That we have the sacraments that purify us, and you Protestants walked away from that gift that Christ gave you -- is not strength obtained by our own doing. The sacraments are the result of grace and not of our works.
Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rev 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
I think I will trust in Christ and the work he did
Such arrogance is beyond description..."He that thinks he stands take heed least he fall".
That we have the sacraments that purify us, and you Protestants walked away from that gift that Christ gave you -- is not strength obtained by our own doing. The sacraments are the result of grace and not of our works.
Here is a text book example of what the word Grace means to a RC, the definition of which is totally different to protestant understanding.
Grace, to a protestant is God's unmerited favor. That is, grace is God doing good for us that we do not deserve. In the Bible, grace and mercy are like two heads of the same coin. Mercy is God withholding judgment or evil that I deserve; grace is God giving me blessing or good that I do not deserve. Because of God's mercy, I do not receive the judgment of God against my sins; because of God's grace, I receive eternal life and a promise of heaven though I do not deserve them. Both mercy and grace come to me though the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the RC, "grace" is a primarily spiritual substance recieved in chunks via the sacraments. This spiritual substance temporarily empowers you to perform the good works necessary to attain your own justification not Christ's Righteousness. This chunk of grace has a short shelf life and must be replenished frequently by repetative ceremony performed only by a priest.
annalex wrote:
“That we have the sacraments that purify us, and you Protestants walked away from that gift that Christ gave you — is not strength obtained by our own doing. The sacraments are the result of grace and not of our works.”
What a tangled web.
I responded to an earlier post that Martin Luther had more problems with the Roman Church than just justification by grace through faith. The above quotation illustrates some of those other problems, which are often not distinguished one from the other when one tries to put his finger on what is wrong with Roman teaching about salvation.
A very simple way to outline this is the following:
1) Salvation won for us: Jesus alone is the Savior. That is why He is called Jesus. That is why He is recognized as the Savior of the world. That is why He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, without whom no one has access to the Father. The salvation He obtained for us is complete. His words at Calvary, “It is finished,” must be understood this way so as to agree with all the rest of the Holy Scriptures of both the OT and the NT. Salvation, complete and full, was won on the cross of Calvary by Christ alone. In this Rome errs. Nothing needs to be added to the salvation Christ won for all. In fact, nothing can be added to it. Christ, and Christ alone, is the Savior.
2) Salvation given to us: Nothing of what was said above is changed. However, it must be realized that Christ won our salvation there (at Calvary) and then (nearly 2000 years ago). How does what He did there and then get to us here and now. This where the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments come in to play. It is Christ who commanded that His Gospel be proclaimed to the world, that is to say, the proclamation that all sins are forgiven for the sake of His bitter suffering and death, His substitutionary atoning sacrifice for us. It is Christ who commanded both baptism and the Lord’s Supper for those who would be His. Through these, that is, the Gospel and Sacraments, as through means, the salvation that Christ won then and there for the whole world is conveyed to us here and now. It is not a partial salvation that is conveyed, it is not a quantity of something that is handed out in bits and pieces. It is salvation full and free. In this also, Rome errs, for she does not understand grace rightly, and does not accept that Jesus has done all.
3) Salvation received by us: Nothing that was said above is changed. However, the salvation Christ won for us then and there, that is given to us here and now through Word and Sacrament, must be received. The means of receiving it is faith, faith pure and simple. Faith grasps the gift, the completed salvation of Christ given to us in Word and Sacrament. Such faith is, as Paul famously and so memorably said, “the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) The One who creates faith in the cold, dead heart of sinful man, which is a miracle as great as God creating heaven and earth out of nothing as Martin Luther wrote, is the Holy Spirit. In this also Rome errs, thinking each person must add to faith works, not grasping that it is the Holy Spirit works through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament to bring faith into our hearts, which faith makes us alive to God, alive instead of spiritually dead. It is this living faith in the heart of the now grateful child of God that desires to do want God wants, not what we want, in other words, truly good works. These works are truly good because there are not needed by the believer - his salvation is complete in Christ! - and are freely given away to our neighbor, whom the Father in heaven desires to bless through us, who are His workmanship, created for such good works.
So, what we have is salvation 1) won, 2) given, and 3) received. All are well supported in the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. None is in conflict or competition with the other. This is the fuller meaning of the reformation saying that we are justified by 2) grace through 3) faith for 1) Jesus’ sake. What Roman Catholics seem unable to believe is that which God says and promises, that true, heaven-sent faith will produce good works (good tree leads to good fruit).
Faith that produces no such fruit, is not true faith. This is the warning of James. But the warning in no way overturns the truth regarding salvation won, given, or received. It simply gives us Christians cause to examine ourselves, as Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 11 and other places) urges many times.
Why do we still have trouble after coming to faith? Because we remain in the world, which tells us sin is not sin, and holds forth every sort of reward that would draw us away from Christ. Also, we still have our sinful flesh wrapped around our now living, believing heart. It too desires to do what we know is wrong, and not do that which we know to be right. And, finally, the devil still walks about as a ravenous wolf, seeking whom he may deceive and devour. The only antidote to these three bitter and enduring enemies is the continued assurance of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament which imprints the crucified Christ on our heart, marking us as His, and reminds us that “it is finished,” thus strengthening our trust in Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.
This is a simple way to understand what the Bible teaches us about salvation. It is pure Martin Luther; and it is the reason he is so hated by pope and magisterium. What is more, it is pure Scriptural truth, and thus irrefutable, whether pope and magisterium think so or not.
SOLA GRATIA
SOLA FIDE
SOLA SCRIPTURA
SOLUS CHRISTUS
SOLI DEO GLORIA!