There are two fundamental truths in Scripture about our relationship with God. One is often ignored by Protestants, and the other is sometimes ignored by Catholics and Orthodox engaged in critique of Protestantism. The first truth is found in Philippians 2:12- we must “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” This is a serious matter that must be taken seriously. We must strive to follow God and submit to the Lordship of Christ, and unless we do so, we cannot have assurance. But the second truth is found in Romans 5:1- “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is, there is a very real sense that we can have assurance of our ultimate salvation by Jesus Christ.

How do these two truths stand together? By our own works, we can never reach final glory. This was the error of the Jews addressed by St. Paul. The Torah was not given to Israel so that Israel could bring about God’s redemptive purpose simply by the intensity of its obedience. Not only is all life and existence derived from God and him alone, but the fall of man has touched every aspect of the human person, and our wills are defective, tending towards sin and death. Because of this, there is no possible way that we could bring about our own redemption. It must come from Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, in taking human flesh, communicated divine glory to every aspect of human life- even unto death. In communicating divine life to death, He defeated death and arose in a glorified body, ascending to the throne of God and bringing human nature to complete union with God.

This is called by St. Paul the “faithfulness of Christ” or the “obedience” of Christ. In Romans 3:22, we are told that the righteousness of God (that is, His intent to restore the world to its proper place in relation to Him) is unveiled in the faithfulness of Christ for all who are faithful. If one does not translate the preceding phrase “faithfulness of Christ”, then it becomes redundant: “faith in Jesus Christ for all who have faith.” The faithfulness of Christ was the complete and total self-consecration of the Incarnate Son to His Father. It is faithfulness which characterizes the relationship of a son to his father. Because the Son took on human flesh, He reoriented human nature back to the Father and made possible the incorporation of His family into that relationship, through the Holy Spirit. Christ’s ascent to the Father is the ascent of human nature to union with God.

We are saved in Christ. We are justified in Christ. That is the absolute and core truth of the gospel of grace. The only way in which we can be restored to right relationship with God is union with the Incarnate Son. We are restored to relation with God and are given peace with Him because of the fact that the Son is eternally in that relation and at eternal peace with Him, and the incarnation has shared that with mankind. None of our works can lift us up to God. None of our works can obligate God to give us anything at all. It is all of grace- and the language of grace is the language of gift-giving. As St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:9- “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.”

As the Holy Spirit eternally manifests the Son, it is the Holy Spirit who creates faith in us. Faith is that character which the Lord Jesus has with the Father, and the Spirit brings us into participation with the Spirit in His creation of faith in us. For most of the unbeliever’s life, a veil lies over his mind. He cannot turn to God. He cannot see the truth of the gospel. But there are times in his life that the Spirit presses the question upon him and allows him to see- and it is at these points that the unbeliever is given the capacity to receive the gift of God in the animation of the Holy Spirit. In being given this gift and led to the baptismal font thereby, he is crucified and resurrected with Christ, being justified in Christ because of God’s own justification of Christ by His resurrection (1 Timothy 3:16, Romans 1:4-5).

It is by Christ alone that we are saved and raised up to God, and this is wholly the gift of His grace. In being united to the Son in whom the flesh was put to death, the sins of our flesh are put to death in Him, so that God forgives us our sins and works to make us more like His Son. This is the core truth of salvation, that we are saved in union with Christ. This is what justification by faith means. What of works, then? Good works are those things which, by co-operation with the Spirit (who makes cooperation possible), are brought forth from faith and deepen the reality of that faith, of that paternal relationship to God in Christ. We are saved in a relationship to God, and works are not done to obligate God or merit salvation. Rather, they are brought forth from faith by the Holy Spirit and deepen our relationship with God. That is how we can have peace, and that is why God forgives us our trespasses: only through Christ’s lifting up are we lifted up.

So why can we have assurance? We can have assurance because God has revealed in Christ that He loves us and came down to bring about our salvation. We can have assurance because we know that Christ has taken our nature in glory to perfect union with the Father. We can have assurance because God has promised that He will meet us in baptism and the Eucharist, and that we are joined to Christ in baptism and the Eucharist. And joined to Christ, we inherit all that He inherits- who can bring any accusation against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died- more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:33-34)

This is what Islam (and Judaism) lacks. In Islam, the wholly transcendent God has not shared his life with us. There is no Holy Spirit animating us. And we are in the flesh and tend towards death and corruption, but there has been no putting to death of the flesh. The prophets have given us God’s commandments, but how are our sins dealt with and put away? The punishment for sin is death, but no one has died the death of the flesh for us, so that we can be raised alive by the Holy Spirit.