Dr. James Bradley says, “God regards your actions in grace, doing good works, as meritorious - your works are rewarded; they are meritorious works!” Well how could he say such as thing? He says this because it is true, under the conditions of grace. He mentions how Augustine says that “when God crowns our works He is crowning His own works - His own grace” (slightly paraphrased).

Bradley then goes on to quote Augustine by saying that all merits are a gifts from God! The beginning and end of salvation are tied by God’s grace and include works. He is essentially saying that salvation is eschatological and that salvation cannot be reduced to some sort of half-a-second time frame of “receiving Jesus.” It is true that we are saved from our sin instantaneously, but it is also true that we are not fully saved until the end of our days. This is why Christ says in Matthew 24:13 that “he who endures until the end shall be saved.”

If the Federal Vision crowd - as well as any other denomination that is seeking to understand justification - would just take cover under St. Augustine, many ugly fights would be resolved.  Is much of the Protestant/Reformed faith based on this type of drama-seeking? almost as if people like this drama. I sometimes wonder if it is a sort of legalism that Protestants partake in to make themselves feel like they are “wrestling with the Scriptures.”

My old Evangelical church thrived on the not-knowing. They carried their Bibles around the church; to their friends houses for dinner; nearly everywhere they went;  not because they were scholars but because it made them feel they were scholars. Their chase of the Scriptures is based on that mountain that no one can seem to conquer. But if they would just acknowledge that it was already done, and that the ride to the top is free if one wants to submit to the historical  church, then the  zeal would finally turn into maturity.

With the above paragraph said, Augustine’s view of election/salvation does seem to pose danger for some: that assurance of salvation can  be at stake, as one may always feel like they need to do more and more; and Bradley goes over this a bit. He mentions that the assurance that is seemingly missing in the epistemological aspect of Augustine’s teaching is gained in Augustine’s teaching of the Sacraments: that the Sacraments give assurance as they are distributed by the authorities that Christ has instituted - salvation is given through the Church and therefore assurance of salvation can be found there.

If one wants an existential/personal experience that is a bit more epistemological than the doctrine of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus(Outside the Church there is no salvation), then one can look to Hebrews 12 to see that those that God does not discipline are bastards. I think it is fair to say that after we have been walking with Christ for some time, we know what we can and cannot get away with - so to speak. We should be knowing and feeling the disciplines of God and be thankful for these disciplines. So lack of assurance cannot be used as a valid argument against Augustinian theology. Faith is the conduit of salvation and we need to lean on it in any time of doubt.