Was the Bible For or Against Luther's Work? (part 3 of series)

Continued from previous. Imputed only righteousness in Philippians 3:9?

7 But what things were gain to me, those I have counted loss for Christ.

8 But indeed I count all things to be but loss, for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ,

9 And may be found in him not having my justice, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ Jesus: the justice which is of God in faith,

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death:

Ver. 9. I may be found in him not having my justice, which is of the law; i.e. not pretending to be justified either by my own works or by the works of the Jewish law, but by that which proceedeth from faith in Christ, and by his merits. (Witham) --- St. Augustine expounds the sense thus: not that justice which is in God, or by which God is just, but that which is in man from God, and by his gifts. (lib. 3. cont. 2. ep. Pelag.)

Ver. 10. That I may know him. This knowledge of Christ the apostle prefers to all honours and advantages accruing from his adherence to the synagogue.

So, St Paul wishes to actually have the justice which is of God. Not to have it just imputed.

"Faith involves trusting solely in the promises of God and the finished work of Christ"

Romans 4:16 was the other reference.

6 As David also termeth the blessedness of a man, to whom God reputeth justice without works:

Sorry, that one was 4:6. Its sequel says sth about non-imputation of sins - a negative justice imputated. We agree in that one. But what about the positive one which is of God? The one which we have, which St Paul wants to have?

16 Therefore it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be firm to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

Ver. 16. There are two kinds of children of Abraham, to whom alone these promises are made; the one is according to the flesh, the other according to the spirit. The former of these had no more part in the promises made to him and his seed than the Gentiles, unless they imitated the fidelity and obedience of their father. (Calmet) --- It is in this sense of spiritual father, that the [Catholic] priest at the altar, speaking in the name of the faithful, calls Abraham our patriarch. (Estius)

This is not about imputed only justice, but about why Law of Moses is not a necessity.

Hebrews 11:6

6 But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and is a rewarder to them that seek him.

Ver. 6. He proves the Henoch[Enoch] was translated by faith, or on account of faith, thus: Henoch was translated because he pleased God; now he could not please God but by faith; therefore by faith he was translated. (Menochius)

So, faith is our first duty. It involves a reward of one good action : seeking God.

"Luther expressed it thus: 'He [Christ] died for me, He made His righteousness mine, and made my sin His own; and if he made my sin His own, then I do not have it, and I am free.' Describing this culmination of his spiritual journey, as the burden of his sin lifted, Luther wrote: 'All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates.' For the first time in his life, he experienced the assurance of salvation and peace with God that only Jesus can give (Hebrews 2:14-15; 9:14)."

Is Jesus giving each individual a complete assurance of Salvation?

2:14 Forasmuch then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same: that, *through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil:

15 And might deliver them, who, through the fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to slavery.

Ver. 14. That, through death, he might destroy the power of him who had the empire of death, who, by tempting men to sin, had made them slaves to him and to eternal death; so that they lived always slaves to the devil, under a miserable fear of death, and liable to eternal death. (Witham)

Ver. 15. The devil, by exciting men to sin, made them liable to a temporal and eternal death; he was, therefore, the prince of death, both as to soul and body. Jesus Christ, the life and source of life, has by his death destroyed sin and vanquished the devil; he has, at once, triumphed over the prince of death, and death itself; and by the assurance which he has given us of eternal life, has delivered us from the terrible apprehensions of dying. To a good Christian, death is the termination of misery and the beginning of eternal happiness; why, therefore, should we be afraid to die? We ought rather, with St. Paul, to say: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.

9:13 *For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer, being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh:

14 *How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Holy Ghost, offered himself without spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?

Ver. 13-14. For if the blood of goats, &c. Another main difference betwixt the sacrifices in the old, and that of Christ in the new law. Those imperfect carnal sacrifices could only make the priests and the people reputed clean, so that they were no longer to be treated as transgressors, and liable to punishments, prescribed and inflicted by the law: but the sacrifice of Christ has made our consciences interiorly clean, and sanctified them even in the sight of God. Having offered himself unspotted to God by the Holy Ghost, the divine Spirit of the Holy Ghost moving Christ as man to make this oblation of himself, though free from all sin, and incapable of sinning. And being this oblation, made by him, who was God as well as man, it was an oblation of infinite value, which repaired the injury done to God by sin, and redeemed mankind from the slavery of sin. (Witham) --- Here we have an abstract of the passion of Jesus Christ, or of the sacrifice of the cross. We see who is the priest, and who is the victim; we see the virtue and efficacy of this sacrifice, and why it was offered; also by what signs we may know whether we partake of it, viz. if dying to sin and to the world, we live to God, and serve him in spirit and truth. Calvin makes Jesus Christ a priest and mediator, according to his divinity; but in that case Christ would be inferior to his Father, not only as man, but according to his divinity: for the priest is inferior to the God to whom he offers sacrifice, which is an expression of supreme excellence. See Dr. Kellison's survey of the Protestant religion.

"Luther had discovered that the biblical text from the Latin Vulgate, used to support the sacrament of penance, involved a mistranslation. St Jerome’s Latin translation of Christ’s command in Matthew 4:17 reads: 'Do penance (paenitentiam agite), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' But the Erasmus Greek translation says: “Μετανοεῖτε (metanoeite), meaning ‘repent’ or ‘change your mind’. That is, God demands a changed heart and mind, not the doing of deeds. ‘To do penance’ and ‘to repent’ are two different things, and thus doing penance is not what this passage teaches."

To do penances is a different thing from doing penance.

Doing penance, we do by recollecting and repenting sins, and bringing them to God through the priest. Doing penances we do over and above satisfaction, and we do it according to the penances imposed by the priest.

4:17 *From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Ver. 17. Jesus began not to preach till St. John had announced his coming to the world, that the dignity of his sacred person might thus be manifested, and the incredulous Jews be without excuse. If after the preaching of St. John, and his express testimony of the divinity of our Redeemer, they could still say: thou givest testimony of thyself; thy testimony is not true: what would they not have said, if, without any precursor, he had, all on a sudden, appeared amongst them. He did not begin to preach till St. John was cast into prison, that the people might not be divided. On this account also St. John wrought no miracle, that the people might be struck with the miracles of our Saviour, and yield their assent to him. (St. Chrysostom, hom. 14.) --- It may here be remarked, how different were the motives of the prophets from those which the baptist and Christ made use of to exhort to repentance. The former menaced evil, and held out a promise of good, but the good or evil was temporal. St. John begins his exhortations with the threat of eternal punishments---but Christ sweetens the hardships of penance by reminding us of the reward. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Jansenius)

"He defended marriage of the clergy on the grounds that Genesis 2:18 was 'the Word of God by virtue of which … the passionate natural inclination towards women is created and maintained. It may not be prevented by vow and law. For it is God’s Word and work.'"

This is behind the wrong in the Nashville declaration, saying marriage is God's will for each and all.

2:18 And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself.

Nevertheless, Jesus was alone, and so was Jeremias. He may have been counted as married so his widow could give him a son through levirate, but he was living alone.

In this sense, clergy can follow the higher example. If Pope Michael is the true Pope, priesthood is no longer reserved even in Latin rite for those who do so, but once this vow has been finally made, it must also be kept.

Now, to a new part by Russell Grigg:

Luther’s Legacy
by Russell Grigg, Published: 10 October 2017
https://creation.com/luthers-legacy

"Salvation is the gift of God, acquired through faith alone, received through God’s grace alone, (Ephesians 2:8–9; 2 Timothy 1:9), because of Christ alone."

8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: for it is the gift of God;

9 Not of works, that no man may glory.

Before looking at the comment : not OF works, but also not so as to live thereafter WITHOUT them either. Not of works, but to works, as far as Salvation begins in this life. Here is the comment:

Ver. 8. Faith is the beginning, foundation, and root of justification, and the first of all other virtues, without which it is impossible to please God. (Bristow)

Ver. 9. Not of works, as of our own growth, or from ourselves: but as from the grace of God. (Challoner)

I did not see any "faith alone", as if for instance Sacraments are not required to bring someone from a state of sin to a state of grace, normally.

I did see "through faith", and never without it.

"was not only necessary but was also both complete and sufficient to pay the total penalty for our sins and thereby discharge our sin-debt to God in full (Hebrews 7:25)."

If someone who refuses to believe is not saved, is it because Christ's death was not sufficient? No, but because he is not abiding on the terms by which it gives him life. Now, remitting the sin debt in full is done once : when you are baptised (unless you pose an obstacle). If we sin after baptism, we can still come back again, for any sin which leaves us any room to real and efficient repentance (a successful suicide by gunshot for instance does not give one time, taking the mark of the beast may well take away one's freedom).

But this second (or these many second) takings away of our sin-debt usually does involve some remaining duties on our part.

7:25 Whereby he is able also to save for ever them that approach to God by himself: always living to make intercession for us.

Ver. 25. Make intercession. Christ, as man, continually maketh intercession for us, by representing his passion to his Father. (Challoner)

The Confraternity Bible does not have "able also to save for ever", but "able at all times to save".

Latin has:

"salvare in perpetuum potest"

And you can parse it either way.

salvare in perpetuum | potest
He is able to save-for-ever.

salveare | in perpetuum potest
He is for ever able to save = He is at all times able to save.

Greek has:

καὶ σῴζειν εἰς τὸ παντελὲς δύναται

Which can also be parsed either way, since in Greek as in Latin, the normal place for an adverbial in relation to an infinitive is after, in relation to a finite verb before, however, less strongly so in Greek:

καὶ | σῴζειν εἰς τὸ παντελὲς | δύναται
"also, He is able to save-into-complete, entire, perfect, through all time" (Strong 3838)

καὶ | σῴζειν | εἰς τὸ παντελὲς δύναται
"also, He is able into-complete, entire, perfect, through all time to save" (dito)

Obviously, the words after δύναται are direct object to σῴζειν. Some Grecist better than I (how about giving me some slack, since I left off Greek in 1992!) would be better positioned than I to know if the word position is possible either way or favours one of the meanings.

However, we are not just at the mercy of diverse views of Greek syntax. We must take into account it is a Biblical teaching some do loose their salvation and need to get it back - and some even can't.

This is the drama which Luther sooner or later imagined or made others imagine was just a "Papist scare".

Note also very well, that residual duties after remission of sins are not against "σῴζειν εἰς τὸ παντελὲς" : a man who must fast on earth or who must go through Purgatory is already totally saved. He is, as long as he sins no more, in no risk of Hell, and those who are in Purgatory cannot risk Hell again, unless someone were to be resuscitated : but this God more usually does with people either firmly hoping to retain salvation, as having tasted it (St Lazarus had been in the bosom of Abraham) or with those who very seldom get a second chance after having been in Hell.

"This is the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1, 3–4), and there is none other that saves (Acts 4:12; Galatians 1:8)."

In the context of this panegyric over Luther, this sounds like a kind of rejection of the Catholic doctrine being thus buttressed by the Bible.

15:1 Now *I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,

2 By which also you are saved: if you hold fast after what manner I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you first of all, which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, *according to the Scriptures:

4 *And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures:

Oh, wait ... 1 Cor 1 - 4 is not about "faith not works", as in Luther's polemics against the Catholic Church, but about faith in resurrection needing to be kept inviolate, orthodox. Indeed, it is paramount : but other, less paramount things also need to be kept inviolate, orthodox.

Here are two general comments on the chapter:

This chapter is addressed to some among the Corinthians who denied the resurrection: St. Paul, therefore, in order to cure this philosophical opinion, gives them his counsel and advice in this chapter; and lest he might be thought to preach up a new doctrine, in the beginning of his admonitions he informs them that he is preaching no other gospel than what he has always taught, and wherein they believe. (Estius)

And Confraternity Bible:

Christ's resurrection was difficult for pagans to believe. When the Athenians heard it some began to sneer (Act 17, 32); Festus thought Paul mad when he spoke of it (Acts 26, 24). At Corinth some questioned the fact of our resurrection, others also the resurrection of Christ (12).

It also has a comment on verses 1 and 4:

1. Being saved: the process is continual from the first grace through perseverance to glory. 4. According to the Scriptures: Christ's death is foretold in Isa. 53, 4-9; His burial and resurrection in Isa. 53, 9; Pss. 6, 3; 15, 10; Jonas 2, 1 f (cf. Matt. 12, 40).

Acts 4:12

12 Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name, under heaven, given to men, whereby we must be saved.

Salvation by Christ, not by the Old Law. If you look at the context.

Confraternity Bible has this comment:

8-12. Answering the assembled Sanhedrin, St. Peter again touches on the chief points in his previous discourses, insisting on Christ's crucifixion and resurrection and His present power and glory; salvation is to be found only in Him, not in the Jewish Law.

Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an Angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.

Note, St Paul does not say "besides that which I have written", but "besides that which we have preached to you". In other words, all of the Apostolic Tradition needs to be kept inviolate. Any heretic, be it against an express proof text or against a general part of the Church's lore, is, in the terms of St Paul, anathema.

In context of previous verse, this is clearly in this context about Judaisers. People claiming that keeping the Ritual Law is required for Salvation.

Here is a comment on same with both surrounding verses, from Confraternity Bible:

7. Which is not another gospel: there is only one gospel of Christ, while the Judaizers were preaching among the Galatians serious doctrinal errors as if they were the gospel. 8. Anathema: cursed, excluded from the kingdom of God. 9. St. Paul reminds the Galatians of the warning he and his companions had given them before, possibly on his second visit, against false teachers.

Hmmmm ... against false teachers? All of them, not just in this particular context?

9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone preach a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be anathema!

But obviously, St Paul had said other words in preaching the Gospel than just that justice by Christ replaces justice by the Jewish law. So, in a sense someone might pretend to say the opposite of these Judaisers and also be anathema. Like, if Luther really preached the Gospel he had received from the Church of Christ, how come he was so advers against the Epistle of St James?

Luther: “The second step is this: If you want to be saved, your salvation does not come by works; but God has sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He was crucified and died for you and bore your sins in His own body (1 Peter 2:24)."

Is 1 Peter 2:24 saying this second step?

24 *Who his ownself bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed.

Wait ... it says something about us being dead to sins. And living to justice. It says works.

24. He suffered for us. By his stripes you were healed: the scourging, so well known to slaves.

But the healing needs to be applied.

"God has purposed that we do not merit His grace by anything we do (Galatians 2:16; 3:3)."

Before looking at text : by anything we do of ourselves, by anything we do without already being in grace. True.

If you come to confession with insufficient repentance to be already justified, it is in confession that God gives you the repentance you need. And if your repentance was already sufficient, you still need to go and to take it as a gift : from God, though His Church. Now for the texts:

2:16 But knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; *because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Now, Galatians 2:16 does not even bother about this part, what I mentioned or else what Grigg imagines, it only reaffirms we are not saved by Judaising.

Works of the law is a technical term, it is not equivalent to good works, it is not equivalent to works of penance, it is not equivalent to works of mercy, it is not equivalent to keeping the commandments, all of which are required.

Works of the law are things like keeping the Hebrew Sabbath, like eating Seder on the even of 14th of Nisan, and these things.

Ver. 16. &c. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. St. Paul, to the end of the chapter, seems to continue his discourse to St. Peter, but chiefly to the Jewish Galatians, to shew that both the Gentiles, whom the Jews called and looked upon as sinners, and also the Jews, when converted, could only hope to be justified and saved by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. --- But if while we seek to be justified in Christ, by faith in him, and by his grace, we ourselves also are found sinners, as the false doctors teach you, and not to be justified but by the ceremonies and works of the law of Moses, this blasphemous consequence must follow, that Christ is the minister and author of sin, by making us believe that by faith in him, and complying with his doctrine, we may be justified and saved. For thus we must be considered transgressors, unless we renew and build again what Christ and we have destroyed. --- For by the law I am dead to the law. That is, says St. Jerome, by the evangelical law of Christ I am dead to the ancient law and its ceremonies. Others expound it, that by the law and its types and figures, and by the predictions contained in the law, I know the Mosaical law hath now ceased, in which sense he might say, by the law I am dead to the law. --- If justice. That is, if justification and salvation be to be had, or could have been had by the works of the law; therefore Christ died in vain, and it was not necessary that he should become our Redeemer. (Witham)

Note very well, in the following, what I took up spontaneously is there : a work needs to be done in a state of grace (i e not by my sole carnal initiative, but by Christ living in me) in order to merit before God. He says so in verse 20, and in verse 18 mentions it is possible and very regrettable to sin after receiving grace. Mortally, that is. A venial sin does not amount to building up what one tears down in penance.

Ver. 19. He here expresses the change which had been wrought in him. The law to which he had been attached, had passed away from him. Now he was so united to Christ and his cross, that he says: Not I, but Christ liveth in me. The strong expressions made use of by St. Paul with regard to the Jewish law in this chapter, may appear strange, and very capable of a wrong interpretation. But we must ever bear in mind that St. Paul speaks exclusively of the ceremonial part of the law, and not of the moral, contained in the decalogue: of this latter he says in his epistle to the Romans, (ii. 13.) the doers of the law shall be justified. But to effect this, was and is necessary the grace which Jesus Christ has merited and obtained for all, grace which God has shed on all, more or less, from the commencement of the world.

Confraternity Bible has this comment:

16. The precepts of the Mosaic Law were ceremonial, such as circumcision, and moral, such as the Commandments. The Judaizers insisted on the observance of the ceremonial precepts or works. Such prescriptions of themselves had no power to save, as salvation depends on faith in Christ.

This distinction should be kept in mind in the next passage:

3:1 O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you?

2 This only would I learn of you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

3 Are you so foolish, that, whereas you began in the spirit, you would now be made perfect by the flesh?

Ver. 1. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ....crucified among you.[1] The common exposition is, that St. Paul had before described and set before them Christ crucified. Others, that it had been clearly foretold by the prophets that Christ was crucified for them. (Witham)

Ver. 2. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law? As if he said, you esteem it a great favour to have received those spiritual gifts of working miracles, &c. When you were made Christians, had you these favours by the works of the law, or was it not by the hearing of faith, and by the faith of Christ, that you had such extraordinary graces? and when you have begun thus happily by the spirit of Christ and his spiritual gifts, are you for finishing and thinking to make yourselves more perfect by the exterior works of the law, the circumcision of the flesh, and such like ceremonies? (Witham)

And Confraternity Bible:

1. Who has bewitched you: as if by an evil eye. Through Paul's teaching Jesus Christ crucified was made to appear before their eyes as if actually existing in the flesh. some Vulgate codices and the Clementine edition after bewitched you add "that you should not obey the truth." 2. They had received the Holy Spirit with His sanctifying grace and His special gifts through Paul's preaching, and their believing in Christ crucified. 3. Are you so foolish, that beginning your salvation by the reception of the Holy Spirit you seek the completion of it in the carnal ceremonies of the Mosaic Law (the flesh)?

So, supposing that the Catholic Church into which Luther was received by baptism was no longer the Church of Our Lord Jesus, the Church wherein ministered St Paul, supposing Luther were right on Galatians condemning Catholicism like Judaisers, one could ask: who has bewitched us Catholics?

In the case of the Galatians, the Bible does not tell, perhaps some Church historian does. It does not matter, as I suppose, since Galatians took heed of St Paul's word. And that very quickly.

But supposing we Catholics had for centuries been mishearing St Paul, not just Luther himself during a few failed attempts at living as a monk, supposing we had merited St Paul's charge?

If so, who had bewitched us? A man who made a deal with the devil to be called "Pope" as in Jack Chick's The Death Cookie?

Jack Chick does not dare name which Pope he considers to be the first Antichrist (unlike Sedes who will debate whether John XXIII as false Pope came after Pius XII as true Pope and so on : the range is not very wide, and "John Paul II" can no longer be a Pope, while St Pius X very certainly was). Some may say it doesn't matter. It does. A several centuries long misdemeanour, it does not happen without someone responsible for it. Even for Paganism in general, while it is difficult to trace the roots of each individual Paganism fully, both for better and for worse, the general misdemeanor is brought down to either Nimrod or Ninus.

We Catholics dare name Luther, Zwingli and Oecolampadius, Sozzinis and Münzer as origins of the misdemeanours of the Reformation and its daughters. St Paul by his question does not suggest that this is idle curiosity. On the contrary, if you know the witch or warlock, you may know the spell, if you know the spell, you may know the exorcism. So, supposing we really and truly were lapsed, who made us lapse? Not speaking of the Vatican II lapse, now. I am speaking of the one you try to trace, by considering Luther as taking the role of St Paul.

If and when you get to grips with who bewitched us, on your view, next question would be what was his spell? At what time was it a novum?

For Luther and a few more, the forbidden words, the evil spell, are given in both Exsurge Domine and in the divers sessions of the Council of Trent. If you ask us. And we identify Luther and a few more as authors of, inter alia, confusing "works of the law" with "good works".

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
St. Francis Borgia SJ
10.X.2017

On to: Mercator and Geert Groote (excursus)