My brother says that Sola Fides is right, because

[Archedreamer]

Hi everyone!

This afternoon I asked my brother if he thought or not that Christ alone is sufficient for our salvation, the conversation ended he saying that Sola Fides is right because if one person really believes (he identifies faith and belief) that Christ (Christ alone) saved him, and that He doesn’t love the sin, so he will act well, he will act according to the Holy Spirit.

Well, though he holds the Sola Fides, he doesn’t talk about works taking a way different of that one would think the faith marks out. His model is not one of those disordered guys that one think protestant Sola Fides has inspired.

I asked him, what is wrong with the Catholic formula that says that Salvation is by Faith and Works, he says that one passage of Paul says “Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;
not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.” (Eph 2, 8-9). In the spanish versions at the 9th verse it says “no por obras, para que nadie se gloríe” which should mean “no by works, so anyone can glory”. I said him well there Paul could be talking about the works how they where understood by the naturalistic, pre-Christian world, but he says that, for him the 9th verse refers also to the works in the Catholic formule "by Faith and Works).

Well I think now- Works in “by Faith and Works” refers to Works done outside the realm of Faith? or it refers to Works informed by the Grace?
or I think, it refers to the Works made because of Faith (like the Works of Charity) So the Works of Charity- that is founded on Faith, are the only Works that have supernatural value? (though the other works have natural value, and are importants too)

My brother, he qualifies himself as Christian, though sundays he goes to a baptist church, that him, my mother and me have gone to since my father left my home (then, he was 14, I was 18. Now he is 18 and I am 22) I have come back to the Catholic Church since two and a half years ago, and I hold the catholic doctrine.

What is wrong and what is right in my brother’s soteriology?

I see Him as a young with good wills, he pays a strong attention to my catholic teaching to Him

Thank you all!

God bless you!

and know that I am here for you

 

[TRH1292]

The problem is that he is defining Faith and Works differently than Saint Paul, and not giving sufficient attention to the context that St. Paul is writing in, namely, his polemics against the Pharisee’s and Second Temple Judaism.

When Protestants say Faith, they often mean an intellectual decision or choice to believe in Jesus in our mind.
When St. Paul and Catholics say Faith, they often mean a virtue and gift of the Holy Spirit that causes us to choose to follow Jesus and believe in him with our whole being. As St. Paul explains in his epistles, he means the Faith of Abraham, who followed God with his whole being. In the sense that Paul means, there is no real distinction between “Faith” as what we hold in our minds and “Works” as what we do outwardly. Pauline Faith is a commitment of the whole person. As Hebrews says, “By Faith, Abraham Obeyed.”

When protestants say works, they often mean any actions we do or things we do to earn God’s favor.
When Paul says works, he does mean things done to earn God’s favor in a sense, but more specifically he means works of the law. And by works of the Law, he means works of the Torah, the Jewish Law. Paul’s main concern was to say that somebody was Justified, that is, in right standing and friendship with God, on the basis of believing in Jesus Christ, and not by keeping the precepts of the Jewish torah.

The message of the Pauline New Testament is not arguing over “Faith Alone” verses “Faith and Works”. The message of Paul is that Jesus Christ is the true Israel and true Torah, and that we are in favor with God by committing ourselves to him and the Law of Christ, not by keeping the Jewish Torah and being good Jew’s.

The message of Ephesians 2:8 is as Catholic as ever. We are saved by God’s Grace through faith or commitment to Jesus Christ, not by works of the Torah or natural law.