I.
ARGUMENTS on the NECESSITY of GOOD WORKS derived from GRACE brought
about by FAITH in JESUS CHRIST our LORD.
My relative who is a born-again Christian has sent me her arguments about the doctrine on faith in Jesus Christ alone that brings salvation and not good works. She said that faith in Jesus Christ brings salvation, and salvation brings good works in our deeds if faith is true. She cited several verses in the bible that attest to this truth and said that it is mentioned in the bible more than a hundred times and so that must be very true. She gave a photocopy of the newspaper reporting about the signed declaration of agreement between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church that it is God's love alone that gives salvation, not human effort. Here is my answer to her arguments.
Your statement “It is
faith in Jesus that brings salvation to the soul” is very true
because faith in Jesus brings grace to the soul which enables us to
fulfill the Will of God, for we cannot do good or fulfill the Will of
God by our own effort or strenght alone. We need the grace of God to
be able to do good. And grace comes from faith in Jesus Christ. Thus,
faith in Jesus is necessary for us to receive grace in order for us
to be holy and consequently, be saved.
You have quoted several
verses in the bible which mentions that it is not works of the Law
that will save us but faith in Jesus Christ. For our discussion to be
clear, let me define what works of the Law means. Works of the Law
means obedience to the Law or filfillment of the Law. The word Law
appears countless times in the New Testament but we should be careful
to interpret it correctly. It could mean the Laws of the Ten
Commandments alone, or the Mosaic rites (like circumcision) alone,
or the Laws of the Old Testament as a whole. If Law refers to the Ten
Commandments alone, then works of the Law would mean good works. If
Law refers to Mosaic rites particularly circumcision, then works of
the Law would mean following the laws of Judaism (particularly on
circumcision) the first religion established by God with the people
of Israel written in the Old Testament. I am not sure whether you
have taken this phrase in the right context for there are many
instances that the works of the Law they are referring to are the
good works that the Jews are doing like obeying the Mosaic laws of
the Old Testament such as circumcision and other Jewish decrees. Keep
in mind that St. Paul were disputing many times against the Jews who
are influencing his Gentile converts who became Christians to
practice Mosaic rites. St. Paul was telling them that it is no longer
needed to practice the Mosaic Law such as circumcision (Acts 15:1)
to obtain salvation, and that Judaism should give way to Christianity
which is faith in Christ. The quotation in Romans 3: 20 which you
mentioned talks about the works of the Law. But what does works of
the Law here refer to? It refers to the fulfillment of the Mosaic
rites of circumcision which I will explain later.
But let me cite to you
some clearer and direct statements from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
which specifies the need to do good works in order to be saved and
not faith alone. In Matthew 7: 21-23, Jesus Christ said, “ Not
everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the Kingdom of
heaven, but those who fulfill the Will of my Father in heaven shall
enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord,
did we not prophesy in thy Name, caste out devils in thy Name,
perform many miracles in thy Name'. Then I will tell them. I do not
know you. Depart from me you workers of iniquity.” These verses
tell us explicitly that faith alone in Jesus Christ is not sufficient
for salvation and the necessity of good works is required for
salvation. What does “everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord” mean?
These are the people who pray to Jesus. That means, people who have
faith in Jesus for you wouldn't pray to Jesus Christ if you don't
have faith in Him, if you don't believe that He is God. Who are these
people who prophesy, caste out devils and work miracles in the Name
of Jesus Christ? These are not ordinary Christians with ordinary
faith, but Christians with great faith in Jesus Christ, and yet they
will not enter the Kingdom of heaven because they did not do good but
did evil works, “you workers of iniquity”. Therefore faith in
Jesus Christ however great does not guarantee salvation. Faith does
not necessarily brings salvation as clearly stated by Christ. Who
will enter the kingdom of heaven according to Jesus Christ are those
who fulfill the Will of His Father in heaven. And what is the Will
of the Father in heaven? To fulfill the Ten Commndments, to do good
woks. Again in Luke 18: 18-22, a certain ruler asked Jesus what to do
to gain eternal life. His answer was to filfill the commandments.
Thus, it is good works that brings salvation. But good works
meritorious of heaven are not possible by human effort alone but with
the grace of God. And grace comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
In your statement, you
said that it is faith that brings salvation, and salvation brings
about good works in man. That means salvation is the cause of good
works, but in the words of Christ, it is the other way around, it is
good works that brings salvation. It is the fulfillment of the Will
of the Father in heaven that brings salvation, “those who fulfill
the Will of my Father in heaven who will enter the kingdom of
heaven”(Matt 7:21) and not those who just have faith in Jesus
Christ. Faith in Christ is not enough. Again, what is the Will of
God? It is to fulfill the Commandments of God which are good works.
Furthermore, in Matthew
25: 31- 46, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself specifies who will enter
the kingdom of heaven. On the day of Judgement or on the day that we
will die, He will ask us whether we have fed the hungry, gave drink
to the thirsty, visited the sick, clothed the naked, etc.. Those who
did these things He said shall enter the kingdom of God. What He will
ask on that day of judgment is whether we did good works. He will
not ask whether we have faith in Him, but on the contrary, He will
outrightly reject even those people who have great faith in Him if
they don't have good works as mentioned in Matthew 7:21-23. Thus ,
your statement that it is faith in Jesus that brings salvation to the
soul is not completely true. Faith in Jesus Christ with good works is
what will bring salvation as clearly stated by our Lord in Matthew
7:21-23. Faith does not guarantee salvation. That incident wherein
the thief beside our Lord Jesus Christ was saved because of his faith
in Him does not necessarily mean that faith alone in Christ will save
you. In those instances where people have their last minute
conversion or baptism before death can really go straight to heaven.
If for example mayor Ampatuan, the man who masaquered 57 people in
Maguindanao, will be baptized to Christianity before facing death
penalty, he will receive the full grace of God and go straight to
heaven. But if he gets converted to Christianity but remains living
sinful lives, then he won't go to heaven. Remember that the mercy of
God is infinite and the love of God is infinite. So anyone who ask
forgiveness to God with sincerity no matter how sinful he is will be
forgiven.
Now let me explain that
the works of the Law refers to obedience to the Mosaic rites
particularly that of circumcision. It is in the epistle to the
Galatians where St.Paul first expounded on this doctrine that man is
not justified by the works of the Law which he also explained later
to Romans, Philippians, etc. If you know the historical background
why St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, it was written because some
Jewish teachers were teaching another gospel to the Gentile
Christians (Gal 1:6-9), that is, it is necessary for salvation to
practice circumcision and observe other the Mosaic rites (Galatians
2: 3-6, Titus was urged by some false brethren “Jewish Christians”
to be circumcised. But they did not yield, they did not let Titus be
circumcised, so the truth of the gospel may continue with the
Galatians.). When you read the proceeding verses Gal 2:11-14, you
will find that St. Paul was rebuking St. Peter because he was
compelling the Gentile Christians to live like Jews before he told
them that man is not justified by the works of the Law. What does “to
live like Jews” mean here? Does it mean practicing the laws of
Judaism on the ten commandments of God, meaning doing good works? If
that is what it meant, then St. Paul was scolding St. Peter for
compelling the Gentiles to do good works or fufill the Commandments
of God? That would be absurd. What then “to live like Jews” mean
here? It means to observe the Jewish Law on circumcision and other
Mosaic rites which the Jews live as he narrated it previously in Gal
2: 3-6. This was the last sentence St. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:14
before he stated in Gal 2:15-16 that “man is not justified by the
works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ”. This was the
introductory statement before he defended that faith of Jesus Christ
is what is necessary for salvation and not the works of the Law
which are the Jewish practices on Mosaic Law. St. Paul then was
telling the Galatians that they will not be justified by practicing
circumcision and other Mosaic rites but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Moreover, in Galatians 5:1-6, St. Paul said “and I testify again to
every man who has himself circumcised, that he is bound to observe
the whole Law. You who would be justified in the Law are estranged
from Christ; you have fallen from grace.” Hence, St. Paul is
telling the Galatians that justification by the observance of the
Law on circumcision will separate them from Christ because salvation
is by faith in Jesus Christ and not by circumcision. Therefore your
understanding that the “works of the Law” refers to doing good
works or fulfilling the Will of God or the Ten Commandements is not
correct. The works of the Law being refered to is the fulfillment of
the Mosaic Law, particularly the observance of circumcision. This
Mosaic Law on circumcision is no longer necessary for salvation
(Acts15: 9-11). Because if works of the Law means good works as
fulfillment of the Ten Commandments, then what St. Paul is saying is
contrary to what our Lord is saying in Matthew 7:21-23. Who then will
you believe? The word of St. Paul or the word of Jesus Christ? But
since the holy scripture does not contradict itself, then the clearer
Bible verses would be more logical to adhere to. And Matthew 7:21-23
is quite clear and explicit about the necessity of good works for
salvation and the inadequacy of faith alone in Jesus Christ for
salvation, while your interpretation of works of the Law as
mentioned in Romans 3:20 is ambiguous. Works of the Law could either
mean good works (fulfillment of the ten commandments) or fulfillment
of the Mosaic rites of circumcision. As I have explained, works of
the Law here means circumcision and not good works. That means when
St. Paul was talking to Christian converts about works of the Law, it
was clear to the Christians that it means submitting to the rites of
circumcision. But for the present readers of the scriptures who don't
know the background of these epistles, they could interpret it with
another meaning. Moreover, in Galatians 5:6 St. Paul said, “For in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision is of any avail, nor
uncircumcision, but faith which works through charity.” What does
“faith which works through charity” mean? It means faith should
be accompanied with good works because charity means love for God and
neighbor. And Christ summarized the Ten commandments as such: Love
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and
love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22: 36-40. Charity then means
fulfillment of the Ten Commandments which is good works. Therefore,
St. Paul could not be saying that good works is not necessary for
justification or salvation. Hence works of the law does not mean good
works or else St. Paul would be contradicting himself.
These justifications by
faith and not by works of the Law had been repeated by St. Paul in
several of his epistles that is why it is mentioned hundreds of
times. This doctrine was explained in Romans, Philippians,
Colossians, etc.
Concerning the newspaper
article on the debate on salvation wherein the Catholics had finally
agreed that individual Christians is justified by God's love alone,
not by human efforts is just a media hype. There is no debate
concerning that notion that we were saved by God's love alone and not
by human efforts. It is just how you interpet it that makes the
difference. For us Catholics, this means that if we are saved because
we do good works, we cannot boast of good works because our human
efforts to do good is initiated by God Himself and aided further by
God Himself. The human effort to do good starts with man's attraction
to what is good. This attraction to good is by nature inherent in
man's nature because as creature of God man is attracted to good.
Thus we say that the human effort to do good starts from God Himself
because that is how God made us by nature. However, because of
original sin, our nature has been perverted, so that attraction to
sin was born in us. Hence, to do good becomes a struggle because
there are two opposite forces that lurks in our soul. Thus to do
good, we need the grace of God which is given to us because of His
love for us. That is why, we say that we are saved by God's love.
However, for this grace to work, we need to make a human effort
because even if our attraction to do good is strengthened, the
temptation to evil still exists. We still have to make a choice: to
do good or to do evil. But then again that human effort is worthless
without God's grace which as I said is given to us because of God's
love. We cannot do good by our human effort alone but with the grace
of God. The grace of God awakens in our nature to do good by
enlightening our minds and strengthening our will to do good. That is
why we can say that we are saved by God's love alone. Even our human
effort depends on God's love, God's grace. The debate is similar to
what you are saying that we are justified by faith alone. For you
true faith should be accompanied with works because for you, faith
not accompanied by good works is not true faith. People who has true
faith, should act on it. The Catholics is saying the same thing, that
faith without works is meaningless. However the difference is, for us
Catholics, true faith can exist without good works as mentioned by
Christ when He said that in Matthew 7:21-23 as I previously
explained. True faith as great as that which enable someone to caste
out devils, prophesy and perform miracles in Christ Name does not
guarantee salvation.
II. How
Can We Interpret the Bible Correctly?
Let me ask this question,
if we believe in Jesus Christ and would like to know and understand
the words he left us that can be found in the Bible, to which church
shall we go to? This was the question I was faced in 1977 when I was
a first year student in Mapua. I joined the bible study organized by
some senior students for 3 sessions. After the third session, I
discovered that it was a born-again bible study by Campus Crusade for
Christ. I immediately backed off, knowing that I will be converted to
it just like our relatives and family friends who were converted
earlier when I was still a boy. We have family friends and relatives
who converted to Jehova's witness, Iglesia ni Kristo, Mormon,
Protestants right after listening to them for a long time. I realized
then that Catholics can easily be converted to other faith because we
know nothing about the bible. Thus, when other Christian believers
mentions to Catholics the different verses in the the bible, the only
thing they can utter is “Oo nga no!” repeatedly till they finally
jump into conclusion that the Catholic is wrong and the other faith
is right. That is very understandable. If the teacher teaches you
history, how do you know whether he is teaching the right things. He
can cite to you many things there and interpret it the way he wants
it to and you, not knowing anything, can fall to the trap. Perhaps,
the teacher himself believes it and he does not know that what he
believes in is false.
The bible is a very
complicated book to understand. It is composed of several books more
than 70, written in different periods, and in very old languages.
What we have is a translated version and translations are not exact.
And you can subject that book to different kinds of interpretations
depending on how much you know about it. Our grandfather lolo Cario
after reading the bible believed that people on earth cannot go to
heaven. He said “ang taga langit taga langit at ang taga lupa taga
lupa.” People can have so many interpretations of the bible and
thus, there are so many faiths or religion or churches.
One of the first to
separate from the Catholic Church was the Catholic priest Martin
Luther. During his time there were many malpractices happening in the
Church and that is why, when he formed his own Church, there were
many who followed him. There were many good things that he mentioned,
but the problem was his solution. If there is any problem in the
family, separating from the family is not a solution. You cannot say,
forget that I am your son or your brother. He wanted immediate
solutions. You cannot immediately erradicate graft and corruption in
the culture of the people. It takes time. But he was impatient and so
he departed.
After he formed his
church, it did not take long when somebody stood up and said to him,
“Sir Martin, out of the 100 things you said, I believe in all 99 of
them. But there is one that I can't accept. If you don't change that
one precept which I believe is against the will of God, I have to
separate from you and form my own church.” And so, that person
separated from Martin Luther and formed his own church too and many
also followed him. After some time, one person in the new church
stood up and told the new church founder that out of the 100 things
he said, he believes only in 95 of them and disagree with the other
5. He forewarned the new founder that if he does not retract those 5
precepts, he will form his own church too. The new founder asked, “
are you intelligent enough to comprehend the bible?” He said, “yes,
I have the education and the intelligence to understand the bible.”
Do you pray to the Holy Spirit so He can guide you into it? He said,
“ yes, I pray to the Holy Spirit also to enlighten me on the
bible.” The new founder asked further, “Do you pray with faith
and sincerity?” The person answered, “I know I pray with all my
heart and with profound sincerity, but I am not sure whether you also
do.”
That is the problem with
the protestant churches. Who can really interpret the bible
correctly? Who will tell who is really qualified to understand the
bible? Each person is different with his own biases and his own
perspective. It is impossible for two persons to agree in everything.
That is why, there are hundreds or thousands of protestant
denominations around the world today. And now, the born-again who
came from these denominations came up with the idea that religion
will not save you, but faith in Jesus Christ alone will save you.
Is it enough to believe
in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior , then do as you
want and you will be saved. But who will tell us whether we are
practicing the correct faith? Is it alright to say the Rosary?
Confess to the priest? Pray to the saints? How do we know if certain
actions are good or bad? Is contraception good or bad? Is artificial
insemination immoral? Is sex-change evil? Is it correct to say that
by praying sincerely with faith to the Holy Spirit, you will be
assured of His guidance. If that is true, how come we have thousands
of Christian sects having differences in the understanding of the
faith. Can we say that only the Catholics pray sincerely?..and there
is nobody else outside of the Catholic faith who knows how to pray
fervently? That would be a very presumptous assertion. And no
particular Christian denomination can claim that either. That would
be the height of self-righteous arrogance in the faith. Thus it is
wrong to say that we just need to pray sincerely and we will find the
truth. We need some deep, broad thinking, common sense and tremendous
humility to come to the true faith.
Do you think our Lord
Jesus Christ after sacrificing His whole life to proclaim to us the
TRUTH, the FAITH and die on the Cross to give us the grace of
forgiveness, of salvation, just went up to heaven and left us on our
own to study the FAITH and let each one interpret it the way he
understands it. Then the TRUTH which Christ taught had come to
naught. Did He not leave us the Church whom He gave the right and
authority to teach the FAITH, the TRUTH? Because if there is noone
given that authority, then anyone can teach the faith. That was what
happened when Martin Luther found the protestant church. And we
already know the historical result of that mistake.
Before Christ went up to
heaven, He left us the church which he established through the
apostles and set Peter as their leader. In the last paragraph of the
gospel of Matthew in chapter 28 verses 16-20, our Lord commissioned
the eleven apostles to teach the faith to the whole world baptizing
them in the name of the Blessed Trinity and promised them that He
will be with them “all days , even unto the consummation of the
world” verse 20. What does that statement “and behold, I am with
you all days, even unto the consummation of the world” mean. The
apostles are now in heaven and the world has not yet ended. It simply
means that Christ will be with those who will be left by the
apostles, their successors. The apostles were the first bishops and
before they all died they ordained several bishops who will continue
their mission to teach the faith and administer the sacrament of
baptism. He established His Church through the apostles and He named
Simon Peter to be their leader, the first Pope, Matthew 16:17-20. In
John 21:15-17, our Lord Jesus put the responsibility of taking care
of the Church to St. Peter as head of the Church when he commanded
him to feed my lambs, feed my sheep three times. He gave the Church
the authority to teach and sanctify the church through the
sacraments. And where is this Church now which Christ established? We
know by historical facts that the Church which was established by
Christ which came from the apostles is the Catholic Church. Ask any
Church denomination who was their leader at the time Christ went up
to heaven, they would say noone since their church has not yet
existed. The first Pope was St. Peter, second Pope was St. Linus,
third Pope was St. Anacletus and so on. Just look at the internet and
you will find them. Pope Francis, who is the present Pope, is the
266th Pope of the Catholic Church.
If you wish to know the
correct interpretation of the verse on the graven images which God
forbid, I am willing to explain it in another article. The confession
to the priest? Does the Holy Eucharist give us the true body and true
blood of Christ and not mere symbols of body and blood of Christ?
These are all written in the Bible. But unfortunately, others have
misinterpreted them.
If one will interpret the bible in a certain frame of mind, the interpretation will naturally tend to a biased interpretation – that is true whether the frame of mind is right or wrong. I don't know how exactly you can jump to a conclusion that believing in Jesus Christ is enough for salvation based on John 6:26-29 when it is quite clear what Christ meant in Matthew 7:21-23 that faith in Jesus Christ as God even how big it is, is not enough to get to the kingdom of heaven. When Christ said that those who believed and is baptized shall be saved in Mark 16:16, one ought to take it in the proper context. Christ said it in order to emphasize the necessity of believing in him and being baptized in order to be saved but it should not be taken as an absolute assurance for salvation. If your interpretation is true – that is, faith in Jesus alone is enough for salvation, then the scripture is contradicting itself or the Word of God is contradicting which of course is not true. The only possible scenario is either your interpretation is true and mine is not true or your interpretation is wrong and mine is correct. But let us read the Matthew 7:21-23 again. Is it not clear that those who says “Lord, Lord” to Jesus are those who prays to him and therefore believes in him? Is it not clear that those who prophesy, cast out devils, and perform miracles in Christ's name are those who have great faith in Jesus? And yet Christ declares that they will not enter the kingdom of heaven if they do evil. How can you say that the good works that Christ demands for salvation is faith in him alone. Yes believing in Christ is the start of one's salvation but it won't lead salvation unless one has good works as a result of one's faith in Jesus. You cannot be saved by just having faith in Jesus Christ alone as mentioned in Matthew 7: 21-23 and more explicitly in James 2: 14-17 “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”.
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