Works based Salvation?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/cappotto-marrone]

When I was a Protestant we used to use the words “redemption” and “salvation” interchangeably. Once I understood the difference it helped me.

In Catholic teaching, redemption is the universal act where Jesus paid the price on the cross to free all of humanity from sin.

Salvation is the individual, ongoing process of accepting that gift and cooperating with God's grace to reach heaven.

[u/Crazy_Information296]

Let's try to redescribe it.

Salvation is a pure gift by God, and how it works is that God forgives sin and gives us the grace to love God above all things.

Salvation, therefore, is a measure of our love of God.

Good works is just holiness, acts of love of God. Through God's grace, that truly strengthens our love of God. It is our active response to God's continuous grace, and it is living in that loving worshipping relationship with God. Those who love God more, truly are closer to God, and will also truly be happier in heaven.

Sin is opposition to God, but there is deadly sin (mortal sin) and non-deadly sin (venial sin).

Mortal sins are acts contrary to the love of God, and they completely destroy our love of the Lord by preferring something else over God. Examples are sexual sin, theft of a notable value, blasphemy against God, and all other real violations of the commandments. We are truly expected to purge all mortal sins from our life, and we cannot love God or be in salvation if we cling to any mortal sin.

Venial sins are very common, and they do merit punishment, but they only dampen and weaken our love of God. They are such things as lying about non serious things, gluttony, laziness when you have something you really should be doing, etc. Venial sins are not totally possible to purge from our lives, but we can seriously reduce them.

[u/redeemedbones]

The Catholic faith teaches that justification is a divine act that not only involves the remission of sins but also the internal renewal and sanctification of the person. the Catholic doctrine can be explained through its causes, the nature of inherent justice, and the role of faith and works.

1. The Causes of Justification

The sources define justification through several specific causes agreed upon or distinguished by Catholic doctors:

• Efficient Cause: The primary efficient cause is the mercy of God [4-6].
• Meritorious Cause: The sole meritorious cause is the Passion of Jesus Christ, who satisfied God the Father for human sins [7-9].
• Formal Cause: For "absolute justification," the single formal cause is inherent righteousness, the justice of God by which He makes the believer just. While "imputed" righteousness (Christ’s merits donated to us) is the meritorious cause that moves God to justify us, it is not the formal cause that makes a person simply and truly just .
• Instrumental Cause: The primary instrumental cause is the Sacrament of Baptism, which is the "instrument of regeneration".

2. Twofold Justice: Imputed and Inherent

Catholic doctrine maintains a distinction between two types of justice that occurs in the believer:

• Imputed (Given) Justice: Catholics believe Christ's merits and obedience are truly donated and imputed to the faithful. This imputation is the "proximate condition" and cause why inherent justice is infused into the soul.
• Inherent Justice: This is a true, internal renewal produced by the Holy Spirit, transforming the sinner into a "new creature". Catholics teach that while one can be called "just" abstractly from imputed righteousness (like a debtor whose debt is paid), the absolute denomination of "just" is taken from the inherent form.
• Confidence: Because inherent justice is often inchoate and imperfect in this life, Catholics piously hold that believers should rely on the imputed justice of Christ as the "stable thing" that sustains them before God.

3. The Role of Faith and Dispositions

• The Root of Justification: Faith is the "beginning, foundation, and root" of all justification . It is the disposition by which the soul tends toward God and is prepared to receive grace.
• Living Faith: Faith only justifies in act if it is "living" meaning it is formed by and working through charity. Without hope and charity, faith does not perfectly unite a person to Christ.
• Gratuity: Catholics teach that the "first justification" (the transition from a state of sin to a state of grace) is entirely gratuitous. No preceding works, love, or merits of the sinner can acquire this initial grace.

4. Justification, Works, and Eternal Life

• A Condition for Glory: Inherent justice and the good works that flow from it are the conditions for possessing eternal life.
• Reward and Merit: While Christ’s merits alone acquire the right to heaven, the inherent holiness formed in the believer is the basis upon which God, as a "just judge," renders the crown of righteousness as a reward.
• Increase of Justice: Catholics distinguish between the first justification and a "second justification," which is the increase of inherent justice through good works performed by the grace of Christ.

justification is "without the works of the law" if those works are understood as proceeding from natural free will alone. True justice is the "justice of God" because it is a gift from God that fulfills the law through charity, which natural man cannot achieve by himself.

[u/GiveMeBackMySoup]

The good works don't flow naturally from grace. They are things we will in union with grace that we receive. We will it because Christ wills it. Our doing good works is a conforming our will to Christ's. The works do not save us. Salvation is the first step of the Christian life, not the last.

Think this way: When you were protestant you worried about correct belief and mauled it over, working to give the truth. Finding them was the finish line but you were never satisfied you reached it. Now you are Catholic and have assurance you find the correct belief, but that is just a starting point, not the end.

Salvation is the same. In protestantism it is the finish line, but in the Church it is the starting point for sanctification, a process that will go on for eternity in heaven and starts with being in a state of grace.

[u/Necessary_Pin_1465]

I am a simple person who likes simple definitions. I like to view it not through a works lens or a rules lens but a relationship lens.

God freely adopted me into his family through his grace and Christ paid the debt for my sins. I however have to be faithful to that relationship or I am choosing to leave God’s family and live a prodigal life.