Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

• Ephesians 2:8-9

So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

• Galatians 3:24

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written:
“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall,
    and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

• Romans 9:30-33

He will be a holy place;
    for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
    a trap and a snare.

• Isaiah 8:14

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

• James 2:26

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

• Psalm 103:12

“ ‘Bernard can be cited [as teaching justification by faith alone] and often is. In his 22nd Sermon on the Song of Solomon he speaks thus: ‘Let him who out of remorse for his sins hungers and thirsts for righteousness, believe in you, the one who justifies the ungodly, and he will have peace with you. being justified by faith alone.’ … Bernard is speaking of a living faith, joined with charity. Such a faith hungers and thirsts for righteousness and feels remorse for sins – not from fear of punishment but from love of righteousness. Therefore it is just as if Bernard had said:‘ Whoever turns away from sin with his whole heart and desires to make amends to the Lord by works of penance — such a one is reconciled to the Lord through living faith and fervent charity, even before he undertakes the works.’ … Therefore the testimonies of the ancient Fathers sometimes show that faith alone justifies, but never in the sense that our adversaries understand it.’ (Justification 1.25).”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) was a Jesuit and cardinal in the Catholic church.  His work was mostly in the counter-reformation, answering the arguments made by the leaders of the reformation.  He was named a Doctor of the Church, those who had major contributions to the church theology.

Robert Bellarmine is quoting Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).  My comments on a bit of Bernard’s philosophy is found in Unable to See One’s Sins.

I hope some of Robert Bellarmine’s arguments are written better than this one, but maybe this is the best he could do while maintaining the Catholic requirement of works, especially works of penance.

Note the first three New Testament Scriptures.  Two of the texts mention the word “works”.  The Ephesians text clearly states “not by works.”  The Roman text features “works” as being a stumbling stone that causes trouble.  And that is where we are here.

Robert Bellarmine could not negate the word “works” or the Pope and other cardinals would not be happy about that.  He mentions works twice, hinting that they are necessary, but not directly to salvation.  But he never clearly says it.

To tie in the title, when giving a speech, it is easy to make half of a statement, but then, turning from the microphone, cough while saying the part about what might offend.  When you write it down word for word, you cannot get away with “aside comments” that fully explain what you mean.

The quotation from Bernard says a lot about works, and then barely mentions “justified by faith alone.”

And then, to make matters worse, Bellarmine attacks the intelligence of the reformation movement by saying that they cannot take four words, justified by faith alone, almost out of context from a litany of words about works, and understand that salvation or justification was by faith without works.

But the statement made in the book of James, states that faith without works is dead.  No wonder Martin Luther argued that James was the one book of the canon that he did not want in the Bible.  Yet, James remains.

It is all about the order of events and the emphasis placed on them.  We are saved by faith, not by works.  Statement on Salvation is complete.  THEN, the saved person has a desire in their heart to do good deeds.  If that person resists doing those good deeds, either they had no faith in the first place, thus not saved, or their life here on earth becomes weak and useless as if they were dead.

No need for penance in that God has already separated us from our sin as far as the east is from the west.

I do not think that Robert Bellarmine’s ideas are far from the Reformation Leaders, but in a formal debate with proper rules being followed, his argument would be laughable.

And what I cringe about when I see such an argument is what I learned in taking two technical writing courses.  Brevity is the key.  He should have stopped at the first ellipsis (…) and then added.  See, Bernard said the words “justified by faith alone.”  That eliminates any mention of works, penance, fervent charity, and fear of punishment.  In mentioning each of those, it weakened his argument.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.