What is salvation by faith and good works?

Works of mercy.

In Matthew 19:16-17, Jesus explicitly affirms the importance of good deeds for attaining eternal life. When asked directly, "What good deed must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus responds,

“If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

To “keep the commandments” essentially means to do good works. Every good work we could possibly do falls under one of the Ten Commandments – either love of God, or love of neighbour. Faith must have an element of love to make it a saving faith. We cannot be saved by our faith alone.

We must both believe in God and love him – by keeping his commandments (1 Jn 5:3).

And this all comes through the grace of God (Acts 15:11, Jn 15:5).

Jesus himself emphasizes that simply confessing him as Lord, while certainly good, is not sufficient for salvation: “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father” (Mt 7:21). He is emphasizing not just the need to believe, but to act as well – to do the will of his Father.

Similarly, in Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of separating the sheep and goats. Both the sheep and the goats have faith and call him “Lord.” But only the sheep are saved – those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked ... the ones who do the good works.

St. John beautifully summarizes the needed balance between a confession of faith and the necessity of good works. In 1 John 3:18-24: “Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. His commandment is this: We should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another.”

Loving one another and keeping the commandments are all actions – the grace-inspired good works of Catholic theology that unite to form a truly grace-filled saving faith.

God will judge us by how we respond to the grace he offers. This includes our acts and actions, as well as our faith in him. A full response to God’s grace involves responding in faith and responding in the way we live. We will be judged by the things we do and what we do not do.

We can see this in the parable of the sheep and the goats that Jesus tells his disciples (Matthew 25:31-36). Those who enter heaven are those who have helped Jesus through the good they have done for others.

Therefore, the more positive / good works / actions we perform the more we remain in friendship with God (sanctifying grace).

​Hence the more good works we perform the more we remain in friendship with God.

God will judge us in the end by our actions done throughout our entire lives. Throughout our lives we can choose to remain in God’s friendship / grace or not. We have free will to choose whether to obey God or not and if we choose to disobey God, which is to sin, then we choose not to remain in God’s friendship.

Yes, we must have faith that our savior is Jesus Christ, but at the same time our actions must reflect that faith.

To merit heaven is not being nice or sincere or being good enough; to merit heaven is through the Blood of Christ, and faith is the acceptance of that free gift. But the Church insists that good works are necessary too. This means the works of love of charity. Good works are not mere external deeds, but the works of love. And love is not mere feelings, but the works of love (charity, agape). That is why Christ can command them; feelings cannot be commanded.

St. James clearly teaches that "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:17). And some of Christ's parables teach that our salvation depends on charity . .. "as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me". Mt 25:40

Original sin corrupted the pure nature of our souls and made it concupiscence.

Therefore man is inclined to sin and Catholics know that when we sin we have to make reparation by going through the Sacrament of Penance or Confession, and receiving the penances for it. Fulfilling the penances (works) received from confession do we regain sanctifying grace to reconcile with God. Penances are usually in the form of prayers or good works of charity or some form of fasting. Without fulfilling these penances (works) we cannot make reparation and cannot merit heaven - salvation.

As we know life on earth is a pilgrimage to merit heaven - a life of work and the many trials which help us (IF we in our morning prayers “offer it up” to God) as a way of purifying our souls or to make up for our sins.

Reading about the life of the Saints, they lived penitential lives. Lives of self sacrifices and mortification; they knew it was required for purifying their souls to attain heaven. If Saints need to do this, what more of us!

If we appreciate that God is all pure as well as the purity of heaven, our souls need to achieve the purity prerequisite of heaven. The Church provides us the Sacraments, to attain sanctifying grace, practising the virtues, fulfilling our penances, fulfilling our station in life, our works, or even having to spend some time in purgatory; how else are we to purify our souls worthy of heaven.

​By faith and good works, we thereby love and serve God. By deepening our faith, learning to love Jesus more each day; appreciating His undying love and mercy for us; imitating Christ’s meekness and humility of heart, and recourse to the Sacraments, we can do the good works expected of us.

"No one reaches the kingdom of Heaven except by humility"

--St Augustine

"Humility, which is a virtue, is always fruitful in good works."

--St. Thomas

"You cannot attain to charity except through humility."

--St. Augustine

'There is no doubt that God will never be wanting to us, provided that He finds in us that humility which makes us worthy of His gifts, the desire of possessing them, and the promptitude to co-operate industriously with the graces He gives us.'

--St. Ignatius of Loyola