Faith that works

Sola fide--"by faith alone"--is one of five "sola" slogans of the Prostestant schismatics. Luther added the word "alone" to his translation of [ Romans 3:28:] "For we consider that a person is justified by faith [alone] apart from works of the law."

The Catholic view, by contrast, is that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). Luther denigrated the letter to James on theological grounds, and treated it as apocryphal (along with Hebrews, Jude, and the Book of Revelation).

We are saved by grace but are judged by our works.

Scriptural References

"Not by faith alone"

• Rom 2:6-8: "...[God] will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness."
• James 2:20-26: "Faith without works is useless. ... Show me your faith and I'll show you my works."

"Do you want proof, you ignoramus [ὦ ἄνθρωπε κενέ], that faith without works is useless? 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 the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called 'the friend of God.' See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone [καὶ οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως μόνον] And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." (James 2:20-26).

Protestants ignore this perfectly clear scripture by creating a canon-within-the-canon: they pick and choose which books of the New Testament are "really" inspired by the Holy Spirit and neglect the rest.

There are no portraits of Judgment Day talk about being judged by the quality of our faith; all of them say that God judges what we have done or have failed to do.

"By your stubbornness and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness. Yes, affliction and distress will come upon every human being who does evil, Jew first and then Greek. But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, Jew first and then Greek" (Rom 2:5-10).

"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father" (Mt 5:13-16).

• "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them" (Eph 4:8-10).
• Mk 10:17: "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
• Mt 7: Good fruit = good deeds. "By their good fruit (good deeds!) you will know them.
• Mt 25: the parable of the sheep and the goats.
• Lk: the Good Samaritan (a member of the wrong faith!) whose work of mercy in attending to the wounded man is contrasted with the "faith" of the Jews on their way to worship in the Temple.
• Jn 14:12: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father."
• "I preached the need to repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of repentance" (Acts 26:20).
• Rom 5:20: "Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more." Rom 6:1-2: "What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not! How can we who died to sin yet live in it?"
• 1 Cor 5: The case of the unrepentant believer, who boasted of his sin of incest.

Those who say that salvation comes from "faith alone" are saying, in effect, "I do not need to obey the law of love. As long as I believe that Jesus died for my sins, my actions have no eternal consequences. I may do as I please. I don't have to repent and make reparation for my sins. God loves me unconditionally. He says, 'I love you just the way you are.'"

• "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.' 'Blessed indeed,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them'" (Revelation 14:13).

Action Speaks Louder than Words

Jesus says to all of His disciples, "Come, follow me" (Mt 19:21; Jn 21:22; etc.). "Then he said to all, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it'" (Lk 9:23-24).

Having faith motivates us to work: "For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Cor 5:14-15).

Works Righteousness

• This is a real problem among Catholics. We tend to think (as did the Pharisees) that we qualify for Heaven by keeping the law (Torah). Pharisaism is condemned in the New Testament because it is such a common problem among Christians.
  • Luther was right: we are not saved by our good works; we are saved by God's sovereign and selfless decision to save us by the death of God, the Son, on the Cross. "By his wounds, we are healed" (1 Peter 2:24).
  • Pelagianism is a heresy condemned by the Church. Pelagius taught that Jesus just gave us a blueprint to follow in our own lives; in his view, once we see the blueprint for love, we are capable of imitating Jesus by choosing to do so. The Church teaches that this is false; we can never become worthy of God's love on our own merits but only through the merits of our Savior.
  • The Church later condemned the Semi-Pelagians as well. They said, "We may need Jesus to heal us and sanctify us, but we can, at least, recognize our need for a Savior by ourselves." The Church teaches that even our awareness of sin is a grace given to us by God; without God's loving kindness, we cannot realize how much we need His love to save us.

Catholic Perfectionism and Minimalism

• There are periodic outbreaks of perfectionism among Catholics, starting with the Pharisaism of New Testament times and appearing in later ages among the gnostics, the Jansenists, the Illuminati, etc.. In the Protestant tradition, the Puritans are famous (or infamous) for this kind of Christian extremism (although, in fact, many of the Puritans may not have been as puritanical as our culture makes them out to be).
  • Perfectionism breeds depression. "It doesn't have to be perfect to be good." "The best is the enemy of the good." "Virtue is the mean between extremes." Scrupulosity seems to be zeal for the law but it violates the law of love by putting second things first.
  • Perfectionism breeds rage and condemnation. "You strain the gnat and swallow the camel." We can become so focused on small violations of the law that we don't realize that we are cultivating an anti-Christian mentality of anger and resentment.
• At the other end of the spectrum, some Catholics abuse the Church's guidelines for the Christian life by trying to figure out what is the least they need to do to gain Heaven. They say in many different ways, "How close can I get to sin without really sinning? How much pleasure can I take in sin without completely breaking my relationship with God?" This is a poisonous mindset. Jesus replies, "You are neither hot nor cold; I will vomit you out of my mouth" (Rev 3:16).

Dead faith

"They are fully incorporated in the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ accept her entire system and all the means of salvation given to her, and are united with her as part of her visible bodily structure and through her with Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops. The bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion. He is not saved, however, who, though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but, as it were, only in a 'bodily' manner and not 'in his heart.' All the Church's children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged" (LG 14).

Prevenient grace and saving faith

God saves whom He wills. He is not in time as we are. His hands are not tied by "before" and "after," as ours are.

Joseph is an example of prevenient grace. Mary got to see Jesus die and rise. She received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. She received the sacraments of the Church. Joseph had none of those benefits, and yet we rank him as a saint, and a great saint, in the life of the Church. The apostles, too: how many of them were baptized by Jesus? I don't think we have any account of Jesus baptizing anybody (?) or any of the apostles. We know the apostles did some baptizing during the public ministry of Jesus. The grace of baptism may have been given the apostles outside the sacramental order.

More examples of prevenient grace. Mary does not stand alone, but is the summit of all of God's graceful and Providential outpouring of love in the Old Testament. Her gift of Immaculate Conception is given to her at the moment of her conception, before she can say yes or no, and before the death and resurrection of her son, Jesus.

God does not act on us as passive objects to be manipulated by His sovereign power. His grace invites the response of faith from us--He intends and desires that we co-operate with Him in our salvation and sanctification.

The virtuous life

Faith should bear good fruit.

"Hauled Aboard the Ark – Conversion Story of Peter Kreeft."

Catholicism taught that we are saved by faith, by grace, by Christ, however few Catholics understood this. And Protestants taught that true faith necessarily produces good works. The fundamental issue of the Reformation is an argument between the roots and the blossoms on the same flower.

But though Luther did not neglect good works, he connected them to faith by only a thin and unreliable thread: human gratitude. In response to God’s great gift of salvation, which we accept by faith, we do good works out of gratitude, he taught. But gratitude is only a feeling, and dependent on the self. The Catholic connection between faith and works is a far stronger and more reliable one. I found it in C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, the best introduction to Christianity I have ever read. It is the ontological reality of we, supernatural life, sanctifying grace, God’s own life in the soul, which is received by faith and then itself produces good works. God comes in one end and out the other: the very same thing that comes in by faith (the life of God) goes out as works, through our free cooperation.

2 Peter 1:9

³ His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power.

⁴ Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge,

⁶ knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,

⁷ devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.

⁸ If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ Anyone who lacks them is blind and shortsighted, forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins.

¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more eager to make your call and election firm, for, in doing so, you will never stumble.

¹¹ For, in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

• Faith
• Virtue
• Knowledge
• Self-control
• Endurance
• Devotion
• Affection
• Love

Links

• Wikipedia.
• Grace of Final Perseverance