Performance based theories of salvation continue to plague the evangelical Protestant landscapes. Whether that be funded by a Reformed background (inclusive of Reformed proper, and Arminianism et al.), or Lutheran (either orthodox, and/or mainstream). When people are offered a notion of God wherein He is understood as a juridical God, one who relates to the world through a covenant of works/grace, or other like frameworks, at which point law-keeping sublimates grace into its image, those under this specter live a life of deep angst, always wondering if they are going to finally measure up (or persevere) unto the final reward: eternal life. What a sad state of affairs; this is not what Martin Luther was aiming toward when he protested against the scholastic theology of his Roman day. Luther internalized, unlike many, in fact, the requirements of a preparationist soteriology, wherein he was in a constant state of pilgrimage, striving towards the final merit of salvation; that is through deep introspection, and flagellation of his physical body. He believed God, under the conditions set forth by an Aristotelian-ly conceived notion of God (actus purus), hated him. He thought this because he felt the deep ditch between his own sinfulness up against the Holy God. And within this frame his only hope was to cooperate with God, through the means of grace dispensed by the Holy Roman Catholic church, to the point that he might finally assuage God’s judgment by somehow achieving the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The problem with Luther’s system though, and that of the late medieval/scholastic church, is that there was never a time where this type of assurance of achievement could ever be reached. And so, Luther tormentuously labored under this great weight of despondency and failed effort before the God who hated him (or that’s how Luther felt).
So, when Luther was encouraged by his father in the faith, Johann von Staupitz, to read the New Testament for himself in Greek, Luther was introduced to the strange new world of the Bible/NT (to borrow a phrase from Barth). Here he came to understand that the Christian could only be found righteous before the living God as that person was in participation with, in union with the risen Christ. Luther came to understand that he could do absolutely nothing to achieve this righteousness; that his good works, and self-flagellation could never bring him any closer to eternal life. Because of the breath of Holy Scripture, Luther, over against the scholastic theology of his Augustinianism, came to realize that he could only rest in the grace of God alone, that was stood in by faith alone in Christ alone. Once he was struck with this lightning bolt of revelation, as it were, his fears and anxieties melted away, only to be replaced with a boldness before the living God, the church, and the world; to the point that Luther would stare down the barrel of the Holy Roman gun of the papacy itself.
From a materially theological point of view Luther came to understand that he had to stand up against the Thomist/Aristotelian anthropology and soteriology that had led him, and so many others in the society, into the dregs of the belief that God was angry and hated him and them. Simeon Zahl writes the following with reference to this Luther[an] theological milieu:
More specifically, from Luther onwards Protestants have argued that one of the chief problems with the sort of model articulated in neo-Thomist soteriology is that it is fundamentally overoptimistic about Christian ethical transformation. The Protestant argument against a soteriology focused on the ontological infusion in the Christian of sanctifying grace is that, for all its intellectual elegance and coherence, it simply does not work very well in practice, and certainly not well enough to function as the core dynamic through which salvation comes about. Protestant spirituality is traditionally focused very substantially, especially where salvation is concerned, on what we might call the “rhetoric of passivity.” What I mean by this is the sense that much of the force of the Christian message is precisely its efficacious protest, in and through the work of Christ, against the natural human tendency to freight our day-to-day actions and feelings with soteriological or crypto-soteriological significance. It is just this freighting, basic to the neo-Thomist vision, that Martin Luther found punishing and terrifying rather than inspiring or transformative or productive of meaning.[1]
Precisely because of the retrieval movement underway within, mostly, evangelical Reformed theology, many Christians in the churches, unbeknownst to them, are being hampered by the recovery of the very theological themes that Luther et al. was attempting to thwart with reference to thinking God under the conditions set forth by Thomas Aquinas, and his reception among Post Reformed orthodox theologies.
All the aforementioned to state: the original Protestant, Martin Luther, had no intention of starting a reformation that would ultimately stillbirth, by collapsing back into the very Thomistic/Aristotelian themes he felt so burdened and tortured by. Luther desired that all would finally be set free from the stringencies provided for by thinking of God in terms of the Big Brain in the Sky, who also happened to be the Great-Law-Giver in the sky, with no grace or mercy for the fallen and bruised reeds of the world. Luther attempted to perform for his salvation, just as the Pharisee, who became an Apostle, Paul was attempting to do under his own distorted understanding of appeasing God through law-keeping (even if the conditions between Luther’s theological times and Paul’s were not exactly parallel).
Christian, if you are feeling like a Luther, beat down by false doctrines of God, undone by performance and law-based understandings of salvation; take heart! The Christ has come to not only declare, but to in fact be the Good News of great joy, of great peace, for the whole world. His is a life of absolute and immediate grace that brings the wayfarers into the heavenly throne room, where the burden is light. Jesus, as Luther came to understand, has already performed God’s salvation for us. The call, in light of this reality, is to simply rest in the finished work and person of God in Jesus Christ; for He is indeed, God’s salvation for you, for me, for the world-wide. When you’re tempted to look inward, know that Christ went inward for us, that we might finally look upward to the very being of our life in God’s being in becoming for us in the concrete humanity of Jesus Christ. Throw off every hindrance that would seek to bog you down in the liable of the devil; and finish, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit who has become for you, through the vicarious humanity of Christ, God’s guarantee of salvation come, and coming again.
[1] Simeon Zahl, The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 116 kindle ed.
“I know what sort of a being I am; yet even though I feel myself miserable, I am not troubled at it; nay, I am sometimes joyful at it, considering that I am a truly fit object for the mercy of God, to which I continually recommend you.”
“Since at every season of life, early or late, in youth or in old age, I can expect my salvation from the pure goodness and mercy of God alone, it is much better to cast myself from this moment into the arms of His clemency than to wait till another time.”
“That God looks upon you with love you have no reason to doubt, for He looks upon the most dreadful sinners in the world lovingly when they have the least true desire to be converted to Him. Tell me, do you not intend to belong to God? Do you not desire to serve Him faithfully? And who gave you this desire, this intention, unless Himself in His loving regard for you?”
“But enough! Live joyful; Our Lord looks upon you with love, and with so much the more tenderness as you are the more feeble. Never permit your mind willingly to entertain thoughts to the contrary; and when they come, regard them not, turn your eyes away from their iniquity, and have recourse to God with a courageous humility, to speak to Him of His ineffable goodness by which He loves us, poor, abject, and miserable as we are.”
“And we, like our heavenly Father’s little children, can also advance in two ways: first, by the steps of our own will, when we conform it to His, holding the hand of His divine will by that of our obedience, and following wherever He conducts us, that is to say, doing what He signifies to be His wish — for when He wishes anything to be done, He always gives the power to do it; and secondly, we can accompany Our Lord, without any trouble of our own, merely allowing ourselves to be carried by Him, according to the divine good pleasure, as an infant in the arms of its mother, by an admirable agreement, which is called the union, or rather the unity, of our will with that of God.”
“Keep up your heart then; remove anxieties; often cast your confidence on the Providence of Our Lord; and be assured that heaven and earth will sooner pass away than that Our Lord will fail to protect you, so long as you are His obedient child, or at least desirous to be so.”
“We deal with a Master who is rich in mercy to those who invoke Him; He forgives a debt of ten thousand talents on a small petition. We must have sentiments worthy of His goodness; we must serve Him with fear; but while we tremble, we must not cease to rejoice. The humility that discourages is not a good humility.”
“God loves us; He knows what we require better than we do ourselves. Whether we live or die we are the Lord’s. To Him belong the keys of life and death; those who hope in Him shall never be confounded.”
“…simply rest in the finished work and person of God in Jesus Christ; for He is indeed, God’s salvation for you, for me, for the world-wide.”
Amen… and emet. Hallelujah! Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
@anon,
Do you have something to say yourself? 😉
@Richard, amen!
Dear Bobby
I used to believe, as you have argued, that Catholic theology leads to the view of an angry God who needs to be appeased. I encourage you, as friends encouraged me, to read the original documents of Catholic theologians, as the view you mentioned is a mischaracterisation. As you can see from the quotes I have provided from St Francis de Sales, Catholic theology does actually promote the view of a loving, merciful God. As parents provide direction to a child for the child’s benefit and not for the child to earn the love of the parents, so the church provides direction to help with the spiritual growth of its children; even God chastens every child he receives but this is out of love.
Your brother in Christ
Sam
Hello Sam.
I have read many of the older and newer Catholics. Indeed, Calvin quotes Bernard of Clairvaux more than any other theologian. But it is the greater superstructure of Catholicism that remains the problem; ie infused grace, its ecclesiology, its Mariology, its theoanthropology etc etc. I’m not just Protestant, but radically so; gripped by a radical theology of the Word.
Have you ever attended a Catholic Mass, Bobby?
Praying for you
Sam
Yes, Sam. Many different types. I’m not new at this. If I was going to convert like that it wouldn’t be Latin, but Greek (Orthodox). But I’m not going to, and I know why I’m not, theologically. Tridentine/Thomist Catholic theology is problematic; for a variety of reasons I’ve written on for years at the blog, and in other research.
I’ve been around for awhile (including all the formal training in theology). Also, I am an evangelist and have worked with Muslims, secularists, Catholics, Orthodoxy et al (in terms of evangelizing etc).
Thanks for these helpful and encouraging words. Grace is so counter intuitive to human nature, that in my limited evangelical experience, I find people who wave the banner of salvation by grace through faith, functionally are living by the Law, and trapped in that defeatist system.