JWilson:
The Church teaches that justification is by grace through faith and works. Sola fide (faith alone) is rejected by the Church as heresy, but sola gracia (grace alone) is upheld as sound teaching. We must realize that neither faith nor works can save us. All the faith in the world would be nothing, without grace. Likewise, all the works under the sun would be like filthy rags without grace. This is where the distinction must be made. Both faith and works are worthless if they do not flow from God’s grace. Our salvation is only made possible because Christ took our eternal penalty on the tree at Calvary; however, this perfect work of Christ must be applied to each of us. God has given us freewill, so we must accept this gift and co-operate with him. Not just once (the moment you accept Christ), but all through our lives. Catholics can say that we merit salvation, but only in a secondary and derivative sense. The grace that Christ gives us leads to faith. This grace-empowered faith leads to works. The two go hand in hand. Our faith and works become our way of co-operating with God’s plan for our salvation, and become worthy of merit before God because Christ’s merit is applied to us through his grace. The faith and works in and of themselves are nothing, but when they flow from the grace Christ has given us, they become creditable.
One thing that really hit home for me was the realization that even the Evangelical position requires human effort to obtain salvation. If we are to say that there is nothing we can do to be saved, then logically, all human beings should be saved automatically…as Christ’s grace would be universally applied; however, we know that this is not the case. Even in the Evangelical view, one must make an conscious act of the will, exert a mental effort, to decide to accept Christ and to repent of one’s sins. In a sense, this is a work, as it is an act of the will, and takes effort on our part. But this is only made possible by grace in the first place (remember, the Father must draw us to His Son before we can accept Him), so we can not take credit for it, even though our effort was involved. So once you realize that even the Evangelical view requires human effort, it falls into place (at least for me) that works, those that are the fruit of the grace God has given us, can also play a role in our part in salvation.
If you are to say that salvation involves no effort on our part, then even personal repentance should be unnecessary. Every step of the way, we must choose to continue to co-operate with God, or to reject His grace. We should not be terrified, however, for we trust that God will always provide us with the grace necessary to persevere…
There are some key passages to consider:
Matthew 24:45-51 (Note that the wicked slave is still a servant of the Master…a Christian…he is cast out because he mistreats his fellow servants).
Matthew 25 (all of it! We have here three parables. All concern salvation and the final judgement. All clearly teach that good works are necessary for salvation. Why do the “sheep” enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Christ doesn’t say: because they believed in me…he says they fed him, gave him water to drink, clothed him, etc).
Mark 4:1-20
Luke 8:4-15 (The parable of the sower again)
Luke 12:35-48 (Again, clearly the wicked slave is a Christian…he knows that the master will come, and that he serves the master…but he is thrown out because of his wicked deeds. The righteous servant is rewarded for his good works).
Luke 13:6-9 (The tree is clearly a Christian…it is in the Master’s vinyard. He will shower it with grace…the fertilizer mentioned. But if it refuses this grace, and contines to remain bare, the Master will cut the tree down).
Luke 19:11-27 (The servants, or Christians, are given various amounts of money. The servant who does nothing with his money is cast out—damned…the servants who earn more money are rewarded).
John 15:1-17 (This is a great passage. We must remain on the vine, the source of grace…Christ. If we do not produce fruit, the natural outcome of the grace we receive from the vine, we are cut off, and damned. This lack of growth is a rejection of grace).
There are so many more, but this is a good start.
To learn more about the Catholic Faith from a Biblical perspective, I highly recommend David Armstrong’s
A Biblical Defense of Catholicism. His website can be found here:
socrates58.blogspot.com/. Or David Currie’s
Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic, or Scott Hahn’s
Rome Sweet Home.
In Christ with love,
Tyler
