Faith is an Internal Thing
Is it good works or faith that saves us? This has been the debate for centuries among Christians. My answer has always been, “Well, even atheists feed the poor.” If atheists do good works, does this mean faith saves us? Then again, “Faith without works is dead.” Hmmmm
Brethren, he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every man be false, as it is written, “That you may be justified in you words, and prevail when you art judged.” But if our wickedness serves to show the justice of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come? — as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 2.28-3.18
If we take Saint Paul’s advice today, we might say, “He is not really Orthodox who is one outwardly, nor are true prostrations something external.” You get the point. Being Orthodox has ‘a lot’ of external aspects to our Tradition, but none of these have any meaning without faith.
Muslims do prostrations. Yogo gurus do prostrations. Vegans spend a lifetime never eating meat. It isn’t that our outward disciplines have no benefit. You will never read me say we shouldn’t fast ‘just because’ fasting won’t save us.
What matters is why we fast, why we stand for hours in Church, why we offer God countless prostrations. Orthodox Christians don’t participate in external actions ‘to be’ saved. We do them to mold our inner hearts.
I remember one very old woman who was visiting a monastery. She was crying to the Abbess that she could no longer do prostrations. Her body just wouldn’t ‘do them’ any longer. The Abbess sat quietly when suddenly the woman’s granddaughter stood up. “I’ll do them for her.”
We laughed, but the Abbess pointed out the deep faith of both women, the grandmother and granddaughter each had deep inner faith for God. Problem solved. The young girl wasn’t doing prostrations to earn her salvation. She was showing her grandmother how much she loved her.
In this new season of the Fast for the Apostles, we find ourselves focusing our attending once again on those who lived for Christ, those who gave up everything for Him. Our fast these next few weeks won’t save us if all we do is fast. Our fast must mold our hearts to love God.
We must train our inner heart to love God more than anything else on the face of the Earth. Until we ‘really’ love God, all our prayers, fasting, and prostrations will be wasted as ‘mere external and physical’ actions. We will not be true Christians until our inner heart speaks to God.
