrected and so each individual person each individual Christian as a member of the body of Christ for Paul has a certain share in the sufferings of Christ so Paul here is kind of reminding Timothy of his identity right and to take his share of suffering for the sake of the gospel right in the power of God and that that that basic reminder of who he is leads Paul then to a second point to kind of just lay out the gospel what is the gospel he says the gospel in the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling not a virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace that he gave us in Christ Jesus all right so Paul is there whenever Paul uses the language of gospel although in Catholic circles we often will talk about the gospel or the Gospels as the four biographies of Jesus the four books of the Evangelist Matthew Mark Luke and John remember that for Paul he never uses the term that way he knows for as we know well actually there's one debatable passage but we all go there it's in 2nd Corinthians 8 where Paul talks about Luke or Paul talks about a companion of his being famous in the gospel and some early church fathers took that as a reference to one of the the books of the Gospels namely the Gospel of Luke but that's a disputed point we won't go into that by and large the majority of time when Paul uses the word AUM Gallion good news or good message he's referring to simply the good news of Christ's passion death and resurrection and in this case he talks about the gospel of salvation and how God saved us meaning him and Timothy and everyone else involved and called us with a holy calling now that word Paul uses here for call Kaleo for him always has reference to the latin term to be the vocation the calling to the grace of baptism and faith in other words the initial grace of salvation of being saved of being delivered from the sin of Adam the reign of sin and death that we see in Romans but also from our own sin from any actual sin that we've ever committed it's the good news of salvation from sin through the grace of being called to faith and baptism so for example in first corinthians chapter 7 Paul will say he's talking about some people are debating well if I'm a Gentile do I need to be circumcised once I become a believer in Jesus and he says this in first Corinthians 717 quote let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him and in which God has called him same word as in second Timothy here this is my rule in all the churches was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised let him not seek circumcision right so notice what does Paul meaning there when he talks about the time of your call now we use the word and contemporary Catholic circles vocation to her usually to refer to a person having a calling to either enter into the priesthood or enter into religious life and take vows of poverty chastity and obedience so say do you have a vocation to priesthood a religious life Paul doesn't use the word vocation or calling in that way when Paul talks about a location or a call he's talking by and large again this is his normal way of speaking is about the call to become a Christian to call the call to be baptized the call to have faith and become a member of the mystical body of Christ right so if you take that language back to 2nd Timothy the passage today when Paul's talking about God having saved us and called us with a holy calling or a holy vocation he's not talking about a particular vocation to the religious life or a priesthood or become an apostle something like that he's talking about the call to salvation itself the call to baptism the reason this is important to stress is because Paul in that context is going to say in that context we are saved not in virtue of our works but in virtue of God's purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago so the specific language here is that we are saved Paul says not according to works the Greek bukata taught ergo the Greek word ergo is literally means works right so Paul says were not saved according to works but we're saved according to God's own grace the Greek word there is chorus so not kata according to works but Tata grace according to God's grace and according to his purpose now I can imagine that there might be some of you watching this video if you're Catholic think it will wait I thought our works do matter I thought that we're going to be judged according to works and that's absolutely true Paul himself in Romans chapter 2 verse 6 says that God will render to every man according to his works right so final judgment final justification absolutely will be according to both faith and works right but in context here is Paul talking about final judgment no he's talking about the initial call to the life of grace the good news of salvation the good news of the forgiveness of sin and in that case with the illusions called initial justification the gift of grace that takes place at the beginning of the life of grace the beginning of salvation that absolutely is not according to works it is pure grace it's a gift and if you have any doubt about that just listen to another passage from st. Paul where he's even more clear than in 2nd Timothy so this isn't the reading for today but it's a parallel with the reading so it can help you understand it better in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 to 10 Paul's talking to the Ephesians about their conversion from paganism which Ephesians were pagans to becoming believers in Christ right and this is what he says about how that process works pay attention what he says about grace and faith and works quote God who is rich in mercy out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were through our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and you skip down to verse 8 Paul continues for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not because of works lest any man should boast so pause there for just a second in Ephesians chapter 1 Paul is making very clear um and any Catholic should know this if you don't know this you need to be clear on it that we are saved by grace through faith and not because of any works so the initial gift of salvation that God gives - for example the Ephesians to whom Paul's writing who turned from Krista from paganism and became members of the church that gift of salvation was not because of anything they had ever done they didn't earn the grace of salvation through their works it's a pure gift they are saved by grace through their faith in Jesus Christ and not because of anything they had done that is that's as you're gonna see a second that's Catholic doctrine she likes it because that's the teaching of Scripture however and this is important that doesn't mean that works don't have any role in our salvation in fact if you look at the very next verse in Ephesians chapter 1 Paul goes on to give a very specific role to works so if you keep going to the next verse you'll see this but I want to read it in context so back up to verse 8 and then we read all the way down to verse 10 and you'll see the full picture paul says quote for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not because of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so notice what Paul goes on to say no sooner has he said that we were not saved given the gift of salvation because of works then he immediately goes on to say with that said we are created by God in Christ Jesus for good works so in other words once we become a member of the body of Christ that's what he means when he says in Christ Jesus the very purpose we have for being grafted into the body of Christ is for the sake of good works right but notice what does he say which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so there's this mysterious concurrence between God's grace and our action notice there in Ephesians 1:10 even our good works which we do because we have free will were prepared by God beforehand through His grace so for Paul everything's grace everything is grace the initial gift of salvation is a free gift of grace right faith our trust in Christ is a gift of grace and even the good works that we then begin to perform once we're a member of Christ which we for which we were created those are still the result of God's grace so everything's grace for Paul and that's the full Catholic picture of salvation that we get from st. Paul we're saved by grace through faith and created for good works in Christ Jesus which as Paul will say elsewhere we will also be judged God will get render every man according to his works romans chapter 2 verse 6 so we could go into a lot more detail about that if you want a little bit more on it I actually co-authored a book called Paul a new covenant Jew it was written by myself dr. Michael barber and dr. John Kincaid and we have a chapter in there on justification and salvation and we look at how Paul sees that in his letters and we look at that from a Catholic perspective so if you want a little more in-depth treatment you can look at our book Paul a new covenant you for now though in closing I'd just like to give you a few quotations from the living to show you that this idea of being saved by grace through faith and being created for works but that the initial gift of our salvation isn't because of our works is just part and parcel of the Catholic tradition this is the standard common reading of the letters of Paul going all the way back to the early centuries and as articulated by the official teaching of the church the the living Magisterium of the church so let me give you a few quotes to illustrate this because in my experience a lot of times at least in the contemporary Catholic circles I've encountered Catholics who in the attempt to resist certain Protestant readings of Paul have actually erred on the side of giving too much emphasis to works and making it sound as if the initial gift of salvation at the beginning of our life and grace beginning of our life in Christ at baptism is somehow dependent on works which is not the case that's that's actually heresy it's called pelagianism but let me let me walk through a couple of examples of this and show you so the first person we're gonna quote from a st. Thomas Aquinas st. Thomas Aquinas is an amazing figure he's living in the 13th century he is one of the doctors of the church a Dominican theologian in fact he's often called the common doctor in other words he's one that every Catholic should know and read and love he wrote a series of commentaries on all of the letters of Paul and this is what st. Thomas Aquinas has to say about our verse for today from second Timothy chapter one Thomas writes quote he Paul says therefore God called us not by our virtue namely not by our works which are the effects of virtue not by the works of Justice which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us and here Thomas is quoting Titus 3 verse 5 that's from Aquinas commentary on 2nd Timothy so notice Aquinas doesn't have any hesitation of saying with Saint Paul that God saved us not because of our works but because of his mercy then again even more authoritative and st. Thomas was the Council of Trent in its decree on justification that was released in the mid 16th century the Year 1546 the Council of Trent is emphatic about the fact that nothing that we do in our life earns the initial gift of salvation and listen to these words this is gonna be striking for some people maybe your non-catholic maybe you're listening to this listen what the Catholic Church's doctrine is here quote the council Trent says we are said to be justified gratuitously meaning by grace because nothing that precedes justification neither faith nor works merits the grace of justification for and then it quotes Paul if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise as the same apostle says grace would no longer be grace Romans 11 verse 6 counseled trance to Korea and justification chapter 8 so notice what train is saying there nothing that proceeds justification alright so think here of the Ephesians right they were pagans they might have been good pagans before they were baptized but nothing that proceeds the gift of justification in Baptism whether works or even faith the act of faith none of those things earn the grace of being made righteous in Christ the grace of justification that's a pure gift on God's part it's a pure gift otherwise if it were to gift and it were earned if it was on the basis of works Paul himself says in Romans 11 and then grace wouldn't be grace right so if I gave you a gift for your birthday Cary's and the Greek word for grace is the same word for gift and you had paid me beforehand right would it be a gift no it would be it would be a reward it'd be something you'd earn to be something you'd merited it's something you paid for right the essence of the gift here is that it's given freely right otherwise grace wouldn't be grace so the council trent is very emphatic that nothing that proceeds justification whether your faith or your works earns the gift it's it's a gift it's freely given and in fact if you come a little further in time to the catechism of the catholic church right which was published in 1992 the Catechism of the Catholic Church is very emphatic that the heresy known as pelagianism the idea of earning grace earning God's grace earning the grace of salvation is something that the church still rejects and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 406 it makes a very brief reference to Pelagius who was one of the chief opponents of st. Augustine so in the late fourth century in early fifth century there was this heresy known as pelagianism and is named after a prominent figure commentator and Paul Pelagius in the early church I'd like to add a slight disclaimer here too there's a lot of debate and contemporary scholarship about exactly what views Pelageya is held and whether the views that are attributed to him traditionally were in fact his own opinions I'm just leaving that aside now and looking at how the church summarizes his position in the Catechism and also the traditional understanding of the heresy and the error of Pelagianism and this what the Catechism says about Pelagius is Error quote Pelagius held that man could by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God's grace lead a morally good life he thus reduced the influence of Adams fault to bad example Catechism 406 and as you see if you study church history a Pelagius is view that apart from grace we could do good which some people took to mean that apart from God's grace we could do good things that would earn the gift of salvation that error was quickly condemned by the church and continues to be condemned to this day and yet I have to confess here that I have more than once in my time as a teacher met Catholics who seem to think or be under the assumption that we do have to earn the gift of salvation in some way shape or form sometimes they're not as explicit most of them have never even heard about Pelagius but there's a kind of semi-pelagianism that sometimes creeps into contemporary Catholic understandings or articulations of the mystery of salvation I think largely it's a reaction to an overreaction to the Protestant emphasis on faith alone so sometimes some Catholics will will want to emphasize the importance of works as a way of contrasting our position with those of the Protestants because there were Protestant reformers who took the view that it doesn't matter what we do and that works have no role in our salvation and that of course is unbiblical also Paul's gonna be very clear as we just saw that we were created in Christ for good works he's gonna say elsewhere that we will be judged according to our works I mean Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 7 says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only those who do the will of my father who is in heaven I mean so Jesus himself makes our final judgment contingent on whether we obey or not so works clearly have a role but what we want to avoid is the idea the error that our works somehow earn the initial gift of salvation and if you have any doubts about that all in with one last quote from the Catechism this is my favorite of all but just because it's very concise and very clear and it's and it comes as a surprise to some Catholics who might have a little more of a semi Pelagian view of salvation in the beautiful section on grace and merit in the Catechism which I strongly encourage you to read if this topic is sparking your interest the church says this quote since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification at the beginning of conversion I'm gonna say that again in fact those aren't my italics those are the catechisms like the church is emphasizing this since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification at the beginning of conversion very powerful very important point we do not have to earn the initial gift of salvation it is pure gift it's a free gift of grace and if you have any doubts about that just look at the church's custom of baptizing infants right if there's any church that teaches that salvation is pure gift it's by grace right and not earned it's a Catholic Church because we baptize infants who don't have the ability to even perform a good work that could earn the gift of God and so infant baptism in particular is a beautiful illustration of the fact that the initial gift of justification the initial gift of forgiveness of original sin initial gift of salvation is freely given it's a pure gift as Paul says it's not in virtue of our works but in virtue of God's own purpose and the grace that he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago which he says he has now manifested through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ and the Greek word there in closing for appearing is epifanio's right the Epiphany that's really what we celebrate today as well as we see Christ appearing to the disciples in his glory on the mountain of Transfiguration an unveiling the life and the immortality that he's going to bring through his cross and reservoir [Music] [Music]