May 6, 2011 – Romans 4 - 5:11

Romans 4:3 is a very important verse that is pointed to when talking about “faith alone”  Here are some related verses that go along with it and some things written about it.  Even believing what I do and knowing what I know, I find it hard not to read chapter 4 and think that faith alone is enough.  It seems that this is what is expressed so I am trying to feel out what is being meant.  I really cannot come up with anything accept the fact that faith alone doesn’t follow in the context of what St. Paul wrote in the other chapter nor does it go along with James 2:23-24 which quotes the same thing about Abraham. 

But let’s just say that Abraham’s faith alone made him justified.  As Fr. Haydock writes that the faith Abraham had was given to him by God’s Grace and we are all the same.  Our faith is a result of God’s freely given gift of God.  So, we are saved, like Abraham, by God’s gift of Grace, which is a Catholic belief. 

But what kind of faith did Abraham have.  Do faith alone believers have that faith.  Will they leave their homeland for a strange land, maybe.  Will they physically alter themselves to show obedience to God, maybe.  Will they kill their own children, I would hope not.  Yet that is the faith that God felt in Abraham and thus he was justified.  And notice that all these acts that Abraham did were works that showed his faith.  These works would have been nothing without his faith, not could his faith have been shown without the works.  They are together.  And none of the things, as is pointed out, are the works of law that St. Paul is talking about because the law was not their when Abraham was found justified. 

If faith alone is all a person needs, and that was true even in the Old Testament, why was David punished after sinning with Bathsheba.  Why was Israel punished with 40 years in the desert after their profession of faith.  Why did Israel go into exile for years.  Because their works did not match they faith they professed.  Faith is important, but faith alone does not flow from the Bible.  I don’t think I fully understand chapter 4 here, but I am humble enough to admit that and know enough to understand that if I think it means faith alone is a correct interpretation, I can understand why it can confuse many people.  But the Bible must be read in its entirety and no part can contradict another.  Faith Alone cannot be both true and untrue.       

Genesis 15:6 - And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Galations 3:6: - Thus Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."

James 2:23-24: and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God.  You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Abraham thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen": "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Because he was "strong in his faith," Abraham became the "father of all who believe."  Catechism 146

Ver. 3. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.[1] The Scripture, therefore, teacheth us that he became just by his faith. And as he had this faith by the grace of God, grace was the cause of his justification, and not any works without grace. And when it is said, it was reputed to him, we must not understand an imputation of being just without a true and interior justice: for to be reputed just in the sight of God, who sees the heart, and sanctifies the soul by his interior grace, is the only true justice that can make a man acceptable to God. As not to have our sins imputed in the sight of God, is to have them forgiven, and to be free from our sins. (Witham) --- Reputed, & . By God, who reputeth nothing otherwise than it is. However, we may gather from this word, that when we are justified, our justification preceedeth from God's free grace and bounty; and not from any efficacy which any act of ours could have of its own nature, abstracting from God's grace. (Challoner)  Haydock, Fr. George Leo [1774-1849 AD]