Salvation

Salvation
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• What is Salvation?</font>
• What is one saved from?</font>
• What does it take to be saved?</font>
• Who can be saved?</font>
• What must I do to be saved?</font>

 

Read the Gospel of John and Pauls letter to the Romans. No two sources can better answer those questions than anything we can deliberate about.

 

Scratch that. Read the whole Bible.

 

That is the Catholic answer.

God Bless

 

That doesn't answer the first question, care to try?

 

Salvation 101


For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
— John 3:16-17

 

I'm with you on this issue, salvation is not based on what we do, but in the condition of our spirit when we die, thus what we believe.

 

My heart weeps for those who think that human works of any kind will get them salvation.

 

My heart weeps for those who think that human works of any kind will get them salvation. </font>[/QUOTE]My heart weeps for those who believe that our actions are meaningless.

 

Not all Baptists believe that our actions mean anything. Some believe that once you declare that Jesus is Lord of your life, you are saved.

I'm not a Baptist or a Catholic, but it sounds the same to me.

 

Tonight, I'm finishing a text for my summer graduate course on catechetical methodology. It is entitled The Mystery We Proclaim by Msgr. Francis D. Kelly.

On p. 100, I just read the following, which I would like to share on the board:

Moral living is a response to the love of God and the dignity God has given us as sons and daughters: "Live a life worthy of the calling you have received" (Eph 4:1). We do not live moral lives to win God's favor or to force God to let us into eternal life. We do so out of gratitude for the unmerited gifts of God's grace lavished on us through the blood of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Our moral living is to reflect the "new creature" we have become because of God's love.

The context of the above passage is that of how to teach Gospel Morality (the 3rd pillar of the Catechism, the four being 1. Apostles' Creed, 2. Christian Liturgy, 3. Gospel Morality, 4. Christian Prayer).

 

A key difference is that Catholic teaching states that OSAS is false. That "once saved does not garuntee entrance into heaven". Not all Baptists agree with this either, but it is fairly prevalient.

However, no amount of work will get anyone into heaven. Both of us confess this.

 

I've never denied that works are a natural outcropping of the spiritual reality of salvation. HOWEVER, without faith first, works are of no avail. We are to do works as evidence of our salvation, and not as a means to gain our salvation.

Salvation is not of works lest any man should boast.

Is one saved without works? YES, Jesus said so!

 

Being reconciled with God, coming to share the life of the risen Christ, also involves being reconciled with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. It is simply not possible to say that we love the Lord if we do not love those beloved by Him. It is profoundly inconsistent to attempt to embrace the Lord while rejecting others who share His embrace.

GAL 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Freedom from self-justification through law was purchased by Christ upon the cross, so don't let yourselves be burdened again.

GAL 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

The phrase "Christ shall profit you nothing" is another way of saying, That if one turns to religious law for salvation then you cannot benefit in any way from what Christ has done for you.


GAL 6:12 As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
GAL 6:13 For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
Even those that have submitted to circumcision (works) and the keeping of law for salvation, have not kept it. Even those today who insist that we must work {for acceptance with God} do not keep it in its entirety.

Second Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new

Finally, by way of summary, he proclaims the basic truth once more: Jesus’ faithfulness made up for our sins; He carried out what we should have been doing all along; the result is that we can now share His life, a life that is nothing less than the life (and therefore the holiness) of God.

God has brought us back into contact with Himself through Christ and in Christ. Our sins no longer keep us separate from God.

 

I've never (nor have I ever seen anyone) denied that our salavation is dependant upon our faith in Jesus Christ. It is people like you who try to tell us that we believe in salvation by works.