Both parties sinned. We have confessed ours (see JP2) and have fixed many of the abuses. What have you done?
From the linked article: "Unfortunately, the Catholics are right. Christian salvation consists in works."
You're quoting a Protestant pastor's sermon. (Hauerwas is a Methodist, as he makes quite clear.)
But take it up with James chapter 2. And before you do that, quote Ephesians 2:10. You know it comes right after Ephesians 2:9.
I don’t know much about the RCs official confession. I am glad to hear they have done it. Honestly, I don’t hold the present RC church much guilty for the murders during the Reformation.
As for you question, what have you done? I will confess I do not know. Is there some sin(s) the Reformers committed during the Reformation period that need be repented of? I mean as an official church movement or action, not the occasional bad individual. I would not hold RCs responsible for the evils of the occasional bad Catholic who was not endorsed/supported by the church in whatever bad they did.
James 2:10, “Faith without works is dead.” Amen. But the works don’t save you, still. They are the evidence of your salvation, not the cause.
Ephesians 2:10 I did not leave out in any intentional way. I just quoted 2:9 because it is so nice and succinct. Anyway, “we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Again, amen.
I don’t know that I make myself clear. Just because we are not SAVED by our works, that doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to be doing good works, all the time. It just means that we don’t believe that it saves us.
I am all for good works! Just not as a basis of salvation. I can’t do enough good works to save myself.
Oh also, to address your comment, I know I was quoting a Protestant’s sermon, but its point was that it was endorsed by the poster, if you read the link and blog. It is an endorsement of RC doctrines. It was being trumpeted as a good and right statement, in other words.
“And before you do that, quote Ephesians 2:10. You know it comes right after Ephesians 2:9. “
Correct. Those born again do not live in the flesh any longer...but it is the New Birth that saves them, not the merit of good deeds done later. Hence justification is PAST TENSE (PT) in Ephesians 2:
4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive [PT]together with Christ— by grace you have been saved [PT]— 6and raised us up [PT] with him and seated us [PT] with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved [PT] through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk [FT] in them.”
Of course, James didn’t write his epistle to the Body of Christ, but to twelve tribes scattered abroad. He wrote it to Israel’s tribes. It was not written as a doctrinal treatise to the Body of Christ.