So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
2 Peter 3:15, 16
The Apostle Peter himself views the writings of Paul to be part of scripture. But he also wrote that his writings can be difficult to understand, and can be easily twisted to people’s destruction. With this in mind, it is hard to understand why Evangelicals would use Paul’s writings to understand Jesus’ teachings. It makes more sense to me to use what is easy to understand to enlighten us what is difficult to understand. And Jesus’ teachings are easy to understand. They may not be easy to accept, but they are easy to understand. When we get into Paul’s writings, we need to understand the meaning of grace, faith, justification and sanctification, and how they relate to each other. This is the important key to understanding Paul. Based on your understanding of these words will determine how you interpret Paul.
Traditional Protestant view of Paul’s doctrine of salvation
Here is how these terms are defined by the Traditional Protestant:
Grace – The undeserved favor of God. God graciously saved us, although we do not deserve it.
Faith – A deep confidence in Christ’s death on the Cross so that we get to heaven totally by this gift. Although the Reformers saw faith as something we continually do, modern Evangelicals see faith as a one-time act that seals our salvation forever - when we “ask Christ into our heart”, or come forward in response to an altar call.
Justification - The act by God whereby we are declared righteous even though we still sin. The righteousness of Christ, His total obedience to the Father when He walked on this earth 2,000 years ago to the point of even dying on the Cross is credited, or inputed, to our account. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, so that when the Father sees us He only sees Christ’s righteousness, not our sins. God sees us as righteous, even though we are sinners.
in Christ – Paul used this phrase about 83 times. The rest of the New Testament used it only twice. Being “in Christ” to the traditional Protestant is a positional truth rather than an experience. It is a legal standing with God, how God sees us, being in Christ, and how we actually are. It is like putting a piece of paper in a book. When you close the book, you cannot see the paper, You can only see the book, and not the piece of paper, since the paper is in the book. In the same way, when we become Christians, the Father places us “in Christ” so that He only sees Christ’s righteousness.
Sanctification – The process whereby God makes us holy. This is an ongoing process throughout our lives. We will never be totally holy in this life. But the moment a Christian dies, or Christ returns, this process is completed and we are totally holy like Christ. So sanctification is the actualization of our justification before God. Justification is that God sees us as if we were holy. Sanctification is that we actually become holy.
Here is how these words relate to each other in terms of our salvation:
It all starts with the grace of God, which is God’s undeserved favor or love toward us. Grace is manifested in Christ’s death for us on the Cross for our sins. We apply God’s gift by faith. Once we believe we are then justified, which means that God sees us with the righteousness of Christ. Because we are justified we possess heaven. As an act of gratitude, we desire to live holy lives, and God works on us to become holy. So heaven is not conditioned on our sanctification, it is conditioned by our justification. But sanctification is the result and evidence that we are truly saved and have possessed heaven.
Traditional Catholic view of Paul’s doctrine of salvation Grace – Although the Catholic admits that we do not deserve the grace of God, the grace of God means far more that merely God’s undeserved favor or gift. It is the divine life of God infused upon the soul.
This definition is supported by how Paul used the word in the following verses
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Roman 6:14
How does the undeserved favor of God give you power over sin? This verse makes far more sense if grace is defined instead to be the life of God infused into the soul. Because the grace of God is infused into us, we have power over sin.
And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me
2 Cor 12:9 God's grace being sufficient for Paul, is in context of the power of Christ resting on Paul. Grace is not just God's underserved favor toward us. It is God's power infused in us in the person of Christ.
whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.
Eph 3:7
This verse is nonsensical if grace meant God's undeserved favor toward us. But it make perfect sense if grace does not mean favor, but power. It is the power of God infused within our hearts when we become Christians, by Christ dwelling in us.
Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ
2 Tim 2:1
Grace is about strength, not about underserved love. Grace is what makes us strong. It is the power of God infused in our hearts by Christ dwelling in our hearts. True, this is a gift of Christ - something that we do not deserve at all. But grace is the result of God's undeserved love. Grace is not defined as God's indeserved love.
Faith – A deep, committed faith in Christ. Period! Neither Paul nor the other writers of the New Testament ever defined what exactly we need to believe about Christ to be saved. The Bible never says that we must believe that Christ did something particular for us or Christ will do something particular for us. Paul just says we must have faith in Christ. He leaves faith open-ended other than that it is faith in the person of Christ. What this means is that faith is not just faith that Christ died for me, or that Christ will eventually accept me into heaven. It is faith in Christ in regards to every aspect of our lives. It means trusting Christ in my relationships with my wife, my kids and my co-workers. It means trusting Christ with my job and my finance. It means believing that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It means believing that it God wills all things for me, so in all things gives thanks. It means that when Christ gives a command in the gospels, I trust Christ that He gave this command because He loves me and that the best thing for me is to obey Him. This is why Paul wrote of the obedience of faith (Rom 1:5). Faith obeys. Unbelief disobeys (Rom 14:23). Faith only can operate through love (Gal 5:6).
This is why you cannot separate faith from obedience. A person who trusts God will obey God, not later on, but at the same time. The same can be said about faith and love. How can a person say he trusts God without also loving God?
I cannot have saving faith in Christ if I only trust Him for my my salvation. I must trust Him for everything. Abraham trusted in God that God will give him descendants - and his faith was counted for righteusness (Rom 4:3). Abraham did not understand about Christ and that He would die for his sins. He simply trusted God that He would have children. And this was saving faith for Abraham. There were three times Abraham had his faith tested. First, he responded to faith by giving up his home and obeying God wherever God would lead him (Hebrews 11:8). Then, God showed him the stars in the sky and said to Abraham that this is how many descendents Abraham would have. Abraham believed God, and “it was credited to him as righteousness”(Gal 3:6). Notice that this verse does not say that Abraham was credited as being righteousness, but that his act of faith is credited as righteousness. If his faith is credited by God as righteousness, that means that God viewed Abraham’s act of faith as a meritorious act. If God sees faith as a meritorious act, then that means that we can merit heaven. This is something that Protestants seem to miss. They say that we cannot merit heaven by works because that is something within ourselves and that would be a ground for boasting. But the same can be said of faith. Faith is something within ourselves, and it is possible for it to be a ground for boasting as well. So we cannot get away from something within us being meritorious before God. The third time that Abraham was tested was when God commanded Abraham to kill Isaac as a sacrifice, and Abraham obeyed, although an angel from God prevented it from actually happening(Hebrews 11:17)
Abraham was tested at least three different times, and he passed the test of faith each time. So which time did he have saving faith – when he left his home and followed God, when he believed God about how many descendants he had, or when he offered up Isaac? All three! The just will live by faith. Faith is not a one-time commitment, but a life of dependence of God. It does not mean we never fall. Even Abraham fell in his faith in God by having sex with Hagar. But he picked himself up, and depended on God.
Notice, also, that in two of his testings of faith, it was followed immediate by a work. Abraham trusted God in leading him anywhere, and he showed it by leaving his home. Abraham trusted God that He was able to raise his son from the dead, and he showed this faith by obeying God and offering up Isaac (Hebrews 11:17).
Also notice, that in none of testings of his faith was he called to believe that the Messiah would die for his sins or that he will go to heaven. Instead he was called to believe that God will lead him to a new home, that God would provide him with children, and that God would bring his son back. Abraham’s faith in God was not about a spiritual salvation, but about practical situation in his life that concerned Abraham at that time. True saving faith is not just trusting God for some future salvation. That is an easy faith. The challenging kind of saving faith is trusting God in our current trials and temptations. And without that kind of faith, we do not have the kind of faith that brings us into heaven. And this kind of faith requires actions, an obedience of faith. I cannot trust God with my finances and yet cheat on my taxes. I cannot trust God that He will give me the children He wants me to have and yet practice artificial contraception. I cannot trust God that He joined me with my wife to become one flesh, and then later divorce my wife. Disobedience is rooted in the lack of faith.
So we see from the example of Abraham that faith is continuous, it is often coupled with some sort of act of obedience, and it encompasses all different concerns in our lives.
Justification - The act by God whereby we are made righteous, not just declared righteous, but actually made righteous. The righteousness of Christ is not just credited to our account as if some cold, legal action. Christ’s righteousness is infused into our hearts. As Paul wrote “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me!” (Gal 2:20). Paul was not a mere legalist, being only concerned with our legal standing with God. He was a mystic, seeing that our mystical union with Christ as the key to the Christian life and the essence of the gospel.
For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous
Roman 5:19
This verse only makes sense using the Catholic view of justification. Adam’s sin caused us to actually become sinners. It was not just that God just inputed or credited Adam’s sin to our account. No, we actually became sinners because of Adam disobedience. In the same way, the obedience of Christ does not just mean that God sees us as if we righteous. We actually become righteous.
And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God
1 Cor 6:1
Protestant would say that justification precedes sanctification. We are first justified, that is, God declares us being righteous. The we are being sanctified. Sanctification is the result of our justification. But if that is the case, why does Paul list justification after sanctification in this verse?
in Christ – It is the mystical union of being immersed in Christ and Christ being in us (such as a sunken ship being in the water and yet the water being in the ship). Being in Christ is not a legal standing, but a relationship with Christ.
Sanctification – The process whereby God makes us holy. This is an ongoing process throughout our lives. We will never be totally holy in this life. We get the word “saint” from sanctification. A saint is a very holy person.
Justification and sanctification are basically the same process. Justification is the process of being made righteous. Sanctification is the process of being made holy. Both Justification and Sanctification result in eternal life in heaven. We are not just saved by justification but also by sanctification.
But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life
Romans 6:22
Look at the order in this passage:
Freed from sin à becoming servants of God à sanctification à eternal life
Eternal life is the end of sanctification.
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,
21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galations 5
7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.
8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
Gal 6
9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites,
10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Cor 6 12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Phil 2
Paul warns his readers not to be deceived. Even after we become Christians, sin can have devastating consequences to our eternal souls. There are just some things that if even a Christian does them will make it that he will not inherit the kingdom of God. So we all must not take our salvations for granted, because God will not be mocked! We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. But the good news is that God has not left us in our own power; He is working in us to enable us to will and to do for His good pleasure.
It starts with the grace of God, which is infused into our hearts. We receive this grace through faith. The result of this grace is our justification/sanctification. Both two sides of the same coin. Justification is the process of being made righteous. Sanctification is the process of being made holy.
The Protestant and the Catholic define terms differently and see the flow of salvation differently, they can look at the same verse from Paul and interpret entirely differently.
Take for example Ephesians 2:8, 9
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
The Protestant interprets it this way:
For by God’s undeserved favor you have been saved from the eternal consequences of sin through faith that Christ died for your sins, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of anything we may do, so that no one may boast. The Catholic interprets it this way
For by divine life of God dwelling in you, you have been from the power of sin through your dependence on God, and this is not just a matter of your own will-power; it is the gift of God not the result of what you can do in your own power, so that no one may boast.
The Catholic interpretation is suppoedrt by the next verse which says “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (verse 10). The “For”, in that verse is important, Paul is explaining to us how God saves us by grace through faith. He saves us by making us God’s workmanship to do good works.
Another example is
Galations 2
The Protestant sees this verse saying
yet we know that a person is declared righteous not by the things he does but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be declared righteous by faith in Christ, and not by anything that we did, because no one will be right with God by something that he does. But a Catholic see the verse saying:
16 yet we know that a person becomes righteous not by self-effort but through a loving, obedient and dependant relationship with Jesus Christ. And we have come to rely on Christ Jesus for everything, so that we might become the people God intended us to be by having a trusting relationship with Christ, and not by our own self-effort, because no one will become righteous and holy by self-effort.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
Roman 8:1
The Protestant sees this as:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are Christians.
The Catholic sees this as
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who continue to have a close relationship with Christ Jesus.
Unfortunately, Paul did not include a glossary of the words justification, sanctification, grace, etc. Paul used these words, he did not explicitly give a definition of those word. He never wrote “Now, before I use the word ‘justification’ I want you understand what I mean by this word …” He never defined the word, he just used them.
This is why I find the Protestant view of sola scriptura untenable. The way these words are defined will influence the way we interpret those passages. But the definition of these word are not explicitly taught in the Bible. So we cannot base our definition of these words on the Bible.
The Catholic can look at tradition for the definition of these words. For the first 1500 years, Christians have defined these terms the Catholic way. Justification was not viewed as being inputed with the righteousness of Christ. Grace did not mean just the favor of God. These definitions originated with the Reformation. That means that since the Reformers changed the definitions of these words, the burden of proof rested with them to prove that their definitions accurately portray Paul’s teaching.
All this may have made your eyes gloss over. If so, don’t worry about it. Then stick with the simple teachings of Jesus. And Jesus talked of being judged by our works.
But even if your eyes gloss over in understanding Jesus's teachings, there is one other resort. Believe what Christians have believed for 2,000 years. And for 2,000 years, the tradition of Christians has been that we are saved by the grace of God through our faith and works. It has only been 500 years ago that Martin Luther broke with tradition and came up with the novel doctrine that we saved by faith alone. The gospel as taught by the Catholic Church has been there in each century since the time of Christ.
