Sermon: Towards a Protestant doctrine of works

SERMONS

FROM RIVERSIDE

TOWARDS A PROTESTANT DOCTRINE OF WORKS

"Mi/ btuothznAl ttkat good aj> it fan. Aomzonz to 6ay,
' I kave. {cuth, ' tfi kU> action* do not p/iove. It?"

JamzA 2:14

Dr. Ernest T. Campbell

OCTOBER 23, 1973

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TOWARDS A PROTESTANT DOCTRINE OF WORKS

"Mi/ btiotk&al Wkcut good aj> it {on
someone to Aay, 'I kavz ficUtk,1
i{ hJji action* do not ptiove, it?"

JameA 2 '.14

My aim today is to attempt to correct a correction,
You must fight fire with fire, we say. Meet an extreme
with an extreme, If a row boat is capsizing to the
left you don't help matters by shifting to the middle,
you must move clean over to the other side. History
richly illustrates the soundness of this counsel.

Here on Reformation Sunday, 1973, I should like to
nail one thesis to the door that guards your mind. It
is this: The Reformers in their zeal to establish the
primacy of faith in Christian experience failed to ad-
equately develop a doctrine of works- They were guilty
of an over-correction.

Not for an instant would I minimize what the
Reformers recovered for us J Just as Peter and Paul
freed men and women up from a soul-stifling preoccu-
pation with legalistic minutiae, so Luther and Calvin
freed up the Christian church from a joyless "works-
righteousness." The church at that time had inter-
posed itself as a broker of God's grace. Indulgences,
which Roland Bainton describes as "the bingo of the
16th century," were rife in Luther's day.

"The just shall live by faith." This was the
watchword of the Reformation. This conviction seized
Martin Luther as an August inian monk when his studies
for a doctorate took him deep into Paul's letters,
especially Romans and Galatians. The way in which his
discovery affected him he tells in this heartening
way, "Night and day I pondered until I saw the connec-
tion between the justice of God and the statement that
'The just shall live by faith.' Then I grasped that

the justice of God is that righteousness by which
through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through
faith. Thereupon, I felt myself to be re-born and to
have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole
of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before
the "justice of God" had filled me with hate, now it
became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love."1

John Calvin, though perhaps more cerebral and less
demonstrative, was nonetheless happily committed to the
same certainty. He wrote: "He will be justified by
faith, who, being excluded from the righteousness of
works, apprehends by faith the righteousness of Christ,
invested in which, he appears, in the sight of God,
not as sinner but as a righteous man."

Only those who believe can obey. "Nothing makes
a man good," said Luther, "except faith, and nothing
makes a man evil except unbelief. "3 He doubtless
found support in that judgment from the word
that Jesus spoke that day when a crowd gathered and
asked, "What must we do to be doing the works of God?"
Jesus answered, "This is the work of God, that you
believe in Him whom He has sent." (Jn. 6:28-29) The
primacy of faith in Christian experience.

This recovered truth fell on a less than excited
Christendom like a long awaited benediction. God is
not some master computer keeping running accounts of
our moral debits and credits. God is not a policeman
looking to arrest us and see us sentenced. God is for
us. He is a merciful Father. We may come as we are.
The merit system is out. Grace is in! The All-
Terrible is the All-Merciful too!

Rapture has attended the proclamation of this
truth everywhere. To discover the acceptance of God
is to pass from mere religion into what the New
Testament means by life in Jesus Christ. Well might
we frisk the dictionary for words to hint the wonder
of it all. Why, it's like being lost -- then found.
It's like being in the darkest night and discovering

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light too bright for telling. It's like being in jail
and suddenly released. It's like being dead and brought
to life again. It's like being born a second time
and finding all things new. The primacy of faith is
what sets the bells to ringing in the New Testament.
God be praised for any and all who have preserved
that truth for our believing!

But the correction made by the Reformers was
achieved at the expense of another vital truth. God
wills us to live useful and productive lives. It falls
primarily to the Epistle of James to make this counter-
point in the New Testament. In the crisp language of
Today's English Version, James writes, "My brothers^
What good is it for someone to say, 'I have faith,' if
his actions do not prove it?"

No wonder Luther had a problem accepting this
letter as canonical. In the preface to his New
Testament he wrote, "The gospel and the first epistle
of St. John, St, Paul's epistles, especially those to
the Romans, Galatians and Ephesians; and St* Peter's
first epistle, are the books which show Christ to you.
They teach everything you need to know for your salva-
tion, even if you were never to see or hear any other
book or hear any other teaching. In comparison with
these the epistle of James is an epistle full of straw ,
because it contains nothing evangelical* "^

Protestantism, I insist, under the influence of
Luther and Calvin, has not dealt adequately with the
point that James makes . We need to make room for works
in Protestant theology. Out failure to do this shows
itself in at least two ways.

sV ft ft

First, I am concerned that we give inordinate
attention to how one becomes a Christian and insuffi-
cient attention to what one is to do once he is a

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Christian. Evangelical Christianity celebrates with
ecstasy the entrance into the Christian life. It has
a fixation on the starting gate. It is more interested
in obstetrics than pediatrics or geriatrics -- that is,
it is more interested in how new life begins than how
it matures or ages. It is fascinated more by the
dynamics of guilt and forgiveness than the dynamics
of command and obedience.

This summer we had an opportunity to hear preach
in this pulpit William Muehl, the distinguished pro-
fessor of homiletics at Yale Divinity School. In his
book, All The Damned Angels, Dr. Muehl presents a
sermon on the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.
He entitled the sermon, "The Cult of the Publican."
In that message he agrees that it is praiseworthy when
a man goes up into the temple humbly, maintains a
respectful distance from the altar, casts his eyes
down and prays modestly, "God, be merciful to me
a sinner."

But Muehl goes on to raise some searching questions
How many times had this man approached the temple in
that manner? Was his piety a habit? Did he enjoy
fresh beginnings without continuing on into anything
significant? According to the record, "he went down
to his house justified rather than the other."
(Lk. 18 14) What did he do when he got home? Was
his response to God predictable and neatly stylized?

There is both whimsy and point in the way Muehl
puts it: "Sometimes in my mind's eye I can see this
Publican raising his children to follow in his foot-
steps. 'Now kiddies, when you enter the temple you
must on no account approach the altar. Stand at a
humble distance, and for pity's sake, don't raise
your eyes. Bring your arm up in a full swing and
strike the breast just below the collarbone. Now
all together. Let's take it once more from the top.
And this time make your daddy proud of you.'"13

Let it be said in fairness to Luther that he

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stated on the subject that our faith in Christ does not
free us from works but from false opinions concerning
works. But this mild qualifier does not offset the
basic damage done.

A correction needs to be made on the correction
of the Reformers. There are multiplied tens of thou-
sands of Christians in this land alone who fully be-
lieve that they are justified by faith, but their
behavior makes no commensurate difference in the on-
going life of this republic. Christianity is not
primarily a decision but a life. God's purpose in
forgiving us is to return us to our true vocation as
His fellow- workers here in this creation.

Flash back to the startling illustration that
James uses. "Suppose there are brothers or sisters
who need clothes and don't have enough to eat. What
good is there in your saying to them, 'God bless you!
Keep warm and eat well!' — if you don't give them the
necessities of life? So it is with faith. If it is
alone and has no actions with it, then it is dead."
(Jas 2:14-17)

All the action isn't at the starting gate! How
pitiful it would be to see a man come screaming
through the city saying, "I'm born, I'm born." We'd
say to him, "Good. What now?" Or to see a released
prisoner running through the streets saying, "I'm
pardoned, I'm pardoned." "Great. Praise God. Where
now?"

I remember a cartoon that showed a returned
Prodigal sitting down with his family to a sumptuous
feast. The single tag line was given to the father:
"Son, this is the third fatted calf we've killed for
you, when are you going to settle down?" In Jesus'
parable, when the Prodigal returned he wanted to
work. "Make me as one of your hired servants."
The father, however, received him back as a son.
But can you imagine what would have happened to him,
to his brother, to his father and to all the others

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if he had simply gone around the farm shouting, "I'm
back, I'm back," "So, you're back," In time he'd
have to milk those cows, wouldn't he? Or press some
olives. Or g'et the barley in. Redemption is tied to
creation. It is not God's interest to simply collect
souls out of the world but to see the whole of life
redeemed.

My second concern is this: We belittle confession
by not connecting it to works. Confession is a vital
part of the Christian life — no matter what liberal
Christians may say to the contrary. To indicate our
belief in the importance of confession we have a Prayer
of Corporate Confession in our worship week by week
coupled with an Assurance of Pardon. That action in
our service is likely more symbolic and suggestive than
real, for honest confession is deeply personal and should,
I believe , be heard by another human being who has also
opened his life to the grace of God.

Our Roman Catholic friends are wise in their cure
of souls by insisting on confession. Martin Luther
believed in private confession. He called it a cure
without an equal for distressed consciences. What
I'm interested in having you see is the way in which
our Roman Catholic friends have tied penance to con-
fession. Penance, according to the "Baltimore Cate-
chism," is "a sacrament in which the sins committed
after baptism are forgiven."

Question No. 800 in that same catechism asks,
"Why does the priest give us a penance after confes-
sion?" Notice carefully, "The priest give us a pen-
ance after confession that we may satisfy God for the
temporal punishment due to our sins. "6 Mercy at the
divine level does not rule out the need to make things
right on earth. One form of penance frequently pre-
scribed by priests is "corporal works of mercy."
What are these? "We may briefly state the corporal
works of mercy by saying that we are obliged to help

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the poor in all their forms of want."'

I've taken the long way around to suggest that how-
ever adequate it may be theologically for us to con-
fess our sins and be absolved by an assurance of par-
don, it is seldom enough psychologically I My years
in the pastorate convince me that when people confess
some deeply troubling sin, they need something more
than a word . They need to be directed to a course of
action that will help to make things right.

We tend to shy away from this . It is too hot
for us because It is Roman and not Protestant. Mean-
while, we go on suffering from insufficiently exorcised
guilt. I have no doubt whatsoever that part of
St. Paul's zeal as a Christian was born out of a desire
to make up for his earlier persecution of Christians.
What's wrong with that?

I am equally sure that much of Peter's latter day
consecration to God resulted from an awareness of his
earlier denials of Christ . He had some making up to
do. What's wrong with that? Repentance and works go
hand-in-hand. Jesus Himself said we ought to "bear
fruit that befits repentance." (Mat. 3:8)

What I have in mind can happen at the personal
and corporate levels. Imagine a man in his late forties
who is utterly thoughtless of his mother and careless
of her welfare. While charging toward the top in his
chosen profession he simply has no time for her. His
mother dies. He is stricken with all kinds of remorse.
The pastor can tell him to commit it all to God, for-
get it and go on . I suggest that it would be more
helpful to tell this man in the name of God that he
ought to go out and adopt an elderly woman in his
mother's place and be a son to her. Why not?

Or , here is a self-made man who is charmed by his
own capacities. On his way to the top he thanked no
one. "What have I wrought!" is his only theme. Sud-
denly he experiences a moment of truth. He sees that

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he reached the pinnacle with the aid of many people
whom he never thanked. Now he's telling his pastor
how sorry he is for this reproachable pride. ,;Why
shouldn't the minister say to him, "I communicate to
you the forgiveness of God, but also I want you to
write a note of thanks every day you live to someone
who has helped you, whether in the distant past or
the nearer present."

George Buttrick tells of a wealthy woman in his
parish here in New York years ago who by her own sub-
sequent admission was mean and quarrelsome and selfish
through most of her early and middle life. She con-
fessed her wretchedness of soul. George Buttrick
spoke the forgiving word but he also said to this
woman, "I want you here at the church with your
chauffeur every Tuesday. I want you to find out,
which of our members are in hospital, and I want
you to visit every one of them and, where possible,
take them some flowers." The woman did it. She did
it week after week and year after year until toward
the end she was known as "the little lady of the
hospitals/' What's wrong with that?

Whatrs wrong with making up at the corporate level
too? What's wrong with a dominant white community, in
the spirit of repentance, making it up to black people.
What's wrong with that? Why do we have so much trouble
as a nation coming round to the rightness of repara-
tions. What's wrong with our doing something for the
American Indian besides saying, "We're sorry." Why
can't we make it up to him? What's wrong with our
telling the prisoners up and down this land that we
have made a travesty of their rehabilitation and
trying to make it up to them. Forgiveness must be
in more than words and feeling. It needs to be sup-
ported by good works.

We are not saved bv_ deeds , I know. But we are
saved for deeds, aren't we? Didn't Jesus tell us that
we were to let our light shine before men so that they
may see our good works and glorify our Father who is

in heaven! (Mat. 5:16) Paul speaks of good works as
those things which God has ordained that we should walk
in them. (Eph. 2:10)

To verbalize repentance and to know ourselves for-
given simply on the basis of an inner sentiment and an
outer word is to indulge in what Bonhoeffer called
"cheap grace." One of Harry Emerson Fosdick's percep-
tive litanies carries this exchange:

"From all claiming of faith while we have

not works ; •
From taking comfort in the luxury of Thy grace
while we forget the necessity of
Thy righteousness,
Good Lord, deliver us. "8

Only those who believe can obey. But it is also
true that only those who obey can believe. My brothers
and sisters, "what good is it for someone to say,
'I have faith,' if his actions do not prove it?"

CLOSING PRAYER

To Tky gn.ac.touA ntvtuiA) and judgment
We commit ouaj>&Iv2J>, 0 God.

Help ua to pat It alt togeXktn, liAt In
Loving Tfiee m neglect oun. nzighbofi,
On. In meeting ou/i n2A.gh.bon' 6 need
OuJi ficuth In Th.2.2, {att hhont.

ThAougk 32AUA Cknti>t we pnay -
{on. Hti> 4afee and {on ouAA.

Amen.

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FOOTNOTES

1. Bainton, Roland, Here I Stand, pp. 49-50,
Abingdon Press, 1950.

2. Calvin, John, Institutes of The Christian Religion,
Vol. I, p. 793, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia.

3. Kerr, Hugh Thomas, Jr., (Ed.) A Compend of Luther's
Theology , p. 100, The Westminster Press, Phila-
delphia.

*4. Barclay, William, The Letters of James and Peter,
p. 7, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1958.

5. Muehl, William, All The Damned Angels, p. 24,
Pilgrim Press Book, Philadelphia, 1972.

6. Kinkead, Thomas L. , A Catechism of Christian
Doctrine, p. 168, Benziger Brothers, Inc.,
New York, 1921.

7. Ibid. , pp. 172-173.

8. Fosdick, Harry Emerson, Pilgrim Hymnal, p. 12,
The Pilgrim Press, Boston, 1958.

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