The Soteriology of Clement of Rome

I’ve been reading a lot of the apostolic fathers recently as I’m doing research on the early ecclesiology of the Catholic Church.  As you know, many Protestants looking into 19th century pseudo-scholarship have fallen into the trap of thinking that the Roman episcopate didn’t exist until the mid 2nd century.  This includes Jerry Walls and James White.  However, I noticed something else in Clement’s soteriology that I hadn’t caught before.  Let me share it with you.

There are two quotes that everyone talks about when discussing the soteriology of Clement of Rome.  They’re from chapter 30 and 32 of his letter to the Corinthian Church.  Here they are:

Let us clothe ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking, being justified by our works, and not our words.

– Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 30

And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which he have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

– Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 32

First of all, as a Catholic I will say that true faith and true works justify.  False faith and false works condemn a person to a state of mortal sin in which they have to repent.  So both of these are compatible with Catholic theology.  Protestants who say that Clement of Rome taught Sola Fide can only shoehorn that into one of these verses.

However there is another passage in Clement of Rome that no one talks about.  Here it is:

On account of her faith and hospitality, Rahab the harlot was saved.

– Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 12

Now, is this talking about being saved from physical death or saved from spiritual death?  It actually looks like physical death on the surface but when you go deeper down we see that it’s actually spiritual.  At the end of the chapter we read the following:

And thus they made it manifest that redemption should flow through the blood of the Lord to all them that believe and hope in God.  You see, beloved, that there was not only faith, but prophecy, in this woman.

This gives a salvation context after describing what Rahab did to help the spies.  This is ironic because Rahab is used as an example of Salvation by works in the scriptures.  Most people think that James 2 ends at verse 24 but there are two very important verses left.

In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

– James 2:25

Clement is almost certainly alluding to this passage.  He seems to allude to James 2 in chapter 31 of his letter.  Either way, he’s representing Biblical soteriology very well.