Grace
Alone
Salvation is the gift of God. It is by the grace of God alone.
God's deliverance from his wrath and the just penalty for sin is
free, complete, unearned, matchless, and wondrous. There are not
enough adjectives to describe the amazing love and grace of God in
redemption. Sinners are saved by God, for God, and to God. We
cannot merit or manufacture it, and we definitely do not deserve it.
It is all of grace- all of God.
The Catholic church teaches that no one can merit salvation or
justification at the beginning of conversion. Notice, the beginning
of conversion. What happens after conversion is another story.
Believers can then merit grace for themselves and others which is
needed for sanctification and eternal life. What God begins, man
finishes. Grace flows from the sacraments. These sacraments are the
powers that come forth from the body of Christ which in turn give
life. The sacraments of the Catholic church, seven in number, are
necessary for salvation. There is no salvation without them.
The Catholic scheme, then, centers around works. Grace comes from
God communicated through the sacraments that men observe and perform.
In essence, man cooperates with God. It is therefore meritorious
and dependent on man. Salvation in the Catholic church is not by
grace alone. It is by grace and works. Worse still, Rome teaches
that at certain times salvation may be purchased. This is the
teaching of indulgences. According to the determined price, years
can be taken off of the purgatorial sentence for the purchaser or a
designated person of the one making the purchase. That's right,
salvation for sale. Furthermore, the idea of purgatory cripples the
atoning sacrifice of Christ. What Christ did only began salvation-
man must finish it himself by earning grace and suffering for the
sins that apparently Christ did not die for. This suffering takes
place in a mythical realm called purgatory. Once there, faithful
Catholics will be punished for and purged of their remaining sin.
This, we are told, takes years! But, thankfully, masses may be
performed for the dead as well as indulgences being purchased on
their behalf to lessen the purgatorial sentence.
Does the Catholic church really teach this? There own sources
reveal that this is indeed what they teach. Let us look at the very
sources of the Catholic church. The Council of Trent met at several
points between 1545 and 1564. This happened during the heyday of the
Reformation. Vatican II met between 1962 and 1965. Both of these
produced sources that Roman Catholics hold as authoritative
statements of their faith and practice. Then, in 1994, the Catechism
of the Catholic Church (will be abbreviated as CCC; Quotations cited
in the catechism will not be documented here. Interested parties may
consult the catechism to discover the Catholic sources that are
reproduced.) was published. These were chosen because they are both
historical and contemporary. They represent the official teaching of
the Catholic church five hundred years ago and today. I will simply
reproduce quotes from Catholic sources on the teachings of merit and
the sacraments. There is no commentary needed.
If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law were not all
instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord; or, that they are more, or
less, than seven, to wit, Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist,
Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; or even that any one
of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament; let him be
anathema. (Trent, Session VII, Canon 1, pg.51)
If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law are not
necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that, without them, or
without the desire thereof, men obtain of God, through faith alone,
the grace of justification;-though all (the sacraments) are not
indeed necessary for every individual; let him be anathema. (Trent,
Session VII, Canon 4, pg. 52)
If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law do not contain
the grace which they signify; or, that they do not confer that grace
on those who do not place an obstacle thereunto; as though they were
merely outward signs of grace or justice received through faith, and
certain marks of the Christian profession, whereby believers are
distinguished amongst men from unbelievers; let him be anathema.
(Trent, Session VII, Canon 6, pg. 52)
But he also willed that the work of salvation which they preached
they should enact through the sacrifice and sacraments around which
the entire liturgical life revolves. (Vatican II, pg. 120)
The
Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant
are necessary for salvation. "Sacramental grace" is the
grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each
sacrament. the Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by
conforming them to the Son of God. the fruit of the sacramental life
is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the
divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son,
the Savior. (CCC, 1129)
The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ
and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.
the visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and
make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in
those who receive them with the required dispositions. (CCC, 1131)
The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the
fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his
grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative,
and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that
the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the
grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is
due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the
predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.
Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine
nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous
justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making
us "co-heirs" with Christ and worthy of obtaining "the
promised inheritance of eternal life."
The merits of our good works are gifts of the
divine goodness. "Grace
has gone before us; now we are given what is due.... Our merits are
God's gifts.” Since the initiative belongs to
God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of
forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved
by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves
and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the
increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal
life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited
in accordance with God's wisdom. These graces and goods are the
object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for
meritorious actions. (CCC, 2008-2010)
We can have merit in God's sight only because of God's free plan to
associate man with the work of his grace. Merit is to be ascribed in
the first place to the grace of God, and secondly to man's
collaboration. Man's merit is due to God. (CCC, 2025)
No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of
conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and
for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as
necessary temporal goods. (CCC, 2027)
As regards the indulgences, or other spiritual graces, of which the
faithful of Christ ought not on this account to be deprived, It
decrees, that they are henceforth to be published to the people at
the due times, by the Ordinaries of the places, aided by two members
of the Chapter; to whom also power is given to gather faithfully the
alms, and the succors of charity which are offered them, without
their receiving any remuneration whatsoever; that so all men may at
length truly understand, that these heavenly treasures of the Church
are administered, not for gain, but for godliness. (Trent, Session
XXI, pg. 142)
The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely
linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance.
What is an indulgence?
An indulgence is a remission
before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has
already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly
disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action
of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and
applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ
and the saints.
"An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin. Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead. (CCC, 1471)
"An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin. Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead. (CCC, 1471)
An indulgence is obtained through
the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted
her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and
opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to
obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal
punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply
to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to
works of devotion, penance, and charity.
Since the faithful departed now being purified
are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help
them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal
punishments due for their sins may be remitted. (CCC, 1478-1479)
Through indulgences the faithful can
obtain the remission of temporal punishment resulting from sin for
themselves and also for the souls in Purgatory. (CCC, 1498)
Wherefore, not only for the sins,
punishments, satisfactions, and other necessities of the faithful who
are living, but also for those who are departed in Christ, and who
are not as yet fully purified, is it [mass] rightly offered, agreebly
to a tradition of the apostles. (Trent, Session XXII, pg. 146)
Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed
by the Holy Ghost, has, from the sacred writings and the ancient
tradition of the Fathers, taught, in sacred councils, and very
recently in this ecumenical Synod, that there is a Purgatory, and
that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the
faithful, but principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar;
the holy Synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently endeavour that
the sound doctrine concerning Purgatory, transmitted by the holy
Fathers and sacred councils, be believed, maintained, taught, and
every where proclaimed by the faithful of Christ. (Trent, Session
XXV, pg. 214)
As for certain lesser faults, we must
believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire.
He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come.
From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be
forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.
This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the
dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas
Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered
from their sin."
From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and
offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic
sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific
vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and
works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:
Let us help and commemorate them. If
Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we
doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation?
Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our
prayers for them. (CCC, 1030-1032)
In contrast, the Bible teaches a regeneration that is entirely of
grace by God with absolutely no cooperation or merits of man. God
gets all the glory. If man must cooperate, merit more grace, or
suffer in purgatory for his sins, then, man is essentially saving
himself with the help of God. This leaves room for man to boast-
something the scriptures no nothing about.
The salvation of God was accomplished by the perfect life, atoning
death, and victorious resurrection of Christ. The Spirit applies the
work of Christ effectually through the proclamation of the gospel.
This is the work of God alone. Man does not cooperate or add to his
salvation. God gets all the glory. Period.
What we are speaking of is the doctrine of regeneration. Upon being
regenerated- raised from spiritual deadness and made alive in Christ-
man responds to the gospel by repenting of sin and trusting in the
person and work of Christ. This is conversion. Man does play a part
in this, but only because God caused him to be born again first.
This is entirely different from the Catholic scheme. Protestants
teach that God justifies those whom he has regenerated and called.
They are declared righteous because of what Christ did on their
behalf and because of his righteousness being imputed to them. Those
whom God justifies will be glorified. God saved them and keeps them
saved.
Rome teaches that the justified can lose their justification. They
must then merit it back through the sacraments and eventually pay off
the debt of sin in purgatory.
What do the scriptures teach?
But
God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he
loved us,
even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with
Christ-by grace you have been saved-
and
raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus,
so
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,
not
a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph. 2:4-9)
[W]ho saved us and
called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of
his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before
the ages began,
and
which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior
Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to
light through the gospel... (2Tim. 1:9-10)
How
then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are
they to hear without someone preaching?
And
how are they to preach unless they are sent? (Rom. 10:14-15)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
training
us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
waiting
for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ,
who
gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify
for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good
works. (Tit. 2:11-14)
But
when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
he
saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but
according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewal of the Holy Spirit,
whom
he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so
that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to
the hope of eternal life. (Tit. 3:4-7)
Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he
has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in
heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time.(1Pet. 1:3-5)
But now the
righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although
the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who
believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by
his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be
received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in
his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It
was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might
be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom.
3:21-26)
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
even as he chose us in
him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
blameless before him. In love
he predestined us for
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of
his will, to
the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the
Beloved. In
him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
which he lavished upon
us, in all wisdom and insight
making known to us the
mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in
Christ as
a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things
in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been
predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things
according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were
the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised
Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until
we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Eph.
1:3-14)
Indeed,
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all
things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends on faith- that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any
means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Phil.
3:8-11)
So
too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works;
otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Rom. 11:5-6)
The word of God
does not teach anything remotely close to what Catholics claim. It
knows nothing of grace being communicated through sacraments,
believers meriting grace for their eventual justification, or
believers suffering in purgatory in order to be purged of sin before
they can be in the presence of God. Of course, this is what happens
when Scripture is not treated as authoritative and the words of man,
councils, traditions, and popes are placed on equal footing with the
word of God. When this happens, anything and everything is
permissible.
Scripture
teaches that Christ died for his people and that they will be saved
by the grace of God alone. It is not grace and fill in the blank.
Salvation is the gift of God's grace alone. There is no room for the
works of man. If salvation is by grace, then it is solely the gift
of God and he gets all the glory. Grace is not grace if it is earned
or God is obligated to bestow it. If you add anything to grace you
actually subtract from it. It is the grace of God that gives us God.
The moment we act like God owes us or we deserve something, we
elevate ourselves above God, make him our debtor, and turn grace into
wages! May it never be.
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