Postscripts From The Catholic Spitfire Grill

If someone came into your church asking them what they must do to be saved, what would you as a Roman Catholic say?

Here's the short answer. "Welcome Home!! In order to be saved, you must live a life of faithful obedience to Our Lord, Jesus Christ. We here in the Body of Christ are privileged to welcome you, to teach you, to pray for you and with you, and to prepare you for the Sacraments that will help you live your life for Christ and to prepare you for eternity with Him in heaven."

Now I can almost hear the response. Any answer with regard to salvation that includes the word "obedience" is immediately "adding to God's free gift of salvation" it's "earning your salvation" it's "works-based salvation."

No it's not. It's BIBLICALLY based salvation.

It isn't pithy. It doesn't lend itself to easy slogans.

It's simple but not simplistic and doesn't fit in a "Four Spiritual Laws" book.

It is still unmerited. It is still unearned. It is offered freely by Our Lord even though there is nothing we can ever do to deserve it or earn it.

It still requires obedience. Whether you "believe" it does or not.  Can 'faith alone' be a reasonable response to our Lord? Must we not even love Him? Why then, isn't faith the greatest of all spiritual virtues? (1 Corinthians 13: 13 says the greatest virtue is love.) First let's look at the words of Our Lord Himself in the gospels.

Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Matthew 19:16-17 Now someone approached him and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?"He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life,
keep the commandments."

John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

Yes. Jesus also said in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." but we can't pick and choose which parts of Jesus words we are going to believe. Jesus spoke the Truth not contradiction and that means (according to his words) both believing AND doing are necessary. If believing is all that is necessary to accept God's gift of Salvation why are the examples of faith that are held up to us in the New Testament always really examples of faithful obedience and not 'faith alone'? In Hebrews chapter 11 some of the great examples of Old Testament faith are enumerated. Go read the chapter; I'll wait. There sure are an awful lot of 'saved by faith's BECAUSE they did something's in there. Can you split apart the faith and obedience in those examples? Does God? Were they REALLY saved by "faith alone"? Let's pick two. Noah and Abraham. Remember these are the examples that the Holy Spirit inspired author is using to teach us about salvation in the New Covenant. Just because these show up in the Old Testament does not mean that they are irrelevant.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.

Would Noah have been saved if He had only believed God would save him? What if he hadn't built the ark? Did building the ark, "earn" his salvation? Or was it the means by which God exercised His Grace in Noah's life? Was Noah's salvation a free gift?...darn tootin' it was. God didn't have to give him that grace. Noah didn't earn it. He received it through faithful obedience. Now how about Abraham?

Hebrews 11:8-12 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise; for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God. By faith he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal age--and Sarah herself was sterile--for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy. So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.

Would Abraham have received his blessing? His inheritence? If he had not obeyed? This is what the messenger of God had to say to him:

Genesis 22:12 (this is the Angel from the Lord speaking)...Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."....

Faith or obedience? Or faith and obedience?

Genesis 22:16b-17a I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you abundantly

Abraham is held up as an examples of saving faith and the the Lord declares to him "Because you acted as you did" Did Abraham earn anything? Or were his actions the means by which God's Grace worked in his life and through Abraham to all of us? The Lord reiterates this in a message to Isaac:

Genesis 26:4-5 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing--this because Abraham obeyed me, keeping my mandate (my commandments, my ordinances, and my instructions)."

Because Abraham believed? No. Because Abraham obeyed. He wouldn't have obeyed without belief but would his belief have meant anything without obedience? To separate faith and obedience is a false dichotomy. This is confirmed in James 2 which is the only place in the Bible where the words 'faith' and 'alone' occur together and it isn't to talk about live-giving faith but dead faith.

James 2:17 So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Sacred Scripture tells us that 'faith alone' is 'dead faith.' Any time someone says by "'faith alone' you are saved," try substituting what Sacred Scripture says about 'faith alone' and see if it makes sense. Better still try Martin Luther's "translation" of Romans 3:28 with commentary from James 2:17 in [ ]  "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone [dead faith], apart from the deeds of the law."

Well you say, what about Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast." EXACTLY my point. I am glad you brought that up. Faith is never ever set up in opposition to obedience in Sacred Scripture. The cautions we see in Sacred Scripture have everything to do about acting like we deserve God's Grace because of who we are or what we do. We aren't supposed to BOAST. Noah obeyed. Abraham obeyed. Enoch obeyed. Rahab obeyed. Did any of them boast? Did any of them hold themselves up as a great example and start telling God what He should and shouldn't do? Did any of them parade around telling others how great they were and how sinful the surrounding peons were? Anyone want to compare them to the Pharisees with the uncircumcised hearts? In fact, Ephesians 2:8-9 is an incomplete thought. Here is the whole thought:

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

When you complete the thought expressed in Ephesians 2:8-9 with verse 10. Suddenly we are right back to what I told the potential convert at the beginning of this post. Salvation is about living a life of faithful obedience to Our Lord.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches the fullness of salvation as it is expressed in Sacred Scripture (hat tip to Karl Keating via Shellie at Profound Gratitude) 

I am a devout Catholic and I believe all of these things listed below from Sacred Scripture are part of receiving the salvation made available to me by Jesus Christ. Those who claim that faith alone is what saves you must ignore the rest of what is recorded in Sacred Scripture.

By Believing in Christ (Jn 3:16; Acts 16:31)

By Repentance (Acts 2:38; 2 Pet 3:9)

By Baptism (John 3:5; Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Pet 3:21; Titus 3:5; Mark 16:16)

By the work of the Spirit (John 3:5; 2 Cor 3:6)

By declaring with our mouths (Luke 12:8; Rom 10:9)

By coming to a knowledge of the Truth (1 Tim 2:4; Heb 10:26)

By Works (Rom 2:6, 7; James 2:21, 24-25)

By Grace (Acts 15:11; Eph 2:8)

By His blood (Rom 5:9; Heb 9:22)

By His righteousness (Rom 5:17; 2 Pet 1:1)

By His cross (Eph 2:16; Col 2:14)

There is only one place in Sacred Scripture where the term "Faith alone" occurs and that is in James 2:24 "See how a person is justified by works and NOT faith alone."