Many Protestant communities are strong at clearly communicating the Gospel, as they understand it. At the same time there are plenty of Catholics who respond to the errors in the Protestant understanding of the Gospel. But I’m hoping to find clearly articulated message of the Gospel as presented by the Catholic Church, not as a reaction to Protestant errors, but holding up the Truth of the Gospel as passed down from the Apostles. I’m looking for something close to the “Romans Road” for Catholics to use as a resource to share our faith with others (non-Christians, non-Catholics, etc.).
Many of today’s Protestant denominations, as in the past, teach that one is saved by having faith alone in Christ alone. The CC takes the requirements for salvation beyond merely having faith. Other dispositions, virtues, and acts are involved.
Ultimately one must come to love God with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbor as themselves. Here the commandments are fulfilled, as Jesus told us they must be in the Sermon on the Mount and as God always intended; here is mans righteousness; in this nothing is lacking to make him
just.
We believe that this perfecting, this change in man, can come about only through the help of God, via grace, because our vital connection to God was exactly what was lost by rejecting God’s authority. God was no longer the God of man. This restored direct connection was prophesied in Jer 31 and is the heart of the New Covenant. Man simply needs God. He does not need to merely
act righteous-and he certainly needs more than an
imputed righteousness-he must
be righteous-and this is accomplished only as he fulfills the greatest commandments, with the help of the Lover of his soul.
And this points to the reason for and significance of the sacrifice of Jesus: God, Himself, came to effect the reconciliation of mankind to Himself, in so dramatic a fashion that His act of love would still radiate like a glowing ember centuries later, for those drawn to it’s light. This is the ultimate act and demonstration of love, from which all grace flows. Only God can save man because only God can empower man to love as he should-so long as we’re willing.
