Here are some thoughts on Justification from the early church father John Chrysostom, courtesy of the great Reformer Thomas Cranmer and my friend (and fellow heir to the legacy of Chrysostom and Cranmer) David King:
Chrysostom (349-407): What does he mean when he says: “I have declared your justice?” He did not simply say: “I have given,” but “I have declared.” What does this mean? That he has justified our race not by right actions, not by toils, not by barter and exchange, but by grace alone. Paul, too, made this clear when he said: “But now the justice of God has been made manifest independently of the Law.” But the justice of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ and not through any labor and suffering.
Greek text: Τί ποτέ ἐστιν, Εὐηγγελισάμην δικαιοσύνην; Οὐκ εἶπεν ἁπλῶς,
Ἔδωκα, ἀλλ', Εὐηγγελισάμην. Τί δήποτε; Ὅτι οὐκ ἀπὸ κατορθωμάτων, οὐδὲ
πόνων, οὐδὲ ἀμοιβῆς, ἀλλʼ ἀπὸ χάριτος μόνης τὸ γένος ἐδικαίωσε τὸ
ἡμέτερον. Ὅπερ οὖν καὶ ὁ Παῦλος δηλῶν ἔλεγε· Νυνὶ δὲ χωρὶς νόμου
δικαιοσύνη Θεοῦ πεφανέρωται· δικαιοσύνη δὲ Θεοῦ διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ
Χριστοῦ, οὐ διὰ καμάτου τινὸς καὶ πόνου.
Adversus Judaeos, VII, §3, PG 48:919; translation in Fathers of the Church, Vol. 68, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, Disc. 7.3.2 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1979), pp. 186-187.
Friday, September 30, 2011
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2 comments:
If that doesn't warm your soul, not sure anything else would? The labor I labor is light and the sufferings I suffer these days are just unjust for what I should suffer!
Great is Our God! Unsearchable are His Ways! Amazing is His Grace! Merciful is His call!
The Apostle Peter, it seems to me, captures the fruitful essence of these matters well, as did others?
Peter: "...1Pe 1:5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. "
Sometimes the KJV grips my soul so much more:
1Pe 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Owen quotes Chrysostom in his (Owen's) work on justification: "he made him who was righteous to be made a sinner, that he might make sinners righteous... he speaks not of an inclination or affection, but expresses the quality itself. For he says not, he made him a sinner, but sin; that we might be made, not merely righteous, but righteousness, and that the righteousness of God, when we are justified not by works (for if we should, there must be no spot found in them) but by grace, whereby all sin is blotted out."
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