“The Way” [1] was a term or phrase once used instead of the word “Faith” or sometimes the phrase “practice of the faith”, which was very helpful because it focused on the need to act on our intellectual acceptance of what Christ taught as truth and commanded as required behavior (believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ). For example, prior to becoming Paul, Saul persecuted early Christians, those who practiced or lived The Way as is recorded in this statement by St. Peter: “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem”, (Acts 9:2).
Other passages refer to the Way as well: “But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way (emphasis mine throughout) before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus”, (Acts 19:9) and this: “I (Saul) persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons…”, (Acts 22:4) and St. Paul says: “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets…”, (Acts 24:14) and “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh”, (Hebrews 10:19-20).
Prefiguring “The Way”:
This Way, or practice of the Christian faith, was prefigured in the Old Testament where the prophet writes: “…This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right or to the left”, (Isaiah 30:21) and “A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it.”, (Isaiah 35:8) and “They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their tracks; They have made their paths crooked, whoever treads on them does not know peace.”, (Isaiah 59:8). King David wrote about it thusly: “Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.”, (Psalms 143:8) as did King Soloman: “The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright, But ruin to the workers of iniquity.”, (Proverbs 10:2). Moses was the first to mention it: “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”, (Genesis 18:19).
If Christianity was still referred to as The Way by the apostles and disciples of Christ who used the same language as the Old Testament writers who prefigured it, we might better understand it as a total life commitment, that is, a process of becoming Holy (set apart from the world, the flesh and the Devil), which was a requirement of the Lord’s covenant with the ancient Israelites from the beginning, as demonstrated in the Lord’s instructions to Moses, “You shall be holy, for I [the Lord] am Holy”, (Leviticus 19:2). Christ reiterated the importance of meeting/obeying Old Testament obligations with respect to the moral law when he said, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.”, (Matthew 5:17-18).
The Word “Faith” has many connotations [2]:
At some point in time, the word Faith (initially understood to mean, belief/understanding and practice [action] and worship, by the followers of Jesus, often summarized as “belief in action”), was surreptitiously altered (no doubt through the efforts of Satan) in such a way as to allow the Gospel to be thought of as a belief system (intellectual ascent only) rather than a total life system or “Way”, which demands a very strict kind of human behavior based upon the truth about God and man as articulated by Jesus Christ. The complete Gospel of Christ is binary in that it requires that we accept and obey what Christ has taught and commanded. It is tertiary when the need for baptism is added to the two. The proper formulation then becomes; believe, be baptized and obey (for example, St. Paul writes: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”, (Philippians 2:12). In some circumstances such as in infants, the order becomes; be baptized, believe and obey. The compete Gospel of Christ is tertiary when one considers that it includes a creed (set of beliefs), a set of moral precepts (code) and a prescribed way to worship (cult).
Not long after the death of the Apostles, Church Fathers and the initial propagation of the Gospel had occurred, various heresies arose. Eventually, a huge, albeit subtle error was allowed to persist in interpreting certain verses out of context and contrary to the totality of the Gospel message, specifically those that speak of “belief” in such a way as seeming to imply that what was being referenced was intellectual ascent to certain propositions alone. In certain quarters, there began to be what can only be called a disingenuous form of proof-texting which was not authentic/faithful to the Gospel as promulgated by Christ and the Apostles.
Incomplete knowledge or understanding can be dangerous:
There are many examples including perhaps the most well-known, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth [3] in him should not perish but have eternal life”, (John 3:16). At first blush this may seem to imply salvation can be attained by simply admitting that Jesus of Nazareth existed as an actual person (and not simply a cleverly contrived myth). However, there are several problems with this idea. Chapter three of the Gospel according to John begins with an interchange between Jesus Christ and Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees who is asking Our Lord how it is that He is able to do the signs he is performing. Christ tells Nicodemus that one must be born again by water and the spirit in order to see the kingdom of God and to enter it, (John 3:3-7). He is alluding to what will become the sacrament of Christian baptism and the beliefs/commitments which accompany it. In multiple other passages in chapter 3, Christ enlarges on the idea of what this belief entails. It is there that the famous John 3:16 quotation is found. The culmination of that section is as follow: “For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds (aka works, actions) should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been done in (according to the precepts of) God.”, (John 3:20-21). It is clear from the context of chapter 3 that Christ was very much stressing the importance of good deeds (obedience) and right thinking, not belief (intellectual ascent) alone as necessary for salvation as can be seen in the last sentence of the chapter, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life (salvation); he who does not obey the Son shall not see life (be condemned to Hell), but the wrath of God rests upon him.”, (John 3:36).
Christ made it crystal clear in many other statements that commitment to His person and message involved more than intellectual acceptance of what he said and did or His existence as a historical person. He specifically preached/taught, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments”, (John 14:15, 21, 23). “And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep (obey) his commandments”, (1 John 2:3) and “And this is love, that we follow his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love”, (2 John 1:6); Christ repeatedly stressed the necessity of obeying His commands as found in His Gospel. For Christ, to love him is to obey him. St. James writes in a similar vein, “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the [crown of life] (salvation) which God has promised to those who love (obey) him”, (James 1:12). The following statement of our Lord Jesus Christ is devastating for those who deny that we must obey Christ’s commands in order to go to heaven, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life (salvation); he who does not obey the Son shall not see life (be condemned to Hell), but the wrath of God rests upon him.”, (John 3:35-36).
To recapitulate then, love of Christ is demonstrated through obedience to His entire Gospel, that is to all His commands/teachings. Our Lord clearly stated that obedience to his commandments is the metric by which he decides whether we love him. He also alluded to this principle in John 7:16, 20, where he said, “by their fruits you shall know them.” Also see Luke 13:24 and Matthew 7:14.
The necessity of being Obedient:
After one understands that the teachings of Christ specifically include the necessity of avoiding sin and performing certain actions/behaviors and avoiding others, (sometimes referred to derogatorily as “works”), this becomes clear. [4] Some of the relevant scriptural passages were written in a kind of short-hand because the Gospel was conveyed orally long before it was committed to writing. [5] Nevertheless, just before His ascension into heaven our Lord and Savior was unequivocal in delivering His final instructions, (also known as the Great Commission) when He said “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe (obey) all I have commanded you…”, (Matthew 28:19-20). The absence of the totality of His message being included in every passage that speaks of faith, belief, confessing with the mouth and so on, must not be used to distort the way in which it was understood by those who heard it from the Apostles, Disciples and early Church Fathers. The entirety of the Gospel was so fresh in their minds that no misapprehension would have been possible. Many heard it from the Lord directly. Moreover, it would have seemed ludicrous to accept the entirety of Christ’s gospel message as true and then to negate it by behaving in a way which contradicted it. To all but those steeped in modernism and post-modernism, this is self-evident.
The Way was a complete life system:
and understood by the early Christians as such. To imply that it involved acceptance of specific propositions alone would have seemed ludicrous to them (they were persecuted and, in some cases, martyred for their testimony/actions/worship not for their unexpressed beliefs). Christ would not have implied that few make it to heaven if doing so only required the acceptance of certain propositions about him. Moreover, Christ would not have claimed that He came to fulfill the moral law if it had been repudiated through his atoning death on the Cross. For example, Christ says in the Gospel according to St. Matthew: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished”, (Matthew 5:17-18). While certain dietary and other restrictions of the Old Law were eliminated under the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, the moral law remained, which Christ actually expanded upon (made more stringent) in His Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5:1-16). In further support of this truth is that Christ specifically called attention to the difficulty with which human beings are confronted in attempting to gain entrance to heaven, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able”, (Luke 13:24) and “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”, Matthew 7:14). All of these passages speak about the need to obey the teachings/commands of Christ if one is to be saved.
St. Paul enunciates the many requirements of living The Way as follows:
“Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (The Way), just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from (sexual) immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; that no man transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness”, (1 Thessalonians 4:1-7).
“And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”, (1 Thessalonians 5:14-23).
There would have been no reason for St. Paul to stress the importance of abstaining from every form of evil and of keeping our spirits, souls and bodies sound and blameless if all that was required was for a Christian to grant mental acceptance (belief) in what Christ taught and did. Clearly the passages which imply otherwise must be assumed to be abbreviated short-hand and thus incomplete where they seem to imply that only a belief/acceptance in/of Christ’s teachings and atoning death is required for salvation (without putting those teachings/commands into practice). The absence of a complete treatment in one or more passages does not overcome a very detailed and complete discussion in others.
One final piece of evidence in support of this important teaching is from St. Peter, the first head of Christ’s Church on earth. He along with St. John the Apostle was privileged to see the empty tomb of Christ just after His resurrection on that early Sunday morning:
“For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17-18).
In a subsequent essay, the importance of obeying Christ’s commands in order to gain salvation (be admitted into heaven and to eternally enjoy the beatific vision) will be addressed.
Endnotes:
[1] Old and New Testament scriptures mention the word “way” many times. Presumably the original meaning was in reference to travel. In scripture, this word often carries the connotation of path or road, that is, a sure method of achieving some goal or destination, whether physical or spiritual. Christ used the term in a similar context by saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me.”, (John 14:6).
[2] We often hear people say “my faith” or “have faith” without referencing or clarifying the object or their faith. This can be very deceptive. Even Satanists have faith in a manner of speaking, which allows them to deceitfully appear to be referring to Jesus Christ when they in fact mean the Devil. Some people who have a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, are guilty of being innocently imprecise rather than perfidious. It would be better to always state the proper object of their faith so as to avoid confusion.
[3] It should be unnecessary to state that since the Gospel of Christ includes not only His existence as an actual historical person but a complete set of propositions and instructions for how to fulfill our obligations to our creator, live properly on earth and to avoid evil (not commit sin), it is ludicrous to claim that one believes in Him if one does not adhere to (obey), all He has taught and commanded.
[4] One cannot work (obey) their way to heaven in the absence of right belief. Such works in the absence of the atoning (salvific) work Christ accomplished on the Cross would be of no value at all and no one of sound mind, voluntarily obeys a tyrant/imposter. One cannot get to heaven by intellectual ascent alone, either. One must (according to Jesus Christ) believe or accept (ascent to) everything He has taught and done and behave (obey) accordingly. It would be the epitome of foolishness to spend one’s life obeying Christ if one did not believe He is God. It is even more ridiculous to disobey the God one claims to believe in. Consider the teaching of St. James (the Just, aka James the Younger), first leader of the Church in Jerusalem: “Therefore, put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word (the entire Gospel which includes all of Christ’s commands) and not deceivers only, deceiving yourselves.”, (James 1:21-22) and “Submit (obey) yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”, (James 4:7-8). Further from St. James: “But some will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”, (James 2:21-24). Finally, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”, (James 2:26). In the last two passages, the word “faith” refers to belief or intellectual ascent). In using the word “works, St. James stresses the need to be obedient to the Will of Christ through our deeds/actions. Therefore, saving faith is belief in action, a complete sentence, subject and predicate, not the subject alone.
[5] Note however, that Christ did not demand that it be written down in any of the statements which are attributed to him. This means the complete Gospel was initially handed down orally, first by Christ to the Apostles and Disciples and then to everyone else. The first New Testament written document was likely not produced until roughly 45 AD by St. Paul in his epistle (letter) to the Thessalonians, roughly 15 years after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.