The Church Fathers on Faith Alone.

 

Jerome

1. Jerome (347-420) on Romans 10:3: “God justifies by FAITH ALONE.” (Deus ex sola fide justificat)

ANSWER:

Here is the entire text in Latin:

Ignorantes enim justitiam Dei, et suam quaerentes statuere: justitiae Dei non sunt subjecti. Ignorantes quod Deus ex sola fide justificat: et justos se ex legis operibus, quam non custodierunt, esse putantes: noluerunt se remissioni subjicere peccatorum, ne peccatores fuisse viderentur, sicut scriptum est: Pharisaei autem spernentes consilium Dei in semetipsis, noluerunt baptizari baptismo Joannis. Item quia sacrificia legis, et caetera, quae umbra erant veritatis, quae per Christum perfici habebant, praesentia Christi cessaverunt: cui credere noluerunt. 

In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Caput X, v. 3, PL 30:692D

Even if you can’t read Latin, you can see “sola fide” in Jerome’s text. Let me translate the key statement: “Being ignorant that God justifies from faith alone, they consider themselves to be just from the works of the Law which they do not keep.” The key here is the contrast to “works of the law.”

Saint Jerome then goes on to speak of the “Pharisees” (Pharisaei autem…). Saint Jerome’s discussion is about Pharasaical Jews at the time of Christ who sought to justify themselves through the Mosaic precepts. Moreover, Saint Jerome identifies their “works” as pertaining to the “sacrifices of the Law which were shadows of the truth” (quae umbra errant veritatis). Jerome is contrasting the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. He is not giving a treatise on the role of genericwork per se in justification.

Consequently, Saint Jerome is not excluding works per se. Rather he is aiming his sights on the Pharisees faulty understanding of the Law of Moses. Anyone who knows anything about Saint Jerome knows that he is one of the fathers of Western monastic tradition–a tradition rather at odds with “justification by faith alone” since ascetic deeds are seen as meritorious for the monk (and even the married as show below):

Do not fancy your faith in Christ to be a reason for parting from her. For ‘God hath called us in peace.’ ‘Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God.’ Neither celibacy nor wedlock is of the slightest use without works, since even faith, the distinguishing mark of Christians, if it have not works, is said to be dead, and on such terms as these the virgins of Vesta or of Juno, who was constant to one husband, might claim to be numbered among the saints.”

2. and “He who with all his spirit has placed his FAITH in Christ, EVEN if he die in sin, shall by his FAITH live forever.”

ANSWER:

 

More on Jerome:

“When an ungodly man is converted, God justifies him THROUGH FAITH ALONE.” 

Jerome – hmm, does Sola Fide show a need for Purgatory? Let us see whether Jerome agrees (or even comes close) with the Protestant concept of Sola Fide. 

Commentary on Psalms 18, 66, 24, “Just as we believe there are eternal torments for the devil and all the naysayers and impious persons who say in their heart: “There is not God.” So too, for sinners and impious persons who are, nevertheless, Christians, whose works are to be tried in the fire and purged, we think that the sentence of the Judge will be tempered and blended with clemency. “

Against Jovinianus, Book 2, 22 – To the Corinthians he says: (1 Cor. 3:6-15) “I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God, ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” And again elsewhere: “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder I laid a foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay, than thai which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man buildeth on the foundation, gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble: each man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall reveal it, because it is revealed in fire: and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.” If the man whose work is burnt and is to suffer the loss of his labour, while he himself is saved, yet not without proof of fire: it follows that if a man’s work remains which he has built upon the foundation, he will be saved without probation by fire, and consequently a difference is established between one degree of salvation and another (ANF, Vol. 6, p. 405). 

Against Jovianianus Book 2, 22 – As day is distinct from night, so righteousness and unrighteousness, sin and good works, Christ and Antichrist cannot blend. If we give Christ a lodging-place in our hearts, we banish the devil from thence. If we sin and the devil enter through the gate of sin, Christ will immediately withdraw. Hence David after sinning says: 2]”Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,” that is, the joy which he had lost by sinning. [3]”He who saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Christ is called the truth: [4]”I am the way, the truth, and the life.” In vain do we make our boast in him whose commandments we keep not (ANF, Vol. 6, p. 388) . 

Against Jovianianus Book 2, 3 – For it is not accordant with the righteousness of God to forget good works, and the fact that you have ministered and do minister to the Saints for His name’s sake, and to remember sins only. The Apostle James also, knowing that the baptized can be tempted, and fall of their own free choice, says: [4]”Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him.” And that we may not think that we are tempted by God, as we read in Genesis Abraham was, he adds: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man. But each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death.” God created us with free will, and we are not forced by necessity either to virtue or to vice. Otherwise, if there be necessity, there is no crown. As in good works it is God who brings them to perfection, for it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that pitieth and gives us help that we may be able to reach the goal (ANF, Vol. 6, p. 388). 

Against Jovianianus Book 2, 3 – As in good works it is God who brings them to perfection, for it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that pitieth and gives us help that we may be able to reach the goal: so in things wicked and sinful, the seeds within us give the impulse, and these are brought to maturity by the devil. When he sees that we are building upon the foundation of Christ, hay, wood, stubble, then he applies the match. Let us then build gold, silver, costly stones, and he will not venture to tempt us: although even thus there is not sure and safe possession . For the lion lurks in ambush to slay the innocent. Sirach 37:5 “Potters’ vessels are proved by the furnace, and just men by the trial of tribulation.” And in another place it is written: Sirach 2:1 “My son, when thou comest to serve the Lord, prepare thyself for temptation.” Again, the same James says:James 1:22 “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. For if any one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” It was useless to warn them to add works to faith, if they could not sin after baptism.(ANF, Vol. 6, p. 389-390).  

Conclusion – The fact that St. Jerome believes in purgatory should do away with any concept of Sola Fide. If one is in God’s grace he must avoid mortal sins to achieve eternal life, and good works is necessarily tied to salvation. In order to keep Christ and salvation, we must stay faithful to him. God gives us the grace to maintain this state of grace, but there is a real possibility of losing one’s salvation. He even quotes Romans 9, a passage used by Calvinists often, to show this very possibility. BTW, a side note, St. Jerome, who is often quoted by some as saying he doesn’t believe that the Deuterocanonical books should be used as Scripture, actually quotes Sirach as proof of the necessity of works. So much for him not seeing the Deuterocanonical books as Scripture. So much for any concept of Sola Fide. 

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