Catholics vs Protestants on works for salvation

One of the perennial issues between Catholics and Protestants is works and salvation. Works and salvation is the belief that if you perform x, y, z, then you can enter heaven. It can be proclamations, acts of service, verbal prayers, or whatever else. The point is that salvation is able to be earned from an act of the will by performing a certain checklist.

It is a common misunderstanding that Catholics believe in this works grant salvation belief. Long story short, Catholics do not. Ironically, Catholics belief align pretty similarly with protestant belief in terms of meriting salvation. Catholics believe salvation is a gift from God that cannot be merited by human action. Our salvation have been given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is only by cooperating with the Holy Spirit in that same death and resurrection that we are able to merit Heaven. No, saying prayers, doing the sacraments, and living virtuously will not automatically grant you salvation. As mentioned in Theology of the Body circles, there is no sin that will stop God from loving us, but there is also no act of virtue where God will love us more.

Where is the disconnect then? Protestants are trained and conditioned to fight against any notion of works leads to salvation. It is an intense conditioning that baffles a lot of Catholics because they do not understand the vehemence in which the protestants insist in Faith alone. If I had to put forth a theory, then most protestant denominations want to avoid ritualistic worship. High church denominations are an exception to this, but most protestant denominations value an individualistic and personal approach to God. They value the relationship with Jesus Christ above all else. Especially the denominations that believe in “once saved always saved,” they see their relationship with Jesus as equivalent to their salvation.

We may ask then, “Don’t Catholics also value a personal relationship with Jesus?” The answer is, “Yes, we do.” Which is why it is almost comical to see protestants fiercely combating Catholics in apologetics against works and salvation. Catholics are mollified with confusion, because we agree with what the protestants are saying. Only through the Cross do we have salvation. Only a relationship with Jesus leads to Salvation. Faith is a gift and Salvation is a gift. You cannot earn your salvation with works. And the Catholics just nod their heads because they don’t hear anything contrary to their Catholic beliefs. Yet, protestants will insist that Catholics teach works lead to Salvation.

Back to our point about ritualistic worship. Catholics do have an emphasis on ritualistic worship. We have the Precepts of the Catholic Church that explains the bare minimum participation needed to be open to God’s grace. We insist that Catholics participate in the sacraments, have knowledge of church teaching, and volunteer their time, talent, or treasure. We even have the Tradition of a Happy Death that exhort how you should spend your last days on Earth. From birth to death it seems there are benchmarks that Catholics should act a certain way or have a certain belief.

The Catholic Church has the reputation of being very rule heavy. We even get called out for “Catholic guilt” where the average catholic feel a type of restlessness on not doing enough to be a good catholic. It is true that there is a metric for being a “good” Catholic and a “bad” catholic. A similar metric is not possible in the Protestant world view of either being saved or not saved with no gradation between the two.

In terms of Salvation, Protestants are told to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts while Catholics are told to follow church teachings of the Catholic Church in order to be in good standing with the church so that you can receive the sacraments of the church. To make matters even more confusing for protestants, Catholics never believe our salvation is guaranteed. A Catholic could follow all of the teachings, know all of the prayers and history, perform every work of mercy imaginable, and still may end up in Hell if their Final Judgement granted them Hell. Despite this, Catholics are still accused of believing in a works and salvation mindset.

There are plenty of books and articles focused on explaining why this misunderstanding exists and why the Protestant claim is wrong. In the name of a new approach, I’m going to say that the Protestants are right. Catholics do have a list of things we should do in order to be prepared for heaven. What I want to do is phrase it, not as a Catholic Tradition, but a biblical command from Jesus.

If we look at Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, then you will several parables asking for vigilance and watchfulness.

• Matthew 24:42-44 = Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day^[i] your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
• Matthew 24:45-47 = ‘Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves^[j] their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions.
• Matthew 25:6-13 = But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
• Matthew 25:29-30 = For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
• Matthew 25:44-46 = Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

What can be the Average Catholic reply to the works and salvation debate? If a Protestant accuses us of believing in works merits salvation, then let us respond, “We are merely doing what the bible tells us to do.” Do we have a lot of prayers and rituals and pressures to be actively involved? Yes. All of these are efforts to be vigilant to be prepared. As one of the last commandments of Jesus, we will watch and pray until Jesus comes again!

We are asked to volunteer our time, talent, and, treasure, because when Jesus asks us for our Body and Soul in the final judgement, then we will already be acquainted with detachment from earthly desires. We must pray and read the bible so when Jesus comes again we may recognize God as God. We volunteer to practice willing the good of our neighbor. We memorize prayers so that our thoughts resound with the Gospel message. We go to the sacraments to have Jesus truly present in our life.

Yes Protestants, you are right. Catholics have a lot of works they are expected to do to be a “good” Catholic (if such a thing is reasonable to claim.) We hear the same commandment of vigilance and preparedness in the epistles.

• 1 Peter 5:8 = “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
• Philippians 2:12 = Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
• James 2:14-17 = What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
• 1 John 3:23-24 = And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

So, as Catholics, of course we perform works in our Faith. We work on our prayer, we fight against our disciplines, we strive to bring the kingdom of God to Earth. We do a lot of work. All the while, we recognize that salvation truly is a gift from God that we cannot merit by our own effort. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “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.” It is confusing why Catholics would have so much guilt over things that don’t even guarantee us heaven.

The reason is, as Average Catholics, we are called to be servants of God; Slaves of righteousness as Saint Paul says in Romans 6:18. We see our Faith demanding our mind, body, and soul. That we are stewards of the life God has given us. All of our gifts, talents, skills, knowledge, and ability are gifts from God meant to glorify the Lord. We work everyday in purifying our hearts so that we may see God (Matthew 5:8.) We know that salvation is a gift from God so we ask with all humility, “Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Still, protestants may insist that Catholics believe doing everything that Catholic Church teaches grants us salvation. It is simply not true. Instead of denying the claim, agree with them. Say, “Of course it doesn’t grant us heaven but I intend to do it anyway.” Watch what the reaction will be. We are humble servants of God and as the bible says: “Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’” (Luke 17:9-10) We Catholics go to mass, go to confession, donate our time, talent, and treasure, forgive our enemies, perform works of mercy; not to get into heaven, but because Jesus commanded us to Love God and to love neighbor.