Justification by faith and works

• Good conduct is important so that Christians earn a place in heaven
• "be kind/ tender-hearted and forgiving towards each other"
• Christians should have faith in Jesus and behave as he did

  • May be hard to do in society due to outside influences
  • Monks may be able to do this due to isolation
• Good conduct glorifies God
• "they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven"- Matthew 5:16
• Representatives of the Church doing immoral things reflects poorly on Christianity
• "love your neighbour as yourself" - Matthew 22

  • Basis of Situation Ethics
  • Fletcher lost his faith
• It can be difficult to balance loving God and loving others
• • Some commandments in the Bible are seen to be immoral

  "Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything... so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive"

  • Not the literal word of God, room for human error
• "Turn the other cheek" - Matthew 5

  • Idea of passivity
  • E.g. peaceful protests
  • Only do necessary action
  • Is pacifism impractical and immoral
• Unitarian movement

  • Members have free will to make choices and religious doctrines are an aid to choosing
  • Free reason to make the choice
• For some, the Kingdom of God is now, for others, it is the future earth or in heaven
• Most Christians, accept the doctrine of the Atonement, there's disagreement about what precisely it is that Christians must do to accept this gift: faith or works
• Justify- to make righteous, to plead for the innocence of (verb)
• Justification is eschatological
• St Paul said that no human can be justified without faith
• Paul uses Abraham as an example of faith

  • Abraham was faithful to God
  • Had to sacrifice Isaac, his son
  • God provided a Ram for sacrifice instead (Ram was the same age as Jesus when he died on the cross)
• Epistle of James highlights the importance of works
• "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead"

  • References Abraham: putting Isaac on the alter was work
• Arguments

  1. What is the point of faith without work
  2. Faith can be shown through works
  3. Even demons have faith, so faith alone is useless
  4. Abraham showed his faith in his work
  5. Rahab the prostitute was justified by hiding Joshua's spies to keep them safe
  6. The body without spirit is dead so to faith without works is dead
• 3 options for Christians

  1. Prioritise good moral conduct
  2. Prioritise faith
  3. Emphasise the importance of both