Tom's question -- is faith a work?
Tom Ward raises an interesting question in a comment on a post of mine:
Do we receive Christ's righteousness, on the Protestant scheme, by anything we do? If so, does that not count, for Protestants, as a work?
I think the answer is that we do do something to receive righteousness, viz. exercise faith. This doesn't count as a work because the will is passive at this point.
There are two other suggestions, both less common and (probably heterodox):
(i) we are justified from all eternity, and do not receive righteousness at conversion
(ii) faith doesn't count as a work because it is merely the reception of what has already been achieved for us by Christ -- but could one not still boast if the will is active here?
Do we receive Christ's righteousness, on the Protestant scheme, by anything we do? If so, does that not count, for Protestants, as a work?
I think the answer is that we do do something to receive righteousness, viz. exercise faith. This doesn't count as a work because the will is passive at this point.
There are two other suggestions, both less common and (probably heterodox):
(i) we are justified from all eternity, and do not receive righteousness at conversion
(ii) faith doesn't count as a work because it is merely the reception of what has already been achieved for us by Christ -- but could one not still boast if the will is active here?
posted by Daniel Hill | 6/17/2006 12:05:00 pm
2 Comments:
Does that mean that we can prevent God from imputing salvation to us Daniel?
Isn't that the slippery slope to Romanism?
Thanks, Tom. Calvin's line is that grace is irresistible, i.e. we cannot prevent God from imputing Christ's righteousness to us. I don't see a problem myself between this and the view that the will is passive when Christ's righteousness is imputed. Indeed, maybe the point is that we cannot resist precisely because our will is overborne and passive?
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