>>Note also that work here is understood to incur debt: St. Paul simply is not talking of the good works that we know are fundamental for our salvation (Matthew 25:31-46).<<
First this thread has gone too long.
Second a few verses from James taken out of its context and teaching point (dead faith) does not make a theology. That is why I in several posts to you and others pointed out how important it is to properly apply exegesis to passages and the best theologians also follow expository examination of scriptures. For example Paul exhibits all of the above in the most minute detail. When reading James we see a pastor mostly exhorting the faithful flock and pointing out we have phonies abounding, tares among the wheat, true believers. If we read the entire epistle of James, we see no bold statements or clear indication of the Gospel message, no mention of Grace. Based on your model that means there is no Grace involved in salvation. Of course using the entire body of revealed truth refutes this notion. (More below on this).
Third point is Jesus Christ preached Torah perfectly, which means where Messiah pointed out “works” and “doing” He is clearly preaching keeping Torah. Matthew 5 clearly is a sermon on the unfiltered Law God gave us as the Greatest Commandments and the Second one like it. So Christ, after telling people to repent, and follow Him tells us the Holy standard. Which in Matthew 5 is “to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is Perfect.” Don’t know about you and others but I am a total failure to that standard. Only One did live this perfection. Yes Jesus Christ.
Now we get to the point. All of what Jesus said, all that He did in His ministry: the miracles, preaching, expressions and actions of compassion and love and the rebuking of the wooden Pharisees...all of the above led to the Cross and Empty Tomb. All of His teaching must be in the light of His death and resurrection. That is how the apostles taught and preached the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15)
Therefore in light of the above and how the apostles preached the Gospel we have the following on our salvation by God’s Grace and not a mix of works and “cooperating” with Grace:
Rom. 3:28-30, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”
Rom. 4:5, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,”
Rom. 5:1, “therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;”
Rom. 9:30, “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;”
Rom. 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Rom. 11:6, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
Gal. 2:16, “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”
Gal. 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
Gal. 3:5-6, “Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 6Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
Gal. 3:24, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.”
Eph. 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 9Not by works, lest any man should boast.”
Phil. 3:9, “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”
So what can we conclude with the above body of evidence? Works save? If that is true then the only logical conclusion is yes the Work and Righteousness of Jesus Christ Saves. His Work is the Grace that saves the sinner. Nothing else is acceptable to The Father but the Work of His Beloved Son in Whom He is well pleased.
Our works? Again they come from Christ, He is the True Vine and all the fruit comes from the Vine.
Happens all the time. Someone posts a seemingly naive question trying to convict Catholicism of straying from the scripture only to discover that Catholics know their faith, know the scripture, happy to have the company of Mary and the saints, and generally despise Protestantism. Then the thread gets spammed to hide the fact that the intention flopped.
Second a few verses from James taken out of its context and teaching point (dead faith) does not make a theology
How is it out of context? St. James devotes half the chapter to this question and answers it in general: faith without works is dead and man is justified not by faith alone. What is out of context is the prooftext like Roman 4:3-5 where St. Paul speaks of one man, Abraham, and uses the passage to reach a conclusion that circumcision is not necessary for the Romans to become Christians. The topic is not faith with relation to works but circumcision in relation to faith. Similar topic is raised in the previous chapter, "we account a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law" (Romans 3:28). Here St. Paul teaches of works of the Jewish law and more broadly works of any law. Christ taught similar: "when ye pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward" (Matthew 6:5). But that is not what St. James is talking about: he is talking of good works done in self-denial out of a desire to obey Christ and imitate Christ. Those are urged throughout the Holy Scripture, because they are generally necessary for salvation:
But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: Not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost; Whom he hath poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour: That, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs, according to hope of life everlasting. It is a faithful saying: and these things I will have thee affirm constantly: that they, who believe in God, may be careful to excel in good works. (Titus 3:4-8)God, (who is rich in mercy,) for his exceeding charity wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ, (by whose grace you are saved,) And hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus. That he might shew in the ages to come the abundant riches of his grace, in his bounty towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; Not of works, that no man may glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:4-10)
What the good works are we learn form Christ where He directly explains how men are justified: by their good works (Matthew 25:31-46). St. Paul teaches no different when he comes to that subject:
will render to every man according to his works. To them indeed, who according to patience in good work, seek glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life: But to them that are contentious, and who obey not the truth, but give credit to iniquity, wrath and indignation. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek. But glory, and honour, and peace to every one that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 2:6-10)
To say that James 2:14-26 is out of context on the role of good works is to admit poor acquaintance with the Holy Scripture.
If we read the entire epistle of James, we see no bold statements
I think, "the Protestant faith is dead" is pretty bold. 3 thousand posts and counting, gasping for air.
All of His teaching must be in the light of His death and resurrection.
Very true. This is why good works are necessary in imitation of Him, this is why prayer to Mary is necessary and the company of his saints is necessary in the life of a Christian in order to learn to be with Him in Heaven. This is also why deleting parts of Christ's message that you don't like deadens the Protestant religion.
Now to your proof texts.
Rom. 3:28-30, Gal 2:16,21, Gal 3:5-6,24, Phil. 3:9
... speaks of works of the law, has no bearing on the role of good works in justification and is, of course, Catholic teaching.
Rom. 4:5I
The context is circumcision and acceptance of Romans without it; the example is Abraham whose good works are known to us and St. James mentions some. It is not a general rule applicable also to those who can work.
Rom. 5:1
...does not say "faith alone". There are many passages that, rightly, praise the Catholic Christian faith. There is no passage that says that the proper Catholic Christian faith ought to be separated from good works and is alone salvific.
Rom. 9:30, similar Rom. 10:4
That faith in Jesus leads to salvation is Catholic teaching. But if you believe in Jesus you have to do what He teaches; the demons "believed" Him also. "Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Rom. 11:6, Eph. 2:8-9 (Eph 2:10 is always carefully omitted by Protestant scripture lovers)
correct, Catholic teaching. Grace cannot be obtained through works, it is a gift of God. We ARE saved by grace alone.
So what can we conclude with the above body of evidence? Works save?
We can conclude that the poster does not seem to understand the question. Works of law, works done for "boasting" or for money, or for prestige, or for other temporal reward do not save. Works that do save are explained in the same passage that also describes who is and who is not saved: the second part of Matthew 25. Work of any kind do not save alone: faith is necessary for salvation. Faith must be perfected by good works done in imitation of Christ and His saints. This is why a good start on the road to salvation is to learn about saints and their works and ask for their guidance and they will make your faith perfect and lead you to Christ. Go.
Yet it is also obvious that as faith is manifest by what it effects, then God both judges souls as being believers or not in the light of their works, and as fit to have their faith rewarded accordingly, (Mt. 25:32-40; Heb. 6:9; 10:35; Rv. 3:4) in His grace to sinners who apart from salvation on Christs account would be damned for their sins.
Thus works are necessary, as Reformers preached , as evidentiary fruit that such faith is salvific.
And as works require faith, so it can said that he that believes and is baptized in identification with the Lord Jesus (or otherwise confesses the Lord) shall be saved. For as with forgiveness and healing in the case of the palsied man, one equates to the other.
What is contrary to this is that that one is justified and truly merits eternal life by the good works that he performs by the grace of God, and that by a certain level of holiness one actually gain one entrance into Heaven, as in Rome:
Although the sinner is justified by the justice of Christ, inasmuch as the Redeemer has merited for him the grace of justification (causa meritoria), nevertheless he is formally justified and made holy by his own personal justice and holiness (causa formalis).” Catholic Encyclopedia>Sanctifying Grace
And regardless of theological verbosity regarding this, what is conveyed is what the natural disposition of her members is to believe, which is that they are children of God and who will accepted into glory because they are pretty good people (compared to their neighbors who think likewise).
For indeed, having been formally justified on account of one's own ("infused") holiness, one who has not maintained that or regained that level must suffer purifying torments in RC (EOs differ) "purgatory" to atone for sin and become pure enough to enter Heaven. For like in unScriptural Mormonic soteriology, there is more than one place for believers in the afterlife.
And which leads to other errors, that of indulgences (which EOs also differ on), and the salvific necessity (though in the diversity of Catholicism, not all RCs hold it is such a necessity) of praying to departed saints in Heaven, the defense of which is another matter of egregious extrapolation of Scripture being used in order to support traditions of men, a has been exposed here before.
Which is not surprising, since seems the weight of Scripture is not the basis for the veracity of RC doctrine. Instead the basis for RC assurance of Truth is the premise of the assured veracity of Rome
And having when often reproved some RCs, it appear they believe they are obtaining indulgences by engaging in their specious argumentation and taking more of our time than they are fit for/