Word Weld

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

Galatians 3:11-12

As next week is Resurrection Sunday, that we also call Easter, I think we should go address an uncomfortable issue that is fundamental to why so many turn to other religions and away from the Truth.

Works

This word has troubled Christians since formation of the first churches. Does God require good works? How do our works relate to our salvation? Is it ok if I do no good works? If I don’t, am I going to Hell?

There is some minor confusion about works in the New Testament, but really only because of the book of James. Were it not for the book of James, Christians would have have no problem at all (though I suspect the problems would just be different). And don’t get me wrong, I love the book of James. Indeed, I love James’ teaching on works, because it is a necessary message to balance out Paul’s emphasis on Salvation by grace through faith. If you think about it, why is it that God chose to fill the New Testament with so much talk about grace and faith, and then only include a very small discussion about works? Is it because works are a lot less important? Yes and no.

James does a necessary thing, though admittedly Christians get unnecessarily confused because they don’t carefully read through and think through what James says. He offers this “troublesome” take:

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

James 2:24

Earlier, he also says this:

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

James 2:20

There have been many eloquent explanations of the paradox (or as some people claim, contradiction) of James’ teaching. I’m not going to give my own eloquent explanation, because that’s not what this article is about, and I’m not eloquent. Suffice it to say that despite appearances, James is not saying that we are justified unto salvation by our works, but that rather our works are evidence of our faith. Therefore, our works are evidence of our justification, and faith without works is actually evidence that there is no faith at all, or at least that there is a very critical problem with our faith.

So what is the point of this article?

A few days ago I was listening to a Daily Wire podcast, and commentator Brett Cooper was discussing a porn star that recently left the industry, who she brings up toward the end of the video. This individual, who goes by “Mistress B,” claims to be (according to her Twitter/X bio) “converting to Christ.” Brett goes on to describe that this former porn star has actually converted not to Christ, but to Catholicism.

What is the difference, you ask? Isn’t Christ the center of Catholicism? Ostensibly, like many false religions (yes, I did say that about Catholicism and will not recant, no pun intended), Catholicism claims Christ, along with the Bible and numerous other content from the Bible. It then goes on to create a kind of “Gentile Judaism,” by taking the Christian Bible and cherry picking what it likes, discarding what it doesn’t, and then adding a huge mess of its own man-made rules while keeping them under the umbrella of God’s authority. As I said, it is just 1st century Judaism, but with Gentiles and Jesus.

I’ve written before about the Catholic Church and had some back-and-forths with Catholics online as a result, but I will not repent. Indeed, I maintain that the Catholic Church is one of the most insidious tools of the Devil. I have been scolded before that “but there are real Christians in the Catholic church.” And to that I agree: yes, there are. It is a very sad thing that there are real, Christ-believing Christians in the Catholic Church, because they have no business being there. I understand, many people were part of the Catholic Church and got saved (praise God!), but then they remain because they do not want to be ostracized or because their family would react badly or some other reason. That is unfortunate, but getting saved doesn’t make allowances for those things, and neither does God.

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Luke 9:62

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Matthew 10:34-38

A Christian who is saved while in the Catholic Church is no different form a man in a bar or nightclub who receives Christ and then continues to go to the bar or nightclub to avoid offending his friends. Perhaps this is too harsh, but the above verses are similarly harsh: you can’t get saved and continue in the same Godless place you were.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

2 Corinthians 6:17

The Human Need for Atonement

Why does the Catholic Church continue to be huge and popular, even in the face of its numerous failures to be actually Christian. After all, it had a dubious inception, distorting one passage of Scripture in order to claim the Apostle Peter as a Pope. Also, it is historical fact that the Catholic Church is guilty of the Inquisition, many literal holy wars where people killed in the name of Christ, Popes who behaved like secular dictators, and its various levels of leadership abusing their power over people for material gain and sexual perversion. Last and most importantly, it has massively deviated from the World of God evidenced by the Catholic Church never teaching some Bible passages that undermine their rules, and priests discouraging members from reading the Bible on their own. It seems as if the Catholic Church’s hypocrisy, violence (even against real Believers), and tyranny would be enough to turn people away from it, yet they continue to be the largest “Christian” denomination in the world. Why is that?

I don’t know for certain, but I have a guess that I suspect is very close to the truth. People know deep down that there is a God and when confronted with the Bible, with God’s Word, they know it to be true. They say there are no atheists in foxholes, because when faced with the horror of death people know that there is something beyond and that they are not ready for it. Indeed, they know that whatever lies beyond could very well be punishment for the things they have done wrong in their life. They don’t necessarily understand the true nature of Original Sin or the Curse of Adam (sin nature of man), but they don’t need to. All they know is that they are wrong and they need to get right if there is to be any hope for their soul. They need to do something about their wrongdoing: they need to make it right. And up until this point, they’re right. But then many a guilty sinner sits down and listens to what real Christians say about Salvation from the Bible, and they reject it. Why?

They have reached the point where they recognize that there is something wrong with them fundamentally. Much like this woman “Mistress B,” they have been sucked dry by a world of lust, vice, and debauchery and left empty. Their lives are often destroyed or at least gutted to the point where they don’t know how God could ever forgive them. And so, turning away from the red Devil with his horns, tail, and pitchfork, they turn to the fall into the arms of the Devil dressed in the black suit with the white collar. Am I saying all priests are the Devil, no I am not. But make no mistake, many if not most are doing the Devil’s work, by leading people astray. The Devil, after all, doesn’t not give up when the sinner realizes he is fallen and longs for repentance. Not at all. In fact, he has devised a perfect scheme to keep them in their sins: the long, winding road of human atonement.

Making Amends

The problem that repentant sinners like “Mistress B” have with actual Christianity and what the Bible teaches is that faith in Christ alone is all that is required. That cannot be it. God cannot possibly forgive sinners based on their belief in His Son only, because that would mean that some humans would never make up for their misdeeds. That is human atonement, our need to fix ourselves, to be involved in the process of being forgiven. We jokingly refer to “peace offerings” when we talk about making up with our wives or parents or a friend, but we really do want what we are doing to absolve us of the guilt we genuinely have. But in Judaism the sin offerings and sacrifices were not to “make amends” for the sins of Israel, they were to point toward the sacrifice of Christ.

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Hebrews 10:1-4

That is “the rub” with the repentant sinner and true Christianity. That is the draw of the Catholic Church: it puts us back into the process of Salvation. We have to say we’re sorry to a priest, or we have to do good deeds to make up for our sins. And when we do good things or go to confession, we feel as if we’re washing away what we have done in the past. That gives us a sense of control that true Christianity does not offer… but it comes at the price of eternal damnation. That is what the Catholic Church does not want its members to read in the Bible:

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:19-20

The Catholics (and the Devil) do not want people to know the truth: that faith and trust in Jesus alone is enough to save us from our sins, or that, as James was trying to say, works come after faith! In Galatians, the Christians in that city were being troubled by Jewish teachers who claimed to be Christians but were tying salvation to good deeds, except their good deeds were found in the law of Moses. Paul scolded both parties and then said:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Galatians 2:16

What did Jesus Himself say? When He was asked by the crowd about what works they could do to get to God, Jesus told them directly:

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

John 6:28-29

The Error of Catholicism is to Deny Christ’s Complete Work

No one in the Bible said never to do good works. That is what James was trying to correct. James was dealing with extremists (which may describe all humans to some extent) who were saying that once Salvation through faith was obtained, nothing more was expected of them. That error is a niche error, but it does occur even to this day, which is why the book of James is included in God’s Word. God wanted Christians to understand that God does not accept any of our works towards Salvation, but that He does expect saved people to do good whenever they can.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

James 2:21-22

What James is addressing is that if we say we believe in Christ through faith in His sacrifice only, as we should, but our lives do not reflect that belief, we may not be saved at all. Not that we lost our salvation, but that we never had it. We often, including myself, speak often about the parable of the sower, and we often focus on the last two or three examples, but we rarely talk about the first example in Christ’s parable, but I believe this is an example of such a case:

When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

Matthew 13:19

This is the Devil’s failsafe for those who want to repent. The example Christ gives of the one who received seed “by the way side” is an example, of which the sad story of the Catholic Church is one such perfect case. The Word of God reaches a sinner coming to a realization about his sin and fallen nature and all of the evil deeds he has done, and wants to be made clean, but the Devil (under the guise of works-based religion) comes and snatches the Truth from them. This is “Mistress B,” and so many like her: honestly coming to the point where they fear for their soul and eternity, but unable to accept an atonement that puts their works secondary to Christs. They cannot bring themselves to accept that God has already paid the price for their misdeeds, and their works should come after, only as a sign of obedience, love, and gratitude. They take the lure of the Catholic Church, which flips salvation on its end, and places sanctification before salvation, when in reality only a saved person can even begin the process of sanctification (which is doing good works in the hopes of becoming more like Christ over the course of our life on earth). And even then, sanctification is not an all-us process, but rather is a good work that God Himself does, once we are saved:

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Philippians 1:6

God begins the good work when Christ paid the debt for all of your sins, by taking it on Himself. Then, He continues that initial good work by sanctifying you, moving you toward Christ-likeness by changing your heart, your desires, and ultimately your deeds. So it is all of God, and even the good deeds we do after salvation are not entirely to our own credit, but that is alright, because those deeds are evidence of the work of sanctification that is currently underway, and more importantly, evidence that salvation has occurred in our lives. As James concludes:

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James 2:26

So don’t be fooled by the alure of the Catholic Church, or any religion or group or man telling you that salvation lies just behind the door of some good deed or some act. If you really have come to the place, like “Mistress B,” where you are wasted from the world of sin and vice, and you feel emptied and gutted from all of the vain pursuits of lasciviousness, understand that you cannot scrub hard enough to get the red out of your ledger. You can’t make the grime come off. You can’t undo what was done no matter how many good deeds you do. There is only one thing you can do: trust Jesus, accept His singular work on your behalf, and understand that once you are saved, the Holy Spirit will lead you to do good works, but not to wash away your sins. He will lead you toward good works simply to show how grateful you are and to show others that you aren’t doing these things so God will save you, but because He already did.