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Faith in Christ confirms all this, for He, Himself, through the Holy Spirit, invites us
thus: Come, children, listen to me. I will teach you to revere the Lord. What man is
there that desires life, and loves to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil and your
lips from uttering deceit. Turn from evil and do what is good. Seek peace and pursue it.
The Lord's eyes are on the upright and His ears are open to their appeal . . . . ."
(1 Clement 21:8-22:8).
It will be noted that Clement, after referring to faith in Christ, appears to be about to
quote the Lord's actual words, but instead refers to Psa. 34: 11-7, which of course
has nothing to do directly with faith in Christ, apart from works, for salvation. In fact,
both before and after using the phrase "faith in Christ", we have a stress on good works.
Fear "saves those who live in it with holiness and a pure mind", and a carrying out in
practice of Psa. 34: follows, which, to Clement, confirms what "faith in Christ" is. It
is surely clear, that, in spite of his piety, Clement had never fully grasped the Gospel as
proclaimed through Paul, of justification by faith in Christ, apart from works, and the
proper place that good works have, of following and being the fruit of salvation, not the
procuring cause. Other references make this abundantly clear.
"Let us clothe ourselves with harmony, in humility and self control, keeping ourselves
from all gossip and slander, and be justified by deeds, not by words" (30:3).
He goes on to quote the example of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob acting by faith, very
much as Heb. 11:, but he confesses the faith of the sinner in Christ that saves, with the
overcoming faith of the believer, pressing on to the goal. Other references are
illuminating:
"You see, dear friends, how great and wonderful love is, and there is no describing its
perfection. Who is to be found in it, except those whom God deems worthy?"
"How happy are we . . . . . if we carry out the commandments of God in harmony with
love, that our sins may be forgiven through love" (50:3,5).
"Let us therefore strive to be found in the number of those that wait for Him, so that
we may share in the gifts He has promised. But how shall this be? . . . . . if we perform
acts that are in harmony with His blameless will" (35:4,5).
According to these statements, God's love is only for those He "deems worthy" and
this in spite of Rom. 5: 8, "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us", and "there is none righteous, no, not one" (3: 10).
"Sin being forgiven through love" may be very high sounding, but it is not N.T. truth nor
the N.T. basis for forgiveness. Nor do God's "gifts" have to be "striven for".
To be fair, there is one passage where Clement seems to contradict all this:
"So we too, who by His will have been called in Christ Jesus are made upright not
through ourselves, or through our wisdom and understanding, or piety or deeds we have
done in holiness of heart, but through faith, by which Almighty God has made all men
upright from the beginning; to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (32:4),
which only goes to show there was no clear unwavering conception in Clement's mind of
the Gospel of God's grace, apart from human merit, as preached by the Apostle Paul. It
is one thing to quote the words of Paul's epistles; it is quite another to understand them.
Clement's epistle on the whole looks on salvation, not so much linked with the Person of