Sola Fide?

As I've mentioned in the past, there are TWO mighty pillars that support the Protestant faith as birthed through the Reformation--sola fide (faith alone) and sola scriptura (Scripture alone).**

Well, today I'd like to take the time to unpack the second mighty pillar of the Reformation, sola fide (it's only taken eight months since my treatment of sola scriptura!)  This is one I have gone rounds and rounds with while discussing theological matters with my Catholic girlfriends, so let me bring you up to speed.

Basically, when you ask a Protestant believer how we are saved, they would most likely say something to the effect that it is by faith or belief alone.  Conversely, if you were to ask a Catholic believer, they would most likely say something to the effect of "faith and works."  Now, since this response really sticks in the Protestant craw, most of us would begin to whip out multiple Bible verses (usually penned by Paul) that state that salvation is by faith alone, and not works, so that no one can boast, etc, etc.

However, what I realized upon some digging into the Scriptures and reading both Protestant and Catholic resources, was that there was a large bedrock of glorious agreement that we were both talking past, and that is sola gratia, or grace alone (see footnote below).  You see, both camps see that it is all grace: the faith, the works, every bit of salvation and the manifestation thereof in our lives is a result of God's free grace.

This is even seen in the verse that I paraphrased above--let's look at it together:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."     --Ephesians 2:8-10

Did you catch that, dear one?  BY GRACE you are saved.  Okay, so if we can all agree on that (and it would be heretical not to), we will start there--faith and works both stem from GRACE.

Now then, how does that free gift of grace manifest itself?  Well, Paul mentions that above in verse 8--through faith.  Okay, so now we "see" faith show up.  But do we?  Did you notice the quotes I placed around the word "see" in the previous sentence?  You see, faith is something cerebral in a sense--Romans 10:14 states that faith comes from hearing...which comes from preaching...so we must listen and mentally understand and emotionally consent, and in a word, believe what our eyes do not see, but what we are convinced to be true in our hearts (and I use "heart" like the Jews would have--meaning, the seat of our mind, will, and emotions).  So, if we see faith...it must be by works--the things we do and say, how we treat people, how we serve, give, practice our faith, etc.  In fact, I've told many friends that "faith is a verb."  Faith does stuff.  It must!  James unpacks this truth in the second chapter of his epistle when he states that faith without works is dead:

"For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."  --James 2:26

I have also heard it said, "You are saved by faith alone but it should never stand alone," rephrasing this principle of James that faith without works is dead.

But, if we were to just take in the earlier verses of this passage of James chapter 2, we see where a true sola fide stance quickly breaks down--let's back up to verse 14:

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.  You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.  And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."  --James 2:14-26

Okay, so the ONLY place we find the two works "faith" and "alone" in juxtapositon to each other is in a verse that denounces them being together--James is saying in verse 24, which I will repost here:

 "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." (emphasis mine)

Okay, well, now we are in some sticky territory, when we use a battle cry such as "sola fide" which is directly contradicted by James (now I see why my beloved Martin Luther wanted to cut out the book of James and place it in an appendix of his Bible!!  The thought of it!).

Now, we could chalk this up to an issue of semantics and be on our merry way; after all, is not the purpose of theology to ultimately affect our praxeology (human behavior)?  What difference does it make if we are saved by faith alone which gives RISE to works, or saved by faith AND works?  I am not sure, not if it is merely a mincing of words.

All I do know, however, and have blogged extensively about, is that we are not saved by works in the sense of us having to earn our salvation or "earn our keep."  But any theologically informed Catholic believer would dismiss that falsehood as well--like I stated above, they would absolutely agree that it is ALL God's grace--the faith and the works--and we can earn NONE of it!

And another thing I do know, based upon the Scriptures, is that works matter.  Save? No!  Matter? YES!  Look up above again at Ephesians chapter 2.  I posted the passage through verse 10 to highlight the fact that we are saved for good works!!  However, I fear that too many of us Protestants, in an effort to distance ourselves from the perceived "works righteousness" of our Catholic friends, stand so much in the "faith alone" camp that we dismiss or belittle the role of works in our lives. Oh, and this should not be!

Let us get this straight, Protestant friends:  there will be no pop quiz at the end of our lives when we are asked, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" that will depend upon our correct answer (like so many of us purport when proselytizing our non-Christian friends).  No, the Scriptures are clear that at the end of this life is a judgment and that we will be judged according to our WORKS.  Jesus Himself talks about this prolifically and Paul writes about it, too--check out Matthew 25 and 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 for just a sampling.

I hope through this blog post that you get the sense that faith AND works are an important matter, and perhaps one and the same??  If faith without works is dead, than maybe they are two sides to ONE coin, and perhaps we have been treating them inaccurately.  I will continue to pray and ponder these things, and trust that you will as well, dear follower in Christ!


**To be entirely accurate, I must state here that there are in fact FIVE "solas" of the Reformation: sola gratia (grace alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), and soli deo gloria (the glory of God alone) must be added to the previously mentioned two.  However, I will not be dealing with these on my blog as they as so heartily agreed upon by ALL of Christendom, that they cease to really come into play in my evaluation of Protestantism and Catholicism.