God "loveth the one that turneth towards Him." But the belief alone has no power to bring salvation. That demands responsive action, for the greater the effort, the more faithfully will man "reflect the glory of the names and attributes of God." The relationship between God and man is expressed in the verse: "Love Me, that I may love thee." The idea of the Covenant got lost in Christianity owing to Paul's misunderstanding, and is not a subject dealt with in either Catholic or Protestant theology; but, as in Islam and Judaism, it is one of the essential factors in the Baha'i Faith, the latest Covenant. (The extent to which the term "Grace" is given a theological point is sufficiently shown by the fact that in his epistles the word Grace comes 110 times, while it is completely absent in Mark and Matthew.) God's intention of the salvation of mankind is complemented by the duty of man to obey God's will as manifested in the Law. "The essence of religion is to testify unto that which the Lord hath revealed, and follow that which He hath ordained in His mighty Book." The Baha'i Faith is a religion of the Law. The recognition of God, a knowledge which is "the source of all learning, " must be followed by realization of the divine will which confronts man in the Law. For "the essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds." From the Law man discovers what he owes God. And only in striving to fulfil the Law does he come into the right relationship with God. The Baha'i Faith is, therefore, a religion of action. Divine grace is obtained through faith 'and' works. (93:3)

Some theologians hold that man no longer needs to make himself other than he is, that he does not have to take on any form pleasing to God but has a part in the Kingdom of Heaven "just as he is, " because Jesus by his sacrificial death has brought the lost world home. This thesis, like the concept of man's inability to change, is an expression of Christianity's antinomian peculiarity, Martin Luther's 'sola fide' doctrine, whereby "man without any action of his own or any merit is justified for Christ's sake by the Faith." But the prophet from Nazareth placed the accent elsewhere, as we can see from many passages in the Gospels, e.g. Matthew 7:19-23; 19:16-21; 23:2-3. These texts do not speak of "Faith Alone" and "Grace Alone, " but of obedience to the Law and to the intention of the Law. (94:1) see

On this subject Hans-Joachim Schoeps, speaking from a Jewish standpoint, has expressed basic truths so well that I cannot do better than quote at length his defense of the Law, to which as a Baha'i I can give full agreement-- thus justifying the length of this quotation: (95:1)

"What is there really in the Pauline interpretation, in the Christian understanding of the Law? Judged from within Judaism, a misunderstanding of immense proportions, for all Christianity, especially the neo-Protestant polemic against the Law, misunderstands the Jewish Law as a means of obtaining justice before God (the so-called Justification by Works). Where Protestant theologians today do their best to speak in Luther's language and to take over his very often simplistic views, they confuse the claims of God's Law-- which should surely in reality be the foundation of the Covenant-- with the Justification by Works of the mediaeval Catholic Church in its decline. And all this because Paul, after his experience at Damascus, could no longer understand... what as a Pharisee he must certainly have known before, that the law of the Torah was not given to make the Jews just and pleasing to their Father in Heaven. The Rabbinic glorifications of the law are to be understood only in the sense of carrying out the divine will, never in any ethic of "merit" of whatever kind. But if Paul says (in Romans 3:20) that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified" in God's sight, then it is all very well for this great teacher of 'Midrashim' to inveigh against the error made by some of his contemporary fellow-Pharisees. For Scripture, of course, does not teach 'that' as the "purpose" of the Law, any more than the reason Paul adduces, "for by the law is the knowledge of sin, " is its 'purpose'. The Jews of his century knew as well as the Jews of all other centuries have known that man falls into sin because he does not live up to the revealed Law of God; only they have not let the living experience discoverable in daily life be petrified to an 'a priori' statement which resignedly invalidates the Law because it is known from the start to be impossible of fulfilment... (95:2)

Paul writes to the Galatians (2:16): "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." To his the Rabbis' answer, had it come to a dialogue, would have run something like this: We are not talking about the "works" of the Law nor about "justification"-- only God is just-- but about the will of God, whereby the law proclaimed by him is to be hallowed, as it says: "and ye shall be holy men unto me" (Exodus 22:31)... (96:1) see

In Romans 7:19 Paul writes: "For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.: To which the Rabbis would reply: That is to refuse to give God the honour. For in his Torah it says: "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us. that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." (Deut 30:11-14)... (96:2)

"Paul might then answer (Romans 7:22-3): "I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." Whereupon the Rabbis would doubtless refer to Genesis 4:7: "...sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." (96:3) see

Finally, Schoeps observes that the contradiction between earning salvation by faith and earning it by works, between justification by the Law and by the Gospel is "as common as it is false." It only remains to add that Paul's assertion (in Romans 10:4) that Christ is the end of the law, contradicts Matthew 5:17-19 where Jesus says: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil... Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." How can.. (the theologian) talk, then, of "the failure of experiments with commandments and laws"? (96:4) see

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