Are we saved through penance and faith?
The Catholic Catechism teaches that it is through penance and faith that we are saved:
“In converting to Christ through penance and faith, the sinner passes from death to life and ‘does not come into judgment’ ” (para. 1470).
This passage from the Catholic Catechism references John 5:24 from the Bible. Let’s see what this verse says in the Bible:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)
Jesus tells us here that if we hear and believe, we “will not come to condemnation,” or judgment, but have “passed from death to life.” Hearing and believing is faith, but penance is not even indirectly mentioned here. Yet the Catholic Catechism tells us it is through “penance and faith” that we pass from death to life and do not come into judgment.
Why does the Catholic Catechism add penance to what the Bible says? It is not through penance or any other works that we attain our salvation. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 state,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
These verses tell us that we are saved by grace through faith, that salvation is a gift of God, and that it is not by works. No one in Heaven will be able to boast that they are there because they were good enough or because they paid off their debt or because they did enough penance. Those who will be in Heaven will be those who have faith in Jesus and know that He has paid the full price for their sins.
The Catholic Catechism has added the requirement of penance for salvation:
“The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament [penance] as ‘the second plank [of salvation] . . .’ ” (para. 1446).
Penance is the second plank of salvation? The Bible gives us only one “plank” of salvation: faith in Jesus Christ. The Catholic Catechism states that the Fathers of the Church presented penance as the second plank of salvation, and it quotes one Church Father, Tertullian (d. about 240). Stating that the Fathers of the Church presented penance as the second plank of salvation sounds as if all of the Church Fathers held this belief. At least one Church Father, Clement of Rome (d. 97), who is quoted five times in the Catholic Catechism, did not believe that penance is the second plank of salvation. Clement wrote:
“And we who through his will have been called in Christ Jesus are justified, not by ourselves, or through our wisdom or understanding or godliness, or the works that we have done in holiness of heart, but by faith, by which all men from the beginning have been justified by Almighty God, to whom be glory world without end. Amen” (Clement of Rome, First Epistle, Chapter 32).
This is another example of how the Catholic Catechism quotes Fathers of the Church when their statements agree with Catholic doctrine but avoids them when they do not agree. It also shows again that although the phrase “the Fathers of the Church” sounds as if all the respected early Christians believed the same things, the Fathers of the Church actually had beliefs that differed significantly from one another, and even sometimes contradicted one another and the Catholic Catechism.
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