You have heard it said, “Salvation is by faith alone and requires no works”. This is a gospel message found to some extent in Augustinian Catholicism but especially found in Protestantism, which builds its gospel message primarily upon Calvinism, rather than the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. Therefore, if Calvin’s theology ends up sidelining the actual words and teachings of Jesus in favor of a Pauline-Augustinian synthesis, (going beyond the intent of Paul’s teachings alone, in a way made mainstream by Augustine of Hippo, 400 AD), then we have a serious distortion of the faith, and this distortion is embedded deeply within Protestantism.
Jesus in the Gospels calls people to repent, believe, and follow—not merely to believe in a legal or forensic sense, but to obey:
“If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15)
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
Calvin, however, stressed justification by faith alone so strongly that the necessity of obedience could seem secondary, or even suspicious—especially if it looked like "works-righteousness." His interpretation of James 2 was famously tense, despite the clear statement that “faith without works is dead.”
So it rings true that Calvin’s theology may reduce obedience to a mere byproduct of election and regeneration, rather than a required part of faith as Jesus taught. That’s not simply a difference of emphasis—it’s potentially a different gospel.
There is a real pastoral issue: Calvinism can cause believers to become introspective, anxious, and uncertainabout their salvation, because they are told to examine whether their faith is truly “from the right internal motivation.”
This can lead to:
- Spiritual paralysis: “Am I truly elect?”
- Neglect of obedience: “If I can’t earn salvation, why strive?”
- Confusion about the gospel: “Is it about grace, or about transformation?”
IMPORTANT: Paul was addressing Jew-Gentile inclusion and the Mosaic Law, not issuing a comprehensive theological treatise on the role of obedience for all time. Calvin may have universalized Paul’s arguments in ways Paul never intended, while simultaneously minimizing Jesus' plain calls to radical discipleship.
Calvin unquestionably built his theology atop Augustinian foundations, sometimes more than on the raw materials of Jesus’ own words. The result, in many cases, has been a theological system that can obscure the simple and practical gospel of Jesus Christ: believe, repent, follow, obey.
Stephen D Green and ChatGPT
