I never would have expected a lesson in church history over
in the coffee aisle, but there I found Summer and her fiancé Julian, who is
planning to enter the priesthood of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Julian spoke of the great Schism of 1054 AD, in
which the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Churches formerly went
their separate ways. He told me a lot
about the history of the Orthodox church and its presence in various immigrant
communities in cities around the world, and we also talked about our
understandings of salvation.
Is salvation a gracious gift of God through faith in Christ
alone, or must we add our own good works to the equation? Julian believes we must add works, and he expressed
concern that if repentance and good works aren’t required, then anyone could
view salvation as a license to keep on sinning.
It seems to me that this belief in the necessity of good
works trivializes both the divinity of Jesus Christ and the role of the Holy
Spirit in the life of a believer. It trivializes
Christ’s divinity because if we must add our own good works to the work of
Jesus on the cross, are we then
saying that His sacrifice wasn’t enough? If
Jesus died to pay the just penalty for our sins, are we saying that His life is
of limited value?
And if we think we can be saved without a change of heart
toward sin, wouldn’t we be trivializing the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation,
whom we are given to change us from within according to numerous passages such
as this one from Romans 5:5 “…God’s love has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Do people who claim to be forgiven and saved,
yet who view that salvation as a license to sin, really have the Holy Spirit?
After my conversation with Summer and Julian, I looked up
more information about the Great Schism.
I’m no theologian or church historian, but I may have found something
from way back in 1054 AD that seems very closely related to this issue between
grace alone vs. good works for salvation.
One of the major doctrinal issues that became a symbol of
the conflict between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches was something called “Filioque”,
which is Latin for “and the Son”. This
was a phrase that was added to the original Nicaean Creed, which said that the
Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father", without referring to the
Son. Contrary to the Orthodox version, most
Western Churches speak of the Holy Spirit as proceeding "from the Father
and the Son".
This might not seem like a major difference, but with Holy
Scriptures as extensive and open to interpretation as the Bible, especially
when it wasn’t readily available to the vast majority of believers, the Church
needed a central statement of faith to bring unity around primary church
beliefs. Unfortunately, it also brought
schism.
Theology matters, because any deviation from the basic
doctrines of faith usually has a ripple effect to the rest of that faith. Does the Holy Spirit proceed to us as
believers regardless of our faith in Christ, or through it? Do good works, along with faith in Jesus,
result in salvation, or does salvation through faith in Jesus alone bring the
Holy Spirit who inspires us to good works?
I feel the answer should be obvious to anyone who reads the
New Testament regularly. A verse like
Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it crystal clear: “For
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” We only need read one more verse to see the
important role of good works – “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Obvious as it might seem to be, there are also passages that
appear to say the opposite. Well-meaning
people like Summer and Julian might make them their focus, and I don’t doubt
their sincerity. It was a controversy that
led to schism in 1054 AD, and it’s still controversial today. It’s a conversation much, much bigger than a social
media post or a chat at the grocery store.
But hey, at least we’re talking.
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