Church of the Holy City

Faith and Works

Faith and Works
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
November 15, 2009

Leviticus 19:9-18 John 15:1-12

Swedenborg steers a narrow course between two pitfalls in Christianity. Those two pitfalls are the doctrines of “faith alone” and meritorious works. They are represented by the Protestant churches and the Catholic church. Protestants teach the “faith alone” doctrine. It says that we are saved only by believing that Christ died for our sins. So it is by holding this faith that we are saved. The classic Biblical text for faith alone is in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. There, we read,
a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ Jesus. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:15-16).
Paul says this general teaching in several places, such as Galatians 3:14, “by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” When Paul says we are not justified by observing the law, Protestants take this to mean all good works. They go further; they say that no amount of good works, or good deeds contribute to our salvation. They teach that doing good is trying to reach heaven by human effort. This doctrine they again find in Galatians. “After beginning with the Spirit, are you trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Galatians 3:3). The works that Protestants denounce are the many commands that we find in the Old Testament. We heard some of these commands from the book of Leviticus in our reading this morning. Leviticus in Latin means “the law.” And it is those commands that Protestants take Paul to be referring to. So following the law would be the commands like not stealing, not lying, not deceiving one another, and even loving the neighbor. None of these good works conduce to salvation according to the Protestant doctrine of faith alone.
Catholics say just about the opposite. They teach that it is by good works that we are saved. This means that the deeds we do give us grace, and that grace is what saves us. The good works they talk about are things like helping the poor, attending mass, participating in charities like soup kitchens, and in extreme forms, withdrawing from the world into convents or monasteries and fasting, mortifying the body, and saying ritualized prayers. At the time of the Reformation, the good works that Catholics emphasized got out of hand. They taught that buying indulgences would get your loved ones out of Purgatory, and that going on pilgrimages would give yourself grace. The problem with these good works is that Catholics would say that one merits salvation by doing these works. It is as if one could get points in their Book of Life by doing enough good works. The temptation was to take credit for the good works that an individual does. Swedenborg is in between these two doctrines.
At times I think that Swedenborg tried to harmonize these two doctrines. Then at other times I think that he tried to go in between them both. In any event, neither Catholics nor Protestants affirmed Swedenborg’s teachings. In fact, the Lutheran Church of Sweden declared Swedenborg a heretic and forbad him to publish in his home country.
It is clear that Jesus teaches us to do good works. All through the Gospels, he is teaching us to be good, to be peacemakers, to be humble, to be pure in heart—in fact he even says, “be perfect, therefore, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). In this morning’s New Testament passage, we heard more teachings about doing good works. Jesus tells us to bear fruit. And says, even further, that if we do not bear fruit we will be cut off from God’s kingdom,
I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful (15:1-2).
Jesus clearly teaches than loving Him means following His commands, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love” (15:10). Paul, himself, calls one to perform good works. “But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Galatians 5:13). Paul, like Jesus, talks about bearing fruit, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (5:22). So clearly, for Jesus and for Paul, works matter.
But we must do good in such a way that it will be acceptable to God. If we take credit for the good we do, and think that we then deserve heaven, then the good we do is defiled. So Swedenborg writes of this, “The evil of merit is when a man attributes good to himself, and supposes that it is from himself, and therefore wants to merit salvation” (AC 4174). This is where Swedenborg’s mysticism enters the picture. When we do good that is really good, it is actually God working inside us. This Jesus teaches in the passage from John we heard this morning. He says, “apart from me you can do nothing” (15:5). And in the metaphor of the vine and branches, Jesus implies that it is through a mystical union with God that we bear fruit, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;” (15:5). His teachings about the mystical union between us and Him are said more clearly, “Remain in me and I will remain in you” (15:4).
By fully realizing this mystical union between Jesus and us, we are able to do good works in such a way that we do not take credit for doing good. This realization is extremely important. For it is our ego, or what Swedenborg calls proprium, that blocks God’s influx. All our lives God flows into our souls with life, love and wisdom. We are vessels that receive this inflowing life. We grow spiritually to the extent that we receive in deeper and deeper ways God’s inflowing love and spiritual life. We receive this love and life by looking to God, and turning away from self. If we take credit for the good we do, and think that we do good by our own power, then self, or proprium, dominates our consciousness. So Swedenborg writes,
If when a person arrives at adult age, he confirms it in thought, and completely persuades himself that he merits salvation through the good which he does—this evil adheres and is rooted in, and cannot be amended; for they claim to themselves that which is the Lord’s, and thus cannot receive the good which continually flows in from the Lord; but, when it flows in, they at once divert it to themselves, and into their own proprium, and accordingly defile it (AC 4174).
For Swedenborg, we are saved to the extent that we are lifted out of proprium. We are saved to the extent that God is operating in us transparently. When we are filled with God, we are most happy and we are then in heaven. So to take credit for the good we do is to take God’s gifts and turn them into self aggrandizement. It is to make self the issue, not God. To put it more simply, IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT ME! It’s about God.
It’s not hard to do good in such a way that it is acceptable to God, and such that it is saving. That is to emphasize the good itself. God is Goodness itself. When we love God, we love what is good. Then we do good because we love what is good. This is loving God. When we do good with this mindset, we are not thinking about ourselves. We are thinking about the good itself. We are not then walking around thinking ourselves to be such wonderful and good people, because we are not thinking about ourselves at all. A minister I knew as a teen put it this way. We begin by thinking, “Look at the good I’m doing.” Then we say, “Look at the good I’m doing.” Finally we arrive at a place where all we say is, “Look at the good.”
So Swedenborg either steers a course between faith alone and meritorious good works; or he harmonizes both. Faith is certainly there, as we believe that God is the true agent of our good actions. Without a belief in God, none of this is possible. Works are there too, as we love doing what is good. And without good works, or should I say, without God’s Spirit acting in us, we would not find salvation. This is because we are saved to the extent that God is in us and we are lifted out of self. This happens when God does good through us. As John puts it, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit” (15:5). It is through that mystical union that all this happens. That mystical union is what Swedenborg is talking about and what Jesus is talking about when He says, “apart from me you can do nothing” (15:5). Without God in us, we can do no good. And when God is in us, nothing will be more delightful than to do what is good.