The Scriptures call for man to make a conscious choice, which comatose people do not, and " faith is a gift from God, not a work that requires human will" is a false dilemma, for faith being a gift is not opposed to man volitionally believing on Christ as a result,with the whole conversation events being of grace.There is no meriting/earning by man choosing to do what God both enabled and motivated him to do, opening his heart, convicting of sin, righteousness and judgment, and granting repentance, and giving faith.
But that’s beside the point at the moment. The question I was trying to ask is this: If a Catholic believes that they can earn salvation through good works, does that really make the works ‘good’? Or are they being done out of self-centeredness?
The works may be objectively good in and of themselves: "works of righteousness which we have done," (Titus 3:5) such as getting married versus fornication, or otherwise doing by nature the things contained in the law (Romans 2:14) as God gives grace, but salvifically they are as filthy rags apart from faith, not able to make one actually righteous so as to be with God.
If a Catholic believes that they can earn salvation through good works (which they deny) then they will sadly find out that the only thing they have earned is eternal punishment, according to the light they had.
The Scriptures call for man to make a conscious choice, which comatose people do not, and “ faith is a gift from God, not a work that requires human will” is a false dilemma, for faith being a gift is not opposed to man volitionally believing on Christ as a result,with the whole conversation events being of grace.There is no meriting/earning by man choosing to do what God both enabled and motivated him to do, opening his heart, convicting of sin, righteousness and judgment, and granting repentance, and giving faith.
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Are you saying that it’s within man’s power to choose to believe in Christ? Or not? Are you saying that we are to despair if someone doesn’t have the facilities to choose Jesus?
I’m not trying to be snarky; I really don’t get what you’re trying to say.