What does the Catholic Church believe about salvation?

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.

On the basis of this perfect work of the Lord Jesus, every true believer is saved and accepted "in Christ." The value of His sacrifice is put to the account of the believer. Thus Paul writes, "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph.2:8‑9). Some people think that works must be added to grace and faith in order for one to be saved, but God says, "not of works." We must give the Lord Jesus credit for accomplishing a perfect salvation by His own work. If we add anything of self to it, we only spoil it.

The Refutation wholly rejected the doctrine of justification by faith, without the merit of good works. And with respect to the marriage of priests, the Catholics wondered that the Protestants could demand such a thing, seeing it had never been the practice for priests to marry since the days of the apostles. With regard to the mass, it was affirmed to be a sacrifice for the living and the dead; "that Daniel had prophesied long ago, that when Antichrist should come, the daily offering should cease; but as yet this had not come to pass in the Holy Catholic Church. Nevertheless, in those places where mass was despised, altars destroyed, and images burned, there that prophecy was fulfilled." Such were the enlightened arguments of the popish doctors. The moment they refer to scripture, they prove that they are blinded by the god of this world.

The history of the Reformation, morally viewed, is now accomplished. There will still be conferences and discussions; leagues, failures, and desolating wars; to say nothing of endless persecutions and martyrdoms; but the emancipating truth of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, without the merit of good works has taken so deep a hold of the European mind, that neither the sword of the empire, the conspiracies of popery, nor the powers of hell, shall ever be able to extinguish it.

But the leaders of that great movement overlooked many of the most important doctrines of the word of God. The vital truth of salvation through faith in the sacrifice of Christ, without the merit of good works, was so startling, so overwhelming, to those who had been educated in the superstitions of Romanism that they seemed to think no further truth was needed. They taught that the atoning work of Christ satisfied the justice of God, reconciling Him to rebellious man, and that all who had the full assurance of faith in this truth were saved. It does not appear that they ever laid hold of the precious truth that it was God's love to sinful man which led Him to send His Son to die in their stead, that they might be reconciled to Him. This is the grand foundation truth of all gospel testimony. Had there been no love, there would have been no Saviour-Jesus, no salvation, no glory. But "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

Justification, then, must be on another principle. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law.” What else could scripture conclude, since all are guilty, and justification is not what we are to God, but what He is to us, set forth in Christ? Do not mix these two things together. Let your salvation be entirely on the principle of faith — what God is to you.

To justify a man is to reckon him righteous. Against such an one no charge can ever be brought; before the throne of judgement he stands acquitted for ever. To justify one who has committed no offence is a simple matter, of which every magisterial bench in the world is capable. But to justify a sinner is another matter altogether; this presents a problem that only God can solve. Both Job and his friend Bildad long ago raised the question, "How can man be just with God?" (Job 9; 25); both having before their minds the fact that man is fallen and guilty. Their question found no definite answer in Old Testament times; for this, as for the solution of many another riddle, men had to wait until God sent forth His beloved Son. "But now," says the Apostle, "the righteousness of God is manifested" (Rom. 3:21). It is offered "to all," and it is "upon all them that believe." Its foundation is the blood of Christ; which, shed once upon the cross of Calvary, has answered all the claims of the throne of God in regard to the sins of all God's people, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Christ's resurrection is the token before all eyes that God's righteous claims have been satisfied. The Man who bore my sins in His own body on the tree is now sitting on the throne of God without one of them. For Him, condemnation is past for ever; and in Him every believer is justified from all things. The believer possesses in Christ a life which is characterised by resurrection-power, and to which no charge of sin can ever be attached. This is what is meant by "justification of life" in Rom. 5:18. From such a vantage ground the Christian is able to challenge all his foes: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemns?" (Rom. 8:33-34). The very righteousness of God, so dreaded by the guilty, becomes the safeguard and boast of the justified.

All boasting then on man's part is shut out, for it is God's work and God's grace by which man is justified (clearly not by a law of works, there would then be man's boasting), but by the law of faith which simply receives, through grace, the effect of another's work. We may see here that law is used for a regularly acting principle - the law of faith, the law of works. We shall find this again. Hence, as we cannot mingle the two principles of gaining a thing by working and receiving a thing by faith (and, indeed, another thing - God's righteousness, not man's), one of them excludes the other, and we conclude, not only that a man is justified by faith through Christ's blood by grace, but that it is without - wholly apart from, to the exclusion of - works of law. God is justifying sinners by His dealings for them, not man righteous by a law which he has kept. For all are under sin.

Works of the law are not only works aimed at keeping the law of Moses but works aiming at keeping any kind of law (literally: ‘works of law’). The people of Israel proved this in the case of the law of Moses. But it is a general principle. There are no works, there is nothing that man can do, which would make him just or righteous before God.

By no means. The three expressions convey different thoughts, but they all refer to the same act. The grace of God is the source of our every blessing, the blood of Christ is the channel by means of which it reaches us, while faith is simply the appropriation of it all to ourselves.