Justification-Sanctification
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Home Catholic Church Apologetics Index Justification Sanctification II Justification Sanctification III
Are You Saved?
SALVATION
The Reformers saw justification as a mere legal act by which God declares the sinner to be meriting heaven even though he remains in fact unjust and sinful. It is not a real eradication of sin, but a covering. Someone once explained the process as though our sins were dirt covered with snow. It is not an inner renewal and sanctification.
The Catholic Church/Bible/Jesus understands Justification/Salvation/Sanctification differently. It is a true eradication of sin and a true sanctification and renewal of the inner man. The soul actually becomes pleasing/holy/perfect to God and so 'merits" heaven!
1 Thessalonians 4:7 "For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you."
There are many verses in Scripture which support this.
Revelation 21:27, "nothing unclean shall enter it [into heaven]".
Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Leviticus 19:2 "Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.
Salvation is ultimately a "Call to Holiness"!
'Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" [MT. 5:48]
You ask me a method of attaining perfection. I know of love, and only love. Love can do all things.
– St. Therese of Lisieux
[Col. 3:14] And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.
The aim of our spiritual life: "is a gradual replacement of one's self by God, always, of course, leaving our own personal identity intact [2 Peter 1:4 "partakers of the divine nature"]. We must never forget that the spiritual life is a partnership with Jesus, a partnership with God. We have at our disposal all the power and love of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and energize us!
If we rely on God, He will make sure we get to Heaven/Eternal Salvation.
Paul, Ephesians 6:12: 'For it is not against human enemies that we struggle, but against Sovereignties and Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens.'
The Lord is my strength and my song: he has become my Salvation.
Scripture speaks about God defeating the power of Satan: [Colossians 1:13-14] 'He has taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that he loves, and in him we gain our freedom and the forgiveness of our sins."
Confidence in Christ!
As "Children of God" we can have "confidence" in Gods mercy & love. That as we yearn to do His will... He will personally see that we reach Salvation.
If God is our God, and if God is our All, there should be no limit to our confidence and hope in Him!
While Scripture does sometimes speak of salvation as a past event (Romans 8:24, Ephesians 2:5, 8, 2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:5), or as a present process (Philippians 2:12 "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." [KJV]), it most often speaks of it as a future event:
"you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. " (Matthew 10:22).
"For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it" (Mark 8:3-5).
"But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will" (Acts 15:11).
"Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life" (Romans 5:9-10).
"Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed" (Romans 13:11).
"you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Corinthians 5:5).
Present tense:
"Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. 2 Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:1)
The Catholic Church unlike many non-Catholic Christian churches is a "Full Bible Church". I know some Christian churches that only teach on the Letters of Paul, while others call themselves a "Four Gospel" church, meaning they teach on the four Gospels.
But, in order to understand God's Plan of Salvation mankind needs to look at the whole Bible.
Only accepting the New Testament for your understanding of God is like trying to construct the second story of a building without constructing the first floor!
Click on the following link to purchase good
Catholic Biblical teachings on Justification Salvation Sanctification.
