In the sixteenth century a monk by the name of Martin Luther separated from the Church and initiated the Protestant Reformation. The cornerstone of his theology is known as Sola Fides — salvation by “Faith Alone”. Those who profess this doctrine hold that man is saved by grace and solely through faith. Good works and the keeping of the commandments are merely consequences or fruits of faith, not a requirement for attaining salvation. Throughout this chapter we shall briefly review Catholic doctrine and the heresies relating to the theme of grace and human freedom.

A Brief Summary of Catholic Doctrine

Redemption, Justification

Catholics believe that after original sin man fell from the original state of grace with God in which he was created, and that in this state he could not save himself. It is there that Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice on the cross, effects in principle and objectively the reconciliation of men with God. We call this marvellous act redemption.

The word redemption derives from the Latin redemptio, which corresponds to the Hebrew kopher and the Greek lytron, which in the Old Testament generally means “ransom price”. In the New Testament it is the classical term designating the “great price” that the Redeemer paid for our liberation. Redemption presupposes the original elevation of man to a supernatural state and his fall through sin.

Yet although Christ died for all men, not all are saved — which is why each individual must “appropriate” this objective redemption through subjective redemption: the application of the fruit of that redemption to each individual, which is called justification. Thus, when man is justified, what we affirm is that he is declared and made righteous before God by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Grace and Free Will

Grace is understood as a gratuitous gift on God’s part and unmerited on man’s part. While in this broad sense we may speak of natural grace,[1] the term is used here in its strict sense to refer to a supernatural gift which God, by His free benevolence, grants to a rational creature for its eternal salvation. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was an act of pure grace, since He performed it without any obligation, out of love and freely.

Grace also refers to the supernatural assistance of God that moves man to believe in Him and then to persevere in doing good in accordance with His will.

When man allows himself to be moved by grace and believes, he is justified by his faith — yet he can also resist and refuse to believe. This choice on man’s part can only be prompted by God, and without such prompting it would not be possible, even though it occurs with the cooperation of the human free will.

Thus God pours out His grace upon all men, for as the Bible says, He wills all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth[2]. Therefore, the difference between the man who chooses to believe and the one who does not does not lie in God’s unwillingness to pour out His grace upon one or the other, but in the fact that this man, exercising his freedom, accepted or rejected the graces God granted him — graces that were sufficient for his salvation.

Sanctification

Once man is justified, not only is the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, but he is truly “made righteous” — regenerated interiorly — and is therefore a new creature. Here the Holy Spirit begins the work of renewal, which is not merely a legal declaration whereby man is declared righteous while remaining a sinner, as Luther believed, but a process by which man truly becomes righteous. This we call sanctification.

Even after being justified by his faith, man retains the freedom to choose, and can resist grace or allow it to bear fruit. This is what the parable of the vine explains:[3] branches that remain united to the trunk (Christ) bear fruit — some more, some less — while others may bear none at all and be cut off.

This cooperation of freedom with grace — which is nothing other than the exercise of the person’s free will moved by grace — translates into good works, and the keeping of the commandments is an indispensable requirement for salvation. Therefore man must act in accordance with the grace received, not only believing but acting in conformity with it.

If the cooperation of the will with grace is necessary, it is an error to say that salvation occurs without human participation, as the Protestant reformers held. It is correct, however, to say that salvation is first and foremost God’s and ours only in a subordinate sense.

Nor can we assume that if a man has faith he will necessarily produce good works — for that would exclude the possibility of the full exercise of free will. Experience confirms what Scripture already affirms: that the justified believer can sin and fall, resisting the grace granted to him.

Hence faith alone — or the fiducial faith[4] of Luther — does not save; rather, it is faith working through charity. We must choose to believe and then, at every moment, choose to act in accordance with faith. This cooperation of the will with grace should not be understood as a kind of payment by which salvation is purchased in a Judaic sense.

From this perspective it will not be difficult to understand why at the Final Judgement all of us will be judged by our works — for it is through our works that it will be seen whether we truly responded affirmatively to the grace of God.

Deviations in the Doctrine of Grace

Throughout history there has been no shortage of deviations from orthodox doctrine, whether by overestimating or by undervaluing the role of grace and/or free will in the work of salvation.

The Pelagian View of Salvation

Pelagius was a Romano-British monk who around the year 390 moved to Rome and preached the non-necessity of divine grace and the redemption of Christ for salvation, as well as denying the existence of original sin. He argued that the corruption of human nature is not innate but is owing to bad examples and habits, and that the natural faculties of humanity had not been harmfully affected by the fall of Adam. He held that human beings can lead lives of moral rectitude and that for this reason they merit heaven by their own merits. He affirmed that true grace resides in the natural gifts of humanity, including free will, reason, and conscience. He also preached what he called external graces — such as the Mosaic Law and the teaching and example of Christ — which stimulate the will “from without” but possess no implicit divine power. Faith and dogma mattered little, since the essence of religion was moral action. His belief in moral perfection was owing to the influence of Stoicism upon him.[5]

Stoicism was the most influential philosophy in the Roman Empire during the period preceding the rise of Christianity, when the Empire was still pagan. The Stoics, like the Epicureans, placed the emphasis on ethics, which they regarded as the principal domain of knowledge. It is not surprising that for Pelagius, influenced by these philosophical currents, salvation should be exclusively through works. Man could earn heaven by his own merits, making exclusive use of his free will, with which he could always persevere in good.

The Protestant View of Salvation

Martin Luther became a controversial figure when he separated from the Catholic Church, preaching that man is saved by grace alone and through fiducial faith — Sola Fides. Good works, for him, were a natural product of faith, and he emphasised that they were not necessary for salvation. He preached that since salvation is a “grace” received through faith, nothing more was needed, and man could already enjoy total assurance of being saved. He regarded it as incompatible to hold both that salvation was “grace” and that works were also necessary. In his fiery sermons he preached that he could fornicate twenty-four times a day without this affecting his salvation in any way, since it did not depend on him — Christ had already won it for him — and just as he had done nothing to receive it (it being gratuitous), once saved he could do nothing to lose it. Luther argued that his position was grounded in Scripture: in Romans 3:28 (“For I hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law”) and Romans 4:3 (“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”).

From that point on, this was essentially the official position of all the Protestant evangelical churches born of the Reformation, and it remains the position of a good majority today. Thus we find that Evangelicals and Fundamentalists assure us they have an absolute certainty of being saved. They conclude from the Bible that Christ promised them heaven in exchange for a very simple act: all they must do is “accept Christ as their personal Saviour” — and that is that. They will probably then live exemplary lives, but living well is not crucial; from their perspective it does not affect their salvation. No matter what happens afterwards, no matter how sinfully they may live for the rest of their days, their salvation is assured. The Holy Spirit may chastise them in this life for their sins, but their salvation can in no way be forfeited, since it does not depend on the intrinsic worth of their souls or on the effects of sins committed.

Kenneth E. Hagin, a well-known televangelist, affirms that the assurance of this salvation comes through being “born again”: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. In his small book The New Birth, Hagin states:[6]

“The new birth is a necessity in order to be saved. Through the new birth you enter into the right relationship with God.”

Kenneth affirms that the new birth is exclusively the product of accepting Christ as personal Saviour; once this act of will and faith is made, everything is accomplished and one is saved for ever. As for the rest — those who have not accepted Christ (including those who have never heard of Him) — no matter how many good works they may have done, how uprightly they may have lived, or how faithfully they may have obeyed the natural law of their conscience, they will go to hell, to the furnace of fire, to eternal condemnation.

Other Views of Salvation among Other Protestant Ecclesial Communities

Although after the Protestant Reformation the Evangelical churches taught that salvation was obtained exclusively through faith — after which it could not be lost — the peace did not last long. Critics of these doctrines soon arose within those very same churches, arguing that it was indeed possible to lose salvation. That movement grew, gained strength, and the debate among Evangelical churches continues to this day.

In the seventeenth century James Arminius preached that human free will can exist without limiting God’s power or contradicting the Bible. He opposed the Calvinist doctrines that placed heavy emphasis on predestination.

Arminius affirmed that predestination was biblical and true — that is, that God had destined some persons to heaven and others to hell, as indicated by Jesus’s reference to “sheep and goats”. But he focused on God’s love rather than His power in the act of choosing, the process by which God elected those destined for paradise.

After the death of Arminius, a group of ministers who sympathised with his views developed a systematic and rational theology based on his teachings. In their declaration published in 1610, the Arminians affirmed that election was conditioned by faith, that grace could be resisted, that the work of Christ was intended for all persons, and that it was possible for believers to fall from grace.

At the Synod of Dort or Dordrecht (1618–1619), the High Calvinists prevailed over the Arminian group and condemned those who disagreed with their position. They declared that the work of Christ was destined only for those elected for salvation, that those who believed could not lose grace, and that God’s election depended on no condition. The Arminian Evangelicals were then completely banned in Holland by the other Calvinist Evangelicals until 1630, and from then on only reluctantly tolerated until 1795. Nevertheless, the Arminian tradition survived in the Netherlands until the end of the twentieth century.

The British theologian John Wesley studied and affirmed the work of Arminius in his Methodist movement during the eighteenth century in England. In popular understanding, Arminianism is summed up in the idea that there is no predestination and that people are free to follow or reject the Gospel.

From this point on, many Evangelical churches — unlike earlier ones — affirm that salvation is not lost but rather “rejected”, which is in essence a polite way of yielding the argument, since in the end it amounts to the same thing: someone who was on the way to heaven yesterday may be heading towards hell today for failing to act in accordance with the will of God.

Biblical Foundation

Man Cannot Save Himself

There are numerous biblical texts that refer to original sin and to the inability of fallen man to save himself:

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”[7]

“Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for no man living is righteous before thee.”[8]

“Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life.”[9]

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”[10]

These texts were presented by the Church Fathers to the Pelagians to prove to them that man can do nothing by his own merits without the help of grace.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”[11]

Salvation Is Grace

Scripture also abounds with texts that emphasise that salvation is not a grace we receive in exchange for something, but is the fruit of God’s love:

“[God] saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago.”[12]

“he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing in the Holy Spirit.”[13]

“even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.”[14]

“This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”[15]

“For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men… But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared.”[16]

We Are Justified by Faith

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God; not because of works, lest any man should boast.”[17]

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[18]

“The righteous shall live by faith.”[19]

“because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. The scripture says, No one who believes in him will be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For, every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”[20]

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”[21]

“And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’”[22]

“I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”[23]

Good Works Are Necessary

But just as it is an error to deny or diminish the fundamental role of grace — as Pelagianism does — so too is it an error to deny the cooperation of human freedom in the work of salvation. This was the fundamental error of Luther, who in his work De servo arbitrio places man as a purely passive recipient of grace.

Weak and defective exegesis is that which grounds its doctrine only on certain texts while ignoring others. The following are some biblical texts that more directly oppose the doctrine of Luther:

“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’ Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.”[24]

Texts such as this demonstrate that a simple profession of faith is not enough — one must do (act upon) the will of God. Note that Jesus was speaking precisely of those who had professed their faith in Him with their lips (fiducial faith) and acknowledged Him as Lord. Of these He says that “not all will enter” — referring to those who “did not do the will of the Father”.

It is important to note that many of those who are condemned in this text had gone so far as to prophesy in the name of Jesus, cast out demons, and work miracles. Jesus does not tell them that they are lying — they genuinely performed all those miraculous works in His name — yet they were not saved because they did not act in accordance with the will of God by keeping the commandments. Hence His reply to them: “I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers!”[25]

The lesson we must draw is that the true believer is one who “puts into practice” the Word.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”[26]

“Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”[27]

It is common for Protestants to misunderstand the Catholic position. They tend to see the necessity of works as a way of “buying” salvation (which is Pelagianism). In the Gospel we find a parable that can help them properly understand what we believe.

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come… Then he said to his servants: ‘The marriage feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”[28]

The parable refers to the wedding feast of the Lamb (Jesus and his Church). Those who had initially been invited but refused to come represent the Jews who rejected belief in the Messiah, so the king sent out to the roads for whoever wished to attend — these represent the Gentiles and pagans.

Of all the guests, many accepted the invitation and came to the wedding. Those who accepted represent those who professed their faith in Jesus and accepted him as Lord. However, among all the guests there was found one who was not wearing the “wedding garment.” If the guest did not have it on, it was not because he was poor or could not afford one, since the wedding garment was provided by the host. He is speechless because he had no reason for not wearing it — he simply refused to put it on.

The wedding garment mentioned in the parable symbolizes charity, the life that every Christian must live after his conversion — a life that must be accompanied by obedience to the commandments and a faith that works through charity. This idea is reiterated throughout the Gospel, and so when the rich young man asks Jesus what he must do to be saved, Jesus replies that he must keep the commandments.

“And behold, one came up to him, saying, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?’ 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.’”[29]

Some texts that emphasise that, alongside faith, obedience to God and charity are also necessary:

“and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”[30]

“…and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”[31]

“So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[32]

Of all these passages, perhaps the one that most directly opposes Luther’s doctrine is that of the Epistle of James:

“What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? 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.”[33]

The foregoing text is so clear that it prompted Luther to call the Epistle of James “the epistle of straw.”[34]

Harmonising Scripture

Just as there are abundant biblical texts that emphasise the necessity of faith, there are also others that emphasise the necessity of works. Without adequate exegesis, apparent contradictions can arise between them. One example is the contrast between these two texts:

“For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.”[35]

“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”[36]

Passages like Romans 3:28 abound in Scripture; throughout the letters to the Romans and the Galatians there are numerous references to man’s salvation being by faith “apart from works of the law”, while James says that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. The Church has always taught us that to understand Scripture we must study its context, for through context we can harmonise passages and understand what each one is saying. Romans 3:28 does not use the simple expression “works” but rather “works of the law”, from the Greek ergon nomou, meaning literally “works of the Torah”. This term is familiar from modern preaching as “works of the law”; however, it would more properly be translated in context as “works of the Torah,” because the law (nomos) of which Saint Paul speaks throughout Romans and Galatians is the “Mosaic Law”, which consists not only of moral laws or commandments, but also of ceremonial laws and dietary prohibitions, the covenant being sealed by circumcision.

It is in this context that Saint Paul was trying to make Christians understand the non-necessity of fulfilling the Mosaic Law. If we analyze the context of these passages, we see that Paul was there in the midst of the Judaising controversy, which was the first serious problem faced by the primitive Church[37]. That conflict began when a group of Jews clinging to the ancient Law insisted that Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved. This is where the Apostle repeatedly emphasises that Christians are not justified “by works of the Law”.

“But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’”[38]

Saint Paul replies:

“For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”[39]

“What advantage has the Jew then? Or what is the value of circumcision?”[40]

Luther misread these texts and failed to understand that when Scripture spoke of “works of the Law” it was not referring to the works born of faith of which the Apostle James speaks. These works likewise do not purchase salvation, but they are nevertheless required for our salvation, including the keeping of the commandments.

Failing to understand this leads to the contradictory Protestant doctrine that ends up ignoring or marginalising all the biblical texts that emphasise the place of human freedom in the work of salvation.

“For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.”[41]

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.”[42]

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if any one’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”[43]

“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand: ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him: ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them: ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand: ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer: ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them: ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”[44]

The criterion Christ will use to separate “sheep” from “goats” — to determine whether we are saved or condemned — will be based on the works of mercy we have performed, which themselves also proceed from grace. Hence Saint Augustine explains that when God crowns our merits, what he is crowning is his own gifts.

“You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit.”[45]

Once Saved Always Saved?

Another doctrine preached by many evangelical churches today is that salvation cannot be lost. Defenders of this position cite many biblical texts that can be used to demonstrate that the justified believer is in a state of grace, but not to demonstrate that he cannot fall from that state. Some of those texts are analyzed below:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”[46]

Protestants deduce that, since the one who “believes” has “eternal life”, by the very fact of its being eternal it is secured. However, although the expression “eternal life” refers to a state of grace that will lead to salvation (should one die in God’s grace), it does not imply that the person cannot fall from this state through sin. An example is found in the following biblical text:

“Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”[47]

In the passage above John is speaking of someone who had eternal life but has begun to harbour resentment against his brother. Once he has yielded to keeping hatred in his heart, this eternal life has ceased to be “abiding”. Hence John goes on to exhort us to remain in life.

“But if any one has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.”[48]

Texts such as this demonstrate that having been in the state of grace does not mean we cannot fall from it. In the parable of the Vine, believers are represented metaphorically as branches united to the trunk of the tree (Christ). Grace is represented by the sap that flows to the branches (us), without which they cannot bear fruit. Note that the branches which cease to bear fruit are cut off:

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”[49]

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”[50]

“If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.”[51]

Later, at the close of the parable, Jesus explains how to remain in Him:

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”[52]

Another passage frequently used by Protestants to affirm that salvation cannot be lost is the following:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”[53]

This text can be used to prove that no one can separate us from God’s love, but not to prove that we ourselves cannot do so.

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you…”[54]

There are abundant texts in Scripture that emphasise that one must persevere to the end in doing good in order to be saved:

“And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”[55]

“…Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”[56]

“And you, son of man, say to your people: The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness; and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in the iniquity that he has committed he shall die. Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right, he shall surely live. Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just’; when it is their own way that is not just. When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall die for it. And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does what is lawful and right, he shall live by it. Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”[57]

And likewise there are texts that show we can lose our salvation:

“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”[58]

“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.”[59]

“how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him.”[60]

In Romans 11 Saint Paul exhorts believers not to be arrogant. Many of the new Christians must have become conceited and looked down on the Jews. Note how the people of God are compared to an olive tree onto which we believers are grafted. The Jews are the “natural branches” and we are the “wild olive shoot”. The lesson of the entire text is that we too can be “cut off”:

“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree. You will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.”[61]

Notes

  1. Creation, and the gifts of the natural order such as health of body and spirit. ↩
  2. 1 Timothy 2:4. ↩
  3. John 15. ↩
  4. Fiducial faith refers to trust alone — confidence that divine mercy will remit sins through the merits of Jesus Christ (de fide). The Council of Trent rejected the Protestant theses with the following words: “If anyone should say that justifying faith is nothing other than confidence, and that this confidence is the only thing by which we are justified, let him be anathema” (DS 1562). ↩
  5. Stoicism derived from a school of Western philosophy founded in ancient Greece. Stoic philosophy developed from that of the Cynics, whose Greek founder, Antisthenes, was a disciple of Socrates. ↩
  6. John 3:3. ↩
  7. Romans 5:19 ↩
  8. Psalm 143:2. ↩
  9. Psalm 49:8 ↩
  10. Psalm 51:7. ↩
  11. John 15:5. ↩
  12. 2 Timothy 1:9. ↩
  13. Titus 3:5. ↩
  14. Ephesians 2:5-8. ↩
  15. 1 Timothy 2:3-4. ↩
  16. Titus 2:11; 3:4. ↩
  17. Ephesians 2:8. ↩
  18. Romans 5:1. ↩
  19. Romans 1:17. ↩
  20. Romans 10:9-13. ↩
  21. John 5:24. ↩
  22. Acts 16:31. ↩
  23. 1 John 5:13. ↩
  24. Mt 7:21-27 ↩
  25. In theology these are called gratiae gratis datae, which unlike the gratia gratum faciens (or sanctifying grace) are granted for the salvation of persons but are independent of the moral condition of the one who receives them. ↩
  26. Jas 1:22-24 ↩
  27. Jas 4:17 ↩
  28. Mt 22:2-3.8-14 ↩
  29. Mt 19:16-17 ↩
  30. Heb 5:9 ↩
  31. 1 Cor 13:2 ↩
  32. 1 Cor 13:13 ↩
  33. Jas 2:14-26 ↩
  34. In this regard Luther wrote: “It is necessary to distinguish between books and books. The best are the Gospel of St John and the epistles of St Paul, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and the First Epistle of St Peter. These are the books that reveal Christ to you and teach you everything you need for salvation, even if you never read any other book. The Epistle of James, compared to these, is nothing but straw, for it presents no evangelical character.” Preface to the New Testament of 1522 (Bibel VI, 10). ↩
  35. Rom 3:28 ↩
  36. Jas 2:24 ↩
  37. Narrated in chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles. ↩
  38. Acts 15:1 ↩
  39. Gal 6:15 ↩
  40. Rom 3:1 ↩
  41. Mt 16:27 ↩
  42. 2 Cor 5:10 ↩
  43. Rev 20:12 ↩
  44. Mt 25:31-46 ↩
  45. Mt 7:16-17 ↩
  46. Jn 5:24 ↩
  47. 1 Jn 3:15 ↩
  48. 1 Jn 3:17-18 ↩
  49. Jn 15:4-5 ↩
  50. Jn 15:1-2 ↩
  51. Jn 15:6 ↩
  52. Jn 15:10 ↩
  53. Jn 10:27-30 ↩
  54. Dt 30:19-20 ↩
  55. Mt 24:12-13 ↩
  56. Rev 2:10 ↩
  57. Ez 33:12-20 ↩
  58. 1 Cor 9:25-27 ↩
  59. Phil 2:12 ↩
  60. Heb 2:3 ↩
  61. Rom 11:17.19-22 ↩