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Let us interact with Rome.
What exactly is God’s gift of salvation?
Roman Catholic Claim
Since no gift can be forced
on the recipient—gifts always can be
rejected—even after we become justified,
we can throw away the gift of salvation. We
throw it away through grave (mortal) sin (John
15:5–6, Rom. 11:22–23, 1 Cor.
15:1–2; CCC 1854–1863). Paul tells
us, "The wages of sin is death"
(Rom. 6:23).
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Christian Response
The Roman Catholic
assumption is that God’s gifts are outside of
a man and a man must open up to let the gift in. This
is even so with infant baptism as the efficacy of
Rome’s baptism is dependent upon their priest
and the parent to open up to receive God’s gift.
Hence, Rome pictures God as a giant gift giver full
of endless gifts that await the reception of a man
before they can be given. Salvation truly is of man.
Man has the final say. Man must take the gift. This
is foreign enough to Christian theology but Rome compounds
it. To worsen things Rome claims the gift is only
good if a man hangs onto it. Hanging onto the gift
is dependent upon man who must go through elaborate
religious rituals to keep the gift.
Let us illustrate.
Suppose you open up a gift from your father on your
birthday. Inside you find a note. The note says that
this is really not a gift until you accept it. Only
then is it a gift. Also, this gift comes with instructions
on how to keep it. The gift is a stock certificate.
It has a face value of one million dollars. You are
very excited and accept the gift until you read the
fine print. In order to maintain the value of this
gift you will have to work in a salt mine the rest
of your life. You can always refuse this gift but
if you do it will cost you eternity in hell. See your
local priest and he will help you understand the way
to the salt mine.
This illustration
is stark and only helpful to force the reader to begin
thinking about the nature of a true gift. How different
is Christianity. Christians believe that God works
a wonderful work inside of a sinner quite apart from
the sinners’ approval. This work creates within
the sinner a conviction of sin and desire [faith]
to seek a savior. This faith receives the matchless
gift of the righteousness of Jesus Christ for forgiveness
of sins past, present and future along with an eternal
redemption. The fine print of the gift is that God
will never ever leave us or forsake us. The gift is
truly eternal, truly secured by the blood of Christ
and the promise of God is to freely give eternal life
to all whom He gives to His Son.
Not only this but
this gift comes complete with good works that will
come from faith and these good works will be rewarded
by God both here and now and then and there. The good
works of a Christian will serve the purposes of God
and minister to the Body of Christ here on earth.
They will be one mark of God’s calling and they
will most certainly erupt from the hearts of God’s
own people. Good works will not be meritorious but
will be rewarded by God. He is under no obligation
other than His own desires to do so.
Read his letters
and see how often Paul warned Christians against sin!
He would not have felt compelled to do so if their
sins could not exclude them from heaven (see, for
example, 1 Cor. 6:9–10, Gal. 5:19–21).
Paul reminded the Christians in Rome
that God "will repay everyone according to his
works: eternal life for 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" (Rom. 2:6–8).
Sins are nothing but evil works (CCC
1849–1850). We can avoid sins by habitually
performing good works. Every saint has known that
the best way to keep free from sins is to embrace
regular prayer, the sacraments (the Eucharist first
of all), and charitable acts.
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