The Bible teaches that justification (or how someone is right with God) is by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-10). We are not saved in whole or in part by our "good works." Faith alone means trusting Christ alone. It means we trust Jesus alone because He has the all-sufficient merit for how someone is right with God. No one else in human history has the right to be trusted for "spiritual salvation or redemption" than our Lord and Deliverer Jesus Christ! What did Jesus do in His earthly life? I suggest to you that from the stand point of ancient and sacred history Jesus lived a sinless life that no one else lived! This is why we can trust in His perfect, clean, righteous, pure, holy, upright, godly and divine righteousness. Do not trust in your own "righteousness" because you are a sinner, but Jesus was NEVER a sinner. That is why a person can trust in the sinless righteousness of Jesus Christ because He earned redemption and salvation for us. Some of the early fathers taught the Reformer's doctrine of justification. We ought to learn from them that this is not a novel Reformed doctrine of the very nature of justification. Here is a quote from Clement (80-101 AD):
"In love the Master took us unto Himself; for the love which He had toward us, Jesus Christ our Lord hath given His blood for us by the will of God, and His flesh for our flesh and His life for our lives...Thy all therefore were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous doing which they wrought, but through His will. And so we, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning; to whom be the glory for ever and ever." (J.B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, The Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians, 49, 32 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), pp. 34, 26)Here is a quote from Polycarp (69-155/156 AD):
"Forasmuch as ye know that it is by grace ye are saved, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ." (Ibid., The Epistle of St. Polycarp, 1, p. 95).
In early church history we see that Clement and Polycarp both taught what Martin Luther and John Calvin taught in light of the sacred pages of the Bible. That is, spiritual salvation is not through good works or anything else but through the sacred will of God through Jesus Christ. I suggest to you that if only people listened to the biblical interpretations of the fathers they would understand that they taught that salvation was by grace alone through faith alone. Its harder to have faith than to do "good works." The sinful nature does not want to have faith and rest in Jesus. I suggest to you this day that faith in Jesus is not only possible but actual through the regenerating power of the Spirit of God and the efficacious power of the written Word. May God grant people to bring reformation to Rome and everywhere the gospel is compromised! Amen.
