Answering evangelical Christians
From John Lee, Johannesburg
Allow me to comment on Fr Ron Rolheiser’s column “Have you been saved?” (September 4). Evangelical Christians often ask Catholics “Have you been saved?”, leaving most of us unprepared to give an adequate response from Scripture, which is what they are looking for.
“…I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12)”. (Picture “The Final Judgment” – Memling)
A Catholic answer would be threefold.
1. I have been saved. It is an objective fact that Jesus Christ has died and been raised to save me from my sins. Salvation has already begun to take effect in this life of everyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and has been baptised (2 Cor 5:17).
2. I am being saved and am still running the race—and we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18). Salvation for Catholics is not a “one-off” act.
3. I hope to be saved. I hope that I may arise at the resurrection from the dead. I am racing to grasp the prize, if possible, since I have been grasped by Jesus Christ (Phil 3:11-13).
Justification is not a mere legal act declaring the sinner to be meriting heaven, as Protestants believe, even though the sin remains and is but a covering or non-imputation; only an external application of God’s justice, due to Martin Luther’s unfortunate erroneous reading of the Bible.
“Are you saved?” asks the fundamentalist.
“I am redeemed,” answers the Catholic, “and like the apostle Paul, I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12)—“with a firm hope but not with a false assurance, and I do all this as the Church has taught, unchanged, from the time of Christ.”
- Flabbergasted by a devout Holy Mass - January 30, 2024
- The Language of the Heart - August 8, 2023
- Let’s Discuss Our Church’s Bible Past - July 12, 2023
