The Jews, under the Divine Law given through Moses, had to do what to receive forgiveness of their sins from year to year?
1.Something
2.Nothing
???????
Were the sacrifices which were offered during the year automatically done on their behalf or did the Jews actually have to do something to bring about the sacrifice being offered correctly?
In other words, the Shadow of the Salvation to Come as demonstrated by Jews, either required the sinner to DO something on his own behalf or he didn't.
Which is it and why?
Think of the model this way:
Adam had to DO something to become a sinner, didn't he?
Adam had to demonstrate he was unfaithful.
The Jew under the law had todemonstrate he was willing to be faithful to the letter of the law or the correct sacrifice at the right time would NOT have covered his sins. The repentant Jew had to avail himself of the forgiveness by getting his ass in gear: BEHAVIOR=not passive.
Why do you think God suddenly changed his entire way of doing things in Jesus day?
Faith is a VERB. It isn't passive.
Entering into a relationship with God does not mean a passive, silent, lackluster human being is showered with goodies.
If you automatically get unmerited favor (grace) from God, then; WHY DO YOU HAVE TO PRAY? That is active, not passive.
Why do you have to get baptised? That is active, not passive. Why can't you forsake the gathering of yourselves together? That is active, not passive.
UNMERITED FAVOR (grace) is ridiculous for the very reason you do NOT MERIT receiving it. God has to suddenly impute righteousness to you and refuse to see your sin (covering it over and hiding it from view). God does this for a reason and the reason has to involve justice (justice is getting what you deserve).
Can't you puzzle this out? The original teaching of the (Catholic)Chruch was quite different from Protestant theory.
Martin Luther stands as the originator of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, for he hoped that in this way he might be able to calm his own conscience , which was in a state of great perturbation, and consequently he took refuge behind the assertion that the necessity of good works over and above mere faith was altogether a pharisaical supposition. Manifestly this did not bring him the peace and comfort for which he had hoped , and at least it brought no conviction to his mind ; for many times, in a spirit of honesty and sheer good nature , he applauded good works, but recognized them only as necessary concomitants, not as efficient dispositions, for justification. This was also the tenor of Calvin's interpretation (Institute, III, 11, 19). Luther was surprised to find himself by his unprecedented doctrine in direct contradiction to the Bible , therefore he rejected the Epistle of St. James as "one of straw" and into the text of St. Paul to the Romans (3:28) he boldly inserted the word alone. This falsification of the Bible was certainly not done in the spirit of the Apostle's teaching, for nowhere does St. Paul teach that faith alone (without charity) will bring justification, even though we should accept as also Pauline the text given in a different context, that supernaturalfaith alone justifies but the fruitless works of the Jewish Law do not.
In this statement St. Paul emphasizes the fact that grace is purely gratuitous; that no merely natural good works can merit grace; but he does not state that no other acts in their nature and purport predisposing are necessary for justification over and above the requisite faith . Any other construction of the above passage would be violent and incorrect. If Luther's interpretation were allowed to stand, then St. Paul would come into direct contradiction not only with St. James (ii, 24 sqq.), but also with himself; for, except St. John, the favourite Apostle , he is the most outspoken of all Apostles in proclaiming the necessity and excellence of charity over faith in the matter of justification (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1 sqq. ). Whenever faith justifies it is not faith alone, but faith made operative and replenished by charity (cf. Galatians 5:6 , "fides, quae per caritatem operatur"). In the painest language the Apostle St. James says this: "ex operibus justificatur homo, et non ex fide tantum" ( James 2:2 ); and here, by works, he does not understand the pagan good works to which St. Paul refers in the Epistle to the Romans , or the works done in fulfilment of the Jewish Law , but the-works of salvation made possible by the operation of supernatural grace, which was recognized by St. Augustine (lib. LXXXIII, Q. lxxvi n. 2). In conformity with this interpretation and with this only is the tenor of the Scripturaldoctrine , namely, that over and above faith other acts are necessary for justification, such as fear (Ecclus., i, 28), and hope ( Romans 8:24 ), charity ( Luke 7:47 ), penance with contrition ( Luke 13:3 ; Acts 2:38 ; 3:19 ), almsgiving (Dan., iv, 24; Tob., xii, 9). Without charity and the works of charityfaith is dead. Faith receives life only from and through charity ( James 2:2 ). Only to dead faith (fides informis) is the doctrine applied: "Faith alone does not justify". On the other hand, faith informed by charity (fides formata) has the power of justification. St. Augustine (De Trinit., XV, 18) expresses it pithily thus: "Sine caritate quippe fides potest quidem esse, sed non et prodesse." Hence we see that from the very beginning the Church has taught that not only faith but that a sincere conversion of heart effected by charity and contrition is also requisite for justification--witness the regular method of administering baptism and the discipline of penance in the early Church .
Passive grace was an invention of Martin Luther.
Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God. Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive that righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ, it actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us (rather than infused into us) through faith. [31] "That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," he wrote. "Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ." [32] Faith, for Luther, is a gift from God.
John Calvin added his own twist:
Calvinism stresses the complete ruin of man's ethical nature against a backdrop of the sovereign grace of God in salvation . It teaches that fallen humanity is morally and spiritually unable to follow God or escape their condemnation before him and that only by divine intervention in which God must change their unwilling hearts can people be turned from rebellion to willing obedience.
In this view, all people are entirely at the mercy of God, who would be just in condemning all people for their sins but who has chosen to be merciful to some. One person is saved while another is condemned, not because of a foreseen willingness, faith, or any other virtue in the first person, but because God sovereignly chose to have mercy on him. Although the person must believe the gospel and respond to be saved, this obedience of faith is God's gift, and thus God completely and sovereignly accomplishes the salvation of sinners.
