I would like to thank Mark for agreeing to have this debate with me. We both believe that works necessary for salvation, but we disagree on why. I will be defending the Catholic belief that our good works actually justify us rather than merely demonstrate that we have been justified.

The Catholic view on salvation is often misunderstood by Protestants, so I would like to take a moment to explain what we believe. Contrary to what some may think, we do not believe that we can legally earn salvation without God's grace. This heresy, known as Pelagianism, was condemned by the Catholic Church in the 5th century. I think a few quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church will help to explain what we actually believe.

"Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ." - Catechism section 1991

"Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ" - Catechism section 1992

"Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call and become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and eternal life." - Catechism section 1996

"With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man." - Catechism section 2006

"We can have merit in God's site only because of God's free plan to associate man with the work of his grace. Merit is to be ascribed in the first place to the grace of God, and secondly to man's collaboration. Man's merit is due to God." - Catechism section 2025

"No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion" - Catechism section 2027

These official teachings of the Catholic Church make it clear that we cannot legally earn salvation through the law. Because of this, God sets up a system where, out of His love for us, He will give us the undeserved grace of justification if we obey Him (which means having faith and doing good works). James calls this "the law of liberty" (James 2:12).

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:20

Here, Jesus tells us that to enter heaven, we must be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees. Two questions follow: how do we obtain this righteousness, and is it imputed to us or infused into us?

1) Right before this statement, in verse 19, he says, "Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." He is linking not breaking the commandments with righteousness.

2) This statement is right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, which is almost exclusively about works. Not only is it in the context of good works, but Jesus gives the rest of the sermon as if specifically to tell us how to be righteous.

Because of these two points, it is clear that Jesus is speaking of an intrinsic righteousness that comes from doing good works.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'" - Matthew 7:21-23

This little story comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and highlights the fact that good works justify us. These people were condemned because they didn't do God's will, which, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, obviously refers to good works.

"I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." - Matthew 12:36-37

This is about as clear as Jesus can get. He specifically says that our words, which are works, will either justify or condemn us. It cannot be argued that Jesus uses the word "justified" here in a non-salvific sense for two reasons:

1) He is speaking about being justified or condemned before His judgment seat.
2) He says that we will either be justified or condemned by our words, and we cannot be condemned in a non-salvific sense, so neither can we be justified (in this instance, at least) in a non-salvific sense.

"Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me'�Then he will say to those at his left hand, You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,'" - Matthew 25: 34-35, 41-42

Here, Jesus tells of when He will come again in glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. He will separate the saved from the damned and judge them accordingly (verse 32), and He specifically says that the grounds of salvation are our works. Note Jesus' exact words: "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you�FOR I was hungry and you gave me food�" and "Depart from me into the eternal fire�FOR I was hungry and you gave me no food�"

Scripture talks about salvation in all three tenses: past (Romans 8:24, Ephesians 2:8), present (1 Corinthians 1:8, 2 Corinthians 2:15), and future (Matthew 12:36-37, 24:13; 1 Corinthians 3:15). Is God a schizophrenic? Is God indecisive about when He will save us? Of course not! The most plausible interpretation is that salvation is a PROCESS. We were saved when Jesus died for us and when we first received grace, we are being saved by obeying God, and we hope that we will be saved when we die. One specific passage that speaks of salvation in the future tense is especially relevant.

"I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." - Matthew 12:36-37

I quoted this passage earlier, but there's another element to it that's especially relevant to this issue. It speaks not of salvation (a vague term that theoretically could be interpreted in more than one way) as a future event, but of JUSTIFICATION (a much more specific word that can only be interpreted one way) as a future event. If, as Protestants say, justification is a one-time event that happened some time in the past of every justified Christian's life, why did Jesus speak of it as a FUTURE event? Again, the most plausible explanation is that justification is a PROCESS in which we are continually being justified, not just a one-time event.

Because salvation is a process that must be carried out until we die, Paul tells us to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). From this verse and the surrounding context we can learn a few things:

1) Salvation is not a one-time event that can never be lost; it must be worked out.
2) We must work it out with fear and trembling because justification CAN be lost and, as the letter to the Hebrews says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).
3) Paul tells us that we must "do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent" (verses 14-15). He's telling us that by doing good works (or, in this case, he specifically mentions not doing bad works), we will be righteous.
4) He tells the Philippians, "it is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain" (verse 16). Why would he be able to boast? Because he had won over souls for the Lord; he would have ran and labored in vain if the Philippians didn't end up in heaven.

Sooner or later, every discussion about salvation will come to the Epistle of James, which is probably the most explicit support for the Catholic belief on salvation.

"You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." - James 2:24

James indisputably says that works justify us, and to prove his point, he uses two examples: Abraham and Rahab. Let's take a look at these two examples and WHY James uses them.

"Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,' and he was called the friend of God." - James 2:21-23

The interesting thing is that James quotes from Genesis 15:6, the same passage that Paul quotes in Romans 4, and he says that it was fulfilled when Abraham offered up Isaac. If nothing else, this is weird. Prophecies are usually what are fulfilled, but Genesis 15:6 is not a prophecy. It's just a statement. To correctly understand James' use of this verse, let's look at it in context.

"But the word of the LORD came to him, 'This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.' He brought him outside and said, 'Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness." - Genesis 15:4-6

We see that God promised to give Abraham tons of descendants through an heir other than Ishmael, and Abraham was justified because he believed. Okay, so what does this have to do with offering up Isaac?

"But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.'" - Genesis 22:11-12

Protestants say that James is talking about the nature of faith; they say that James is saying that our works will prove (or justify) our faith. But here we see that God had Abraham offer up Isaac so that HE could see the act, not so that others could.

"The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, 'By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.'" - Genesis 22:15-18

Here we see WHY God wanted to see Abraham's faith in action. He swears to uphold the promise He made in Genesis 15, and it would have been void had Abraham not obeyed God. But James said that Abraham's JUSTIFICATION was fulfilled, not the promise. Because of this, we can conclude that his justification would also have been void had Abraham not obeyed God. It continued into and was finalized in Genesis 22.

"Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road?" - James 2:25

To understand this example, we must first understand the story of Rahab, one of the more obscure and less known passages of Scripture. Joshua, the leader of the Hebrews, sent two spies into Jericho, and the king had told Rahab to bring the spies to him. Because she feared the Lord, she decided to show them another, safer way to go, and they spared her and her family when they attacked the city.

"And said to the men: 'I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The LORD your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below." - Joshua 2:9-11

Here, we can see that ALL of the inhabitants of Jericho had the faith that Rahab had, so if she was justified by faith alone, it's hard to see why God didn't spare the whole city. Only after she sends the spies by another road is she justified.

Scattered throughout Scripture are references to being justified by works and God judging us by our works. In the previous sections I have tried to group some of them together into three categories, and here I will just give a few other random passages that prove the Catholic view of justification.

"The Phinehas stood up and interceded, and the plague was stopped, and that has been reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever." - Psalm 106:30-31

The phrase "reckoned to him as righteousness" is the exact same phrased used in Genesis 15:6 when Abraham was justified, indicating that Phinehas was also justified at this point. But notice that he's justified by his work, not by faith alone.

"For he will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury." - Romans 2:6-8

"If you invoke as God and Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds�" - 1 Peter 1:17

"And the dead were judged according to their works�" - Revelation 20:12

In these three passages, we are told that God judges us by our works, not just our faith.

Most Protestants say that once you're justified, you cannot lose that justification, but Catholics believe that you can lose your justification through mortal sin and be re-justified over and over again. What does Scripture say about it?

"Note then the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off." - Romans 11:22

Here, Paul warns us against being cut off from grace.

"Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you-unless you have come to believe in vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Here, Paul tells us that even though we stand in the faith and are being saved through it, we can still fall away and lose justification (if we "have come to believe in vain").

"For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has violated the Law of Moses dies without mercy 'on the testimony of two or three witnesses.' How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' And again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." - Hebrews 10:26-31

Paul says that even though we were forgiven by Christ's sacrifice ("there NO LONGER remains a sacrifice for sins") and we were sanctified, we can still fall away and lose justification.

"For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them." - 2 Peter 2:20-21

Peter says that it's better for someone to have never been justified than to fall away. But how can this be if we can't lose justification?

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