“...work it out doesn’t mean earn it...”
Catholics believe that salvation is a free gift from God that cannot be earned. We agree on this issue. I repeat Catholics believe that salvation is a free gift from God that cannot be earned.
That gift can be lost by turning away from God by sinning - works are not to earn salvation, works are to keep from sin - evil works can be done as well.
Saved by faith. Kept by works?
No.......
Galatians 3 addresses that and it's already been posted once upthread.
BTW, do you realize that Lot is called *righteous Lot* in 2 Peter? Hardly a term I'd use for a man who lived like Lot did.
And David was called *a man ofter God's own heart*, the same David who committed adultery and then murder to cover it up.
Nobody gives up ownership of a give they are given because their behavior disqualifies them.
We are adopted into God's family when we are saved. No parent disowns their children for disobedience, even when it is willful. They are still part of the family and due the right to inheritance in spite of disobeying. Disobedience only breaks down the lines of communication. It does not sever the relationship.
This must keep you quite busy losing your salvation every day of the year!
And Jesus answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."
“That gift can be lost by turning away from God by sinning - works are not to earn salvation, works are to keep from sin - evil works can be done as well”
I hate to tell you, but you don’t have a biblical understanding of sin. Works can never keep you from sin.
Sin is not just those things against the law of God that we do. Sin is an inward principal of the heart. You must understand what happened to the whole human race in the Garden of Eden. When Adam sinned it corrupted the human race totally. By that I mean there is no aspect of our lives that don’t bear the corruption of sin. Even if all those works you do keep you from outward sins (and that’s impossible), they cannot change your fallen sinful nature.
“Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23)
To put it another way, a man isn’t a thief because he steals, rather he steals because he IS a thief by nature. We aren’t sinners because we commit sin, we commit sin because WE ARE SINNERS BY NATURE.
Isaiah tells us our best works are filthy rags. They are so abominable God can’t look upon them, so they certainly can’t keep us from sinning because they too bear the taint of sin. And as we have shown you the Bible is clear that they won’t be accepted as payment, or even partial payment, for our sin.
Hell is the forseeable result of attempting to repay our sin debt with sin-tainted works. God’s word teaches us this over and over and over. We have been warned and warned clearly. Our corrupted works will never be accepted by the Lord. This truth is taught specifically in the New Testament and this truth is typified in the Old Testament repeatedly. This truth goes all the way back to the first family. Consider the lives of Cain and Able. Do you remember why The Lord refused Cain’s sacrifice?