Go and do thou likewise

“ Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. ”

How are we saved? By our faith , or by our works ? This great controversy was at the very core of the Reformation, and keeps many people busy today making accusations, allegations and anathemas. But what does the Scripture say? Are we going to heaven because we've been good, or because God is merciful and we believed Him? Is heaven our destination because He caused us to be faithful, or because we acted on our faith and lived lives worthy of the Savior?

The background of this question is a medieval time when the Roman Church held Europe's population in a fearful grip. The Church dispensed the means of salvation, only after a penitent's obedience, sacrifice, and ritualistic adherence to things no one understood, and of which the Bible was silent. Luther's questioning Purgatory or Indulgences was faithful to a God who rewards faith above form, and who loves truth more than mere power.

But there is no all-powerful church any longer, and we are free to believe and follow Christ as it befits us. I find it anachronistic and even bigoted to still be fighting the Reformation, if only in dire doctrines and words of rebuke. Take a step back and find out what the Lord has said: do we say it's faith alone , or is there anything we must do to have eternal life?

Oddly enough, the words of Jesus give high marks to what we do , more than what we think . A self-righteous lawyer asked Jesus point blank, what it would take to have eternal life. Jesus put the question back to him, and he answered: “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. Luke 10:25-28 This do: it appears to commend an action: to love—love God, love your neighbor . But is such love in us, or is it bestowed? The lawyer wanted to argue, so he asked Jesus: “Well then, who is my neighbor?”

Jesus gave one of our favorite parables, a story of a man who fell victim to highway robbers. Lying there, near death, the victim was swiftly past by a priest, and then a Levite on their way to Jerusalem to execute their ritual acts of faith. Ahh, ritual—there it is! Christ hates ritual, and therefore the Catholic Mass, an official priesthood, all this stooping and bowing and show. All right now, hold on. What happens next? A Samaritan happens by and, having mercy on the poor victim, takes him to an inn, saves his life, leaves him in good hands. Which of these three, then, was a neighbor , asks Jesus?

“He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” Luke 10:26-27 The neighbor was one who showed mercy, who did something about the victim of crime. If you want to know whom you are to love as you love yourself, don't look at a man's clothes, or ethnic heritage, or occupation. Look in his eyes and find out why God loves him. Then love him too. God made him, and Christ died for him, and he may need salvation—and you are no judge of that. Love him. Love is work; love is a decision; love is an act of the will . You do it, it doesn't just happen to you.

If love is the highest commandment , and love is something you do —then can it really be by faith alone that we are saved, or by our response to something we have been given? What is faith that we might lay so much on it, as the only matter of our salvation? Someone asked Jesus again how to be saved: “ What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” John 6:28-29 Believe in the One God sent. That's good—we believe in Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior. St. Paul made it plainer, saying: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” Ephes. 2:8-9

Now Jesus was a worker, not just someone who, having faith, lay down to await his homecoming. He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.” John 4:34 “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” John 5:17 “the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.” John 5:36 “We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work.” John 9:4 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

Jesus wasn't afraid of work, and He commended good works to us as a sign that we are in Him, and to accomplish something on this earth. But is good work merely an outgrowth of our already accomplished salvation, or is it part and parcel to that state of grace, how we work out our own salvation in fear and trembling? Phil 2:12 Surely, we can build schools, establish hospitals, raise great cathedrals, launch Crusades, and go to church ten thousand times—and still go to hell. Without faith, such works are dead works. Do we all agree on that? But St. James, our Lord's own brother, says in Scriptures also that without the works that accomplish what faith believes, such faith is dead. “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself… You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder… Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,' and he was called the friend of God… For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” James 2:14-26

Not to belabor the point, but if I believe that God exists and that His Son died for me, the next thing I do is seek Him out, learn what it is such a God wants of me, and endeavor to do it. This some call pride and works , but consider the alternative: to believe that God is, and stay just as you were: deeply guilt ridden, sinful and lost . It isn't just the belief that gets you out of the devil's snare: you can be freed, the trap sprung, your escape route plainly before you, and if you stay there, having debates in your own head whether it's more faithful to remain and think yourself safe, or to run : what kind of fool stays in the prison? What kind of believer takes no steps to bring glory back to God, by acting out the faith, living out the salvation? Resisting grace and relying on a doctrine is a kind of double judgment, damnation by dogma.

A man I know is restrained from talking about the Devil and his devices in a Christian speech because it would take the focus off of God. We can make too much of Satan, for sure. But when we make God the only actor on the stage of this universe, the only one with the freedom to act of His own accord, sovereign over all actions, who has determined every outcome, and is causing every effect: haven't we made God into Satan, too? If evil still exists, and God is the only one able to choose and act and decide and move: don't we make Him the author of evil, as well as of good? I say, let the devil be the enemy, and one with potentiality; and let us fight him in Christ's strength and power. By this we show God's glory, that His puny creatures might fight and win against the accuser of the brethren.

Any doctrine can be used for good or for bad purposes. When we rely on a doctrine, be it Eternal Security, or Solo Fides , or the Priesthood of all Believers, or the Real Presence: we can miss the One who is behind it all. But if we understand that God is a Person , that He loves you and me, and bestows such love in us as well as on us , He is looking for fellowship in the most intimate way. He is waiting for our response—to love Him too. This is never forced—it can't be. He woos us, lavishes us with His grace, gives us the means and makes it possible for us to believe Him. But then comes a great silence… heaven watches and God awaits our move. It's our move. What are we going to do? What are we going to believe? Who are we going to love, and with such love, being obedient , aren't we entering the gates of eternity on our own feet, as it were? Isn't it the glory of God, that we ourselves might walk through those gates; not pushed or carried?

St. Paul is so often cited as the father of a doctrine of faith vs. works , but I read him as saying also, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15:58 “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephes. 2:10

It's not really a controversy, if we understand it rightly. Faith is not opposed to works done in faith; nor are our works corrosive to our faith in a God who is the source of all being, and who must be credited with our salvation. Faith and faithful works are two sides of the same coin, heads and tails. They must both reside in a Christian's life to the full. Either that, or at the end of the day, even Satan can sit back and give a sigh or relief, saying, “Ah, good. They were just talking. It was all just talk.”

PFH+