What do Catholics believe about being saved?

While Roman Catholics place high value on their liturgy and sacramental system, it is incorrect to say that they believe they are "saved by

works." Roman Catholicism teaches that Christ's blood "has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. At the same time, they insist that faith in what Christ did on the cross in and of itself is not enough.

Today the Catholic Church teaches what was reemphasized at the Council of Trent: For Catholic theologians, to "justify" means to make righteous and holy, therefore, justification and sanctification are considered to be the same process. For the Catholic, faith in Christ is the beginning of salvation and lays the foundation for justification. Then the Catholic builds on that with good works, because "man has to merit God's grace of justification and eternal salvation." Catholics believe that as they do good works, righteousness is infused into them, sin is eradicated and the soul merits heaven.

Catholics claim that salvation is secured by faith in Christ plus good works and grace conferred through the seven sacraments of the Church; Protestants reply that salvation is secured through sola fide (faith alone) in Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross (see Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:8,9). Catholics blend justification and sanctification into one process as the believer must work to merit eternal life; Protestants believe God justifies the believer by declaring him or her righteous, and that sanctification is a lifelong process of becoming holy as God works within (see John 17:15‑19; Phil. 2:12,13). Catholics believe they cannot pay for all their sins in this life, and at death they go to purgatory for an undetermined time to be made totally fit for heaven; Protestants, believing they are justified by faith in Christ and nothing else, trust that they will go straight to heaven where sanctification is completed in Christ's presence (see 2 Cor. 5:6‑10; 1 John 2:28‑3:2).

Works then, are very important to the evangelical Protestant and to the Roman Catholic, but each views works differently. Evangelical Protestants believe they are fully justified through faith in Christ and that this naturally leads to the fruit of good works, as they grow in the Christian life as God has planned for them to do (see Eph. 2:8‑10). Catholics, however, do not believe that faith alone provides justification but that they must work for justification all their lives. Catholics, in effect, blend justification and sanctification together as one process.

Just as Protestants rely on sola scriptura (the Bible alone) for a source of final authority and truth, they rely on sola fide (faith alone) for their source of salvation. The Catholic, however, believes that the Christian must rely on faith plus "good works" and God's grace mediated through the Seven Sacraments. These are:

CATHOLICS ARE SAVED BY MORE THAN "WORKS"

The consequence of this mistake is the more serious, because it leads to other and if possible worse mistakes. In the Roman Mass Book they say "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." Christ, according to their doctrine, has taken away everybody's sins; but nobody gets to heaven unless, besides that, he is faithful to the church, and does what the priest tells him — unless he obeys not only the commands of God, but also those of the church, availing himself duly of the seven Sacraments. And so there is a hope that, being thus faithful to the church, he may get to heaven at last. Is it not a very poor kind of salvation? Is it God's?

It is God alone that can save; none but a divine person. The church needs to be saved, and therefore cannot save. The whole notion is radically false, and while opening the door to the delusion that everybody's sins are gone, it brings everybody's sins upon them after all, because if after being baptised they sin again, Christ does no good to them, and the whole work has to be done over again. Such is the doctrine of the Council of Trent, yea of East as well as West. Indeed it has so affected other bodies that there is scarcely any Protestant body in Christendom that has not been more or less injured by this dangerous departure from the word of God. This shows the importance of even one letter. The "sin" of the world is right — "sins" would not be true. It is never said that our sins are gone except to the believer. Where it is written that Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, it is the believer's sins that are referred to. There is no such thing as His bearing the sins of every person in the world; but if you come out of the world, if you confess the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, you find your sins are gone. Christ has done the work. God gives you to know by His word and Spirit that you are forgiven. This is the doctrine of Scripture, so that there is the fullest comfort — without reserve, and without hesitation — in virtue of the mighty work of the Lord Jesus. But the full effect of His earthly work will only be when every trace of sin is gone in the eternal scene of righteousness and glory.

N*. Believing that there is strength in man to do good and merit life by his works. And though they talk of grace, it is practically man's own efforts; there may be sacramental grace referred to, but no personal practical dependence on grace. The Roman Catholic system hides it under hard words, and distinguishes between grace of condignity, that is, what a man sufficiently deserves — merit in which the works deserve a reward for their own worth; and grace of congruity, what fits a man to receive, though he be not worthy in the way of merit; but, in point of fact, a man merits eternal life by his own doings and efforts, which in principle and substance and verity is Pelagianism. Christ delivered the Old Testament saints, they say, out of limbo, and set us to keep the new law.

There are two great points, as I have stated elsewhere, in christian truth: first, the fundamental doctrines as to the Trinity, the person of Christ, the atonement; and then, secondly, the way in which sinners receive the value of these great facts. The question with the Romanist and the Puseyite is on the second of these points. So was it in Paul's time. No doubt the full development of apostasy will be in the rejection of the fundamental truths; but he who denies the true way of their application to the sinner is, the Apostle declares, fallen from grace, and Christ profits him nothing. That sovereign grace may pierce through the cloud, and attach the heart by living faith to Christ is, blessed be God! true; and hence men may be saved, though they are Romanists and Puseyites. But this does not hinder their system being cloud, and not light at all.

Father O. I will proceed, then, to state the grounds on which everyone is bound to receive the Catholic church as the only true one, and out of which there is no salvation, as the Fathers all testify. So says Irena us, so Cyprian, so Augustine, so St. John Chrysostom. All declare emphatically that salvation belongs to the church alone. And if you take the views which all Christendom acknowledges, we shall easily find the marks by which it is known.

178 I might add other marks, as antiquity, the confession of enemies; but they would only be the development of those I have noted, and it is needless. These are a sufficient proof to a reasonable mind that the Catholic church alone is the church of God, out of which there is no salvation; a doctrine which, however obnoxious, is held by St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and the early Fathers; and is stated in the strongest language. It is this one only Holy Catholic Apostolic church, called Roman, because the supreme pontiff and successor of St. Peter has his See in Rome; into which you, M., had been graciously brought, out of one of the various sects of Protestants which condemn each other, which are confessedly of yesterday; have no pretension to be Catholic, confess they have no miracles; and whose doctrine, or at least what it was at the outset — for they fall into every sort of opinion — is utterly immoral: that no matter how great a sinner any man is, if he believes, he is saved; who have rejected five sacraments, and of the two they profess, have made one a mere memorial, contrary to scripture; and if the other remains, it is administered with such carelessness that we can hardly practically say whether anyone among them has the benefit of it nor not.