Salvation & the Sacraments

Faith and Works

We are saved by God's grace, received through a living faith that works in love. Catholics don't teach we 'earn' heaven — initial salvation is a pure gift — but a real, saving faith necessarily bears fruit, and Scripture says we're judged by that fruit.

The short answer. The only time the Bible uses the phrase ‘faith alone’ is to DENY it: ‘a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.’ Faith and love are inseparable.

The one verse with ‘faith alone’ rejects it

James says outright that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, and that faith without works is dead — as lifeless as a body without breath. Saving faith is living faith.

James 2:24You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.

James 2:26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

Faith works through love

Paul says what counts is ‘faith working through love.’ Faith isn't opposed to works of love — it operates through them. Elsewhere he tells us to ‘work out your salvation,’ for it is God working in us.

Galatians 5:6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.

Philippians 2:12–13So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

We are judged by our deeds

Jesus' judgment scene sorts people by what they did or failed to do for the least. Paul says God ‘will pay back to everyone according to their works.’ Grace empowers those works, but they are the criterion.

Matthew 25:34–36Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.’

Romans 2:6–7who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:” to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;

Common objections

“Ephesians 2:8–9 — saved by grace, not works, lest anyone boast.”

Catholics wholeheartedly agree: no one earns the FREE GIFT of initial salvation — that's grace, not works. But read the very next verse: we are ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works,’ which God prepared for us to walk in. Grace produces works; it doesn't cancel them.

Ephesians 2:8–10for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

“Paul says we're justified apart from works of the law (Romans 3:28).”

Paul is excluding the ‘works of the Law’ — circumcision, dietary and ceremonial observance — as what makes one right with God. He is not excluding the works of love that flow from faith, which James, Jesus, and Paul himself require for final salvation.

Romans 3:28We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Scripture quoted verbatim from the World English Bible (public domain).

All sixteen topics are free in the app — with the whole Bible one tap away.

Google Play App Store