A Catholic Peg in a Protestant Hole

I am always pleased to see a Protestant Christian quoting Fathers of the Church. Unfortunately, however, too often, I find these same Christians taking quotes of the Fathers badly out of context. That’s the case here, with the Protestant pastor Jeff Durbin.

But even in a case like this, I am still heartened. Why? Because some who read or listen to Durbin, or perhaps Durbin himself, will eventually (hopefully) read more comprehensively from the Fathers and go beyond the short quotes. I say that because, as St. John Henry Newman quipped—and it is still true today—“to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” I know I found that true, because it was the Fathers of the Church, along with a well-formed Catholic young man, that led me deeper into the scriptures and eventually to the Catholic Church just thirty-six short years ago.

Durbin cites two Fathers of the Church, claiming that each teaches Luther’s “justification by faith alone”:

1. Clement of Rome
2. John Chrysostom

Not bad! One pope and one patriarch of Constantinople. But the question is, did they really teach justification by faith alone, as Luther, Calvin, or Protestants today who walk in their footsteps do? The back-of-the-book answer is no.

I will begin with Clement of Rome, our fourth pope. Durbin quotes from Clement’s Letter to the Corinthians, “chapter” 32. I put chapter in scare quotes because the “chapters” in Clement’s letter are more like paragraphs, usually only four or five sentences long. (“Chapter” 26 consists of one sentence.) I say that because it is important to refer back to the context of at least the previous few “chapters” if you want to understand Clement, because these paragraphs flow together in thought.

With that in mind, here is the section of chapter 32 that Durbin employed:

We, too, being called by his will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Notice that our holy father says we “are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own” wisdom, understanding, godliness, works. Amen! From a Catholic and biblical perspective, it is impossible for us to merit either grace or faith. These are, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “not of ourselves,” but rather “the gift of God, not of works.” And the Catholic Church agrees (see Council of Trent, Session 6, “On Justification,” canon 1.) There is nothing a Christian can do to merit the initial grace of justification or the faith that is essential for salvation. However, once the Christian enters into Christ, he is empowered by Christ to indeed reap the reward of eternal life by works performed in Christ and through Christ, as Paul teaches in texts like Galatians 6:7-9:

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Enter context. In chapter 30, Clement had just declared, in good Catholic fashion,

Seeing that we are the portion of the Holy One, let us do all those things which pertain to holiness, avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and impure embraces, together with all drunkenness, seeking after change, all abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and execrable pride. For God, [says the Scripture], resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God. Let us clothe ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking, being justified by our works, and not our words. For [the Scripture] says, He that speaks much, shall also hear much in answer. And does he that is ready in speech deem himself righteous?

Notice that Clement says the grace of God “has been given by God.” But that does not mean we do not have to “continue in the goodness of God,” as Paul says in Romans 11:22 and 2:4-7, in order to merit (or be rewarded with) eternal life. More on that below.

As far as John Chrysostom is concerned, Durbin is correct that he used the phrase “justification by faith alone,” or its equivalent, and multiple times. In fact, he is the only Father of the Church I have been able to find who uses the phrase “justification” or “justified by faith alone” in a manner that is not rejecting the idea. But John (along with St. Thomas Aquinas, later) uses the phrase in an entirely different manner from how Luther and Calvin did.

(By the way, the Catholic Church has no problem with using the phrase justification by faith alone, but we have to clarify what this faith is in opposition to. For example, I could say, “It was hard work alone that brought my son through to this day of his college graduation.” No reasonable person would take that to mean the tens of thousands of dollars provided, along with encouragement, challenges made, etc. by his parents had nothing to do with his success. We could add the help of professors, friends, etc.)

Similar to Durbin’s misuse of Clement, we can clearly see in John Chrysostom that the “justification by faith alone” he speaks of is nowhere near the “justification by faith alone” invented during the Protestant “Reformation.”

Here is the first of Durbin’s two references, from John Chrysostom’s Homilies on Titus, or perhaps his Homilies on Genesis (Durbin does not give a citation): “Abraham himself before receiving circumcision, had been declared righteous on the score of faith alone.”

This is an easy one. John is obviously commenting on Romans 3 and, especially, 4. Paul here is contrasting the “works of law” righteousness being presented by the famous “Judaizers” of the first century with justification by faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, Abraham was justified by “faith alone,” rather than by “the works of law.” In fact, that is the exact sense we get from Paul in Romans 3:28-29: “For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.”

Paul is not saying, nor is John Chrysostom, that works are not in any sense necessary for justification. He is saying that “works of law” cannot save anyone.

This leads us to Durbin’s second quotation, from John’s Homilies on Romans:

What is the Law of Faith? It is being saved by grace. Here he shows God’s power in that he has not only saved but he has justified and led them to boasting and this too without needing works but looking for faith only (Homily 7).

This is part of a long series of homilies on Romans, where, like Paul, John is focusing on just what the Council of Trent summed up in a sentence, in Session Six, the Decree on Justification, canon 1, that I alluded to above:

If anyone says that, without divine grace through Jesus Christ, man can be justified before God by his own works, whether they be done by his own natural powers or through the teaching of the law, let him be anathema (see also ibid., Chapter 1: The Inability of Nature and the Law to Justify Man).

John here is emphasizing the inability of the works of law to save. The Catholic Church agrees. Indeed, any works at all, whether “works of law” or works done by our “own natural powers,” cannot contribute to our salvation in any way. This is John’s point, in agreement with Paul. But in order to understand John Chrysostom, it helps to read more of this series of Homilies on Romans—like this, from Homily 5, wherein he comments on Romans 2:6-7, where Paul plainly teaches “faith alone” is insufficient for eternal life:

[God] will render [or reward] to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

John comments:

Here also he awakens those who had drawn back during the trials and shows that it is not right to trust in faith only. For it is deeds also into which that tribunal will enquire. But observe, how when he is discoursing about the things to come, he is unable to tell clearly the blessings, but speaks of glory and honor. For in that they transcend all that man has, he has no image of them taken from this to show, but by those things which have a semblance of brightness among us, even by them he sets them before us as far as may be, by glory, by honor, by life.

St. John’s words speak for themselves.

Space does not allow the many, many examples I could cite where John Chrysostom demonstrates his true catholicity, but here, in closing, are a couple of my favorites. First, there is is comment on 2 Corinthians 1:6-7, in which Paul writes,

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer (v. 6).

John comments,

What he says is this, Your salvation is not our work alone, but your own as well; for both we in preaching to you the word endure affliction, and you in receiving it endure the very same; we to impart to you that which we received, you to receive what is imparted and not to let it go. . . . For he says, Which worked in the enduring of the same sufferings; for not through believing only comes your salvation, but also through the suffering and enduring the same things with us.

Last of all, there’s 1 Corinthians 7:27: “But I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

And here’s John’s comment, which is as good a closing as any:

For, think not, says he, because you have believed, that this is sufficient for your salvation: since if to me neither preaching nor teaching nor bringing over innumerable persons, is enough for salvation unless I exhibit my own conduct also unblameable, much less to you (Homily 23).