Fear_nam_Beanntan wrote:Hypothetically, if we died right after being baptized (or, if due to extraordinary circumstances we were unable to recieve baptism, we died right after accepting Christ) we would not have to do good works to be saved. Allow me to explain a little clearer.
The Catholic Church views salvation as a covenant, not a contract. We enter this covenant through faith in (and love of) Christ, at baptism. God adopts us into His family, forgives our past sins, and sanctifies our interior selves. We are translated into a state of grace, and as long as we remain in this state, we will not fall under God's judgement. However, that is not the end of the process. Ultimately, God requires perfection. So, throughout our earthly lives, and even after they are over, God will continue sanctifying us until he conforms us to the image of Christ i.e. makes us perfect. On our part, we must cooperate in this process, which involves doing good works. So in that sense good works are necessary for salvation. This doesn't mean that we earn salvation, since the ability to do good works is itself a gift of God; it just means that it's possible to accept the gift or to reject it. If we rebel against God and refuse to cooperate with His sanctifying grace by refusing to do the good works which He prompts us to do, we can disinherit ourselves of His covenant promises. Then, we must repent and turn back to Him.
Now you have tossed baptism into this process, but that is another discussion. Where do you get the idea that Protestants see our relationship with God as a contract? Our relationship with God is a covenant made between God and Jesus Christ. This is similar to what is called the Abrahamic Covenant that God made with Himself.
COVENANT, NEW
1. Contrast of "New" and "Old" - the Term "Covenant": The term "New" Covenant necessarily implies an "Old" Covenant, and we are reminded that God's dealings with His people in the various dispensations of the world's history have been in terms of covenant. The Holy Scriptures by their most familiar title keep this thought before us, the Old Testament and the New Testament or Covenant; the writings produced within the Jewish "church" being the writings or Scriptures of the Old Covenant, those within the Christian church, the Scriptures of the New Covenant. The alternative name "Testament" - adopted into our English description through the Latin, as the equivalent of the Hebrew berith, and the Greek diatheke, which both mean a solemn disposition, compact or contract-suggests the disposition of property in a last will or testament, but although the word diatheke may bear that meaning, the Hebrew berith does not, and as the Greek usage in the New Testament seems especially governed by the Old Testament usage and the thought moves in a similar plane, it is better to keep to the term "covenant." The one passage which seems to favor the "testament" idea is Heb 9:16-17 (the Revisers who have changed the King James Version "testament" into "covenant" in every other place have left it in these two verses), but it is questionable whether even here the better rendering would not be "covenant" (see below). Certainly in the immediate context "covenant" is the correct translation and, confessedly, "testament," if allowed to stand, is an application by transition from the original thought of a solemn compact to the secondary one of testamentary disposition. Theological terms "Covenant of Works" and "Covenant of Grace" do not occur in Scripture, though the ideas covered by the terms, especially the latter, may easily be found there. The "New Covenant" here spoken of is practically equivalent to the Covenant of Grace established between God and His redeemed people, that again resting upon the eternal Covenant of Redemption made between the Father and the Son, which, though not so expressly designated, is not obscurely indicated by many passages of Scripture.
(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft)
Sanctification has two meanings, one is the work of God that is competed at salvation.
1 Corinthians 6:11
And such some of you were. But you are washed: but you are sanctified: but you are justified: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. DRV
Notice that we are sanctified, not being sanctified. This is God’s part of the process; our part is an ongoing sanctification in being conformed to the image of Christ. The word translated “sanctified” means to be “set apart”, which is a daily occurrence in every Christian’s life, however, God set us apart at salvation when He washed us clean and justified us.
Sin in our lives breaks our fellowship with God, it does not annul our sanctification. We repair our relationship with God by agreeing with Him through confession that we have been disobedient (1 John 1:9). Along with confession we also need to repent and refrain from committing further sin, however, this is humanly impossible since no man can live a perfect life (1 John 1:10). The basis for God’s forgiveness is not our repentance or our confession of sin, it is the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things, according to the law, are cleansed with blood: and without shedding of blood there is no remission. DRV
I believe the Bible teaches that a man can choose to walk away from his salvation, but once he does that it is impossible to renew this man to repentance:
Hebrews 6:4-6
For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come,
And are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God and making him a mockery. DRV
You only get one bite at the apple and once the gift is returned it is never again offered.
Hebrews 9:27-28
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment:
28 So also Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many. The second time he shall appear without sin to them that expect him unto salvation. DRV
I don’t understand how you or the Roman Catholic Church can teach that mankind is given the opportunity to continue sanctification after death. What is your Biblical justification for purgatory? There is no Biblical justification to believe that men die and are then given the opportunity to perfect themselves before judgment.