Balancing the Presentation of Saints' Lives with Works-Rights Mentality
The presentation of saints' lives has long served as a means of edification in Christian tradition, yet it raises the pastoral question of whether such narratives encourage believers to view salvation as earned through heroic deeds rather than received by grace. This tension appears differently across theological traditions, shaped by their respective understandings of justification and sanctification.
The Reformed Concern
Reformed theology emphasizes that regeneration aims "to bring the life of believers into concord and harmony with the righteousness of God" [3], yet this transformation follows adoption as sons rather than securing it. Charles Hodge articulates the Augustinian position that Christ's work "secured with certainty the benefits of his work for those for whom He acted" [2], establishing that salvation rests entirely on Christ's representative work, not on the believer's imitation of exemplary lives. From this perspective, hagiography risks obscuring the doctrine that election precedes sanctification [5, 6], potentially leading readers to conflate the fruit of grace with its root.
Patristic and Ascetic Traditions
The Life of St. Antony, attributed to Athanasius, exercised "important influence upon the development of the ascetic life in the Church" [4], presenting monastic heroism as a pattern for Christian discipleship. Augustine distinguished between the active and contemplative virtues, noting that "the one is that whereby the way is taken, and the other that whereby the goal is reached" [8]—a framework that allows saints' lives to function as illustrations of the active pursuit of holiness without claiming they constitute the basis of acceptance before God. Athanasius's broader theological work focused on "the Incarnation as a living fact" and "its place in the scheme of God's dealing with man" [9], suggesting that exemplary lives point beyond themselves to Christ's transformative work.
Pastoral Application
Adam Clarke's Methodist commentary suggests that presenting the "high pitch of glory and blessedness" to which believers are called serves to cultivate gratitude for God's mercy while warning against presumption [1]. The challenge lies in narrating sanctification—which Hodge describes as conforming "the soul into conformity to the image of Christ" [7]—without implying that such conformity merits salvation. Augustine's own detailed account of his spiritual struggle in Romans 7 [7] models how personal narrative can illuminate grace rather than obscure it, provided the framework remains clear that transformation follows justification rather than earning it.
Sources
- Romans (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Romans 11:13: This and the following verse should be read in a parenthesis. St. Paul, as the apostle of the Gentiles, wished to show them the high pitch of glory and blessedness to which they had been called, that they might have a due sense of God's mercy in calling them to such a state of salvation; and that they might be jealous over themselves, lest they should fall as the Jews had done before them: and he dwells particularly on the greatness of those privileges which the Gentiles had now received, that he might stir up the minds of his countrymen to emulation, and might be ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 107: this was only his Jewish mode of presenting the matter. It is not absolute truth, but a mere transient form suited to the age of the Apostles. In all these cases, however, the main fact is conceded. Christ did act as a representative; and what He did secured with certainty the benefits of his work for those for whom He acted. This being conceded, it of course follows that He acted as the representative and substitute of those only who are ultimately to be saved. 553 6. There is another argument on this subject generally presented, which ”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 61: 2002 1. We have said that the object of regeneration is to bring the life of believers into concord and harmony with the righteousness of God, and so confirm the adoption by which they have been received as sons. But although the law comprehends within it that new life by which the image of God is restored in us, yet, as our sluggishness stands greatly in need both of helps and incentives it will be useful to collect out of Scripture a true account of this reformations lest any who have a heartfelt desire of repentance should in th”
- CCEL (Patristic) “Athanasius of Alexandria, Select Works and Letters, section 210: 188 Introduction to Vita S. Antoni. ———————————— ( Written between 356 and 362) The Life of St. Antony is included in the present collection partly on account of the important influence it has exercised upon the development of the ascetic life in the Church, partly and more especially on the ground of its strong claim to rank as a work of Athanasius. If that claim were undisputed, no apology would be needed for its presence in this volume. If on the other hand its spurious and unhistorical character had been finally demonstrated,”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 106: § 1. State of the Question. This is a question between Augustinians and Anti- Augustinians. The former believing that God from all eternity having elected some to everlasting life, had a special reference to their salvation in the mission and work of his Son. The latter, denying that there has been any such election of a part of the human family to salvation, maintain that the mission and work of Christ had an equal reference to all mankind. The question, therefore, does not, in the first place, concern the nature of Christ’s work. It is”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 61: leave others in their sin. This view, as it seems, agrees with the representations of the Scriptures, and avoids the difficulties connected with the strict supralapsarian doctrine. It is to be borne in mind that the object of these speculations is not to pry into the operation of the divine mind, but simply to ascertain and exhibit the relation in which the several truths revealed in Scripture concerning the plan of redemption bear to each other.”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 31: the soul into conformity to the image of Christ. Paul details his own Experience in Romans vii. 7-25. The classical passages of the New Testament on the nature of this work are the following, — Romans vii. 7-25 . This is not the place to enter upon the discussion whether the Apostle in this passage is detailing his own experience or not. This is the interpretation given to it by Augustinians in all ages. It is enough to say here that the “ onus probandi ” rests on those who take the opposite view of the passage. It must require very stron”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — CHAP. V.--CONCERNING THE TWO VIRTUES, OF WHICH JOHN IS CONVERSANT WITH THE CONTEMPLATIVE, THE OTHER EVANGELISTS WITH THE ACTIVE. (part 1): 8. Moreover, there are two several virtues (or talents) which have been proposed to the mind of man. Of these, the one is the active, and the other the contemplative: the one being that whereby the way is taken, and the other that whereby the goal is reached;(6) the one that by which men labour in order that the heart may be purified to see God, and the other that by which men are disengaged(7) and God is s”
- CCEL (Patristic) “Athanasius of Alexandria, Select Works and Letters, section 96: living systems; it remains for him who will to taste and see what that life is which is the gift of Christ to them that follow Him (46–end). The purpose of the tract, in common with the contra Gentes , being to commend the religion of Christ to acceptance, the argument is concerned more with the Incarnation as a living fact, and with its place in the scheme of God’s dealing with man, than with its analysis as a theological doctrine. He does not enter upon the question, fruitful of controversy in the previous century at Alexandria,”