|
Let us interact with Rome.
What exactly is God’s gift of salvation?
Roman Catholic Claim
Jesus said it is not enough
to have faith in him; we also must obey his
commandments. "Why do you call me ‘Lord,
Lord,’ but do not do the things I command?"
(Luke 6:46, Matt. 7:21–23, 19:16–21).
We do not "earn" our salvation
through good works (Eph. 2:8–9, Rom.
9:16), but our faith in Christ puts us in
a special grace-filled relationship with God
so that our obedience and love, combined with
our faith, will be rewarded with eternal life
(Rom. 2:7, Gal. 6:8–9).
|
Christian Response
Here again is the
Roman Catholic dilemma clearly demonstrated. The gist
of Rome’s argument and centerpiece of their
gospel is that man does not “earn” his
salvation through good works but is “rewarded
salvation” through his obedience, love and faith.
Thus the sophistry of Rome is fully illustrated. Rome
maintains that a man can be rewarded salvation
for what he does but cannot earn
salvation for what he does. The mitigating
factor in Rome is that God puts a man in a special
relationship whereby man’s good deeds qualify
him for a reward of salvation.
Christian theology
connects good works to faith as the evidence or result
of true faith. Faith is the root of the fruit of good
works. But justification and salvation are not dependent
upon good works. In other words, faith is the first
fruit of being born from above and yields its’
fruit in due season. Hence faith is connected to works
as cause is to effect but not confounded with works
as though one were the same and of equal value as
the other.
Christian theology
abhors a dead and barren faith that yields no fruit.
But Christian theology is equally loath to equate
good works with faith as if faith alone were not enough
for salvation and justification. Hence the accurate
estimation of the relationship of faith to works is
the well attested maxim, “a man is saved by
faith alone but not by a faith that is alone.”
|
