Justification: Being Made Right with God
1) What is Justification? To be justified means being made righteous, just, holy, and acceptable before God. Because we are born in original sin, we need to be made right with God and only He can effect this change, which was merited by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, but which we must accept (or in the case of an infant, their parents) by sincere repentance (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30; Romans 2:4; 1 Corinthians 7:9-10, etc.) and by baptism, by which sacrament we become children of God and heirs with Christ (John 1: 12; Romans 8:14-17).
It is the gift of divine sonship. Our soul is regenerated (made clean) from the effects of original sin (or mortal sin if any has been committed) and wiped clean. Thus, there is cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom that is expressed by the assent of faith (Catechism of the Catholic Church or CCC 1993). "With justification faith, hope and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted" (CCC 1991). "In baptism you were not only buried with him, but also raised to life with him because you believed in the power of God who raised him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3-5,8).
2) Salvation is a gift of God. Man cannot obligate God. But man is called upon to freely choose God through an exercise of his free will. The steps for an adult:
(1) God grants the grace to believe (prevenient grace)
(2) Man with his free will accepts it, repenting of sins committed and affirming in faith God’s truth
(3) Man cooperating with divine grace receives baptism
(4) Baptism re-generates the soul so that the man is "born from above" or "born again"
(5) We can co-operate with the sanctifying grace in our souls or not.
3) What is grace? Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ in the Church." (CCC 2003). The Apostle Peter gives us an example of how people are saved after Pentecost when the sermon he preaches leads them to want salvation. He says:
“‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit....’ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2: 38, 41)
St. Augustine, an Early Church Father, put it this way:
“Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing” (De natura et gratia, 31).
4) A Catholic monk in the 16th century made the novel claim that we are saved by "faith alone." The lense of Fr. Martin Luther was doubtless his own spiritual turmoil. He viewed God as a very harsh judge but he was not tracking with Scripture in this conclusion. His own sensitive conscience led him to live in fear that this harsh God would judge him and find him wanting. He felt he might never enter heaven, until he read the words of St. Paul one day in light of his own fearful struggle, and came to a new interpretation, in fundamental discontinuity with the previous 1500 years of Apostolic Tradition. A detailed sympathetic study by Protestant scholar Alister McGrath admits that Luther's thesis of sole fide, by faith alone, was a brand new theology. It was a new approach to salvation that removed much of man’s moral responsibility for his salvation. No Christian theologian before Luther ever held it.
Luther thought man should sin "boldly" telling Melanchthon in a letter in 1521, "No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day." Some argue this hyperbole to make the point that we must trust in God, however, this directly contradicts Holy Scripture wherein St. Paul wrote, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2).
Ironically, among Protestant groups today, the Lutheran view is closest to the Catholic. For example, Luther taught the necessity of Baptism (including infant Baptism) and the possibility of losing one’s salvation and the real presence in the Eucharist (though he spoke of consubstantiation rather than transubstantiation). Both agree that justification takes place solely by [by faith through] God’s grace (Joint Declaration with the World Lutheran Federation, 1999). “The working of God’s grace does not exclude human action: God effects everything, the willing and the achievement, therefore we are called to strive" (cf. Phil. 2:12ff). The Holy Spirit effects in the one justified an active love (an inward renewal). Thus, what we do in God's grace can merit for Christ abides in us.
Still, what Luther produced was a heresy. It comforted Luther and comforts many today, but is a misreading of Scripture, nonetheless. Why is it comforting compared to Catholic doctrine? It amounts to an abnegation of moral responsibility and what Protestant Dietrich Bonhoeffer once termed "cheap grace." He wrote: It means the forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God. An intellectual sassent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure the remission of sins . . . . In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God. . . . Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)
Luther so believed that he was correct that he even changed Scripture to reflect his interpretation, changing Romans 3:28 from: "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" to "For we hold that a man is justified by faith alone apart from works of law." Luther thought the intent of the words urgently demanded this assertion, but he nonetheless tampered with the Word of God. He did not like what he saw in the letter of James either (who wrote, "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead") calling it an "epistle of straw."
5) James says that we are justified by works also:
"Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness'; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:21-26)
Were St. Paul and St. James at odds with one another? They are not. Paul is addressing the fact that grace is needed to believe and James is talking about the Christian who already believes, but nonetheless has a necessity to have a faith animated by good works. Understanding the works that Paul refers to as "works of the law" is critical. Here he refers to the Old Law, especially circumcision, which has no power to save anyone. He is teaching that salvation is by God's grace, not by any works that merit God's favor. [We know this from the Dead Sea scrolls, written in Christ’s time or before, which clearly show the usage and meaning of “works of law” as works of the Mosaic law, like circumcision and animal sacrifice.] Faith is a gift from God, but James, is showing that faith without works is dead. Scripture says that even the devil believes but that does not merit him anything (James 2: 19).
In the words of St. Augustine, God created us without our cooperation, but He will not save us without it. So we are saved by faith, hope and charity. The supernatural love of God is what unites the soul to God! “Salvation in Christ is conditional; it requires repentance and faith.” Good works are the fruit of salvation. (Jimmy Akins, “Justification: Setting the Record Straight,” click here)
6) We must read all that Scripture says about salvation. St. Paul, for example, writes: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love (Galatians 5: 6)
And again:
"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13: 2). Note: Open your Bible and read all of 1 Corinthians 13 and see what kind of love St. Paul is talking about.
7) Love requires obedience according to Jesus: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Or again in Matthew 19: 16-17:
"And behold, one came up to him, saying, 'Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?' 17 And he said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.'"
8) The Catholic teaching is that justification is a process by which we become righteous by God's grace, but is not finished until we persevere to the end of our lives. Thus, we are justified by faith and obedience persevered in to the end. We must as St. Paul says, finish the race (2 Timothy 4:7). We do not work our own way to heaven because we are totally dependent upon the gift of faith and the grace of Christ, but our obedience is required. St. Paul begins and ends his epistle to the Romans by noting the importance of the “obedience of faith.”
9) The pattern in Scripture is troubling to the notion of faith alone. The pattern in Scripture is always faith and obedience leading to blessing. Would Noah and his family have been delivered from the flood by faith alone? Were they called upon to believe God or to believe and obey? Both. Noah had to build an ark. Did Abraham receive the promises that God made to him by faith alone? In Genesis 12, the Lord asked Abram to leave his home in Haran and go to distant land he did not know. He believed what God said to him and he obeyed and received the blessing in the form of a covenant promise by God. He was justified. Abraham's obedience is most often spoken of as the reason God will bless him. In Genesis 22: 15-18:
"By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice."
God elevates this to a covenant oath in Genesis 26: 4-5:
"I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves: because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
So in Abraham we see that justification is a process, not a one-time event.
How about the Israelites being freed by God from Egyptian slavery and given the land of milk and honey, that today we call Israel by faith alone? Was that the case? No, they had to slaughter the lamb, smear the blood on the door posts, cross the Red Sea, and after they worshiped the golden calf, they had to follow Moses in the desert for 40 years, rely upon God to guide them and feed upon the manna provided by God, etc.
How about the leper Naman? Was he cleansed by faith alone? No, he had to dip in the water; he had to obey. Faith and obedience go together. Israel was God's chosen nation and if God wanted to teach the world that they are to be saved by faith alone, than why did he fill the Bible with stories of those who are saved by faith and obedience?
10) Does our obedience mean that God does not deserve all the glory? No. Noah had to be build an ark to be saved but his deliverance was due to God and thus God gets the glory. We honor Abraham because of his faith and his obedience, but God gets the glory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says,
1999 “The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself ... (2 Corinthians 5: 18)
11) Summary. There are a large number diverse Scriptural verses relating to the topic of our salvation in Holy Scripture. If Jesus meant to teach faith alone he said so many things to confuse us. For example, in the Bread of Life discourse, John 6: 53-56:
"So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."
It is the same with St. Paul who wrote, "For he will render to every man according to his works . . . For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified" (Rom 2: 6-10, 13).
The same is true in James, St. John or Peter, etc. St. Peter boldly says that Baptism saves you (see 1 Peter 3:21). The pattern is always the same. God is always saying I love you, I want to bless you, therefore, humble yourself before me, like a child trust me and obey me and I will deliver the blessing for you. As St. Paul said, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). One could give a whole sermon on that verse!
If asked, "Are you saved?" Respond according to the Bible I have been saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5B,8), but I am also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and I hope to be saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12).
Quotations from the Early Church Fathers:
"Be pleasing to him whose soldiers you are, and whose pay you receive. May none of you be found to be a deserter. Let your baptism be your armament, your faith your helmet, your love your spear, your endurance your full suit of armor. Let your works be as your deposited withholdings, so that you may receive the back-pay which has accrued to you" St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to Polycarp 6:2 [A.D. 110]).
"We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man's actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed." Justin Martyr (Died 165 A.D.) First Apology of Justin
"[Paul], an able wrestler, urges us on in the struggle for immortality, so that we may receive a crown and so that we may regard as a precious crown that which we acquire by our own struggle and which does not grow upon us spontaneously. . . . Those things which come to us spontaneously are not loved as much as those which are obtained by anxious care" St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies 4:37:7 [A.D. 189]).
"He who gave the mouth for speech, and formed the ear to hear, and made the eye to see, will examine all things, and will judge the righteous judgment, rendering merited awards to each. To those who by patient continuance in well doing seek immortality, He will give life everlasting, joy, peace, rest and abundance of good things . . . But to the unbelieving and despisers, who obey not the truth, but are obedient to unrighteousness . . . there shall be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish ...” [Romans 2:7-8] Theophilus of Antioch (died 180 A.D.) To Autolycus, Book I
"Again, we affirm that a judgment has been ordained by God according to the merits of every man." Tertullian On Repentance, Chapter II
"A good deed has God for its debtor [cf. Prov. 19:17], just as also an evil one; for a judge is the rewarder in every case [cf. Rom. 13:3B4]" Tertullian (Repentance 2:11 [A.D. 203]).
"The Lord denounces [Christian evildoers], and says, 'Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you who work iniquity' [Matt. 7:21B-23]. There is need of righteousness, that one may deserve well of God the Judge; we must obey his precepts and warnings, that our merits may
It is the gift of divine sonship. Our soul is regenerated (made clean) from the effects of original sin (or mortal sin if any has been committed) and wiped clean. Thus, there is cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom that is expressed by the assent of faith (Catechism of the Catholic Church or CCC 1993). "With justification faith, hope and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted" (CCC 1991). "In baptism you were not only buried with him, but also raised to life with him because you believed in the power of God who raised him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3-5,8).
2) Salvation is a gift of God. Man cannot obligate God. But man is called upon to freely choose God through an exercise of his free will. The steps for an adult:
(1) God grants the grace to believe (prevenient grace)
(2) Man with his free will accepts it, repenting of sins committed and affirming in faith God’s truth
(3) Man cooperating with divine grace receives baptism
(4) Baptism re-generates the soul so that the man is "born from above" or "born again"
(5) We can co-operate with the sanctifying grace in our souls or not.
3) What is grace? Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ in the Church." (CCC 2003). The Apostle Peter gives us an example of how people are saved after Pentecost when the sermon he preaches leads them to want salvation. He says:
“‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit....’ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2: 38, 41)
St. Augustine, an Early Church Father, put it this way:
“Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing” (De natura et gratia, 31).
4) A Catholic monk in the 16th century made the novel claim that we are saved by "faith alone." The lense of Fr. Martin Luther was doubtless his own spiritual turmoil. He viewed God as a very harsh judge but he was not tracking with Scripture in this conclusion. His own sensitive conscience led him to live in fear that this harsh God would judge him and find him wanting. He felt he might never enter heaven, until he read the words of St. Paul one day in light of his own fearful struggle, and came to a new interpretation, in fundamental discontinuity with the previous 1500 years of Apostolic Tradition. A detailed sympathetic study by Protestant scholar Alister McGrath admits that Luther's thesis of sole fide, by faith alone, was a brand new theology. It was a new approach to salvation that removed much of man’s moral responsibility for his salvation. No Christian theologian before Luther ever held it.
Luther thought man should sin "boldly" telling Melanchthon in a letter in 1521, "No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day." Some argue this hyperbole to make the point that we must trust in God, however, this directly contradicts Holy Scripture wherein St. Paul wrote, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2).
Ironically, among Protestant groups today, the Lutheran view is closest to the Catholic. For example, Luther taught the necessity of Baptism (including infant Baptism) and the possibility of losing one’s salvation and the real presence in the Eucharist (though he spoke of consubstantiation rather than transubstantiation). Both agree that justification takes place solely by [by faith through] God’s grace (Joint Declaration with the World Lutheran Federation, 1999). “The working of God’s grace does not exclude human action: God effects everything, the willing and the achievement, therefore we are called to strive" (cf. Phil. 2:12ff). The Holy Spirit effects in the one justified an active love (an inward renewal). Thus, what we do in God's grace can merit for Christ abides in us.
Still, what Luther produced was a heresy. It comforted Luther and comforts many today, but is a misreading of Scripture, nonetheless. Why is it comforting compared to Catholic doctrine? It amounts to an abnegation of moral responsibility and what Protestant Dietrich Bonhoeffer once termed "cheap grace." He wrote: It means the forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God. An intellectual sassent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure the remission of sins . . . . In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God. . . . Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)
Luther so believed that he was correct that he even changed Scripture to reflect his interpretation, changing Romans 3:28 from: "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" to "For we hold that a man is justified by faith alone apart from works of law." Luther thought the intent of the words urgently demanded this assertion, but he nonetheless tampered with the Word of God. He did not like what he saw in the letter of James either (who wrote, "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead") calling it an "epistle of straw."
5) James says that we are justified by works also:
"Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness'; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:21-26)
Were St. Paul and St. James at odds with one another? They are not. Paul is addressing the fact that grace is needed to believe and James is talking about the Christian who already believes, but nonetheless has a necessity to have a faith animated by good works. Understanding the works that Paul refers to as "works of the law" is critical. Here he refers to the Old Law, especially circumcision, which has no power to save anyone. He is teaching that salvation is by God's grace, not by any works that merit God's favor. [We know this from the Dead Sea scrolls, written in Christ’s time or before, which clearly show the usage and meaning of “works of law” as works of the Mosaic law, like circumcision and animal sacrifice.] Faith is a gift from God, but James, is showing that faith without works is dead. Scripture says that even the devil believes but that does not merit him anything (James 2: 19).
In the words of St. Augustine, God created us without our cooperation, but He will not save us without it. So we are saved by faith, hope and charity. The supernatural love of God is what unites the soul to God! “Salvation in Christ is conditional; it requires repentance and faith.” Good works are the fruit of salvation. (Jimmy Akins, “Justification: Setting the Record Straight,” click here)
6) We must read all that Scripture says about salvation. St. Paul, for example, writes: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love (Galatians 5: 6)
And again:
"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13: 2). Note: Open your Bible and read all of 1 Corinthians 13 and see what kind of love St. Paul is talking about.
7) Love requires obedience according to Jesus: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Or again in Matthew 19: 16-17:
"And behold, one came up to him, saying, 'Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?' 17 And he said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.'"
8) The Catholic teaching is that justification is a process by which we become righteous by God's grace, but is not finished until we persevere to the end of our lives. Thus, we are justified by faith and obedience persevered in to the end. We must as St. Paul says, finish the race (2 Timothy 4:7). We do not work our own way to heaven because we are totally dependent upon the gift of faith and the grace of Christ, but our obedience is required. St. Paul begins and ends his epistle to the Romans by noting the importance of the “obedience of faith.”
9) The pattern in Scripture is troubling to the notion of faith alone. The pattern in Scripture is always faith and obedience leading to blessing. Would Noah and his family have been delivered from the flood by faith alone? Were they called upon to believe God or to believe and obey? Both. Noah had to build an ark. Did Abraham receive the promises that God made to him by faith alone? In Genesis 12, the Lord asked Abram to leave his home in Haran and go to distant land he did not know. He believed what God said to him and he obeyed and received the blessing in the form of a covenant promise by God. He was justified. Abraham's obedience is most often spoken of as the reason God will bless him. In Genesis 22: 15-18:
"By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice."
God elevates this to a covenant oath in Genesis 26: 4-5:
"I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves: because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
So in Abraham we see that justification is a process, not a one-time event.
How about the Israelites being freed by God from Egyptian slavery and given the land of milk and honey, that today we call Israel by faith alone? Was that the case? No, they had to slaughter the lamb, smear the blood on the door posts, cross the Red Sea, and after they worshiped the golden calf, they had to follow Moses in the desert for 40 years, rely upon God to guide them and feed upon the manna provided by God, etc.
How about the leper Naman? Was he cleansed by faith alone? No, he had to dip in the water; he had to obey. Faith and obedience go together. Israel was God's chosen nation and if God wanted to teach the world that they are to be saved by faith alone, than why did he fill the Bible with stories of those who are saved by faith and obedience?
10) Does our obedience mean that God does not deserve all the glory? No. Noah had to be build an ark to be saved but his deliverance was due to God and thus God gets the glory. We honor Abraham because of his faith and his obedience, but God gets the glory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says,
1999 “The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself ... (2 Corinthians 5: 18)
11) Summary. There are a large number diverse Scriptural verses relating to the topic of our salvation in Holy Scripture. If Jesus meant to teach faith alone he said so many things to confuse us. For example, in the Bread of Life discourse, John 6: 53-56:
"So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."
It is the same with St. Paul who wrote, "For he will render to every man according to his works . . . For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified" (Rom 2: 6-10, 13).
The same is true in James, St. John or Peter, etc. St. Peter boldly says that Baptism saves you (see 1 Peter 3:21). The pattern is always the same. God is always saying I love you, I want to bless you, therefore, humble yourself before me, like a child trust me and obey me and I will deliver the blessing for you. As St. Paul said, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). One could give a whole sermon on that verse!
If asked, "Are you saved?" Respond according to the Bible I have been saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5B,8), but I am also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and I hope to be saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12).
Quotations from the Early Church Fathers:
"Be pleasing to him whose soldiers you are, and whose pay you receive. May none of you be found to be a deserter. Let your baptism be your armament, your faith your helmet, your love your spear, your endurance your full suit of armor. Let your works be as your deposited withholdings, so that you may receive the back-pay which has accrued to you" St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to Polycarp 6:2 [A.D. 110]).
"We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man's actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed." Justin Martyr (Died 165 A.D.) First Apology of Justin
"[Paul], an able wrestler, urges us on in the struggle for immortality, so that we may receive a crown and so that we may regard as a precious crown that which we acquire by our own struggle and which does not grow upon us spontaneously. . . . Those things which come to us spontaneously are not loved as much as those which are obtained by anxious care" St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies 4:37:7 [A.D. 189]).
"He who gave the mouth for speech, and formed the ear to hear, and made the eye to see, will examine all things, and will judge the righteous judgment, rendering merited awards to each. To those who by patient continuance in well doing seek immortality, He will give life everlasting, joy, peace, rest and abundance of good things . . . But to the unbelieving and despisers, who obey not the truth, but are obedient to unrighteousness . . . there shall be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish ...” [Romans 2:7-8] Theophilus of Antioch (died 180 A.D.) To Autolycus, Book I
"Again, we affirm that a judgment has been ordained by God according to the merits of every man." Tertullian On Repentance, Chapter II
"A good deed has God for its debtor [cf. Prov. 19:17], just as also an evil one; for a judge is the rewarder in every case [cf. Rom. 13:3B4]" Tertullian (Repentance 2:11 [A.D. 203]).
"The Lord denounces [Christian evildoers], and says, 'Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you who work iniquity' [Matt. 7:21B-23]. There is need of righteousness, that one may deserve well of God the Judge; we must obey his precepts and warnings, that our merits may
