Compiled by Bob Stanley, October 8, 1999
Invaluable assistance was provided by Paul Kamalsky. Thank you Paul.
Back
to Home Page... Okay, Which Way Is It, By Grace, By Faith, Or By Works, That Brings Us Into Eternal Salvation?
Grace:
Is a supernatural gift
from GOD. It makes the soul pleasing to GOD. It comes to us through prayer
and the sacraments.
"For without Me, you can do nothing." John 15:5
"With men, this is impossible, but with GOD all things are possible."
Matt 19:26
"I can do all things in Him who strengthens me." Phil 4:13
"...No one can receive anything unless it is given to him from Heaven."
John 3:27
"I give thanks to my GOD always concerning you for the grace
of GOD which was given you in Christ Jesus..."
1Cor 1:4
"And of His fullness we have all received grace
for grace."
John1:16
Grace
is a free gift from GOD, and is given abundantly to each and everyone of
us. Without it, we can do nothing at all. We cannot 'save' ourselves without
the help of GOD.
Faith:
Is the assent given to
a truth.
"Now faith is
the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Heb 11:1
"Faith then
depends on hearing, and hearing on the Word of Christ." Romans 10:17
"Yet when the Son of Man comes, will He find, do you think, faith
on the earth?" Luke 18:8
Faith
is of paramount importance to GOD.
"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision is of any avail, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which
works through
charity."
Gal 5:6.
"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,
so that I could move mountains, and have not charity
(love), I am nothing." 1Cor 13:2.
Faith,
however, is interwoven with love. Faith without
love is useless.
Works:
We work
out what GOD works
in our hearts. Works
are the fruit if faith. As already mentioned,
"We work out
our salvation with fear and trembling."
"Work as a preacher of the Gospel,
fulfill your ministry." 2Tim 4:5
"Work for upbuilding and not for destruction."
2Cor 13:10
"Work from the heart as for the Lord,
and not for men." Col 3:23
"Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling." Phil 2:12
"For His workmanship we are, created in Christ Jesus in good works,
which GOD has made ready beforehand that we may walk in them." Eph
2:10
"And if you invoke as Father him who without respect of persons judges
according to each one's work,
conduct yourselves with fear in the time of your sojourning." 1Pet
1:17
"There are just men and wise men, and their works
are in the hand of GOD." Eccl 9:1
"For GOD shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be
evil." Eccl 12:14
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord', shall enter the kingdom
of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father in heaven shall enter
the kingdom of heaven." Matt 7:24
"But why do you call Me, 'Lord, 'Lord', and do not practise the things
that I say?" Luke 6:46
"But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be
made manifest, for they have been performed in GOD." John 3:21
"And they who have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection
of life; but they who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment."
John 5:29
Grace AND Faith:
Both are needed for salvation.
"They are justified
freely by His grace through
the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom GOD has set forth as a propitiation
by His blood through faith,
to manifest His justice,..." Rom 3:24-25
Now
Grace 'anded'
together with faith
enters into the equation.
"For by grace you
have been saved through faith;
and that not from yourselves, for it is the gift of GOD." Eph 2:8
So
now it is grace
AND faith,
not grace OR
faith.
Grace
AND Works: Both
are necessary for salvation.
"But by the grace of
GOD I am what I am, and His grace in me has not been fruitless, in fact
I have labored (worked)
more than any of them, yet not I, but the grace
of GOD with me." 1Cor 15:10
GOD
expects fruit to be produced in the form of good
works, by His
freely given grace.
"Yes, working
together with Him we entreat you not to receive
the grace of
GOD in vain." 1Cor 6:1
Here
we see that there is danger of receiving grace
from GOD and us not responding with works.
So
now it is grace AND
works, not grace
OR works.
Faith
AND Works: Both are needed
for salvation.
"What does it profit, my brethren, even though a man say he has faith,
and have not works?
Can faith save
him?" James 2:14
"Even so faith,
if it has not works,
is dead, being alone." James 2:17
"But will you know, O vain man that faith
without works
is dead." James 2:20
"You see then how that by works a
man is justified,
and NOT by faith
only." James 2:24
"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is
dead also." James 2:26
These
verses could not have been written any plainer, no works
begets no faith.
Why did St. James repeat himself in so many verses? Why does anyone repeat
himself? They do it to drive home an important point.
Grace AND Faith AND Works:
All three are 'anded'
and are necessary for salvation.
I have
shown examples of grace and
faith, grace
and works,
and faith and
works. Therefore
neither of the three can be separated from the other two and still retain
our salvation.
Grace
NOR (not 'or') the Law: We
are not under the Law as
the Jews were, but we are under the Grace
of GOD in the New Covenant.
"For the the Law
was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ."
John 1:17
"Do not think that I have come to destroy the
Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy,
but to fulfill." Matt 5:17
"For sin shall not have dominion over you; for YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE
LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE."
Romans 6:14
"What then? Are we to sin because we are NOT under the
Law but under grace?
By no means! Romans 6:15
"Moreover the Law entered,
that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound." Rom 5:20
"I do not frustrate the grace of
GOD, for if righteousness come by the Law,
then Christ died in vain." Gal 2:21
"You who would be justified
in the Law are
estranged from from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."
Gal 5:4
These
verses have made it quite clear that we do not achieve salvation under
the Law, but
under the new 'Law of Grace'.
Faith
NOR (not 'or') the Law: We
are justified
by faith and
not by the Law.
"For the promise that he should be the heir of the world, was
not to Abraham or to his seed through the Law,
but through the righteousness of faith.
For if they which are of the Law be
heirs, faith is
made void, and the promise made of none effect." Rom 4:13-14
"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what Law?
Of works? Nay:
but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified
by faith without
the deeds of the Law."
Rom 3:27-28
"But that no man is justified by
the Law in the
sight of GOD, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith.
And the Law is
not of faith:
but the man that does them shall live in them. Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the Law,
being made a curse for us: for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone that
hangs on a tree:' that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith."
Gal 3:11-14
"What shall we say then? That the Gentiles (that is us folks, anyone
who is not a Jew), which followed not after righteousness, have attained
to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not attained
to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith,
but as it were by the works
of the Law.
For they stumbled at that stumbling stone." Rom 9:30-32. See Gal 2:16
in the next paragraph.
Grace
OR Faith NOR / NAND Works: 'Nor'
in boolean algebra is NOT 'OR', 'Nand' is NOT 'AND'. Essentially the
phrase means grace or
faith but never
works. This is
Protestant teaching. Here are some verses which trip the Protestant viewpoints...
"But we know that man is not justified
by the works of
the Law, but
by the faith of
Jesus Christ. Hence we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified
by the faith of
Christ and NOT by the works of
the Law."
Gal 2:16
"For we reckon that a man is justified
by faith (alone*)
independently of the works of the
Law." Rom 3:28. *The word 'alone' was
injected by Martin Luther in his German translation of Romans in order
to provide support for HIS instruction
of 'Sola Fides'. The word is not in the Greek transcripts.
Protestants
say these verses 'prove' that works are
not needed. However, these verses refer only to works
under the Law,
and not to works under
grace.
In Summation:
Good works are
needed along with faith...
Why do Catholics believe that good works are
necessary for salvation? Does not Paul say in Romans 3:28 that faith
alone justifies? (See the note on Romans 3:28 above. The word 'alone'
was injected by Martin Luther in his translation. If St. Paul, who writes
fluently and uses many approaches to explain justification
by faith and
who uses the words 'faith'
and 'alone' many times in this very Epistle, meant to write 'Faith
Alone', he most assuredly would have done
so). Catholics believe that faith and
good works are both necessary for salvation,
because such is the teaching of Jesus Christ.
What Our Lord demands is 'faith which works
through charity'.
(Gal 5:6).
Read Mt 25:31-46, which describes the Last Judgment as being based on works
of charity.
The first and greatest commandment, as given by Our Lord Himself, is to
love the Lord God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength; and the
second great commandment is to love one's neighbor as oneself, (Mk 12:30-31).
"For God has done what the Law, weakened
by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just
requirement of the Law might be FULFILLED
IN US, who walk NOT according to the FLESH but according to the SPIRIT."
Rom 8:3-4.
"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word,
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Gal 5:13-14
Thus, although faith is the beginning, it
is not the complete fulfillment of the will of God. Nowhere in the Bible
is it written that faith alone justifies.
When St. Paul wrote, 'For we account a man to be justified
by faith, without the works
of the law' (Gal 2:16), he was referring to works
peculiar to the old Jewish Law, and he cited
circumcision as an example.
The Catholic Church does not teach that purely human good works
are meritorious for salvation; such works
are not meritorious for salvation, according to her teaching. Only those
good works performed when a person is in the
state of grace, that is, as a branch drawing
its spiritual life from the Vine which is Christ (Jn 15:4-6), only these
good deeds work toward our salvation, and
they do so only by the grace of GOD and the
merit of Jesus Christ. These good works, offered
to God by a soul in the state of grace (i.e.,
free of mortal sin, with the Blessed Trinity dwelling in the soul), are
thereby supernaturally meritorious because they share in the work
and in the merits of Christ.
Such supernatural good works will not only
be rewarded by GOD, but are necessary for salvation.
St. Paul shows how the neglect of certain good works
will send even a Christian believer to damnation:
'But if any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his
house, he has denied the faith, and is worse
than an infidel', (1Tim 5:8).
Our Lord tells us that if the Master (GOD) returns and finds His servant
sinning, rather than performing works of obedience,
He 'shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers',
(Lk 12:46).
Furthermore, Catholics know they will be rewarded in Heaven for their good
works.
Our Lord Himself said:
'For the Son of man...will render to every man according to his works',
(Mt 16:27).
'And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of
cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall
not lose his reward', (Mt 10:42).
Catholics believe, following the Apostle Paul, that 'every man shall receive
his own reward, according to his own labor', (1Cor 3:8).
'For God is not unjust, that he should forget your work,
and the love which you have shown in his name, you who have ministered,
and do minister to the saints', (Heb 6:10).
'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which
the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to
me, but to them also that love his coming', (2Tim 4:7-8).
Still, Catholics know that, strictly speaking, God never owes us anything.
Even after obeying all God's commandments, we must still say:
'We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do',
(Lk 17:10).
As St. Augustine stated: 'All our good merits are wrought through grace,
so that God, in crowning our merits, is crowning nothing but His gifts'.
Had St. Paul meant that faith ruled out the necessity of good works
for salvation, he would not have written:
'...and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and
have not charity, I am nothing', (1Cor 13:2).
If faith ruled out the necessity of good works
for salvation, the Apostle James would not have written:
'Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only'?...For
even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith
without works is dead', (James 2:24-26).
Or: 'What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but
hath not works? Shall faith be able to save
him'? (James 2:14).
If faith ruled out the necessity of good works
for salvation, the Apostle Peter would not have written: 'Wherefore, brethren,
labor the more, that by good works
you may make sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you
shall not sin at any time. For so an entrance shall be ministered to you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ',
(2Pet 1:10-11). If faith ruled out the necessity
of good works for salvation, the primitive
Christian Fathers would not have advocated good works
in such powerful words...
Wrote St. Irenaeus, one of the most illustrious of the primitive Christian
Fathers:
'For what is the use of knowing the truth in word, while defiling the body
and accomplishing the works of evil? Or what
real good at all can bodily holiness do, if truth be not in the soul? For
these two, faith and good works,
rejoice in each other's company, and agree together and fight side by side
to set man in the Presence of God', (Proof of the Apostolic Preaching).
Justification by faith
alone is a Protestant doctrine; it was unheard of in the Christian
community before the sixteenth century.
Works needed: Lk 13:1-5, Jn 6:60-66,8:31,9:31,10:27-29,*14:15, Rom 1:5,*2:5-11,8:24,9:32,13:3,11:22,
Rom 16:25-26, 1Cor 3:14,***5:21,6:9-10,7:19,9:24-27, 2Cor 6:1-10,***11:15,
Gal 3:12,5:6,19,*21,6:2,6-10, Eph 1:11-14,5:5-6, ***Phil 2:12, **Col 1:10,
1Thes 5:13, 1Tim 6:18, 2Tim 2:21,**4:14, Tit 2:14,3:8,14, Heb 3:14,5:8-9,
Heb 10:26, Jam**4:17, 1Jn 1:6-7,9,2:4-6,9-11,17,29,3:*12,14-24, 1Jn 4:20-21,5:2-3,
***Rev 2:2,5,13,19, Rev 2:23,26,3:1-2,8,9:20,14:13, ***Rev 20:12,22:11-13
Works, not by. When Paul used this term he meant not by the old Mosaic
law or works of darkness: **Gal 2:16,3:10, Eph 2:9, 2Tim 1:9, Tit 3:5,
Heb 6:1 Works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, etc:
Gal 5:19-21
Works are the fruit of faith, but a necessary fruit.
We work out what GOD works in our hearts.
Faith + works, faith working through love.
Grace is the supernatural life of GOD.
Have been saved, are being saved, will be saved.
Not faith alone, Grace + works.
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