John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life."
Taken hyper-literally, this verse would mean that all we have to do is believe that Jesus died for our sins, even if we utterly reject Him. However, this is obviously false; any Protestant will tell you that you need to accept Jesus and repent. Well, If believing includes repentance and acceptance as well as mere belief, then there's no reason why it can't also include works.
John 5:24 - "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life."
A few verses down, in John 5:29, Jesus says, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation." So, at first Jesus seems to be teaching salvation by faith alone, but then He seems to be teaching salvation by works. Did Jesus contradict Himself? No. As I said before, believing doesn't necessarily exclude works.
John 6:39 - "And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day."
All this means is that once we're saved, we can't lose salvation. Agreed. However, we're saved when we die, not when we accept Jesus.
John 10:25-29 - "Jesus answered, �I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father�s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father�s hand."
Protestants focus on where Jesus says that He will give His sheep eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of His hand. We Catholics agree with that; once we're saved, we can't lose salvation. However, we are saved after we die, not once we accept Jesus, so this verse doesn't support sola fide.
Romans 4:5 - "But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness."
To understand this passage, we must look at it in context. In verse 4, Paul says that wages are reckoned as something due, not a gift, to one who works. Throughout Romans, Paul says that salvation is a gift, so in Romans 4:4, Paul was talking about someone who was able to be justified by his own works, without God's grace. In verse 5, he says that God justifies those without works. By reading the verse in context, we can see that Paul was saying that God justifies those who have no works to justify themselves. If Protestants want to take this verse at face value and say that we don't need to do any works, then it would seem that Paul is actually ADVOCATING not doing works, which is absurd.
Romans 5:1 - "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"
First, this passage does not say that we are justified by faith ALONE. We ARE saved by faith, but we also need works. The bible says that we are NOT saved by faith alone; James says, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:24). Paul speaks of "works of faith" (1 Thessalonians 1:3, 2 Thessalonians 1:11) and says, "The only thing that counts is faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). James, when talking about Abraham, says, "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works" (James 2:22). Also, he does not contradict what he said in Romans 2:6, "He will repay according to each one's deeds." If we read the verse in context, we see that Paul was explaining how Abraham was justified by faith rather than the law (specifically circumcision) and that we are also saved by faith in the same way. Paul argued against justification by the law (and only by the law), not against "faith working through love."
Romans 10:9 - "because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
Ok. Protestants try to use this verse to show that all we need to be saved is to believe, but they take it out of context. If we look at the surrounding context of this passage, we see that Paul is once again reiterating the fact that both Jews AND Gentiles will be saved (Romans 9:30-10:4, 10:12). He is once again reminding us that salvation comes through belief and not adherence to the Mosaic Law. Remember, Paul doesn�t say that we are saved by faith ALONE, and he doesn�t contradict what he said in Romans 2:6, that God judges us by our WORKS.
Galatians 2:16 - "yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Chrisy. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law."
This is just one of many passages in Paul's epistles to the Romans and the Galatians in which he says that we are justified by faith and not by works of the law. Protestants see that we are not justified by the law and immediatley jump on these verses, saying that we are not justified by doing good works. However, they fail to see the context of these verses; Paul is talking about the Law of Moses (as demonstrated by such verses as Galatians 2:3, 15, 3:10-18, 28, 5:2, 6). Paul is saying that we don't need to follow the Law of Moses; rather, we must have faith in Jesus. He is NOT saying that we don't need good works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast."
Here Paul is emphasizing the role of faith in salvation (as he does in Romans 10:9) rather than saying we are saved by faith alone. If we look at all of Ephesians chapter 2, we see that Paul is not talking specifically about eternal salvation; rather, he is talking about being freed from sin, which is why he uses the past tense "saved." The bible talks about salvation in the past, present, and future tenses (see my Matthew 7:21-23 and Philippians 2:12-16: My Favorite Verses Concerning Salvation), with each tense meaning a different stage of salvation. Here, Paul is only concerned with being freed from sin, which comes when we INITIALLY accept Jesus; however, we can lose this freedom (Galatians 5:1).
Also, Paul is telling us why we can't boast of our salvation. Since salvation comes not from our own, self-justifying works, but from faith, we can't boast; Paul is talking about works that would legally obligate God to reward us. Again, Paul is emphasizing the role of faith in justification, but not to the exclusion of works.
1 John 2:19 - "They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us."
Protestants use this verse to try to prove that if a Christian falls away, he was never really saved. However, they mistakenly apply the case of a few who fell away to everyone who falls away. John was only talking about a certain group of Christians who fell away, not every single Christian who falls away. It's not 100% clear whether or not John meant that these people were never Christians or if they had ceased to be Christians. Protestants interpret this verse to mean "They went out from us, but they never belonged to us," but it can also be interpreted as "They went out from us, but they no longer belonged to us."
1 John 5:13 - "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."
We have eternal life, but we can lose it.
