Justification in 1 Clement, Part 1: By faith? October 8, 2009
Posted by Damian in Devotional, Early Christian Belief and Patristics.Tags: apostolic fathers, belief, by faith alone, Clement, faith, Isaiah, James, John Piper, justification, justification by faith alone, N.T. Wright, sola fide, Tom Wright
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I recently found myself a copy of The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, and so I’ve had a chance to finally read through the writings of the Apostolic Fathers for the first time. Reading through the first letter of Clement, I came across two mentions of Justification. In this post, I’ll talk about the first:
Let us therefore join with those to whom grace is given by God. Let us clothe ourselves in concord, being humble and self-controlled, keeping ourselves far from all backbiting and slander, being justified by works and not by words. (30 v.3)
Now, I freely admit I’m not up on the ongoing debate on Justification. I haven’t read the most recent books by John Piper or Tom Wright. So I’m not talking about justification in the technical senses argued in those books (although, if you wish, you can bring it up for discussion – just be prepared to do a lot of explaining).
I think that this passage says a lot about what we mean by faith, and what we mean by sola fide: Justification by faith alone. I’ll paraphrase: In situations of argument, we should be graceful, agreeable, humble and self-controlled, and should not retaliate or slander those who disagree with us. It is enough we should be justified by what we do and have done.
There seem to me to be two evidences of faith. The first is our words : “I have believe in God, the father almighty…et cetera” , or, if you’re of a less traditional upbringing, “I accept Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Saviour”. These speak about faith, but are simply words. One can say the words, but have no faith, very little faith, or be a cup overflowing with faith.
The second evidence of faith is our actions: The things that we do. We can contribute to charity; work at soup kitchens; dig wells. I can have a career as a doctor, or as an aid worker, or as a lifesaver. We can bring good news to those without hope, we can heal those who are broken, we can bring justice to those who suffer injustice, set free those who are captive. James 2:20 speaks of this, saying that faith without works is dead. Again, to paraphrase: It doesn’t matter what we say, for if our actions do not display our faith, we do not have faith.
Only God can see to the issue of what lies in our hearts. Only God knows if we truly have faith. But the only true evidence of a life of faith are the actions a man takes regarding his faith. I think God will judge us on that evidence. It seems to me that I agree with Clement: We are justified by our works, and not by our words.
Black Swan God September 25, 2009
Posted by Damian in Devotional.Tags: abraham, black swan, David, Genesis, God, gods, Jesus, Jesus Christ, King David, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, sacrifice, solomon
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Something Steve Wiggins said in his recent podcast, ‘The Fear of the Lord is Pure’ reminded me of a book I recently read, the Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb):
“Gods are large, they’re powerful, and they’re unpredictable – they’re not fully known.” (~5min 50seconds)
A Black Swan is something that has never happened before and cannot be predicted. It lies outside the realm of our expectations and carries extreme impact. But human nature is to concoct post hoc explanations for its occurrence, so after it happens, we believe the Black Swan is logical, explainable, and predictable. But these are simply rationalisations – the truth is, the Black Swan is none of these things.
Reading the Bible in this light yields some interesting results. A good example is the story of Abraham in Genesis 22. We all know how it goes: God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, so Abraham tricks his son into coming up the mountain with him (carrying the means of his own demise, no less), and is about to murder his son, when God changes his mind.
But Abraham didn’t know God was going to change his mind: Gods were big, powerful and unpredictable creatures, and you did what they told you, or they’d ruin your life. Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. It was God that was doing the unexpected. There are plenty of examples of God transcending the expected, of his being a Black Swan. David, the shepherd, becomes King. He gives Solomon great wealth in addition to his wisdom. He comes in the guise of flesh as Jesus Christ.
In fact, one defining quality that stands out clearly in the scriptures is that God is surprising. But what should we learn from this? That God will continue being surprising. Our interests in Prophecy are foolish: Nobody saw Jesus coming the first time, so why should we the second time ’round? Our plans for our lives are silly:God will do the thing we least suspect.
Maybe God isn’t quite a Black Swan (after all, he’s not entirely random) but he certainly transcends any logic we can know – thoughts higher than ours, ways higher than ours – so he may as well be. So expect that your preconceptions will be shattered, and you’re best prepared for what God will do next.
Miracles and Visions September 18, 2009
Posted by Damian in Devotional, Psychology and Religion.Tags: angels, atlantis, belief, bigfoot, desire to believe, divine, divine and mundane, divine realm breaing into the mundane, Frud, God, gospel, king arthur, magic, Mark, miracles, mundane, New Testament, past, saints, self-deception, spirituality, the bible, Virgin in a piece of toast, visions, wisdom
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Two recent posts (Neil Godfrey’s and Denyse O’Leary’s) spoke of miracles and visions:
A passage in Mark’s gospel [Mark 9:24) reminds me of The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Many people today still want to believe there is something to magic after all, that there is or was an Atlantis, that aliens do regularly visit us, that BigFoot/Yeti/Yowie really does exist, that King Arthur’s or the Bible’s adventures really happened, and that angels do exist and miracles happen today just as they always did, as we read about in the New Testament. I seem to recall that as a child there were some stories I read that I agonizingly wished were true. [Vridar]
We can see anything we really want to. Sometimes we will see double, other times, stars. Is this any way to acquire wisdom? Mario Beauregard and I pointed out in The Spiritual Brain that traditional spiritual advisers have strongly warned against making a big deal out of visions where you see sights and hear voices, and dream dreams [...] Basically, it is very, very easy to fool oneself and – contrary to popular lore, Freud did not discover this fact; it was well known to spiritual directors for centuries, if not millennia. If our spirituality is making us better people, we should pursue it. If it is making us look for strange events, well … [Sign of the Times]
Whilst they phrased it differently from each other, they seemed to be of one mind: That is, that miracles, particularly of the kind at involve interesting sights and experiences, are an undesirable part of faith.
However, I disagree. I think it’s an admirable and desirable thing to see the divine realm impinging on the mundane. I’ve never seen the Virgin in a piece of toast, but someone who does obviously believes in a God (and his saints) who is far more willing to interact with the mundane parts of our lives than my own. And – lets face it – the mundane make up the larger portion of most of our lives. There is more toast in our lives than there are burning bushes.
As Neil says, Mark 9:24 is speaking of this desire to believe. And it’s presented as a holy thing in the Gospel: It is righteous to desire belief. And, in a way, it’s spoken of elsewhere in the New Testament, in the many references to being like children: Willing to believe in King Arthur, Harry Potter, Big Foot, Angels and Miracles.
I think the ability to see the divine breaking into the mundane is something we need to cultivate in our sceptical culture; we should see God in toast and butterflies, in frost and sunlight, in small miracles and answered daily prayers. We have a powerful God: Who’s to say we’re fooling ourselves? Sometimes we see double, sometimes we see stars, and sometimes – and it’s worth it if it’s only sometimes – we see God.
A bedtime prayer August 14, 2009
Posted by Damian in Devotional.add a comment
Father Stephen posted this beautiful prayer, to be said before bed:
O Lord, the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth: have compassion and mercy on me, Thy sinful servant!
Absolve me, who am unworthy.
Forgive all the sins I have committed this day both in my humanity and my inhumanity, behaving worse than beasts in sins voluntary and involuntary, known and unknown, from my youth,from evil suggestions, haste and despondency.
If I have sworn by Thy name or blasphemed it in thought;
if I have reproached anyone or become angered by something;
or slandered or saddened anyone in my anger;
or have lied,
or slept unnecessarily;
or a beggar has come to me and I have despised him;
or have saddened my brother or quarreled with him; or have judged someone;
or have allowed myself to become haughty, proud or angry;
or, when standing in prayer, my mind has been shaken by the wickedness of this world;
or have entertained depraved thoughts;
or have over-eaten, over-drunk or laughed mindlessly;
or have had evil thoughts or seen the beauty of someone and been wounded by it in my heart;
or have spoken inappropriately;
or have laughed at my brother’s sins when my own transgressions are countless;
or have been indifferent to prayer;
or have done any other evil that I can not remember – for I have done all this and more: have mercy, O Master, my Creator, on me, Thy despondent and unworthy servant!Absolve, remit and forgive me, in Thy goodness and love for mankind that I, who am prodigal, sinful and wretched, may lie down in peace and find sleep and rest.
May I worship, hymn and praise Thy most honorable name, with the Father and His only-begotten Son, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen
I love written prayers, because they, unlike spontaneous prayer, can sometimes say things that we would never have thought of.
If I can go to hell… July 28, 2009
Posted by Damian in Devotional.Tags: atonement, Christ's sacrifice, efficacy, faith, God, hell, sacrifice, salvation, self control, sinner
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Michael Spencer said something very simple, and very true today in his defence for the Gospel:
If I can go to hell, I will.
I wrote a series on atonement a while ago, based on issues I had with Christ’s sacrifice. Basically, if there’s any conditionality to it, I feel that it belittles Christ’s sacrifice. He’s God, after all. And if there is any conditionality to it, I will go to hell (if one believe in it), because there is no way I can, for the entirety of my life, live up to almost any condition (aside from being a sinner). I am, after all, merely a sinner.
So, when it comes down to it, I can’t believe there is any conditions. Because we’re all sinners. Our faith always falters, our commitment comes and goes, our self control wavers. If it’s possible for me to go to hell, I will.
It’s only Christ that saves me. It’s only Christ that saves us all. And if he saves me, he will save us all. Because I’m no better than anyone.
