Saturday, March 23, 2013

THE NECESSITY OF GOOD WORKS FOR SALVATION



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.

1 comment:

  1. 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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