Let us examine spiritual salvation. Is spiritual redemption by God alone? Or, is it by man and God in cooperation? Is it through good works and merit or grace
and faith alone? These are important
questions on how someone is right with God.
Here we see that baptism is the way someone is right with God and adds
to the Gospel:
1213 Holy
Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the
Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door
which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from
sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated
into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament
of regeneration through water in the word."
1215 This
sacrament is also called "the washing of regeneration and
renewal by the Holy Spirit," for it signifies and
actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one
"can enter the kingdom of God."
Good works and indulgences are required:
1477 "This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even
pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and
good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of
Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the
mission in the unity of the Mystical Body."
1479 Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of
the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences
for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.
It is possible, according to Catholicism, to merit salvation
and attain eternal life:
2027 No one
can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. 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.
Sin can separate one from God (cf. Romans 8 and 9):
1035 The
teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.
Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin
descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal
fire." The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in
whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and
for which he longs.
No one can be right with God except through Roman
baptism. No one can be right with God
except through good works and indulgences and personal earned merit. This is
the Roman Catholic system of spiritual salvation. Sin can take us out of God’s grace. In Reformed theology, sin cannot take us out
of God’s grace. God uses all things to
work together for good to them that love God.
Sin can cause a loss of rewards and injure our fellowship to God, but it
can never break the spiritual cords of salvation. No sin can take us out of the state of grace,
because grace is more powerful than sin.
