Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert J. Buschmiller

Imprimatur: +Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel,

Published by The Riehle Foundation

For additional copies, write:

All Scripture excerpts, except where noted, have been taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.

Remaining excerpts, marked NAB, are taken from The New American Bible, copyright 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C.

Copyright © 1995 by Joseph C. Kindel

Cover art by T. Veerkamp

ISBN: 1-877678-39-2

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 95-92598

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the Publisher.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Why Do I Need to be Saved?

Chapter 2: What Has God Done that I Might be Saved?

Chapter 3: What Must I Do to be Saved?

Suggested Reading

This book was written to help build understanding between Catholics and other Christians. Many Catholics today have family members who are Christians of other denominations. This is often a cause of distress within the family. Can those family members who are not Catholic be saved, especially if they’ve rejected the faith they were baptized into? The other Christians, in turn, often having been converted to Bible-alone forms of Christianity, wonder if their Catholic relatives can be saved. This situation made me wonder, “What does the Bible teach about salvation?” Yes, there are a few often-quoted verses about faith and baptism, etc., but what does the whole Bible say about salvation?

This book is largely the result of a computer search which found all the verses in the Bible that contain such words and phrases as “salvation,” “save,” “saved,” “kingdom,” and “eternal life.” These Scripture quotes were then expanded upon by combing through the new Catechism of the Catholic Church and several works on apologetics mentioned in the Suggested Reading list at the end of the book.

In this book you will find a selection of representative verses on the topic of salvation from the whole Bible, giving a wider perspective than is usual. The sections on Catholic teaching are taken mostly from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, where the reader is encouraged to go for more thorough teaching. The reader is also urged to go deeper into the Scriptures—to set aside this book and pick up the Bible whenever the Holy Spirit prompts. May the LORD Himself bring you to the fullness of joy as you prayerfully reflect on the good news of salvation.

Why do I need to be saved? What from? The Scriptures speak of God saving us from many things: from our enemies, from evildoers, from affliction, pain, guilt and fear, from danger, trouble and oppression, from death. But the ultimate salvation is from eternal death, also called the second death or eternal damnation.

What is eternal damnation? Is this something to be feared? There are two major things we know about damnation: 1) it is total separation from God, Who alone is our happiness; 2) it is for ever and ever with no second chances. This is serious business.

In God alone lies our happiness. Without Him, we cannot find happiness in this life or the next:

If we persist in our sins until the end of our life, we are in danger of hearing these words addressed to us by the Jesus, Just Judge of the Universe:

In the end, there is good news for those who love God and do what is right, but bad news for those who do evil:

Our sins have removed us from friendship with God since “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

Is there anything we can do to repair the damage caused by our sins? Is there any way we can persuade God to take us back to Himself? Is there any way we can appease Him? The answer to these questions is “No.” There is no way we can win back God. “Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life” (Psalm 49:7). Is there any hope then? Can friendship between God and us be restored? Yes! “For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32). But His mercy must come to us through a Savior, since we are powerless to save ourselves.

Fortunately for us, God has taken the initiative to win us back. He loves us and desires to restore us to His friendship. The Lord looks upon each of us and sighs, “Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, ah, you are beautiful” (Song of Songs 1:15 NAB). Because of His great love for us, individually and as a people, God is willing to go to any length to win us back. Speaking to Israel (and to each one of us) as to an unfaithful wife who has utterly spurned her husband, God declares:

The Scriptures are full of verses like the following one:

And again, “‘I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins’” (Isaiah 43:25).

From the moment Adam and Eve broke God’s command, even before the consequences of their sin had fully taken effect, God began to declare His intention to win back mankind. Speaking to the serpent, God said, “‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel’” (Genesis 3:15). Over the centuries God announced more and more clearly His intention to save us. About six hundred years before Christ, He spoke the following words through the prophet Jeremiah:

“In times past, God spoke in fragmentary and varied ways to our fathers through the prophets; in this, the final age, he has spoken to us through his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2 NAB). God, with the heart of a Father, believed with hope, “They will respect my son” (Matthew 21:37). But when the Father sent His only beloved Son into the world to save us, we rejected Him and nailed Him to a cross. Out of this crime, the most grievous in human history, God in the wonder of His creative love wrought our salvation.

Who is this Son, this Savior, sent to us by God?

He is the Word made flesh, the Son of God. He is also the son of Mary, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam. He is the flower of the human race, the blossom of Israel. “In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6).

His name is Jesus, which means “Yahweh is salvation.” “Yahweh” is the divine name, meaning “I AM WHO I AM” (see Exodus 3:14). So Jesus’ name means “I AM WHO I AM am salvation.” No wonder we say His is the “name above every name” (Philippians 2:9)!

Is Jesus truly divine, God Himself? Yes.

Is Jesus truly human? Yes. He is the man-God.

Jesus also said,

It was out of love for us that Jesus laid down His life for us to reconcile us with His Father. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

At the dawn of the nation of Israel, Abraham prophesied when he told his son Isaac, “‘God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering’” (Genesis 22:8). This prophesy was fulfilled some two thousand years later when “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14 NAB). John the Baptist, sent by God to announce the Messiah, “saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29).

Although God began His plan of salvation by choosing a single people, in Jesus His salvation has been extended to us all. “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22), but all nations and all generations have been included. God declared through the prophet Isaiah, speaking of the Messiah:

St. Paul gives us additional light on God’s plan to save all mankind. Beginning with His chosen one, Abraham, God raised up a people, the Israelites, from his descendants. In each generation, only a remnant stayed faithful to God, while most of them fell away from Him. “By their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:11 NAB)! Even those Israelites who fell away are not completely lost, for “if the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches” (Romans 11:16). St. Paul, wanting to make his point clearly, says:

The salvation of God far exceeds our loftiest hopes. Not only does He save us from danger, especially of the eternal kind, but He also sets us free for the abundant life (see John 10:10), free to love as He loves. He heals and restores us, desiring that we have life to the full, going so far as to allow us to “become sharers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4 NAB)! The only sane response to such a great salvation is overflowing joy and thanksgiving.

We have emphasized that salvation comes from God as a free gift. He has taken the initiative; He has taken the risk. He has extended His mercy and forgiveness to us, and now He awaits our response. Will we take advantage of His good will toward us and return to Him, like the prodigal son?

The basic outline of how we say “yes” to God’s invitation goes like this:

1) first, we must hear the good news;

We saw in the quote from Ephesians 2:8-9 at the end of the preceding chapter that salvation is a free gift from God, received through faith. What is this faith through which we receive the grace of salvation? “Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NAB).

But is it enough for our whole being to cry out “Yes!” to the word of truth? Is it enough to say to ourselves (and to others), “This is what I believe”? Or is it our choices in life, how we act from day to day, which reveals our real “operating beliefs”? As we will see in more detail later when the Scriptures are allowed to speak for themselves, each of these aspects of faith is necessary. Sooner or later we must “believe in our hearts” (Romans 10:10), “confess with our lips” (Romans 10:10), and become “doers of the word, not hearers only” (James 1:22).

When Jesus began His preaching mission, He said, “Reform your lives and believe in the gospel!” (Mark 1:15 NAB). 1) Repent, that is, change the way we are living; 2) Believe what He says. Either one without the other is not enough. A true conversion to Jesus Christ involves both the inside and the outside of a person; both heart and hands must be given totally to the Lord. Heroic deeds without a change of heart (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-3) are as useless as faith that does not bear fruit in action (see James 2:17).

Furthermore, the inner change and the outer change reinforce each other:

To believe in Jesus and remain in His word, then, makes one a disciple. But a disciple is one who obeys His word, as we can see from the following quote: “‘Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple’” (Luke 14:27 NAB). So, acting on the word leads to a deeper faith, and a deeper faith leads to acting on the word more freely.

The Scriptures in the rest of this book have been put more or less in the order indicated above: first, those which deal with the beginning of salvation—hearing the word, believing it, receiving baptism; then those which have to do with living a new life in Christ—obeying God’s commands, following the lead of the Holy Spirit, praying, forgiving others; then those which have to do with growing and maturing in the love of Christ, putting on the character of Christ— dying to self, persevering over the long haul, growing in humility and love.

The dozens of Scriptures which follow build up a picture of the Christian life that is necessary for salvation. The idea is not to present a picture that is overwhelming (“oh, I could never do all that!”), but to present a picture that is complete.

Even though we have separated these Scriptures into many categories for ease of discussion, it is the whole picture we are aiming at. The Scriptures in all of the categories work together to tell one story—they are a unity. You will notice that many of the quotes overlap categories and could have been placed elsewhere. We could say these are the glue that binds the whole together.

A good way to take stock of our faith might be to see if any of these major areas are missing in our lives—perhaps a sign that our faith is lopsided or less than fully genuine. One or two little items missing are not alarming, but if a whole area is missing on a consistent basis, there may be good reason to take corrective action.

It is vitally important to realize that the context in which all of this takes place is a community context. No one of us is saved as an individual apart from the whole Christian family. We are all linked together as a very real body—the body of Christ. “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members share its joy” (1 Corinthians 12:26 NAB). This is more than empathy—we are one body!

The beginning of faith both surrounds and lies within every human being. The awesomeness of creation raises questions:

St. Paul tells us that not only can we find God, we have no excuse if we don’t find Him, since His stamp upon creation is clear:

After receiving assurance from God that we will find Him if we seek after Him with our whole being, it is important to emphasize “if we seek after Him with our whole being.” Apparently we are likely to mislead ourselves on this point since Jesus had several words on the difficulty of being saved:

The word of God, whether spoken or written, has power, power to change our hearts.

We have already discussed what we mean by faith in the Overview above. By far the largest category of Scripture quotes are those which speak of salvation as a free gift of God that we receive through faith. Faith in what or in whom? The Scriptures are clear: it is faith in Jesus Christ and in the Gospel He proclaims which bring salvation.

The jailer asked Paul and Silas,

We also see that we have an enemy, the devil, who tries to short-circuit the whole process at the very beginning by stealing the word from the hearts of those who have heard it before it has a chance to grow. It is sobering to realize that we have an enemy who is so full of malice that he tries to hurt God by working actively to keep His children from Him.

The following Scriptures show that faith, forgiveness and love all lead to salvation:

Jesus said to the woman who was a sinner who

Baptism is an immersion of the body in flowing water. Just as water cleanses the body, so Baptism washes the soul from sin. It is an act of faith to believe that this spiritual cleansing takes place through the physical pouring of water.

The story of Naaman the Syrian may be an Old Testament version of Baptism. Naaman traveled to the prophet Elisha in hopes of being cleansed of leprosy. Elisha told him to wash in the Jordan River:

Just before ascending to the right hand of the Father, Jesus commanded,

After Peter’s exhortation on the day of Pentecost, his hearers asked,

As indicated in the Scriptures, the Catholic Church considers Baptism to be the gateway to salvation. As the water is poured over the baptized, every sin is “washed away” and the Holy Spirit rushes in, making him a new creation in Jesus.

Baptism is normally absolutely necessary for salvation. But if a person who desires (or would desire) Baptism is not able to be baptized, either because of ignorance or death, we are confident that God is able to pour out His saving grace anyway. Baptism is seen as so essential to salvation that we even make sure to baptize infants, drawing on the faith of the parents and of the whole Church.

The Catholic Church teaches that the grace of Baptism is completed or perfected by Confirmation. In Confirmation, our bond with Christ and His Church is strengthened and deepened by the Holy Spirit, and we are better equipped to live the faith and spread the Gospel:

The LORD, speaking of David, said to Samuel:

Baptism and Confirmation are both sacraments. What is a sacrament? The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1131) teaches that a sacrament is:

• an effective sign of grace

• instituted by Christ

• entrusted to the Church

• gives divine life

• draws on the power of Jesus’ Paschal mystery

• a visible rite which makes present the graces it signifies

The anointing of the Holy Spirit flowing over the Head (Jesus) runs down over the whole Body (see Psalm 133) and then over the whole creation, making them sacred. Ever since the Word of God became flesh, grace has been breaking through into our world by means of the signs given to us by Jesus. A sacrament is a visible sign, something that can be seen, touched, tasted or smelled. It is something tangible, incarnational. A sacrament consists of signs and symbols, words and actions using materials such as water, oil, bread and wine.

The very act of celebrating the rite makes present the grace of each sacrament regardless of the personal holiness of either the minister or the recipient. However, an adult recipient must receive the sacrament with the proper dispositions for it to be effective and fruitful. He can place no obstacle in the way of the grace flowing from the sacrament. First, he must intend to receive the grace of the sacrament. Further, the attitude of his heart must be open to receiving God’s grace. The sacraments are not magic; they must be received in faith, just as it was an act of faith for Naaman to plunge himself into the Jordan. The recipient must have an attitude of co-operating with the grace received, intending to increase in faith and love, hoping to become more and more like Jesus in character.

The sign of each sacrament corresponds to the grace given; that is, when we pour water in Baptism our souls are cleansed from sin, and when we eat the bread and wine of the Eucharist Jesus feeds us with His Body and Blood, and so on.

Jesus also gave other signs, such as the washing of feet, which are like the sacraments. Guided by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, however, the Church has discerned over the ages that there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Eucharist, Holy Orders, Matrimony, and the Anointing of the Sick. Even though there are many other signs, some performed by Jesus in the Gospels and some not, which can be vehicles for grace, only these seven are sacraments. The others we call sacramentals. The Church teaches that the sacraments are necessary for salvation. In this book we have demonstrated this from the Scriptures for several of the sacraments individually.

Just as our natural life is marked by significant times, birth, death, and marriage or other vocational choice, so is our spiritual life. The sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist, accompany us in our spiritual birth. The sacraments of healing, Penance and the Anointing of the Sick, are for the times we are physically or spiritually sick or dying. The sacraments in the service of communion, Matrimony and Holy Orders, are there to sanctify our choice of vocation in life, our choice of how we will bring Jesus’ love to others.

Some of the sacramentals, besides washing of feet, are: the sign of the cross, containing the central mysteries of the faith, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and the mystery of the cross; holy water, a reminder of the water of the new birth of Baptism; blessed oil, a sign of anointing of priests, prophets and kings, and also a sign of healing as a divine medicinal balm; laying on of hands, a sign of the giving of the Holy Spirit; blessed candles, signifying the Light of Christ; blessed objects of all kinds; blessings of persons, and many others.

As we saw in Acts 2:38 above, every baptized person has received the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of truth.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

If we receive His truth we will be saved:

Part of the truth is that we have all sinned. Before we can turn away from sin, we have to recognize we have done evil in God’s sight and admit it:

Contrition is a sorrow for our sins, a sorrow deep enough that we want to change the way we live. It is a true change of heart, not lip service.

In the Catholic Church, we distinguish between initial conversion, contrition and repentance, and subsequent need (after Baptism) for conversion, contrition and repentance. After Baptism, we are still all too prone to sin, even seriously. The ordinary means for seeking reconciliation with God and the Church after Baptism is through the sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance. None of the other sacraments (except Baptism) can be worthily received without first confessing all mortal sins in the sacrament of Penance.

Mortal sin is serious business. Three conditions must be met for a sin to be so lethal as to destroy the life of the soul. 1) The sin must objectively be seriously wrong; that is, a violation of the Ten Commandments; 2) the person must have full knowledge of the seriousness of the action; 3) the person must freely and fully consent to the sinful action, knowing how wrong it is.

The sacrament of Penance was instituted by Jesus on the evening of the resurrection.

God cannot forgive us unless we are contrite of heart. Contrition is sorrow for one’s sins, hatred for them, and the resolution never to sin again. Without true conversion of the heart, no sins can be forgiven. “‘Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much’” (Luke 7:47).

The penitent should prepare for the sacrament of Penance by making an examination of conscience. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1454) recommends basing our examination of conscience on the following Scriptures: Matthew ch. 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount; Romans ch. 12-15; 1 Corinthians ch. 12- 13; Galatians ch. 5; Ephesians ch. 4-6.

Even though it is strictly necessary to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation only when in mortal sin, it is strongly recommended to confess regularly, at least monthly. This bears fruit in continually deeper conversion to Jesus Christ, making us more and more effective bearers of the Gospel to the world around us.

The sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick also removes sin. This sacrament is appropriate whenever one is in danger of death due to sickness or old age. It finds its foundation in the following Scripture:

The sacramental sign is the anointing of the forehead and hands of the sick person with oil. The meaning of the anointing with oil becomes clearer when we recall that olive oil was considered to have medicinal qualities in New Testament times (recall the Good Samaritan who poured oil and wine on the wounds of the man who had been beaten—see Luke 10:34).

When we first come to the Lord in faith, He fills us with a new fire and a new love that we are sure will never fade.

Several scriptures refer to entering the kingdom of God by force or violence:

We have tendencies within us toward both good and evil. The tendency toward evil is often called “the flesh” in the Scriptures:

The world, that is the part our culture which is opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, surrounds us with a continual invitation to sin. It is a sort of peer-pressure that conspires with our fleshly desires to lead us away from God. We must fight it with all our strength:

Fervent love is always focused on the beloved in a total way. One who is divided is not in love:

After Jesus’ disciples had been with Him for a time, He said to them:

said to them,

“Do you want to leave me too?” (John 6:67 NAB).

At the last supper Jesus revealed the mystery of His Body and Blood:

In the section “Looking for Something” we discussed the search for “something more” that can lead to discovering God. In this section we are looking at a different group of searchers, namely, those who already have some knowledge of God who are crying out to Him, reaching to Him for help.

No one who has had an encounter with the living God is ever the same afterwards. The awesomeness of God’s presence brings new light; we see more truly who we are, and more truly who God is. We have a new eagerness to please Him.

Peter had just such an overwhelming experience of God’s power when he and his companions made the great catch of fish at Jesus’ command:

Fear of the Lord leads directly into reverential worship of God. This happened on a couple of occasions when the disciples’ boat was being swamped by high seas:

Our worship must consist in more than empty ritual. God is looking for worship from the heart. As Jesus said to the woman at the well,

Catholics believe that worship of God is a serious obligation. We set aside Sunday, the Lord’s day, as a day devoted to worship of God, to spiritual restoration and bodily rest, a day to build the family. For a Catholic to miss the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Sunday without a good reason is a serious matter, calling into question one’s relationship with God:

As we saw above, fear of the LORD leads us immediately and naturally to obey God. This obedience to God’s will, especially as expressed in His commandments, is necessary to our salvation:

Obedience to God extends to obedience to those who are in positions of authority over us.

In addition to the law written in stone there is the law of the Spirit of God written on our hearts (see 2 Corinthians 3:3). If we are to be fully obedient to Him, we must obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit as well as the written commandments.

The whisperings of the Spirit must be discerned before we act on them; they can never contradict the written law. Rather the Holy Spirit teaches us how to custom fit the law of Love to our own personal situation:

One who is filled with the Holy Spirit is led by the Holy Spirit. Immediately after being baptized by John, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). Not only Jesus, but “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14) although we are sons by adoption.

To be saved we must follow the lead of the Spirit. It is a choice between following the Holy Spirit or the desires of the flesh:

St. Paul assures us that the difference is none less than the difference between eternal life and death:

As we have indicated above, good works also have a place in whether we are saved. For when Jesus, the King, comes in His glory, he will separate sheep from goats:

Full of joy and thanksgiving at our own salvation, we are eager to share this undeserved gift with others. One of the most powerful ways to prepare the way for another person to accept the Gospel is to pray for them.

Another Scripture on the power of prayer is found embedded in a passage on forgiving wrongs:

Jesus Himself sets the prime example in this ministry of saving intercession since,

St. James teaches us that by laboring to restore sinners to God’s friendship, we benefit both the one we bring back from sin and ourselves:

If we have received a word of truth that is able to save lives, but do not share that word, have we really received that word ourselves? Is it possible for there to be a fire in our hearts, but one which sheds no light and no warmth to others?

The following Scripture indicates that we cannot be saved if we do not extend to others the mercy and forgiveness we have received from our Father in heaven:

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. . . . For the measure you give will be the measure you get back” (Luke 6:36-37,38).

Married life, when lived according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is a life laid down in generous love and service of others, first one’s spouse and then one’s children. There is plenty of opportunity to “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,” (Ephesians 5:21). and plenty of opportunity to ask and extend forgiveness when we fail:

In Old Testament times it was considered to be a disgrace for a person to remain childless. We can see evidence of this in the story of John the Baptizer’s mother, Elizabeth, who conceived miraculously in her old age:

For these reasons, the Catholic Church highly exalts both marriage and the family, and the calling to be single for the Lord.

Matrimony is one of the seven sacraments. The essence of the sacrament is the exchange of consent between a baptized man and a baptized woman who are free to marry. The bond which is thereby formed is sealed by God and cannot be broken (see Mark 10:9). In the sacrament, their human love becomes elevated to be like Christ’s love for the Church (see Ephesians 5:21-32). This love tends toward a deep union of the spouses with each other and with Jesus. It must be open to bearing fruit in the co-creation (with God the Creator) of children, each one a new, unique person who will live forever. It is in the intimate love of the family home that the most basic and natural church community forms.

From the time of the apostles, virgins have heeded the call of Jesus to “those who can accept it” and have chosen Him alone as their spouse. When they live their call joyfully, they are a powerful sign of the kingdom. There is no sacrament for the committed virgin that corresponds to the sacrament of matrimony. But this call can be lived out in many ways from informal to very formal. A single lay person can secretly commit her life to Jesus; virgins can be consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to a liturgical rite; a person can enter religious life, professing vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; and many other variations.

Since both Matrimony and virginity are from Jesus, they cannot in any way be in competition, but are both exalted ways of life, if they are truly lived for the Lord. Either can be a happy and fulfilling vocation for the person who is called accordingly.

The Scriptures frequently compare Christian growth to natural growth. Baptism is like birth; we are urged to grow out of spiritual childhood; our goal is to arrive at full maturity in Christ. We have put into this section the conditions for salvation which can be fulfilled by one who has been sincerely living the Christian life for some time and making progress in holiness.

We sometimes imagine that an ideal world would be one in which there is no suffering. But if it had been in our best interest to eliminate suffering, a loving and almighty God would certainly have done so as part of our salvation. Instead, the Father sent His only Son Jesus, His Beloved One, to enter our world as it is, suffering and all. He came to save us, not from our suffering, but in our suffering.

Jesus has promised to bring us abundant life (see John 10:10). If “life to the full” means to live vividly, fully alive, fully experiencing life, then it means great intensity in both our joys and our sufferings. The opposite of “life to the full” would be a timid and fearful life of depressing monotony, a living death.

Jesus Himself certainly lived life boldly and deeply, fully embracing whatever God sent His way, whether exultant joy, great grief, or bodily torture.

God is able to create great good out of suffering if we allow Him. Jesus has given us the supreme example: by freely accepting His passion and death at our hands (the greatest crime in human history), He won eternal salvation for us (the greatest good in human history):

The tell-tale sign of genuine love is a generous outpouring of self for others. Our attitude must be that of Christ, who

St. Paul indicates that this denial of self is not merely a mental thing, when he says,

True humility always accompanies fear of the LORD. We are awed by His presence, bow down to worship Him, and are ready to obey Him in everything. We have, for the first time in our lives, a realistic concept of our own stature before God.

This first taste of genuine humility is in danger of fading away, however. A man becomes truly humble only when his whole way of life over a long time is permeated by fear of the LORD:

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who . . . being found in human form he humbled himself (Philippians 2:3-5,8).

The one who has nothing and who knows he is nothing is one Jesus can bring to salvation:

It is hard to ignore what Jesus said about poverty for the sake of the kingdom. It is also difficult to explain away Jesus’ sayings on poverty as merely allegorical:

Our salvation depends on what we say and how we say it. Sooner or later whatever fills our heart and our thoughts will get out; we cannot help but express what is inside us through our words, our attitude, our tone of voice, our body language, and our actions:

When things are not going the way we like, we are apt to take matters into our own hands. It seems to be better to do something—anything—than to turn to God and allow Him to take charge. But sometimes we get stuck in impossible- seeming situations.

When the Israelites were trapped, in a panic, between Pharaoh’s army on the one side and the Red Sea on the other, Moses said to the people,

Hope involves looking forward to something good that has not come yet. Hope has to do with waiting eagerly for a promise to be fulfilled:

Is it necessary for us to have Christian hope to be saved? St. Paul is clear: “In hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24 NAB). This is because we do not yet possess eternal life in its fullness:

It is good to hope for salvation, “the free gift of God . . . eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

God’s promise is so solid that He desires us to

There are some who believe that salvation, once obtained, cannot be lost. But a wider look at what the Scriptures say does not support this view. The Scriptures repeatedly exhort us to persevere, to “hang in there.” It is only the one who endures to the end who will be saved.

There are several Scriptures that make it clear that it is possible for a believer to apostasize, that is, totally reject his faith:

Every living creature in the natural world that does not grow and develop dies. It is no different with our spiritual life. And so the Scriptures urge us to grow to spiritual maturity. In fact, it is essential to salvation to grow up spiritually:

Not only individual Christians, but the whole Body of Christ grows to maturity:

No matter what stage of growth we are at (or think we are at), those who love Jesus will aim for more. St. Paul, aware that not to go forward is go backward, implores us:

There may be another lesson to learn from this parable. A species of weed grows in Palestine that is almost impossible to distinguish from the wheat until they are both mature— and then it is too late to pull up the weeds because the roots of both are so intertwined. Perhaps with people, too, it is difficult to distinguish the good from the bad till we have grown to full maturity.

What is love? The word is used so many ways in the English language it is sometimes hard to know what is meant by it.

When we look at the cross of Jesus, we see true love revealed. We see that His kind of love involves the total outpouring of oneself for the good of the beloved. This love involves a great generosity, to the point of an emptying of self, to the point of death of self, anything, for the benefit of the beloved.

Love is directly opposed to any sort of grabbing or clutching or draining from others. Sin tends to seize control, to have its own way, especially at the expense of the weak. Love loves to yield itself to the other, to spend itself for the beloved. Every sin, then, is a sin against the law of love:

Love is the culmination of the Gospel. Delivered from sin by God Who is love, we are free to love as He loves. If we are attached to Jesus, the Vine (see John 15:5), we have His divine life, His power to love, flowing through us:

To erase all doubts, Jesus made the good news of love into a command:

God is love (1 John 4:8).

God’s very nature is to love. The mutual love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is complete in every way. Nor can God help loving us and all the creatures He has made. In addition, he has created us with the capacity to love as He loves. Our sins severely damage or even destroy our capacity to love. This is why God hates sin—because it is an obstacle to love, directly opposed to His very nature. Jesus restored our capacity to love by His sacrificial Passion and Death on the cross, the ultimate expression of love.

The second point is that love tends toward union:

The argument, in brief, is as follows:

1. If we must love God and one another to be saved;

2. and if love always draws us together in union with the beloved;

But the Body of Christ is much more than a support group. There is a deep oneness among Christians which springs from the unity of the Most Holy Trinity.

There are many kinds of unity. We have all experienced limited “oneness” with others, perhaps agreement in some particular interest. Two people can be united in their politics, or in their temperament, or in a project they are working on.

God is a “community” or “family” of three Persons, united so totally in love, in mind, heart, spirit and in every other way as to be One God. Trinity means “Tri-unity” or “unity of the Three.” Since we have been created in the image and likeness of God, we also have “community-ness” built into us.

Because of sin, we have become divided, isolated from one another and from God. This shattering of community is so great a tragedy that Jesus died to repair it. Only hours before His Passion, Jesus prayed:

St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, ranks discord or dissension within the Body of Christ among the worst of sins:

Our attitude, to be in the spirit of community, in the spirit of love, must be oriented toward others and away from self:

The oneness of the Body of Christ is both invisible and visible. In Jesus Christ, everything, visible and invisible, material and spiritual, is brought into one:

To say either that the Church is only invisible or only visible would be to miss this fundamental truth. Those who see only a human institution are blind to the underlying union of heart, mind and spirit which is the foundation of the visible structure. Those who believe in a Church that exists only in the realm of the spirit forget that we are whole human beings with bodies as well as souls, that we are meant to dwell for a while in the material world.

All those who are in union with Jesus are also in union with each other. This is why forgiveness is so important. If I am not in union with my brother, I cannot be in union with Christ. It also works the other way: if I am not in union with Jesus, I cannot have real union with my brother.

This union in Christ is a communion in love. It is a union of mind as well, a union of faith and belief. It is a union that encompasses all boundaries; even death is not a barrier to this “communion of the saints”:

Every act of love benefits the whole Body; every sinful act wounds the whole Body. We can benefit others in the Body of Christ by beseeching God on their behalf; they in turn can intercede to God for us.

We can especially turn to Mary, the mother of Jesus and our mother:

Her advice at the wedding feast of Cana is fitting for us today: “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (John 2:5).

The teaching of Jesus is more than just His words. God used Jesus’ whole life to speak to us; what He said, what He did, the love with which He did everything, His character, Who He is. He spent three years, night and day, with the Twelve He had chosen, time for them to get to know Him, time to ask questions, time to watch, time to wonder, time to pray. It would be up to them to pass on His teaching after He had ascended to the right hand of the Father. Despite all of their time with Jesus, however, the apostles proved by their actions during His Passion and death that they were woefully under-prepared to take the Gospel to the whole world. It was not until they received the Holy Spirit that they were fully equipped to step into Jesus’ shoes. The Holy Spirit completed their knowledge of the deep things of God and also was always with them to refresh their memories:

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be my witnesses . . . to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

In the very early Church, before the Scriptures were written down, the preaching of the apostles was the only source of divine revelation. But after the death of the apostles, the Lord Jesus did not abandon the Church to drift without direction.

In the Catholic Church, we believe that the apostles appointed successors, who in turn appointed further successors, so that the apostolic witness to the risen Jesus has continued unbroken throughout the ages. We believe that the bishops are the present day successors to the apostles.

We further believe that Peter held a special place among the apostles:

Some time after giving this authority to Peter, Jesus extended it to the other apostles:

Catholics believe that Peter, at the head of the apostles, and the popes in unbroken succession to this day at the head of the bishops, provide the required visible unifying agent. Catholics believe that the Pope, guided by the Holy Spirit, has supreme authority in the areas of teaching and governing the People of God.

Apostleship is passed on through the sacrament of Holy Orders. The outward sign of Holy Orders is the laying on of hands by the bishop. St. Paul refers to this in his letter of encouragement to Timothy: “I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God bestowed on you when my hands were laid on you” (2 Timothy 1:6 NAB).

There are three “degrees” to Holy Orders: bishops, who receive the fullness of the sacrament (see 1 Timothy 3:1), presbyters or priests, who are the co-workers of the bishops (see Titus 1:5), and deacons, who are not ordained to priesthood but for tasks of service (see Acts 6:1-6).

All of the baptized share in the priesthood of Jesus Who is “high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:10). The ordained priesthood is at the service of the priesthood of all the baptized by building up the Church (see Ephesians 4:11-12). The ordained priesthood acts especially in the person of Christ the Head, as opposed to another part of the Body of Christ.

Holy Orders and the Eucharist are specially interlinked. Catholics believe that only an ordained priest is able to bring the Real Presence of Jesus to the altar during Mass. Holy Thursday, therefore, the commemoration of the Last Supper, has special significance for the ordained priesthood. Just as Jesus fed the five thousand with ordinary bread through the Twelve, so He feeds us with the heavenly bread through the ordained priesthood. When we recall that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Church’s activity, the necessity of the ordained priesthood for salvation becomes apparent.

Perhaps, at this point, we are in a position to answer the questions brought up in the introduction. Can both Catholics and other Christians be saved? Will our families, though divided on earth, be together in heaven?

To answer these questions, it is useful to ask, “How deeply divided are Christians on earth?” Is there not more that unites us than divides us? Are not all Christians included in the Body of Christ, which is the Church?

According to Catholic teaching, Jesus has only one Church, the one He founded on Peter (see Matthew 16:18).

The major section of this book has addressed the question, “What must I do to be saved?” Now we look at the opposite question, “What must I avoid to be saved?”

There are definite behaviors that, unrepented, will keep a person out of the Kingdom of God:

And God spoke all these words, saying,

Sin is the major cause of spiritual blindness. To refuse to worship the true God is to invite disaster:

We have allowed the Scriptures to speak. Hopefully an overall picture has emerged to answer the question “What must I do to be saved.” By way of summary, we have chosen a few Scriptures which capture the essence of the Christian life, the joyful road to heaven:

St. Paul lists a grab bag of do’s and don’ts for the Christian:

When we love as Jesus loves:

Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible Series: Revised edition. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1975.

Catechism of the Catholic Church. English Translation, 1994. See especially Nos. 1987-2029.

Keating, Karl. What Catholics Really Believe—Setting the Record Straight: 52 Answers to Common Misconceptions about the Catholic Faith. Servant Publications, Ann Arbor, 1992.

Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth. Catholic Answers, San Diego, 1993.

Schreck, Alan. Catholic and Christian: An Explanation of Commonly Misunderstood Catholic Beliefs. Servant Books, Ann Arbor, 1984.

Sheed, F. J. Theology for Beginners. Third Edition, Servant Books, Ann Arbor, 1981.

Stravinskas, Peter M. J. The Catholic Response. Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, Ind., 1985.

Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. New Revised Edition. Austin Flannery, O.P., ed. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 56321, 1975 and 1984.

Vatican Council II: More Post Conciliar Documents. Austin Flannery, O.P., ed. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 56321, 1982.