“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
For millennia, followers of Jesus have debated the extent to which faith, and faith alone in the finished work of Christ on the cross, contributes to their salvation versus what role good works play a part of their salvation. In my opinion, the either/or dilemma has created a false dichotomy which has led many astray and created too many fissures in the ecumenical body of the bride of Christ historically and presently.
In short, both are absolutely necessary components of our salvation. Even though our good works do not contribute an iota to our salvation whatsoever, good deeds are critical to our salvation. How so?
To understand the role faith and works it can be helpful to visualize them on a timeline. There are 3 fundamental and critical aspects of salvation: (1) Justification, (2) Sanctification, & (3) Glorification. Justification means you were saved (Ephesians 2:8) past tense just-as-if you had never sinned. Sanctification means you are being saved (Phil. 3:12) present-tense, here and now. And lastly, glorification means you will be saved (Matthew 25:23) future-tense where you will be called to enter into the eternal joy of the LORD.
Some reformed denominations stress that justification is the most important aspect of salvation to the detriment of their spiritual formation or character. As a result, the teachings and commands of Christ given on the sermon on the mount are thus relegated to a future dispensation. Other contemplative and charismatic denominations overemphasis good works or they attempt to name and claim future glory reserved for later, here and now, thus not fully grasping the reality and implications of living in a fallen world where “in this world [we] will have trouble.” (John 16:33)
Back to the the cross. It is hyper symbolic, meaning it has a multiplicity of meaning embedded in it’s very nature. It’s woodenness, it’s bulkiness, it’s instrumentality, it’s position on a hill, are all deeply metaphoric. But for my purposes I want to focus our attention to it’s shape. The cross is a set of two perpendicular lines that intersect at a point. The vertical axis represents it’s reconciling nature with God, and it’s horizontal axis represents it’s reconciling nature with humanity.
The cross is a symbol not just of vertical faith (justification & glorification) but also horizontal good works (sanctification) which is how we become like Jesus and do what Jesus did. In fact, Jesus did not just call people to believe in him only, he also invited his to-be disciples to participate in the greatest construction project of all time, to extend the kingdom of heaven by building his church through out the whole earth, as it is in heaven.
Discipleship, therefore, is the intersection of practicing your vertical faith and your horizontal good works equally. Just like a staircase is comprised of continuous intersecting vertical and horizontal planes, so the path to the hill of the Lord (Psalm 24) requires both “clean hands” (horizontal good works) and a “pure heart” (vertical faith). We must avoid being ignorant, theoretical, or cultural Christians who spent no time or a disbalanced amount of time practicing one or the other plane of salvation when both are necessary to proceed onward and upward!