and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (St. Luke 10:25-
27).
“And a ruler asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but
God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not
kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and
mother.’”(St. Luke 18:18-20).
(God) “will render to every man according to his works” (Rom. 2:6).
“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not
have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2).
“For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each
may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good
or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10).
“What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not
works? Can his faith save you? ... So faith by itself, if it has no works, is
dead ... Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from
works is barren? ... You see that a man is justified by works and not by
faith alone ... For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart
from works is dead” (St. Jas. 2:14; 17; 20-26).
There are numerous other verses in Scripture that concur with the above,
speaking both of the meritorious value of good works as well as their
necessity to enter eternal life: St. Matt 6:3-5; 6:19; 13:23; 25:31; St. Luke
3:8; 21:1; St. John 5:29; 1 Cor. 3:13; 1 Cor. 4:51; Gal. 6: 7-9; Col. 3:23-25;
1 John 2:4; 1 John 3:18; 1 John 5:3, etc., etc. The list is virtually endless.
The notion of “faith alone” appears in Scripture only twice (St. James 2:17
and 2:24), where it is condemned.
“Are you saved?”
Salvation has a three-dimensional element:
(i)
We have been saved. The objective salvation, or redemption, by
Christ’s death on the cross on our behalf. This is an unmerited free
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