This is really a two-part question. Typically it begins with a question like "Have you been saved?" Let's discuss that question first and then move onto the works vs. faith part. As a Catholic, we believe that: Yes, we're saved. Yes, we know Jesus as our Savior. Yes, we are hopeful that we would go to heaven if death struck this very instant.
As a Catholic, we don't point to a specific moment in time when we "made a decision for Christ." Fundamentalist Christians typically believe that you are "saved" at a moment in time when you admit that you are a sinner and that you believe that Jesus died for your sins so that you won't have to be punished for them. Evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians view salvation as a moment in time, where Catholics view salvation as a process. Catholics believe that in the Sacrament of Baptism, we are given God's grace - including the gift of forgiveness. We are saved by God's grace, which is given to us freely, there is nothing we can do to earn it. God gives us the gift of His grace, but it is our decision whether or not to accept this gift. We are given the opportunity every day - every moment - to respond to God, to be closer to Him, to accept His gift. It is a choice that we make by our actions - are we choosing to act in a way that brings us closer to Him? Or, are we choosing wordly things, serving our selfishness, or choosing to sin rather than growing in God's love? If we choose not to cooperate with God's freely given grace, we are no more holy than we were before we knew about salvation. Take a look at these scripture passages, they clearly point to salvation as a process. There's no biblical evidence that supports the view that salvation is wrapped up in a single moment. So, then my beloved, obedient as you have always been...work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Phillippians 2:12) Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus. (Phillippians 3:13-14) If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we perservere we shall also reign with him. (2 Timothy 2:11-12)
Okay, now the faith vs. works question. Are you "saved" because you believe? OR are you pursuing salvation by cooperating with God's freely given grace? The good things that we do are only possible because we are cooperating with and living-out the grace that God has given us. The good works we do are not ours, they are God's. Here's a quote from Paul to help explain this: By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God (that is) within me. (1 Corinthians 15:10) In James, a book Martin Luther wanted removed from the Bible, it says quite plainly: See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone...Faith without works is dead. (2:24, 26) Other verses that support that works done in cooperation with God's grace are important: "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21) The one who shows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from teh spirit. Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time, we shall reap our harves, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:8-9) I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. (Revelation 20:12) There is also the Parable of Talents in Matthew that talks about producing with what you have been given. As well as Matthew 25: 31-46, The Judgement of Nations, which talks about feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and visiting those in prison. The well-known verse (40) says: ...'Amen I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' Conversely, verse 45 says, ...'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' Please note that the above includes action verbs, implying ...ACTION! A big piece of the arguement that we are saved by faith alone is taken from Paul's Letter to the Romans (especially Chapters 2 - 8) and the Letter to Galatians (Chapters 2 - 4). Here's the important thing to remember, these chapters must be read in the context in which they were meant. In these writings, Paul was responsing to questions about the specifics of the Jewish law. His basic point was that the Jewish law had served its purpose, but wasn't necessary now that Jesus had come. He is specifically refering to the Jewish Law when speaking about "works" - not to doing good in general. This is consistent with the many other places Paul indicates the importance of our action to salvation. Bottom Line We are saved by God's GRACE alone, not by faith alone, nor by works alone.
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