>>22578199the cat is God if it turns out ur wrong.
>>22578199i agree, no christian has ever been justified by ourselves, it is always and only by our faith in Jesus, and it is Jesus who justifies us.
I can agree with that without contradiction, because there are two aspects to justification, and this is one of them. You cannot just share this aspect of salvation, and ignore the other, or you will contradict scripture. Scripture says it is both by faith, but it also says it is not by faith alone, the only way there can be a solution to the dilema is some kind of in between position. It cannot simply be one over another.
There is a sense in which grace is essential, and exclusively responsible. No matter my works, there is nothing I can do to earn a baptism, there is nothing I can do to cure original sin, i NEED grace to be saved, it is impossible to be saved without it, no matter my wisdom, works or anything, and this is what the pope is referencing.
But this does not mean that my wisdom and works and goodness does not also contribute to your salvation. Your salvation is not because of the contribution of wisdom and works, its because of christ, because no amount of works could save you alone! but that is not to say your wisdom and works, contribute nothing to salvation. Once you are already saved by grace through baptism, only then do works contribute and add to you, in which they really do help save you and restore your relationship to God, because of course what you do restores or harms your relationship with God, how could it not? What kind of "personal relationship with Jesus" would it be, if nothing you did mattered to him, and he cannot reject those that reject him? There is no love in that, it is an abusive relationship, is he a robot to please you? No, what you do matters a grave deal, you have to be faithful to him, if you do not obey him, you do not love him, and if you forsake his name, he will forsake you. He explicitly says this.
