Grace only or grace plus works

[tealblue]

what is the official catholic view.I hear some say we are saved by grace alone but others I hear say grace plus works.Or is this a matter of which view you are looking at or what definition of grace are you using.As an evangelical I was adimate about grace alone but if asked if one could accept christ as their savior but continue their sinful life then I would say no, we are saved unto good works.seems to me either way you look at it works are somewhere in the mix.I’m just confused why I hear it stated both ways and what the official position is.

 

[Penitant]

It is grace that saves us.

But we have a choice of whether or not we want to accept that grace. The presence of true faith is taking the affirmative in that choice, while we can also choose to deny it by not having faith.

If we have faith, then we do works - “Faith without works is dead”. It is a simple implication: Faith → Works (Faith implies works). Now, as anyone who knows the rules of First Order logic knows, if something is true, the contrapositive is also true. In this case, the contrapositive is No Works → No Faith.

We are not saved by our works, but they will be present if we choose to accept grace. If we do not do works, then we do not have faith, and have not accepted grace.

This is not to say that works alone saves us, since there is no direct implication of Works → Faith, which I think is obvious, because there are plenty of people who do good works but don’t have faith.

 

[jemfinch]

Grace only. Even our works are gifts from God, a product of the grace of God, and the salvific value they possess is only meritorious extrinsically, by virtue of God’s promises, and not intrinsically, by virtue of their own worth.

Jeremy

 

[maurin]

It is grace that saves us.

But we have a choice of whether or not we want to accept that grace. The presence of true faith is taking the affirmative in that choice, while we can also choose to deny it by not having faith.

If we have faith, then we do works - “Faith without works is dead”. It is a simple implication: Faith → Works (Faith implies works). Now, as anyone who knows the rules of First Order logic knows, if something is true, the contrapositive is also true. In this case, the contrapositive is No Works → No Faith.

We are not saved by our works, but they will be present if we choose to accept grace. If we do not do works, then we do not have faith, and have not accepted grace.

This is not to say that works alone saves us, since there is no direct implication of Works → Faith, which I think is obvious, because there are plenty of people who do good works but don’t have faith.

This is a good answer.

To put it briefly:

Grace= the ability to have Faith + the desire to evidence that faith by good works.

 

[mercygate]

Grace alone.

Our works, participating in the Merit of Jesus Christ, contribute to our Reward. So, yes: when a person is capable of doing the work of God, then works contribute to our sanctification as we work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Taking up the cross and putting the hand to the plough are part of life in Christ.

 

[sara888]

**Faith alone…is correct if you are defining true faith in Christ which includes works… One cannot have faith without applying Gods commandments.

Commandments are essential to Faith, so if we are being judged by our Faith then commandments clearly play a role in our salvation.

Jan**

 

[whosebob]

This is a good answer.

To put it briefly:

Grace= the ability to have Faith + the desire to evidence that faith by good works.

JMJ + OBT​

Except, it’s not quite right from a Catholic perspective. We will not necessarily “desire to evidence our faith by good works,” though the Holy Spirit does prompt us.

All graces offered to men have their source in the Redemption of man accomplished in Christ. A man receives God’s grace, accepts it, and freely responds to it with repentance and faith; supernatural faith itself being received as a gift made possible by grace. The initial act of faith is to be consummated in the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism, and then the other Sacraments, by which we eneter properly into Life in the Spirit – the reality of God dwelling within our souls and our participation in the Divine Life of the Blessed Trinity, which is at the root of how Catholics understand the life of grace and the concepts of justification, sanctification, and salvation. It is important to note that the Sacraments are not considered “good works,” although some outside the Church believe that is how we understand them. To receive a Sacrament is to make an act of faith in the power of Christ working through an instrument of His own choosing. The Sacraments do not derive their power from the faith of the recipient nor the minister, though they cannot impart grace to a recipient whose heart is not open, e.g. if a woman made a fake and sacrilegious confession she would not receive the graces from the Sacrament just because she showed up, told the priest some stuff, and heard him make the prayer of absolution over her.

So where do good works fit into the life of a justified Christian, from a Catholic understanding? The life of grace in Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to live in a manner that is truly pleasing to God. I will quote from the from the Catechism:

1695 “Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God,”(13) “sanctified . . . [and] called to be saints,”(14) Christians have become the temple of the Holy Spirit.(15) This “Spirit of the Son” teaches them to pray to the Father(16 )and, having become their life, prompts them to act so as to bear “the fruit of the Spirit”(17) by charity in action. Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual transformation.(18) He enlightens and strengthens us to live as “children of light” through “all that is good and right and true.”(19)

*13 2 Cor 6:11.
14 1 Cor 1:2.
15 Cf. 1 Cor 6:19.
16 Cf. Gal 4:6.
17 Gal 5:22,25.
18 Cf. Eph 4:23.
19 Eph 5:8, 9. *

To live in obedience to Our Lord’s greatest commandment – to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves – will require us, in correspondence with God’s grace, to die to ourselves and to selfishness, to overcome temptations and desires to act contrary to God’s will, to make difficult choices and to remain steadfast in the face of adversity and persecution. God’s grace is the only thing that can make all that possible, though it requires excercise of our free will to correspond with that grace.

(continued below)

 

[whosebob]

(continued from above)

So it’s not “grace plus works” as the orignal poster wondered. Nor is it “grace vs. works.” It’s a matter of living out faith, hope and love in the grace of God. When we do good works in and by God’s grace, that interior renewal and spiritual transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit is deepened and our sanctification is furthered. More from the Catechism:

1987 The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” and through Baptism(34)

1989 The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”(38) Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.(39)

1991 Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or “justice”) here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.

1992 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life(40)

1993 Justification establishes cooperation between God’s grace and man’s freedom. On man’s part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent

1994 Justification is the most excellent work of God’s love made manifest in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. It is the opinion of St. Augustine that “the justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth,” because “heaven and earth will pass away but the salvation and justification of the elect . . . will not pass away.”(43) He holds also that the justification of sinners surpasses the creation of the angels in justice, in that it bears witness to a greater mercy.

1995 The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the “inner man,”(44) justification entails the sanctification of his whole being

1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.(46)

1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an “adopted son” he can henceforth call God “Father,” in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.

1998 This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.(47)

1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification(48)

34 Rom 3:22; cf. 6:3-4.
38 Mt 4:17.
39 Council of Trent (1547): DS 1528.
40 Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1529.
43 St. Augustine, In Jo. ev. 72,3L 35,1823.
44 Cf. Rom 7:22; Eph 3:16.
46 Cf. Jn 1:12-18; 17:3; Rom 8:14-17; 2 Pet 1:3-4.
47 Cf. 1 Cor 2:7-9.
48 Cf. Jn 4:14; 7:38-39.

(continued below)

 

[whosebob]

(continued from above)

2007 With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.

2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man’s free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man’s merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.

2009 Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us “co-heirs” with Christ and worthy of obtaining “the promised inheritance of eternal life.”(60) The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness.(61) “Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due. . . . Our merits are God’s gifts.”(62)

2010 Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God’s wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.

2011 The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. The saints have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace.

After earth’s exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone. . . . In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself.(63)

60 Council of Trent (1547): DS 1546.
61 Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1548.
62 St. Augustine, Sermo 298,4-5L 38,1367.
63 St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “Act of Offering” in Story of a Soul, tr. John Clarke (Washington DC: ICS, 1981), 277.

Catholics understand that it is possible for us to fail in our vocation to holiness, even after our initial justification, through the exercise of our free will in choosing something contrary to God’s will for us. We can even fail to such an extent – we say “commit a mortal sin” – that our justification is lost. It is not that God has failed us, but that we have freely chosen to fail Him. Such failures could be commissions or omissions in thought, word or deed. We never have to commit such sins – God will always give us the grace to do His will. But we can always choose to not correspond with such grace, and commit them anyway. If we do, then Our Lord will also always give us the grace to repent and be restored to him; Catholics understand that such repentance is consummated when in an act of faith (not in the performance of works) we receive the Sacrament of Confession, through which we are once again restored and renewed in sanctifying grace. To refuse the graces of repentance out of pride or to accept them in humility is our choice; to die unrepentant of serious sins would cause one to suffer eternal damnation. Our salvation is final only if and when we die in God’s friendship – in His grace.

Tealblue, I hope this is of some help to you. Please let me know if you need more info or a better explanation.

In Christ.

IC XC NIKA

 

[Elzee]

Excellent, whosebob!

 

[Liberian]

Teal Blue,

Hello and welcome to the Catholic Answers Forums. Or if you are a victim of the Great Crash of '06, welcome back!

The usual controversy is over faith versus works. The short answer is “both,” and if you ask about grace versus works, the short answer is that it is grace that allows us to do any works.

The longer answer depends on what you mean by “saved.” If you mean “saved from original sin,” then works play no part at all. If you mean “saved from Hell,” then works are a necessary part of acquiring merit (becoming the right sort of person) to get into Heaven, but works are only meritorious if they spring from an active faith. And everything requires grace.

• Liberian

 

[tealblue]

Its definately been a hard concept to understand coming from evangelical circles.I think I prety much have it.I guess who ever is talking it depend on how they are defining.If you tell an evan that he is saved by grace then he has unmerited favor and the holy spirit does the rest.

 

[happygal]

Well i does not know how the protestant practise in the US, in my country most of the protestant were taught Faith alone will not save us. Faith without work is dead, work without faith is also dead.

 

[maurin]

JMJ + OBT​

Except, it’s not quite right from a Catholic perspective. We will not necessarily “desire to evidence our faith by good works,” though the Holy Spirit does prompt us.

All graces offered to men have their source in the Redemption of man accomplished in Christ. A man receives God’s grace, accepts it, and freely responds to it with repentance and faith; supernatural faith itself being received as a gift made possible by grace. The initial act of faith is to be consummated in the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism, and then the other Sacraments, by which we eneter properly into Life in the Spirit – the reality of God dwelling within our souls and our participation in the Divine Life of the Blessed Trinity, which is at the root of how Catholics understand the life of grace and the concepts of justification, sanctification, and salvation. It is important to note that the Sacraments are not considered “good works,” although some outside the Church believe that is how we understand them. To receive a Sacrament is to make an act of faith in the power of Christ working through an instrument of His own choosing. The Sacraments do not derive their power from the faith of the recipient nor the minister, though they cannot impart grace to a recipient whose heart is not open, e.g. if a woman made a fake and sacrilegious confession she would not receive the graces from the Sacrament just because she showed up, told the priest some stuff, and heard him make the prayer of absolution over her.

So where do good works fit into the life of a justified Christian, from a Catholic understanding? The life of grace in Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to live in a manner that is truly pleasing to God. I will quote from the from the Catechism:

To live in obedience to Our Lord’s greatest commandment – to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves – will require us, in correspondence with God’s grace, to die to ourselves and to selfishness, to overcome temptations and desires to act contrary to God’s will, to make difficult choices and to remain steadfast in the face of adversity and persecution. God’s grace is the only thing that can make all that possible, though it requires excercise of our free will to correspond with that grace.

(continued below)

Hello Whosebob!!

thank you so much for the clarification and excellent explanation(s). I was attempting to be brief, but as we know, brief answers leave a lot left out.

Thank you.

sincerely in search of wisdom, and yours in Jesus’ Heart,

maurin

 

[Liberian]

Teal Blue,

The paradox of the situation is that works will not get you into Heaven, but without works you (generally) will not get into Heaven. What gets you into Heaven is called “merit” by the Catholic Church; Evangelicals call it “growing in Christ” and while they do not consider it necessary for salvation, they do disapprove very strongly of any Christian who does not show it. (I know this because I used to be Southern Baptist.) The source of the merit, of course, is grace, and what shows the merit is works. But works will not get us into Heaven.

I find that while the choice of words is different, the ideas behind the Catholic and the Evangelical doctrines on this point are virtually identical.

• Liberian

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

what is the official catholic view.I hear some say we are saved by grace alone but others I hear say grace plus works.Or is this a matter of which view you are looking at or what definition of grace are you using.As an evangelical I was adimate about grace alone but if asked if one could accept christ as their savior but continue their sinful life then I would say no, we are saved unto good works.seems to me either way you look at it works are somewhere in the mix.I’m just confused why I hear it stated both ways and what the official position is.

Salvation is grace all through, from beginning to end Grace is everything.​

And it includes good works. They cannot, they must not, be added to it from outside, for then salvation ceases to be pure grace - and it cannot be received except as the pure, undeserved, unearnable, all-enveloping, all-including free & sovereign grace of God.

So works aren’t able to be added, though people may well try to add them. To do any good at all, is from God’s grace. Everything is a grace - everything.

Merit ? To merit is a grace - we can offer nothing to God: He Who needs nothing whatever, cuts the feet from under our self-sufficiency by His grace, and re-establishes us upon the Living Rock of His Son, Who makes us fruitful in every good work for the glory of His Name alone - and in all that we do, even our first desires to do it are from His grace. In fact, He does the whole of what He does - and in some of His works He allows us to contribute. He does everything, and we do something within that everything. So our merits are rooted in grace, and are graces.

What we can’t do, is work towards our salvation as to a goal, separately from God. We are not equal partners with God - anything but. He has already prepared works for us to do - our business is to “walk in them”, by doing them.

As for good works before justification - they are worthless. Not humanly, perhaps, but in what concerns the life of faith in Christ. Salvation is from God’s free and sovereign favour & choice of men for the sake of His Son - it is not from us; for of ourselves, left to ourselves, & without Christ, we can do precisely nothing.

This is a huge subject, and one is only scratching the surface

There would be no grace, no salvation, no working of any kind, no anything, but for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not important - that is a gross understatement He is what every created thing is for - bar nothing. Take Him away, & we would not even exist to think of talking of salvation - nothing could exist, because all created things are for Him, & by Him. He is the whole of our salvation, for every creature under heaven, from the beginning of the world to its end. This -

Jer 23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this [is] his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jer 33:16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this [is the name] wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.

perfectly describes Jesus Christ -

1Cor 1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption;

2Cor 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

He is entirely reponsible for the whole of everything in the salvation of all men - He is not Head of His Church for nothing. So, He is worthy of the most unreserved and unlimited trust, in everything ##

 

[Doxiemom]

Grace is given so that we may be saved by the shed Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. And only that will wash away our sins. because we must be covered by the Blood because the Father cannot look upon sin. That is why Jesus, upon the Cross called to to God, not Abba, the only time He did not call His father “ABBA” because all our sin was placed upon Him. And Scripute says it pleased God to smite His Son.

Jesus did it all. Done with.

But forgivness requires me to confess and to repent.

What you do with your life -as good works- only adds to your merit when we stand before our Lord at the Judgement Seat of Christ.

What seems sad to me is that a saint like Mother Teresa , when she was asked if she thought she was going to heaven, she answered that she wasn’t sure if she had done enough.

Why is it we catholics are somehow taught that we must earn our way into Heaven? When Jesus has given us that guarentee. If only we reach for it.

Doxiemom

 

[Ghosty]

Grace is given so that we may be saved by the shed Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. And only that will wash away our sins. because we must be covered by the Blood because the Father cannot look upon sin. That is why Jesus, upon the Cross called to to God, not Abba, the only time He did not call His father “ABBA” because all our sin was placed upon Him. And Scripute says it pleased God to smite His Son.

Jesus did it all. Done with.

But forgivness requires me to confess and to repent.

What you do with your life -as good works- only adds to your merit when we stand before our Lord at the Judgement Seat of Christ.

What seems sad to me is that a saint like Mother Teresa , when she was asked if she thought she was going to heaven, she answered that she wasn’t sure if she had done enough.

Why is it we catholics are somehow taught that we must earn our way into Heaven? When Jesus has given us that guarentee. If only we reach for it.

Doxiemom

Are you a cradle Catholic, or a convert?

Peace and God bless!

 

[tealblue]

The reason why I bring this up is that in rcia on the first day there was a brief comment by the rcia leader talking to one of the rcia helpers in the group who used to be luthern about him holding on to his saved by grace alone theology.I listen to father corapi in the morning on the way home form my grave yard shift and he always talks about grace alone.Some catholic websites say saved by grace but works must be added to it.This is a sore subject between evangelicals and catholics acusing of trying to earn our heaven.I haven’t been able to clarify this from our rcia leader as of yet.maybe I misunderstood what she was saying.

 

[mercygate]

Grace is given so that we may be saved by the shed Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. And only that will wash away our sins. because we must be covered by the Blood because the Father cannot look upon sin. That is why Jesus, upon the Cross called to to God, not Abba, the only time He did not call His father “ABBA” because all our sin was placed upon Him. And Scripute says it pleased God to smite His Son.

Jesus did it all. Done with.

But forgivness requires me to confess and to repent.

What you do with your life -as good works- only adds to your merit when we stand before our Lord at the Judgement Seat of Christ.

What seems sad to me is that a saint like Mother Teresa , when she was asked if she thought she was going to heaven, she answered that she wasn’t sure if she had done enough.

Why is it we catholics are somehow taught that we must earn our way into Heaven? When Jesus has given us that guarentee. If only we reach for it.

Doxiemom

I would be interested in seeing the actual quotation from Mother Teresa. There is no way anybody can “do enough”. Perhaps some Catholics THINK they are taught that we “earn our way into Heaven” because the Church teaches that our works participate in the merit of Christ and people interpret that to mean “I have to work my way to Heaven by my own effort.”

In a way we DO have to work our way to Heaven" – the same way “faith alone” people “work their way to Heaven” by remaining in Christ and by serving him through faith working in love, which he has told us means giving that cup of water, feeding the hungry, and living his life in charity through grace.

That is not the same thing as thinking we can work our way to heaven by our own merit. Such an idea would be the heresy known as Pelagianism, which has been roundly trounced ever since the time of Augustine.

Children, with their concrete little minds, might not be able to make that critical distinction clearly. I think this may be the source of Evangelicals’ rejection of any idea that works play no part in salvation. It’s that either/or mentality. If one does not grow in wisdom and understanding as one matures in the faith, then these incomplete ideas, suited to the minds of children may remain to stunt one’s faith in adulthood.