The usurping Corinthian leaders
may have also developed the idea to preserve their standing before God all they
needed to do was proclaim the justice of their cause. Jesus was known to have said
that with regard to the eschatological judgment “by your words you will be
justified [εκ γαρ των λογων σου δικαωθηση], and by your words you
will be condemned” (Matt 12:37). Clement, however, sought to prevent any
recourse to this or similar lines of argumentation that relied in one way or another
on the doctrine of justification. In response to any of the foregoing potential
counterarguments, Clement asserted that Christians are “justified by works and
not by words [εργοις δικαιουμενοι,
μη λογοις].” (1 Clement 30:3) Words of
self-vindication argued Clement, would be of no avail before the divine tribunal.
Only concrete postconversion works could fix the Corinthians’ then-compromised
standing before God. Contrary to some scholars, who have seen in this
affirmation of justification by works merely a demonstration of one’s righteousness
before other humans on the basis of good works, the statements immediately leading
up to his enormous claim are filled with equally grave exhortations to avoid
certain types of action that, if left unrepented, Clement believed would result
in eternal condemnation, the antithesis of justification (cf. Rom 8:33-34). The
entire spirit of this assertion about justification by works versus
justification by words, as earlier scholars have pointed out, hearkened back
not only to the nullification of one’s declaration to have faith but also to
the central thesis of the second chapter of James: “You all see that a human
being is justified by works [εξ εργων δικαιουται]
and [that a human being] is not only [justified] by faith [και ουκ εκ πιστεως μονον]” (Jas 2:24). . . . As further
evidence of this commonality between James and Clement, in the ensuing
paragraph, Clement reaffirmed a point also made by James in this regard:
Abraham received a divine blessing because he did righteous and truthful works.
The event recalled by Clement is the same momentous event mentioned by James:
the sacrifice of Isaac (Jas 2:21-23; Gen 22:1-14). Whether intentional or not,
Clement applied to the situation of the lawless rebellion in Corinth a theology
of justification by works affirmed at least terminologically by James. This
affirmation of justification by works reinforced the larger argument made
throughout the letter: The Corinthians must actually do the good work of reinstating
the deposed presbyters (as opposed to merely vindicating themselves through self-justifying
speech) or else face certain postmortem condemnation from God. (Erik A.
Estrada, Faith Alone: Debates About Justification Before the Reformation [Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2026], 44-46)
Divine approval, Clement
explained (using the language and concept of Titus 3:5), came not through
autonomous works of any sort but rather through conformity to the divine will.
In light of this fact, Clement argued that the Roman and Corinthian Christians had
also received their spiritual standing through God’s persistent gift of
spiritual blessing: “Therefore we who by his will have been called in Christ
Jesus, are not justified by ourselves [ου δι’
εατων δικαιουμεθα], or by our wisdom or understanding
or piety of the works which we have wrought in holiness of heart [αλλα δια της πιστεως], but through faith [η εργων ων κατειγρασαμεθα εν οσιοτητι καρδιας] by which Almighty God has justified
all men from the beginning of the world; to him be glory for ever and ever.” (1
Clement 32:4) The doctrine of justification by faith, argued Clement, is meant
to lead Christians to the awareness that every spiritual blessing comes to them
ultimately from God and not on the basis of their works alone. Any
postconversion work done without faith or without a recognition of God’s
gracious gifts to the human being could not justify. This was a rather sophisticated
claim for such an early phase of the debate over justification. (Ibid., 46-47)
