What is the Catholic teaching on 1 Cor. 1:8?

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We have to better understand what faith is IMO. Paul emphasized faith because he was battling legalism , the idea that we can earn our way to heaven, that we can fulfill the law as Paul, himself, “excelled” at doing as a Pharisee and be righteous on our own, by our own efforts. But faith puts us “under grace” rather than “under the law” because it establishes a new and direct relationship or communion with God, the relationship that man was made for, and a relationship that, alone, can give man authentic righteousness.

Faith is not some state of mind that sort of magically makes me righteous on its own, as if that’s all God expects of me. Or as if, as I understand that Luther held, our sins are forgiven as long as we believe that they’re forgiven and saved as long as we believe that we’re saved. Faith is the basis of relationship with God, from where I can now, by this fellowship, as He places His law in my mind and writes it on my heart, become the person He created me to be, and expects me to be with this help of His, for my highest good.

Anyway faith is not the equivalent of righteousness for man, nor is it a replacement for it. Rather, it’s the doorway to righteousness because its the doorway to God who can produce that true righteousness in us, the righteousness He created us to have to begin with. And that righteousness is ultimately defined by love, not faith.

Apart from God any righteousness that we think we have is essentially self-righteousness, a matter of pride. With God our righteousness is realized by humbly subjugating ourselves to Him as we begin to know and love Him.
 
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lanman87 said:
That is why “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
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And Jesus is clear that you can go out of Christ if you do not bear fruit.

Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
Romans 11:19‭-‬22 NET

 
fhansen said:
But being with Him means much more than just going to church and/or thinking we believe.
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Yes, but the question is why? Why are we doing good and abiding in Christ? Is it to somehow gain salvation or because we have already been given salvation?

It seems like nitpicking but there is a profound difference. One is seeking after the Kingdom of God because of what God has done for us in giving us the gift of faith/salvation/eternal life. The other is striving to measure up to a standard in the hopes of receiving salvation/eternal life.

One is done in joy and comfort that those who are in Christ will never be condemned. The other is done out of obligation to strive for a perfection that is impossible to achieve. And even if it were possible to achieve it would be impossible to maintain.

One is focusing on what we have to do and the other is focusing on what Christ has done for us and given us.

In the end, we don’t make it to heaven because of what we do. We make it to heaven because of what Christ has done. We don’t, in any form or fashion save ourselves. Christ saves us. This is the cry of “Christ alone” in the 5 Solas that came out of the reformation. It is faith in Christ alone, (not our works, not our traditions, not partaking of the sacraments, not our goodness) by which we have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved. All of those things (works, traditions, partaking of the sacraments, and any goodness we possess) flow from the (living) faith in Christ that saves us. Matthew 5:48 is one of the scariest versus in the Bible because it is impossible for us to be perfect. However, that is what makes Hebrews 10:14 such a relief. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. We have already been perfected, even while we are being sanctified. And we haven’t just temporarily been perfected, we have been perfected for all time. It is by Christ offering of Himself on the Cross that we have been perfected and will remain perfected forever. Not by anything that we have done or will ever do. Isn’t that great news!
 
lanman87 said:
Yes, but the question is why? Why are we doing good and abiding in Christ? Is it to somehow gain salvation or because we have already been given salvation?
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The reason is because we love. And that love is the criteria for our judgement, and the motivation or basis for those things done “for the least of these” in Matt 25, acts which separate the sheep from the goats, the basis for those works prepared for us in advance as per Eph 2:10, or the good works done per Rom 2:7, and the fulfillment of the law upon which we’ll be judged per Rom 2:13, the basis for a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law without which we do not enter heaven as per Matt 5, etc. We don’t love to earn heaven, but we’re still judged on our love nonetheless. Love is an obligation for man, the obligation for man since the beginning; the New Covenant does not do away with the requirement for man to be righteous. I’ll repost St Basil’s contribution here:

If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.

And it’s a good obligation, the best, in fact. Christianity is in no way an escape from that good obligation, but the means to that most high good that God has in store for us. We shouldn’t despise our obligation. Jesus’ burden is light, not non-existent.
 
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lanman87 said:
However, one common thread among American Evangelical churches from most traditions is that we don’t save ourselves by being religious enough or good enough to enter heaven. If that is the case then we are all doomed because none of us will ever be good enough to enter heaven. God’s standard is perfection and none of us can meet that standard.
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Of course we can meet that standard-as Scripture tells us to. God will have His way and His very purpose is to bring us to perfection, to whoever we were created to be, which is our purpose, our teleios, rather than to just save a bunch of otherwise worthless wretches. And we begin that journey here, if we will, together with He who strengthens us to do all things. He will make us “good enough” to enter heaven. He made all creation good to begin with, but the problem is that man is that part of creation, the highest part incidentally, that can, along with angels, actually defy God and thereby oppose and deny and thwart their own purpose.

When the time was ripe Jesus came to get us back on track, by fully revealing the true face of God so that we may know Him, and by knowing Him come to believe in Him, in His very existence first of all, and of His trustworthiness, mercy, goodness, and unfathomable love for humankind. By knowing Him we begin to love Him in return and this is when order and justice begin to form for us again. He is our justice or righteousness and to the extent that we’re bound to Him in a relationship of love, and the greater that love the better, the nearer we are to the perfection we were created for.
 
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Benny12 said:
Can you take a moment and explain “grace can be resisted”
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Sure. Man needs grace in order to be able to say “yes” to God but even then he’s never forced to do so; man can always say “no”. Whether grace is resistible or irresistible is a hotly debated topic, at least since the reformation. It’s related to the question of monergism vs synergism and in any case involves the question as to what, if anything, is the role of man’s will in his salvation.
 
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The reason Adam fell, and the reason people don’t turn back to God, is because they have a choice and they fail to make the right one. That’s the essence of fallen man’s relationship with God then and now. It has nothing ever to do with Him completely overwhelming our wills. He’s worked patiently with humanity down through many centuries in order to prepare and bring us to the point where we might accept His light-where we might accept Him as we’re willing and able to come to know Him. Any more that that is conjecture, putting the cart ahead of the horse, going beyond what we truly can know, failing to listen to the experience of His church that received the gospel at the beginning. It’s failure to really seek the truth earnestly…unless and until we do continue beyond such novel and stifled private interpretations. Read the rest of the bible. And early fathers and councils, etc-don’t be afraid to study history and study it independent of the Reformed lens. And pray of course. God will grant greater understanding.
 
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Benny12 said:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

[Ephesians 2:8]
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Do you believe that every person who’s heard those words and applied them to themselves, either at the time they were first penned or during the two millennia that followed, are or necessarily will be in heaven?
 
Col 1:24 - St Paul clearly teaches that undergoing suffering is part of the salvation process. There are many similar verses, such as Phil 2:12, but this is the most explicit. Of course Our Lord’s passion was sufficient… yet all men are not instantaneously saved. Our Lord respects free will and He expects us to cooperate with His grace. Thus our own sufferings, when united to the cross, become a way to participate in the work of redemption- as St Paul clearly teaches. By themselves our sufferings add no merit… but through grace, by Christ’s will, we draw on the infinite merit of the cross.
 
Baptism now saves us…(1 Peter 3:21)
Repent and be baptized every one of you…(Acts 2:38)
Arise and be baptized and wash your sins… (Acts 22:16)

Rituals don’t save? Of course not in and of themselves… but Christ works through the sacraments He gave to the Church. I was raised Evangelical Protestant. While we denied it, we completely believed that rituals saved… we even made up a ritual not found in Scripture… everyone had to go through the all important ritual of praying the Sinner’s Prayer.
Even that is an act, a work, an effort on your part…if you truly believe that there is nothing we can do to be saved, then you must naturally accept that all men are automatically saved by the cross. An act of faith, an act of acceptance, saying a prayer, is both a ritual and a work of the will…
 
Benny12 said:
No…because the ones who are truly saved will abide till the end.
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Yes-of course-the elect are, um, the elect-even if they may well backslide in between. That’s just an academic point for the most part because no one can predict their own perseverance. It’s not where you are now IOW (and we can even have that wrong according to the bible), but where you are then, at the end.
 
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Benny12 said:
Again…the text I posted contradicts your words. We can choose to resist but for the true believer God restores.

Because our salvation is based on what Christ did and not what we do.
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This is such a confused understanding of the gospel. Again, read the whole thing. But even then, understanding Christianity is not a matter of may-the-best-exegete-win, and you’re doing more eisegesis anyway. And not all Sola Scriptura adherents interpreting Scripture will agree with you on the involvement or non-involvement of man’s will anyway; highly credentialed scholars disagree over these matters.

My grandmother, long deceased, a semi-peasant woman from the foothills of the Italian Alps, had one of the simplest and most beautiful faiths I’ve witnessed, superior in understanding to the Reformers, based on the teachings of the Church just as many, very often illiterate, people have had down thru the centuries. I’ve been down the SS road myself-but it’s ultimately a dead end, with a mixture of truth and error guaranteed.
 
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Benny12 said:
I’m not sure you answered my question.

With your limitations, weaknesses, and sin for the rest of our live, how will you get to Heaven.

This never stops, it’s a constant struggle. So how do you do your part?
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By allowing God to save you. But this doesn’t happen in one moment, and you are free at any time to change your mind and reject that salvation.
 
Benny12 said:
I guess is one changes their mind then we apply scripture to it…correct?

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us
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This seems like a distinction without a difference to me. Especially since, I’m sure while those people were in the fold, they sincerely thought they were saved, right? So what makes the difference between a saved Christian who happens to sin (and then, through Gods grace is still saved) and a poser who never really was a Christian in the first place?
 
He has shown the strength of his arm. He has scattered the proud in their conceit.
 
Benny12 said:
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

[1 John 2:19]
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There are many Scriptures which indicate the opposite.

For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us, but only a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God’s enemies . Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses . How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for the Son of God, and profanes the blood of the covenant that made him holy, and insults the Spirit of grace?
Hebrews 10:26‭-‬29 NET

Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
Romans 11:19‭-‬22 NET

 
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