ARE YOU SAVED?

This question is asked of Catholics most often by Fundamentalists. The fast answer is; “That is what my ultimate goal is”! Evangelicals and Fundamentalists feel that by “accepting Jesus Christ as their personal lord and Savior” they are assured salvation. We are saved by our faith alone! So the question that should be asked is, "have you accepted Christ" instead of, "are you or have you been saved". What we really need to look into is if you can gain salvation in a single act and if you can lose your salvation once it has been received. There are many different inferences that can be taken from this question as well. I plan to address this also. I will address if we are saved by our faith or by works, or if we need both to be saved. Another question that needs to be answered is if once we are saved can we lose our salvation. Let’s look at scripture and see if we find any places that would show us that once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior will are assured of salvation. I like the sound of that. We do not have to worry about how we live our lives we just need to accept Jesus into our hearts then all bets are off. It is like when you hear, “if it sounds too good to be, true it probably is". So common logic disagrees with this but what about scripture? Is there any place in the bible where we find this? Common teaching with Evangelicals and Fundamentalists is from Romans 10:9-11 “because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’” But if we read on we can see how this passage is taken out of context. Romans 10:12-13 states “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” Paul is clearly trying to assure gentiles that Christ came for their benefit also. Paul’s letter to the Romans was written for the benefit of the Church in Rome to prepare for his visit there. This letter shows how Christianity is rooted in Judaism but is the faith for all peoples. By looking at the last passage we see all people can be saved and that Christ came for the benefit of all, but this passage still does not show if once we are saved if we can lose that salvation or if we are saved by faith alone, works, or both. 

Let's keep going. Let’s look into how we are to be saved. We will start with James 2:24-26 “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead“. So without works faith is dead this is spelled out very clearly. This is the only place in scripture where the phrase “faith alone” is used and it clearly tells us that we need works along with our faith to be saved. We can now look at Gal 5:6 “For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love”. Faith does count if it is working through love. If faith was the only thing that needed to be saved then why does it need to work through love? In this passage, we also see the reference to the fact that Christ came for the Gentiles (uncircumcised) not only for the Jews. What does Paul say about faith in First Corinthians? “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13:2). We can clearly see if we have faith but do not have love we are nothing. This is a very powerful statement if all we need to be saved is faith. Our faith without love is nothing, loving is clearly a work. How are we to love? Christ states in John 15:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” I Matt 19:16-17 “Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Christ clearly states in this passage that we need to keep the commandment of God, not have “faith alone” to obtain eternal life. Where do we see either that I have been saved, I am being saved, or I will be saved and is faith mentioned here? I will start with I have been saved. Romans 8:24 “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?” This does not say we are saved in faith but it states that we are saved in “hope”. Now we will look at Ephesians 2:5-8 “even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”. Here we see that we are saved by Grace through our faith. Is this stated elsewhere? Look at 2 Timothy 1:9 “He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,” Here see that we are saved not by works but by grace. This is the teaching of the Catholic Church as seen in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (for now own noted as CCC) 1023: “Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ. They are like God forever, for they "see him as he is," face to face:[596] By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died, . . . or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature.” Now that we see that grace, which is given to us from God, is what we need to be saved. What is the process to be saved through grace? In Paul’s letter to the Philippians “So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Again we need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. If we only need to have faith then why must we work out our salvation? If we only have to profess our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior we would not need to have any fear. I want to look at the First letter of Peter. In this letter we find Peter writing “Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of (your) faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and investigated it, investigating the time and circumstances that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the glories to follow them” (1 Peter 1:8-11). Here we see that to the goal of our faith is the salvation of our souls, not the other way around. We are to hope in Christ and this is how will save us through the grace freely given to us by God.