Faith - Gifted not Earned

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Helping out in a 4th Grade catechism class - today’s lesson included stressing faith is a gift from God, and we cannot earn faith.

I suspect there’s something here I’m not getting 😦

I have no problem believing faith is a gift from God.

But why was it emphasized 3 times in the chapter that you cannot earn faith? Not understanding why this would even come up, let alone be stressed. 🤷

Just trying to dig a little deeper for my own understanding. I know there are times when my thinking patterns are a bit unique and I don’t want to overlook an obvious point. 😊 Thanks for any (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
Faith, Hope, and Charity are the three theological virtues which are given to us by God at Christian Baptism.

We cannot “earn” Baptism, so we cannot “earn” its Graces.

I don’t know why this was emphasized in your Catechism text, except perhaps to help dispel a protestant (mainly Lutheran) misconception that Catholics think we can somehow earn our salvation through works. The Church has never taught any such thing, but this teaching is widely attributed to the Church, so perhaps the authors of the text wished to dispel such notions.
 
Thank you both for your replies. I have had little experience with apologetics. I have many protestant friends of various denominations but our discussions center more on the practical - such as teaching our children chastity and temperance - rather than theological aspects of our differing beliefs. So I appreciate the (name removed by moderator)ut - and thank you for the links, I will study them.
 
Everything starts with God’s initiative, with his invitation to enter into his life.

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

These are the very first words of the Catechism. Man responds. Our response is important, but everything is based on God’s initiative, his invitation to enter into his family as sons.

-Tim-
 
CradleJourney said:
…I have no problem believing faith is a gift from God.

But why was it emphasized 3 times in the chapter that you cannot earn faith? Not understanding why this would even come up, let alone be stressed. 🤷
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Remember what the original authors were intending to their original audience. There was a gnostic pursuit that taught one can earn salvation through their efforts and good deeds, and the emphasis needed to be made clear that faith is purely a Divine gift, not mere “smarts” or a good logical choice.
 
4most4christ said:
Remember what the original authors were intending to their original audience. There was a gnostic pursuit that taught one can earn salvation through their efforts and good deeds, and the emphasis needed to be made clear that faith is purely a Divine gift, not mere “smarts” or a good logical choice.
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But don’t we mean different things when we say “faith” and “salvation”?

God gives us the gift of faith. It is ours to use or reject. How we use it, and accept it leads to our salvation through Christ. Yes? No?
:confused:
 
In addition to what others have said, understanding faith as a gift also helps prevent us from passing rash judgment on an unbeliever, who may simply not have received the gift yet–people get called into the vinyard at different times. We are all born faithless. Just because someone does not have the faith right now, does not mean it is necessarily their fault (it may or may not be–we can’t know). It also means we can’t boast about having the true faith. This is addressed in various places in the Bible, but I think this passage sums it up nicely:

Titus 3:1 Remind them … 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men. 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; 4 but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, 6 which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
 
I would say that (1) many Protestants teach that Catholics are a works-based faith–that is, we try to earn grace by our works, which is not possible.

However, (2) while we do not teach that we can earn grace, many Catholics believe it, or act as if it were true in fact–they think that we can earn salvation by our prayers, or our attendance at the sacraments, and so on. In fact, we cannot earn salvation or grace–any works that we might use to earn grace are already due God simply by our existence. Indeed, without grace, our works are not meritorious.

Once we have entered the state of grace, however, then our works can have merit, and bring some reward–albeit not salvation itself.
 
bmonk said:
I would say that (1) many Protestants teach that Catholics are a works-based faith–that is, we try to earn grace by our works, which is not possible.

However, (2) while we do not teach that we can earn grace, many Catholics believe it, or act as if it were true in fact–they think that we can earn salvation by our prayers, or our attendance at the sacraments, and so on. In fact, we cannot earn salvation or grace–any works that we might use to earn grace are already due God simply by our existence. Indeed, without grace, our works are not meritorious.

Once we have entered the state of grace, however, then our works can have merit, and bring some reward–albeit not salvation itself.
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But does faith=grace / faith=salvation? I thought faith was separate???
 
CradleJourney said:
But does faith=grace / faith=salvation? I thought faith was separate???
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There are two aspects to God’s grace.

One is that it is offered by God to us as supernatural help.

Two is that we must accept the help.

That’s where it becomes complex, because we cannot by ourselves choose to accept that grace (supernatural help). God must give us help to receive the grace. This seems to put us in a situation where we can never receive God’s grace, because we must have previously assented to receive God’s grace.

What solves this is that God gives us a conscience as a gift which allows the Holy Spirit to interact with our will to lead us to do the right. Also it may be that non-resistanc to grace may be equivalent to assent.

OK then, faith is a gift. It enables us, as long as it is kept alive, to receive special help from God called sanctifying grace, which brings us closer to God in a familiar way.

God gives grace to keep a living faith, and well as sanctifying grace.

As long as sanctifying grace dwells in us, we are going to heaven.

Allowing faith to die, by sinning mortally, makes it impossible for one at that moment to enter heaven, because we no longer can receive the sanctifying grace God offers us.
But does faith=grace
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No faith is a type of grace
/ faith=salvation?
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No, but it is a living faith that assures salvation, due to maintaining the entry of sanctifying grace to our soul.
I thought faith was separate???
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You are correct, they are related, but faith is really a different thing than salvation. Both faith and sanctifying grace are gifts, but only the presence of sanctifying grace in our soul is salvific.

In short–> Living faith, which receives sanctifying grace = heaven.

peace
steve
 
CradleJourney said:
But does faith=grace / faith=salvation? I thought faith was separate???
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We can say that faith is not salvific in and of itself; however it is one of three theological virtues. The gift is a strength, a noble strength. It is not a thing guaranteeing salvation as the Protestants make it out to be, Trent speaks to that: If anyone saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema. (Trent, Session six, Canon XII)

A salvific faith is always accompanied by hope and charity. Implied in the first half of Romans 3:28 is a faith formed in charity; a faith that moves toward God in hope – the ‘works’ of hope and charity are present in St. Paul’s understanding of justification. As to the second part of the verse “without the works of the law” St. Paul is suggesting that the ritualistic washing of pots and pans will not produce faith because “Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not.”(Hebrews 11:1)

Faith is a virtue of the knowledge of God’s love that we hope for, but a love not yet fully realized. Furthermore, a virtuous faith is formed in charity that is motivated by hope causing a movement toward a vision of that love we have yet to fully realize. We know that hope is forward looking, looking to that future to grasp the thing we hope for. When the hope is actualized it changes hope, it is no longer hope, “hope that is seen, is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he hope for?” (Roman 8:24) Which brings us to charity again; “Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. iii, 10): “By charity I mean the movement of the soul towards the enjoyment of God for His own sake.” Cf. John 15:15 (c. St. Thomas, II, II, 23, 1), i.e. friendship.

Faith precedes hope, which precedes charity that forms faith. Three virtues of strength, forming one enduring friendship whereby Christ abides in us and we abide in Him.

JoeT
 
CradleJourney said:
But does faith=grace / faith=salvation? I thought faith was separate???
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Yes. But an active faith will bring us to accept God’s salvation, by making use of the aids he has given us–especially the Church, the Sacraments, the Bible, prayer, and so on. So faith leads (ideally) to grace and salvation.
 
bmonk said:
Yes. But an active faith will bring us to accept God’s salvation, by making use of the aids he has given us–especially the Church, the Sacraments, the Bible, prayer, and so on. So faith leads (ideally) to grace and salvation.
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I agree. I think my issue was that I just can’t comprehend why the possibility of “earning” faith would ever occur to someone - unless “faith” meant something else to them than it does to me. Which it does seem that faith is tied by many to grace and salvation so that’s possibly why it was stated the way it was.
 
CradleJourney,

You stated:
I just can’t comprehend why the possibility of “earning” faith would ever occur to someone . . .
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Anti-Catholics or uninformed non-Catholics (usually but not exclusively some Protestants) use this phony faith-earning paradigm frequently to try to paint Catholics as Pelagian heretics. This happens all the time (ignoring the fact that Catholicism condemned Pelagianism long before Protestantism was ever invented).

Pelagianism = Basically thinking you can EARN Heaven.

This can serve to injure the faith of the Catholic believer if unaware of this kind of shenanigans.

Please consider listening to Kimberly Hahn’s conversion testimony here and her husband Scott’s Hahn’s testimony here, or at least consider putting it on when doing something on the computer that may not take much thought (checking your email, or whatever). I think the talks are compelling enough to draw a person in if they listen to a few minutes of it. They talk about this very thing–Scott used to use this argument against Catholics.

I actually had a Protestant minister buddy of mine tell me these exact words in my living room many many years ago: “You Catholics think you can EARN your way to Heaven!”.

I did not know my Catholic faith well, but I knew enough to tell him:
“Look John. I don’t know my faith very well, but I know enough to know THAT isn’t true. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I will do some research and get back to you on this point.”
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We got back together about six weeks later (and in the meantime, a ton of research by me). I presented the Catholic case to him. He tried to birdshot me on other doctrinal areas instead of answering the issues (“What about Mary, Purgatory, the Saints, the Pope, etc. etc.!”). I told him I wasn’t going to abide by this and we were going to talk about the salvation issue because that’s what we agreed to do.

After about an hour or so of presenting the Catholic position I was absolutely floored when he said: “I agree with that.” Then I naively thought “Well now you can become Catholic”. When I intimated this thought to him, it was met with a proverbial concrete wall.

I learned well that day that the faith is more than a journey of the intellect; it is also an expedition of the will.

Supernatural faith (hope and charity) cannot be earned. It is a gratuitous gift from God at your Baptism.

CCC 1250b . . . . The sheer **gratuitousness of the grace **of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.

**CCC 1213 ** Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: “Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.”

The three supernatural virtues of faith hope and charity (sometimes called “love”) are infused in you when you are baptized.

CCC 1813 The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

Be careful with the term “meriting” in CCC 1813 above. The Church defines different kinds of merit. Sometimes anti-Catholics will erroneously try to conflate (mix up) these differing kinds of merit to a Catholic to undermine the Church’s teachings. If that ever happens don’t fall for it.

**CCC 1266 ** The Most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of justification:
  • enabling them to **believe **in God, to **hope **in him, and to **love **him through the theological virtues;
  • giving them the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit;
  • allowing them to grow in goodness through the moral virtues.
    Thus the whole organism of the Christian’s supernatural life has its roots in Baptism.
CradleJourney, there can be a natural “belief” too: “I BELIEVE the airline mechanics fixed up the plane before I fly on it." Natural belief is good, but it is not enough. Jesus through His work, eventually gave humanity a supernatural faith so we can believe in truths that are otherwise ABOVE (not contrary to) reason.

JOHN 2:23-25 23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did; 24 but Jesus did not trust himself to them,** (literally “Jesus did not faith himself to them”)** 25 because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for he himself knew what was in man.

We need a supernatural belief (faith) to please God.

**HEBREWS 11:6 ** 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

(Parenthetical addition to Scripture, bold and underlining of CCC above is mine)

Hopefully this was helpful to you.

God bless.

Cathoholic
 
I think the other side of the picture is the atheist perspective. To many skeptics, the Gospel of Christianity (especially as preached by Baptists) is that there is a really stupid and outrageous story that if you are somehow able to force yourself to believe in, you can go to heaven. To further complicate things, as much as we would like to just be able to accept this fairytale, all the empirical evidence, reason and common sense are constantly bombarding the believer from all sides to tear him away from his faith and, therefore, must be diligently ignored. Believing is a very hard work then indeed! This may be something that the lesson was getting at.
 
DavidFilmer said:
Faith, Hope, and Charity are the three theological virtues which are given to us by God at Christian Baptism.

We cannot “earn” Baptism, so we cannot “earn” its Graces.

I don’t know why this was emphasized in your Catechism text, except perhaps to help dispel a protestant (mainly Lutheran) misconception that Catholics think we can somehow earn our salvation through works. The Church has never taught any such thing, but this teaching is widely attributed to the Church, so perhaps the authors of the text wished to dispel such notions.
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Probably. Also, while Protestants can be overly fixated on the human desire to have something that we did not receive from God, that sinful desire does exist and is near, if not at, the core of our sinfulness. That’s why Protestantism (speaking here, as you are, of classical/evangelical teaching on faith) exists in the first place. It’s an overreaction to a real problem, not a reaction to an imaginary problem.

Edwin
 
Contarini said:
Probably. Also, while Protestants can be overly fixated on the human desire to have something that we did not receive from God, that sinful desire does exist and is near, if not at, the core of our sinfulness. That’s why Protestantism (speaking here, as you are, of classical/evangelical teaching on faith) exists in the first place. It’s an overreaction to a real problem, not a reaction to an imaginary problem.

Edwin
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I’m of the opinion the error comes from a philosophy that man is unable to desire holiness comes from the deflating tradition that man was created depraved. And, in some cases lacking free will being totally dependent on being predestined for salvation. Within that group there are some who hold to a double predestination, distained for heaven or other points south. Contrary to Bible alone theology, man is made good. This philosophy colors the understanding of sin. Where the Catholic understands that a voluntary immoral act is required for sin, the ‘depraved man’ error makes the terms sin and evil synonymous. A thing can be evil and not sinful. The philosophy continues, since man is evil and depraved then he must have a ‘sin nature’. This isn’t what the Catholic calls disordered desire (concupiscence) but a genuine evil that works sin who is not free to resist (seems the poor guy is doubly condemned before he’s heard his first sermon. Sin nature is not removed in most of these philosophies, merely covered. It would seem to me such a philosophy is void of hope and would be replaced by fear of damnation. And we know that without hope there is no charity to form faith.

JoeT
 
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