Topic 1 of 11
Saved by grace through faith
Catholics and Protestants agree that salvation begins with God's grace. They differ on what justification is, how it is received, and whether a believer can know he is saved. Here is the Catechism, in its own words, beside Scripture.
Where Catholics and Bible-believing Protestants agree
This is not a disagreement about whether grace matters. The Catechism teaches that justification comes from God's grace, which it calls free and undeserved, and that no one can earn the first grace of forgiveness. Scripture says the same.
Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1996 · official text
Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2010 · official text
5not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:5 (WEB) · context
What the Catechism teaches about justification
The Catechism describes justification as more than forgiveness: God makes the person inwardly just. It says justification is conferred in Baptism, and that after the first grace the believer, moved by the Holy Spirit, can merit the graces needed to attain eternal life.
Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1989 · official text
Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1992 · official text
Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2027 · official text
What Scripture says
Paul says God declares the ungodly righteous when they trust Him, crediting faith as righteousness, and that this is a gift, not wages. He says that if salvation is by grace, it is no longer by works. Eternal life is the free gift of God, not something earned, and the change in a believer's life is the fruit of salvation, not its price.
4Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. 5But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Romans 4:4-5 (WEB) · context
28We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Romans 3:28 (WEB) · context
6And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Romans 11:6 (WEB) · context
16yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.
Galatians 2:16 (WEB) · context
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (WEB) · context
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10 (WEB) · context
Can a believer know he is saved?
The Catechism says grace cannot be known except by faith and that we cannot rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified. John wrote his letter so that those who believe may know that they have eternal life, and Paul says those justified by faith have peace with God.
We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2005 · official text
13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:13 (WEB) · context
1Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
Romans 5:1 (WEB) · context
24“Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
John 5:24 (WEB) · context
How Catholics answer
Catholics point to James 2:24, which says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, and say that faith must be living and active, working through love (Galatians 5:6).
24You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.
James 2:24 (WEB) · context
6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.
Galatians 5:6 (WEB) · context
What Scripture answers
James and Paul answer different questions. James shows that real faith is never alone: it shows itself in what a person does, as Abraham's did. Paul shows how a sinner is declared righteous before God: by faith, apart from works, as Abraham was when he believed God (Genesis 15:6), years before he did the works James mentions. Good works are the fruit of being saved, never the root.
Where Christians disagree
- Catholic theologians and Protestant theologians have discussed these questions for five centuries, and both sides have shifted their wording over time (for example the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between Catholics and Lutherans). We quote the Catechism, the Church's official summary of its teaching, so you can read the Church's words for yourself.
The good news
Saved by grace, through faith, in Christ
Salvation is God's free gift to everyone who trusts Jesus Christ alone.