Commenting on Old Testament figures (who were in a justified/saved state) offering sacrifices, one Protestant wrote the following in order to salvage sola fide:
. . . sacrifices were an expression of commitment
and obedience to God who said that He would cleanse the believer of sin when
the believer brought such sacrifices. Mere sacrifices never saved anyone, but
performing those sacrifices was the means of expressing faith, whereby God
would cleanse one from sin and restore one to fellowship with God. This aspect
of sacrifices falls under the category of sanctification rather than
justification. It strikes the believer, not the unbeliever. (Matthew A. Cook, “Premillennialism
and Worship in the Millennium,” in K. Neill Foster and David E. Fessenden, Essays
on Premillennialism: A Modern Reaffirmation of an Ancient Doctrine [Camp
Hill, Pa.: Christian Publications, Inc., 2002], 181-95, here, p. 186)
To
understand the problem posed by Old Testament figures offering sacrifice,
Robert Sungenis, a leading critic of Protestant soteriologies (plural) wrote:
The Relationship of Old and New Covenant
Sacrifices by the Justified
As we have discovered,
sacrifice was a part of man’s relationship with God right from the beginning of
history. Whether Gentile (Abel, Noah, Job), or Jew (Abraham, Moses, David), God
required sacrifice as a propitiation for sins and to show appreciation for who
He is. We also noted that, according to the New Testament, men such as Abel,
Noah, Job and Abraham were justified by grace for salvation. Romans 4:1-17 and
Gl 3:6-18 specify, for example, that Abraham was justified by faith within the grace
provided by the promise of God in the New Covenant. In fact, most of the
examples in the New Testament of those justified by grace through faith are
extracted from the Old Testament (cf. Hb 11:1-39; 4:2-6; Gl 3:1- 29;
Jm 5:10-17; 2Pt 2:4-10).
This raises an important
issue. Protestants believe that justification is made possible by Christ’s
atoning sacrifice and is imputed by grace through an individual’s faith.
Because they believe salvation comes exclusively through faith, Protestants
contend that personal sacrifices are not to be offered to God in an effort to
seek forgiveness of sin nor to propitiate His wrath. . . . Protestant theology is left
with the larger task of explaining why men who were justified by grace through
faith in the Old Testament offered blood sacrifices to God. From a Protestant understanding
of atonement, the sacrifices offered by men such as Abel, Noah, Job and Abraham
would be superfluous, for each of them were already justified by grace through
faith and thus their blood sacrifices would be as needless as Protestants claim
the Catholic Mass to be. Pressing the logic further, the Protestant must
conclude that, in being justified by grace, the blood sacrifices offered by the
patriarchs were an insult to God’s sovereign prerogative to provide forgiveness
and favor by “faith alone.”
The problem for Protestant
theology becomes especially acute when it is confronted with Abraham’s
sacrifice of Isaac. The epistle of James makes clear that Abraham’s willingness
to offer Isaac was an act of justification. In fact, the willingness to
sacrifice Isaac was such a supreme act of sacrifice in the eyes of God that He
finally swore an oath to Abraham that the blessing of the covenant would come to him and his progeny,
which is something He had not done previously (Gn 22:1-19; Hb 6:13-18). James’
conclusion is: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered
up his son Isaac on the altar...you see a man is justified by works and not by
faith alone” (Jm 2:21, 24). It is clear that the attempt to sacrifice Isaac was
a work that justified Abraham. This also means that the sacrifices of Abel,
Noah and Job were works that justified them in the eyes of God, showing that
sacrifice is one of the principle means of securing justification. In fact,
James’ main argument in Jm 2:13-14 is that a person who claims to have faith
but does not have works cannot be justified and will be condemned, and thus we
must conclude that if Abraham had not offered Isaac, then his justification
would have been nullified and the promise, without an oath, would have been
rescinded. The relationship between individual sacrifice and justification is
very clear. Sacrifice is what sustains and completes the justification
process—a theme we will see more clearly as we move into the study of the relationship
of the Catholic Mass to the cross of Christ. (Robert A. Sungenis, Not By
Bread Alone: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for the Eucharistic Sacrifice
[2d ed.; State Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc.,
2009], 50-51)
On
the Protestant (non)responses to James 2, see: