And it amazes me to see how many will twist Paul to include works in justification,when he explicitly rejected that interpretation.
The Church says we are saved by grace. We first receive this grace at baptism, because we believe the teachings of Jesus on baptism as He handed down through His Church.
This grace takes away all sins, and at the same time it frees us from slavery to sin. The Apostles taught that we are sealed by the HS in baptism, and we are given the deposit of our heavenly inheritance. We are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into light, adopted into the family of God, and grafted into Christ.
It is the Holy Spirit within us that produces the obedience of faith, and enables us to walk in His law. He produces the fruit in us that befits our repentance. These fruits are not “works of the Law” but the work of grace within us.
When Paul is writing about salvation by grace apart from works, he was addressing the Judiaziers who were claiming that Christians had to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law. They were telling believers man had to do something in addition to what Jesus did. They were saying the grace of salvation was not enough. Man had to do works on HIS OWN, NOT THROUGH FAITH, NOT THROUGH GRACE, BUT ON HIS OWN. Those were the works of the Law ST. Paul was writing about. They were NOT DONE OUT OF FAITH IN JESUS, THUS THEY COULD NOT SAVE, THEY COULD NOT GIVE THE GRACE OF SALVATION.
The works St. James speaks of are works of obedience to Jesus. Since they are done out of faith in Jesus, by Christians who were already saved by grace, then they given additional grace. Thus he says we are saved by works and NOT by faith alone. The good works “justify” us further by keeping our souls in His grace.
Some Christians don’t seem to be able to distinguish between the two different types of works spoken of in the bible. Works of the Law of Moses cannot give the grace of salvation.
Ergos Hagios give us grace because they increase our faith and ability to obey Jesus, and follow the steep and narrow path.
I think it is difficult for many modern evangelicals to grasp that God actually desires to transform us into the image and likeness of His Son, so that we are genuinely holy, rather than just snow covered dung heaps.
Amen. God wants so much more from us…and for us. He, who’s handiwork we are, knows our potential. He didn’t create us to sin after all and to the extent that He draws us into a willing participation in His work, our justice is greater. He created His universe in a “state of journeying to perfection” as the catechism puts it.