A WITNESS IN THE WORKS

"Aaron, are you even saved?", inquired a concerned pastor.

"Do you still believe in Christ? In his Resurrection? Do you still trust in him for your Salvation?"

I was on the brink, drifting so far to sea. I wondered if the current was too strong, if I would ever get back to land. 

Yet, when those questions were vaulted my way from a Pastor ready to hand down the sentence of Apostate, I was able to respond to him and to myself in the affirmative, only finally settling those questions a day or two prior. When I had given it a hard look and searched deep within, I had concluded that my Faith was indeed real. Funny though, it wasn’t what I thought would allow me to see my foundation. I wasn’t convinced by reasons and arguments. The Kalaam Cosmological Argument did not persuade, The moral argument didn’t steer me back to the right path, it was simply my life in Christ. The matter was settled by simply looking within. I have communed and experienced God in a profound way and that I could not deny. I know this won’t persuade anyone, it is not meant to, this little tidbit was for myself. It’s personal, intimate. 

But this is not the reason for this post. 

Maybe, he was frustrated with my quiet demeanor, my silent shrugging defensiveness, or maybe the Pastor was just holding up a mirror of words for me to see the state I was in, he continued his questioning… to my surprise. 

“Well, then what are you doing for the Lord? What good works can you point to, to show you are a Christian? I mean, James says even the Demons believe. What works are you doing?”

It hit me hard, like being whacked over the head with a scriptural sledge hammer. 

I’m sure I smirked.  Offered a little grin, even a slight huff to go on the side. I normally do when something strikes me. 

Meeting two days, in two weeks, something finally struck a chord, probably not the way the Pastor intended. I mean I knew I had been drifting for the past year or two, into the gray.  I knew there was nothing empathic I could point to for his assurance, or for mine. I could point to the distant past but nothing of recent value. In a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately worldview, I had fallen from the bandwagon.

Yet it wasn’t my failures of performing good works that left me pondering and maybe I’m not sure what hit me so profoundly. I mean, I had heard that type of questioning before, surely I had even given the speech once or twice. Maybe it was simply the irony of a reformed pastor now questioning my salvation based upon good works.

I suppose I realized just at that moment how important good works truly are in the Christian Life. As Protestants, I often think we like to slice and dice theology a bit too much, to dissect every fine point. Maybe we go too far. Heresy to suggest, I know. 

We proclaim loudly and with vigilance: Salvation is by faith alone!  Unless you’re on the threshold of apostasy, then we cry out something strangely different. By God, it’s faith alone with actions to show your faith alone. I know, I know of the perfectly dissected theology behind it. Justification comes by faith. Works do not save us, they bear witness on whether we are actually saved, as part of the sanctification process. Maybe when scrutinized this is indeed God’s process, but from a human standpoint, it’s awkward. 

On a side note: it’s funny, the only time scripture speaks of Faith Alone is to say that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone (James 2:24). 

But then something happens, we see those around us falling by the wayside or turning their back altogether. What do we do with those people who are living in sin, others who leave the faith and deny Christ? Where do they fit into our paradigm? Our best response is that they were never saved. They pretended to be saved. 

Maybe that’s true of some. Most. But they were all pretenders?  

On the other hand there’s the camp that says they’re backslidden, but Christ will bring them back. Even if they live out the rest of their days in a life of rebellion.  Who, like me, have nothing to show for it, will in the end be saved, because at some point they stood up at a crusade.

Sure. Possibly. I don’t know. 

I do like the little bit of what I have heard from Orthodoxy on the subject. To ask them if they are saved is asking the wrong question. As I understand Orthodoxy, it would probably be more proper to ask are you being saved. They are working out their salvation with fear and trembling. Faith and works. There seems to be a fuzziness between  justification and sanctification, a blurring of the clearly dissected protestant lines. 

Sounds strange at first. But what I like is this: in the blurring it becomes clear that I don’t know. I’m not quite sure how God works. I mean I know about justification, sanctification, and glorification, but how God is dealing with me or anyone else in a personal spiritual realm, well I can’t give you a point by point breakdown.

On the other hand, from a human perspective, I can tell you our life is not about a one time commitment, but a life communing with the true and living God. Salvation is played out in a life with Christ, a life in Christ. For the Reformed we call it perseverance or a Lordship issue, for the Catholic and the non-denominational alike, it’s Abiding. It's separate ways of looking at the issue I suppose, from the outside looking in or from the inside looking out. The human perspective verses God's panorama.

For me, for now, the issue is not the theories or theological distinctive, but a life well lived.  At the end of the day, at the end of my life I desire what I think all christians do... to hear the words from the lips of our Lord, "Well Done, good and faithful servant."