Faith, works and synergy
If faith is the gift of God, as Christ and the Apostle say, then where is the synergy when someone gives us unrighteous pukes a "free gift" as St. Paul said?
Sanctification is synergistic and that is where our works in faith "fit"--however sanctification is not trust in the promises of God, it is not passing from death into life, which is faith. So faith, in the sense of our adoption as sons, in the sense of God granting us the Holy Spirit, is not synergistic--it is pure grace. To put it succinctly, when an infant is baptized, where is the synergy? When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, where was the synergy? When Jesus raised the widow of Nain's son, where was the synergy?
There was no synergy, because those things are examples of God's gracious acts on his creation.
That is how we receive faith, by an act of God upon us and not by our striving. That is how we are justified by faith alone, and not by works of the law. There is no synergy because, as St. Paul says, we are dead in trespasses and sins and raised to life by the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation--just like Lazarus was dead and was called to life through Christ's word. The only synergy is that we, as new, living beings in Christ, willingly cooperate in serving God and our neighbor.
7 comments:
Amen!
If there were just one tiny little thing left that we need to do...then that cross and that death would have been in vain.
Do we go willingly to Baptism or not? Do we go willingly to Communion or not?
Where did Lazarus co-operate with Jesus in his resurrection, you ask? Well, in his dieing: we die willingly with Christ in baptism, when we go under the water; and then we're rasied by His power when we emerge from underneath it.
Lucian,
Lazarus was dead for a while, and Jesus called him forth. That is not synergistic even if you say he willingly died, which the Scriptures don't say.
Regarding Baptism, we do not go willingly, at least not infants. Communion is a different story, because Communion does not give the gift of faith which Baptism does. Do you really want to assert that passively being put under the water is an synergistic act by us? That seems odd.
Yes, because so innumerably many don't undergo baptism, and don't choose to believe in Christ.
(And I don't think that anyone forces parents to baptize their children either).
--Lucian.
Lucian,
I still don't see the synergy unless we stretch the word so far it loses meaning.
There's always a synergy there, Ed, even if it's something easy. We accept, we believe, we choose to undergo baptism, to partake of the eucharist, and so on: "Whosoever wishes to come after Me". No-one is forced or coerced to either believe, accept, be baptised, partake, or even to remain a Christian.
--Lucian.
Lucian,
I specifically mentioned infant Baptism. There is no synergy between the infant and God, it is God who baptizes. An adult comes to Baptism after he he already believes, unlike an infant so the situation is a little different. (And Baptism is still pure grace...) There is no more synergy with an infant in Baptism than there is with a new child at the moment of conception.
The same with Lazarus. The Scriptures say he was dead, so dead he stank. Christ spoke and he rose. Where is the synergy? He didn't ask to be raised, he did not seek it in any way. Christ spoke THEN he rose!
I ask because ISTM you are stretching synergy so far it becomes meaningless.
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