Which Came First
May 23, 2020
Ephesians
2:1-10
We
all know the unanswerable question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The question is or at least seems unanswerable because eggs from chickens but chickens
come from eggs. So when you try to answer the question you end up just going
around in circles getting nowhere. There’s a “which came first” question that
that is a bit like the chicken and egg question. This one lies at the heart of
Christian faith: Which came first, grace or good works? Actually this question
is better phrased “Which comes first, grace or good works?” That’s
because it isn’t a one time only question about something that happened in the
past. It is a continuing question for us Christians. Tragically, Christians
have waged wars with each other over their different answers to this question. The
question lies at the heart of the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic
Church of the time said good works come first. Martin Luther and other
Reformers said grace comes first or at least that faith comes first. The
question and how we answer it are however not merely of historical interest.
They are of foundational theological interest to anyone who wants to take
Christianity seriously.
By
far the most ancient answer that the Christian church gave at least in western
Europe is that we earn grace or at least the benefits of grace through good
works. To this way of seeing the matter good works come first. To be saved we
must do the right things and not do the wrong things in our lives. For the most
part that idea got boiled down to the notion that we must not commit sins and
if, or really when, we do we must confess our sins and perform some sort of
penance so God will forgive our sin.[1] In
this way of thinking of the matter we get out of right relationship with God
when we sin, that is, when we do something wrong. We then have to do something
right in order to get back into God’s good graces. Works come first, then grace
understood as an earned reward for those works.
The
verses I cited at the beginning of this post give, or at least can be
understood to give, a different view of the matter. Those verses contain these
words: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own
doing, it is the gift of God—not the result of works.” Ephesians 2:8-9a. This
text also says: “For we are what he made us, created in Christ for good works,
which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10. In these
verses grace seems to come first, good works follow. So which answer is right?
Which does come first, grace or good works?
I always
give a very Protestant answer to that question. Grace comes first. Grace has to
come first because if it doesn’t it isn’t grace. That what Ephesians seems to
say here. We are saved by grace not by works. Our being in right relationship
with God comes from God’s side of the relationship not from our side of it.
Grace comes first. It is always there whether we know it or not. I simply
cannot believe that we can manipulate God into saving us or not saving us by
doing or not doing good works. God is love—always. Grace is God’s love extended
to us. It is God’s love active in the relationship between God and us. If God
is love always then God’s grace is there always. We don’t save ourselves, God
saves us. Period.
I
have taught and preached God’s universal, unconditional grace as being there for
all people and not as something we need to earn or ever could earn even if we
had to for as long as I’ve been in ministry. And I have often gotten a quite
predictable objection to that idea. People have said to me more than once “You’re
taking way everyone’s motivation for being good!” It’s an obvious objection but
a serious one. Here’s how I respond to it.
We
speak of God’s grace not of God’s paycheck. Grace is something freely given not
something earned or it isn’t grace. If we have to earn it, it becomes something
other than grace. It becomes payment not gift. The author of Ephesians (said in
the Letter to be Paul but almost certainly not Paul) got that. Our salvation,
he says, is a gift of God not the result of works. Couldn’t have said it better
myself! Grace has to come first because if it didn’t it wouldn’t be grace.
Which,
while true, doesn’t address the objection we’re addressing here. If we don’t
have to do anything to be saved why not attack, steal from, and kill anyone we
want? People asked the same question of Paul. Having just said that Christ’s
obedience to God makes many righteous he says: “What then are to so say? Should
be continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who
died to sin [when we were baptized] go on living in it?” Romans 6:1-2. The
second question is clearly rhetorical. The answer to it is clearly “We can’t!”
Our text from Ephesians at least suggests the same answer. It says that God
prepared good works “beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10. So here’s
the lesson: We are saved by God’s grace not by our good works, but good works
are to be our way of life.
Grace
comes first. We don’t earn it, God gives it freely and without price. Yet when
we truly feel God’s love we know that we must react in love, not to earn grace
but to respond to grace. To respond to love with love. Our good works are not
the price of grace, they are what we give in return for grace freely given. Is
it theoretically possible to stand in God’s grace and still live sinfully? Perhaps,
but if someone is living sinfully it’s a pretty good bet that that person doesn’t
truly understand God’s gift of grace. Great love truly understood calls forth
great love. Sure, God’s love is always greater than ours, but when we know as
much of God’s love as we can we will respond with as much love as we can. That’s
how grace works. It’s free. So is our response. Our response is free, but we
can’t not do it, not if we truly know God’s grace.
So
which comes first, grace or good works? Grace. Always grace. That’s why it’s
grace and not payment. So let us freely return love for grace as grace is
freely given to us. That’s the life of Christian faith—gifts of love freely
given, not rewards won by works. God doesn’t make us do good works before
saving us. God saves us, then we do good works. That way of thinking doesn’t
remove people’s motivation for being good, but it does change that motivation.
Understood this way the Christian faith is one of pure freedom rather than one
of dire necessity. May we really get that truth and live accordingly.
[1] I’m
not Catholic, but I know that the priest’s traditional response to a person’s
confession of sin was “Ego te absolvo,” I absolve you.” I have never understood
that phrase. To me only God can forgive sin. I can’t, at least not in any
cosmic sense. I can forgive someone for having done something wrong toward me,
but I forgive them only for myself, certainly not for God. In casual
conversation if I hear someone say that they did something not quite proper I
might say “ego te absolvo,” but I mean it as a joke. The theological issue here
is ecclesiastic not soteriological, but I’ve commented on it nonetheless, for
what little it may be worth.
No comments:
Post a Comment