Catholics fully recognize that Jesus Christ died on the Cross
for their sins and thus "opened the gates of Heaven," and that
salvation is a free gift which no amount of human good deeds could
ever earn. Catholics receive Christ's saving sanctifying grace, and
Christ himself, into their souls when they are baptized. Yet they
also know that Christ has established certain conditions for entry
into eternal happiness in Heaven, for example, receiving His true
Flesh and Blood (John 6:54) and keeping the commandments (Matt.
19:17). If a Christian refuses or neglects to obey Our Lord's
commands in a grave matter (that is, if he commits a mortal sin),
Our Lord will not remain dwelling in his soul; and if a Christian
dies in that state, having driven his Lord from his soul by serious
sin, he will not be saved. As St. Paul warned the Galatians with
regard to certain sins: "They who do such things shall not obtain
the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:21). It must be added that Christ will
always forgive and turn to a sinner who approaches Him with
sincerity in the Sacrament of Penance.
Catholics follow St. Paul, who did not think that his salvation was
guaranteed once and for all at the moment he first received Christ
into his soul; for he wrote: "I chastise my body, and bring it into
subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself
should become a castaway." (1 Cor. 9:27). Also: "With fear and
trembling work our your salvation. For it is God who worketh in
you..." (Phil. 2:12-13). "He that shall persevere unto the end, he
shall be saved." (Matt. 10:22). Nevertheless, Catholics realize
that even the fulfilling of Our Lord's requirements for salvation
is impossible without the free gift of His grace.
Why are good works necessary for salvation? Does not Paul say in
Romans 3:28 that faith alone justifies?
Catholics believe that faith and good works are both necessary for
salvation, because such is the teaching of Jesus Christ. What our
Lord demands is "faith that worketh by charity." (Gal. 5:6). Read
Matthew 25:31-46, which describes the Last Judgment as being based
on works of charity. The first and greatest commandment, as given
by Our Lord Himself, is to love the Lord God with all one's heart,
mind, soul, and strength; and the second great commandment is to
love one's neighbor as oneself. (Mark 12:30-31). When the rich
young man asked Our Lord what he must do to gain eternal life, our
Lord answered: "Keep the commandments." (Matt. 19:17). Thus,
although faith is the beginning, it is not the complete fulfilment
of the will of God. Nowhere in the Bible is it written that faith
alone justifies. When St. Paul wrote, "For we account a man to be
justified by faith, without the works of the law," he was referring
to works peculiar to the old Jewish Law, and he cited circumcision
as an example.
The Catholic Church does not teach that purely human good works are
meritorious for salvation; such works are not meritorious for
salvation, according to her teaching. Only those good works
performed when a person is in the state of grace, that is, as a
branch drawing its spiritual life from the Vine which is Christ
(John 15:4-6), only these good deeds work toward our salvation, and
they do so only by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ.
These good works, offered to God by a soul in the state of grace
(i.e., free of mortal sin, with the Blessed Trinity dwelling in the
soul), are thereby supernaturally meritorious because they share in
the work and in the merits of Christ. Such supernatural good works
will not only be rewarded by God, but are necessary for
salvation.
St. Paul shows how the neglect of certain good works will send even
a Christian believer to damnation: "But if any man have not care of
his own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the
faith, and is worse than an infidel." (1 Tim. 5:8 ). Our Lord tells
us that if the Master (God) returns and finds His servant sinning,
rather than performing works of obedience, He "shall separate him,
and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers." (Luke
12:46).
Furthermore, Catholics know they will be rewarded in Heaven for
their good works. Our Lord Himself said: "For the Son of man...will
render to every man according to his works." (Matt. 16:27). "And
whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of
cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he
shall not lose his reward." (Matt. 10:42). Catholics believe,
following the Apostle Paul, that "every man shall receive his own
reward, according to his own labour." (1 Cor. 3:8 ). "For God is
not unjust, that he should forget your work, and the love which you
have shown in his name, you who have ministered, and do minister to
the saints." (Heb. 6:10). "I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is
laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge
will render to me in that day; and not only to me, but to them also
that love his coming." (2 Tim. 4:7-8 ).
Still, Catholics know that, strictly speaking, God never owes us
anything. Even after obeying all God's commandments, we must still
say: "We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we
ought to do." (Luke 17:10). As St. Augustine (5th century) stated:
All our good merits are wrought through grace, so that God, in
crowning our merits, is crowning nothing but His gifts."
Had St. Paul meant that faith
ruled out the necessity of good works for salvation, he would not
have written: "...and if I should have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Cor.
13:2). If faith ruled out the
necessity of good works for salvation, the Apostle James would not
have written: "Do you see by works a man is justified; and not by
faith only?...For even as the body without the spirit is dead;
so also faith without works is dead." (James
2:24-26). Or: "What shall it profit, my brethren,
if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able
to save him?" (James 2:14). If faith ruled out the necessity of good works
for salvation, the Apostle Peter would not have written:
"Wherefore, brethren, labour the more, that by good works you may
make sure you calling and election. For doing these things, you
shall not sin at any time. For so an entrance shall be ministered
to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:10-11). If faith
ruled out the necessity of good works for salvation, the primitive
Christian Fathers would not have advocated good works in such
powerful words. Wrote St. Irenaeus, one of the most illustrious of
the primitive Christian Fathers: "For what is the use of knowing
the truth in word, while defiling the body and accomplishing the
works of evil? Or what real good at all can bodily holiness do, if
truth be not in the soul? For these two, faith and good works,
rejoice in each other's company, and agree together and fight side
by side to sen man in the Presence of God." (Proof of the Apostolic
Preaching).
Justification by faith alone is a new doctrine; it was
unheard of in the Christian community before the
sixteenth century.