Reading Paul’s Letter The Letter to the Galatians (3)
In last week’s column, I discussed what St. Paul means by justification by faith: namely, we are put in a right relationship with God—we are justified—on the basis of what God has done for us in the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, rather than by what we do. Put in a way that is more familiar to most Catholics, we are saved by God’s grace. This means that it is what God does for us rather than what we do that brings about our salvation. But if this is true, what need is there to live a morally good life? Does Paul’s teaching on justification mean that all we need to do is believe in Christ? Does it mean there is no need for us to do what is right? Of course not!
Paul is keenly aware of our need to follow God’s commandments and live a morally good life. What he wants to emphasize and what we need to remember is that it is what God does for us rather than what we do for ourselves that brings about our salvation. But where does the moral life fit in?
Paul’s answer is this: the morally good life is the outcome of our new relationship with God. Since we are in a new relationship with God, we can live a morally good life in a way that we could not before. But how is this possible?
It is possible because of the gift of the Holy Spirit that God bestows upon us when we believe in Christ. Those who are in God receive the gift of the Spirit that enables and empowers them to live in an entirely new way they could not live before. The Spirit of God dwelling in them, St. Paul says, produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). In contrast to those who live by the power of the Spirit, those who live in the realm of the flesh produce what Paul calls the works of the flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, jealousy, anger, quarrelling, etc. (Gal 5:19-21).
Paul’s vision of the moral life means this. We do not live the morally good life in order to earn our salvation; rather, we live the morally good life because we have been saved! The morally good life is the way the redeemed live. The morally good life is the way those who have been justified by faith live. The morally good life is the outcome of God’s redemptive work in Christ.
St. Paul has yet another way of expressing his understanding of the morally good life: the morally good life expresses itself in the commandment to love one another as Christ loved us. For Paul, love is “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). Thus the whole law is summarized in a single commandment: “love your neighbor as yourself.” For Paul, the Christian life is a matter of “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6).
How Paul understands the morally good life presents us with a new way of approaching Christian ethics. We live the morally good life because we have been justified by faith. We live a morally good life because we have been saved in Christ. We live a morally good life because the power of the Spirit dwelling in us enables us to live such a life. We live a morally good life because faith in Christ always results in love for one another in Christ.
If you would like to know more about how Paul envisions our Christian moral life, read the last two chapters of Galatians, chapters 5 and 6. It will take you about three minutes to read those chapters and a life time to understand them! Fr. Matera