I am always amazed at how some people simply WILL NOT accept that being saved, being justified in Christ so that we CAN be saved, is NOT something we have the capability to accomplish. They toss out snippets of verses such as, "work out your own salvation", "faith without works is dead", or the "sheep and goats" story as if they can trump ALL the other passages of Scripture that make it clear we are not justified by anything we do, except receiving what Christ has done for us - belief, faith, trust. They are, in essence, saying they have, or will, merit heaven because they have been baptized and they are in the "right" church and they go to Mass and receive the Eucharist and, and, and... Sure, they'll say they have faith, too, but it really has been pushed in the background as far as being salvific is concerned, because unless they have all these works to show, faith is not enough. Yet, they ignore that Scripture says - and always HAS said - that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins and the wages of sin is death.
They completely ignore all that has been said here about the place of good works in a Christian's life and want to imply that we are saying God doesn't care what we do after we "get saved". No matter how many times that false construct is disputed, it is still there, it is STILL what they are saying. But we already KNOW why this argument keeps being repeated. The enemy of men's souls does not want anyone to grasp the truth of grace - neither before salvation or after. But all we can do is to keep speaking it, keep showing God's word, keep presenting what is the truth. And we know that it is the Holy Spirit who will cause this truth to not come back void, it WILL reach into someones heart though we may never know who or when. That's not something we need to be concerned about. We aren't trying to convert someone to or away from whatever their religion is into "ours". That is not the motive. It is to be God's voice for this time, on this outlet, to God's choice of ears. All we can do is speak the truth in love and let God get the increase.
But they don't have the same faith that we do...It doesn't even have the same meaning to them...
Their 'faith' is their religion, the Catholic religion...They commonly ask, what 'faith' are you...As if faith is a denomination...