Let’s say your friend says to you, “All you need to do is accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior to be saved. He did all the work for us.” How would you respond?
I would say, "Dear friend", you are right that Christ has purchased forgiveness for us. However, the Scripture nowhere says that we can keep sinning and Christ's suffering will keep forgiving automatically. Our Lord said "your are my friends, if you follow my commands". May be if you die at the same moment when you profess your faith that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, you can escape (assuming you have been Baptized).
Protestant brothers and sisters, selectively use St. Paul's letters to justify their "once saved always saved" position. However, they ignore what the same St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:19.
19 having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. (1993). (1 Ti 1:19). Washington, DC: National Council of Churches of Christ.
He says our faith can falter. So "faith alone" is not practical.
I would tell my friend that he, or she is exactly correct, that all we need in order to achieve salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ and accept the Paschal sacrifice he made on our behalf as the Lamb of God.
I would then follow up with a question: "What does it mean to say, "I believe"?
I would likely follow that up with Scripture since most who make the sola fide (by faith alone) claim also profess the sola Scriptura (salvation by Scripture alone) claim.
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", says Peter (Mt. 16:16). And again, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn. 6:58-59). Having acknowledged this, after the Resurrection Jesus pursues Peter, who made such claims of "belief in Jesus Christ" by asking him a question concerning that belief: To "Do you love me more than these"? To which Peter defends his claim, "Lord, you know I love you". Jesus then tells him to live out his belief, he doesn't say, "Wow, that's great buddy, you've made it" (Jn. 21:15-19)!
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" the young man asked Jesus. Once Jesus called his attention to his relationship with God he told him to do something with that faith, he didn't say, "That's great you know the Commandments! All you gotta do now is believe in me and my mission like these disciples here and 'bang', you're in" (Mk. 10:17-22)!
And then there's the story of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 1025-37), and then there's the judgment of the nations where Jesus tells us that so long as we say, "Lord, Lord" we will... Wait, wrong one, that's from earlier in Matthew, chapter 7:21-23 where he says that merely recognizing (believing) that Jesus is Lord doesn't get your ticket punched at the pearly gates, but "he who does my Father's will" - you know, by living out that belief. But I digress. The Judgment of nations (Mt. 25:31-46) is quite clear that Jesus expects certain actions in order to prove that belief we profess - just like Abraham in Genesis 22 when he was asked to offer his only son whom he loved. he didn't say to God, "You know I would totally do that for you", to which God replied, "Cool. That's all I need"! Of course causing Abraham to be certain: "So we're good"? With God's thumbs up response, "Totally, bro"! Moses was called to lead - to do something. David was called to the same response of faith. Finally, after searching the entirety of Scripture we could end it in the final chapter of the book of Revelation, in some of the final words Jesus passes on to St. John, "Behold, I am coming soon, to bring recompense, to repay every one for what he has done"(Rev. 22:12). Oh, speaking of last words, I forgot some of the last words Jesus spoke to his apostles before ascending: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you..." (Mt. 28: 19-20). That sounds like there's quite a bit attached to "believing in Jesus as our Lord"; that it's not merely a proclamation, but an action - a Spiration.
Nice response Steve. So many examples. Thank you. Once saved always saved. Seems so silly to believe this. So many good people are being misled by people who were misled. I think of a Church that would have been so strong united. Now we Christians are broken into thousands of pieces. Yet we expect others to look at our example and become Christians. Because someone decided to take things into his own hand (I am speaking of Father Martin Luther). The Catholic Church has had issues always. The Church is full of sinners. I forget who said this, "if you are not a sinner, you are in the wrong place". Yer Fr. Luther decided to go his way and fractured the church along with Henry the VIII. Sad!
