The sticky issue is
How do I receive salvation through Christ? We are all sinners and sin must not go ignored. On Earth we suffer the natural consequences of our sins. However, once dead, we are still sinners, and our souls require sanctification.
Well along comes Jesus and tells us all, “Lucky Day! I am the last sacrifice that sins may be forgiven and I
take away the sins of the World!”
The Protestant (and Mormon, as I was raised) explanation is faulty, I believe. How can God’s justice be satisfied by punishing one person for another’s sins?
Here’s an analogy: If a thief steals a car and her friend repays the owner so that she gets off the hook, the owner has been reimbursed, but where is justice? The thief has still not been punished. Even if she appreciates the friend’s compassion, he has only covered up the effect of her crime. “But,” you may object, “justice has not been done away with, only it must now be paid to the friend, and not the victim of the crime. As long as the thief remains indebted to him, and he through his mercy contracts to forgive her debt as long as she does XYZ that he requires, Justice and Mercy are both satisfied.” Good point, but this is just an analogy, and where this one falls apart.
When we sin (in this case the thief stole a car), there is more than just the one victim. Not only has the rightful owner been injured by the theft, so has the thief, the merciful benefactor and the authority that enforces justice. In the real world of good and evil, the Benefactor and the Enforcer are one and the same: they are God. Because God is infinite, our rejection of him severs our divine friendship and infinte justice requires infinitely severe punishment for our sin.
God out of his infinite Mercy gave us Jesus Christ his only Son as the benefactor to take away our sin. However, merely doing nice things for Jesus are not enough to satisfy justice. As Romans 4 teaches,
“to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.”
We are not saved by doing good–we cannot buy our way into Heaven. We are
obligated to be righteous, and it is not to our credit to be good, because that is performing the function that we are *required *to do. And yet, if we believe in Christ and keep his commandments we are promised everlasting life, that the
“Lord will not impute sin.”
We know that all have sinned, that we cannot buy our way into Heaven, and that only God is “big” enough to make things right. We also know that God sent his own Son to answer for our sins and to bring us into God’s presence. So how do we reconcile what we know with what we believe?
Jesus reveals that unless Man is born of the water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into God’s kingdom. (St. John 3) We are also taught that “outside the Church, there is no salvation.”
Protestants find this difficult to accept. Most of them don’t believe Jesus when he institutes sacraments. And of course they
can’t believe him, or else they would cease to be Protestants! The Sacraments are given to Christ’s Church, and can only be administered according to his dictates. Fortunately, many Protestants still baptize themselves, even though many feel it is a waste of time. But they do it because Jesus required the ritual, and not because they believe it is a sacrament. While it’s good that they receive baptism, it is unfortunate that they view it as little more than throwing water on a person. The sacrament is valid, but the Protestant heresy inhibits their ability to understand why God requires it.
When we are baptized we experience the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and are afterward incorporated into the Body of Christ–the Church. Christ’s Body is holy and pure because he is holy and pure. By virtue of being members of his Body, we are also
made holy and pure. When Christ brings his Body into Heaven, all his members are brought with it.
We are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The Protestant heresy is that faith is “mere.” That somehow we must “merely” have faith. Well, faith is not “mere.” Faith does not “merely” mean that I do not argue
against what Christ preaches, or that I am passive in my beliefs. Faith is *active *and moves people
to do extraordinary things.
"So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren?..You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. " --James 2
