Severus, patriarch of Antioch, in a letter to Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus:
For you said excellently and rightly that these teachers are not opposed
to each other, just as Paul and James are not, with the one saying that a human
being is justified by faith without works [Gal 2:16, Eph 2:8–9], while
the other writes that faith without works is dead [Jas 2:26]. For Paul
spoke of the faith that precedes baptism, which requires only the consent of
the whole heart to the confession, without its being preceded by a life of good
works, a faith that justifies all that partakes in some way of evil, when in
the divine laver of regeneration he confesses his faith that comes from
instruction. James, on the other hand, speaks of the faith that follows
baptism, that it is dead if one possesses it without works, that is, if one
does not confirm it by deeds of justice. For baptism is the pledge of a life
ordered to the good. Thus even our Lord was the type for us, who, after he had
been baptized by John and had sanctified the waters and inaugurated our
baptism, went up into the mountain and entered into contest with the Slanderer
and undid all his power in advance, so giving us through the type a sign and an
image by which we understand that after the divine ablution, works are required
and that these are the contests we are to expect and that we must contend in
them lawfully [2 Tm 2:5] against the enemy through the proof of virtues.
But perhaps someone will retort and say: “Look, Paul also took Abraham
as a type of the human being who is justified by faith without works when he
says: ‘Well then, they who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the
believer’ [Gal 3:9] and: ‘For the one who does not work, but trusts in
him who justifies sinners, his faith is reckoned to him as righteousness’
[Rom 4:5]. On the other hand, the apostle James takes the same Abraham as a
type of the human being who is not justified by faith alone, but also by the
works which confirm faith. How, therefore, do they not contradict each other,
and how is the same Abraham the image of faith without works and of that which
is with works?”
But we can easily draw a solution from the divine Scriptures. For it
is the one Abraham who at distinct times is the image, now of one faith, now of
the other, of that which precedes baptism and does not require works but only
confession and the saving word by which we are justified when we have faith in
Christ, and of that which follows baptism and is linked to works. For we know
that the circumcision in the flesh of old was practiced as a type, an image
that was fulfilled in saving baptism. By the removal of the foreskin it teaches
renunciation and rebirth according to the flesh and makes those who are
circumcised into sons of God. It was for this reason that the Lord commanded
Moses that he was to speak thus to Pharaoh: “You shall say to Pharaoh: Thus
says the Lord: Israel is my first-born son” [Ex 4:22]. It was of this that
Paul, too, writing to the Colossians, said: “You have been circumcised with
a circumcision not wrought by hands, but through the stilling of the body of
flesh in the circumcision that is from Christ, when you were buried with him in
baptism” [Col 2:11–12]. It was for this reason indeed that he said that
Abraham was justified without works by faith, when before circumcision he was
with foreskin and presenting the image of the faith that precedes baptism,
being given life through confession alone, and not through works. For he said,
when he wrote to the Romans: “His faith was reckoned to Abraham as
righteousness. How then was this reckoned to him, when he was in circumcision,
or when he was with foreskin? It was not with circumcision but with foreskin”
[Rom 4:9–10]. And he did not lie. For he bore witness to the expression of
Moses who said that God spoke to Abraham when he had not yet been circumcised:
“Lift up your eyes to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to
count them,” and he said: “Such will be your seed. And Abraham put his
faith in God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Gn 15:5–6).
Conversely, in order to demonstrate the faith which follows baptism,
and gives life through good works, the godly James chooses the same Abraham,
but him as circumcised and without foreskin. One can learn from the texts whose
words were spoken in the Spirit. For it is written: “Do you wish to be
shown, O vain man, how faith without works is dead? Was our Father Abraham not
justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac as a sacrifice? You see
that faith was active in his works, and faith was completed by works, and the
Scripture was fulfilled which says: ‘Abraham believed in God, and it was
reckoned to him as righteousness,’ and he was called ‘the friend of God’ ”
[Jas 2:20–23, citing Gn 15:6]. It is easy for one who reads the writings of
Moses to learn clearly from the Book of Genesis that it was after Abraham was
circumcised that he was commanded to offer up Isaac on the high place, that he
fulfilled the commandment, and that he was justified by works, again
prefiguring in his own person the faith that follows baptism—which is the
figurative circumcision—and that justifies a human being through works. For it
is written that Abraham and his son Ishmael were first circumcised, and those
born in his house, and those he purchased for money from foreign peoples, and
that it was afterwards that God tested Abraham and said: “Take your son,
your only one, Isaac whom you love, and go to a high country and offer him up
there as a sacrifice” [Gn 17:26–27]. Thus, manifestly the same Spirit does
not contradict himself now here, now there, who by the apostles and by the
ancient writings of the Law spoke concerning faith, of that which precedes
baptism and that which follows baptism. The one justifies by simple confession
alone without works him who approaches the divine ablution as a viaticum that
suffices him for salvation, should he suddenly depart this world. The other
requires of one who has been baptized the testimony of good deeds, and it raises
him to a perfect state and a lofty dignity. It is therefore most fitting that
James says concerning this: “Faith is completed through works” [Jas
2:22].
For Paul, wise in all things, also spoke in a way that accords with
these passages. He teaches in another place that faith following baptism has
need of being completed by works. For the Galatians, having been baptized and
reckoned among the sons of God through the adoption as sons that comes from the
Spirit, were turning again to Judaism, having themselves circumcised in the
flesh, and thinking in their senselessness that those circumcised in the flesh
had some advantage in Christ over those with foreskin. He wrote to rebuke their
folly: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any
avail, but faith that is completed in love [Gal 5:6]. Therefore, it is
demonstrated clearly from this passage that faith following baptism avails and
gives life when it is active through the love that is joined to it. And what is
the activity of love? Again it is Paul who proclaims and says: “Love is
patient and mild; love is not envious or unquiet; it does not vaunt itself; it
does nothing impudent. Love does not seek its own interest; it is not irascible
or devise wickedness; it takes no delight in iniquity but delights in
righteousness. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Love never falls away” [1 Cor 13:4–8]. But in order
that these things be rightly guided, they need much sweat and toil; if they are
to be life-giving and helpful in accord with our rule of faith, who would dare
to dispute? It was for this reason that our Lord himself said: “If you love
me, keep my commandments” [Jn 14:15].
Therefore, the divine Scriptures and the Fathers concur in the way
they instruct us in the meaning of these passages. This they have already done
in writing, in which they teach those who do not read their works carelessly.
For as it is written: “All is before the face of those who understand, and
straightforward to those who find knowledge” [Prv 8:9]. (“Second Letter of
Severus to Julian,” in Conflict and Negotiation in the Early Church: Letters
from Late Antiquity, Translated from the Greek, Latin, and Syriac [trans.
Bronwen Neil and Pauline Allen; Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2020], 106-10, italics in original)
