Teach Mormons about One God and By Grace Alone (Home)
Table of Contents:
Early Christian Teachings
Ignatius of Antioch "8. ... there is one God, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His eternal Word," (Letter to the Magnesians)
Ignatius of Antioch "7. ... There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God;" (Letter to the Ephesians)
Irenaeus "For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God, Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them; and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Against Heresies 1:10:1 [A.D. 189]).
Some Catholic Answers to "three gods"
Catholic Answers - "[Some heretics] proclaim that there are in some way three gods, when they divide the sacred unity into three substances foreign to each other and completely separate" (Pope Dionysius - Letter to Dionysius of Alexandria 1 [A.D. 262]).
Catholic Answers - "Christians are monotheists and believe in one God, not three. No matter how closely together three gods work, they remain three gods, not one."
Catholic Answers - "All persons are beings, but not all beings are persons. For example, you are one being and one person. But a dog is one being and zero persons. With regard to the Trinity, there is one being, which is God, yet there are there Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not illogical. If one were to say that there is one God and three Gods, or one Person and three Persons—that would be illogical. But one Being and three Persons is not a contradiction. ... John 1:1 reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" ... When John says, "and the Word was with God" he refutes the heresy of Sabellius (Jesus was the Father). Lastly, when John says that the "Word was God," the Arian heresy (Jesus was not God) also collapses. ... Another compelling verse to consider is John 20:28, where the apostle Thomas says to Jesus, "My Lord and my God." In the Greek, this sentence reads literally, "The Lord of me and the God of me." It would be nothing short of blasphemy for Jesus not to rebuke Thomas if he were wrong. Jesus does nothing of the sort, but in fact he accepts Thomas’ profession of his identity as God in the next verse."
Catholic Answers - "Three Distinct Persons ... The doctrine of the Trinity is encapsulated in Matthew 28:19, where Jesus instructs the apostles: "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." ... the writings of the earliest Christians, who clearly understood these verses in the sense that we do today—that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three divine Persons who are one divine Being (God)."
Catholic Answers - "The earliest evidence of anyone referring to God as a "Trinity" is a letter by Theophilus of Antioch (Ad Autolycum [A.D. 181]). Before the Christian usage, a "trinity" (triad in Greek) was simply any group of three things. ... However, as Christians made theological use of the term, it quickly gained a new, technical sense, referring specifically to the three persons of the Godhead. When Christians professed that God is a "Triad," they did not mean a group of three gods, but one God in three persons."
Catholic Answers - "Trinitarians say the Father is the only true God, the Son is the only true God, and the Holy Spirit is the only true God. All three Persons are the one, true God, as opposed to three Gods."
Catholic Answers - "Christ himself says: ‘I and the Father are one.’ ‘One,’ said he, that there be no separation of power and nature; but again, ‘We are,’ that you may recognize Father and Son, forasmuch as the perfect Father is believed to have begotten the perfect Son, and the Father and the Son are one, not by confusion of person, but by unity of nature. We say, then, that there is one God, not two or three gods"
Catholic Answers - "To those who accuse us of a doctrine of three gods, let it be stated that we confess one God, not in number but in nature. For all that is said to be one numerically is not one absolutely, nor is it simple in nature. It is universally confessed, however, that God is simple and not composite"
Catholic Answers - ""[T]here is no other God, nor has there been heretofore, nor will there be hereafter, except God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, upholding all things, as we say, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we likewise to confess to have always been with the Father—before the world’s beginning. . . . Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe . . . and who has poured out on us abundantly the Holy Spirit . . . whom we confess and adore as one God in the Trinity of the sacred Name"
Catholic Answers - "There is no doubt that the New Testament declares Jesus to be God. ... in John 5:18 we are told that Jesus’ opponents sought to kill him because he "called God his Father, making himself equal with God." ... ...In John 8:58 ... Jesus ... invoking and applying to himself the personal name of God, "I AM" or "Yahweh." ... in John 20:28, Thomas falls at Jesus’ feet, exclaiming "My Lord and my God!" In Philippians 2:6, Paul writes of Christ Jesus "[w]ho, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped." ... the Church Fathers also recognized the divinity of Christ ..."
Catholic Church Teachings
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are not the three persons in which subsists the one Godhead, but three gods who form one divinity."
The Apostles Creed "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. I believe in the Holy Spirit, ..."
The Nicene Creed “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being (consubstantial/homoousion) with the Father. Through him all things were made. ... We believe in the Holy Spirit ...”
The Athanasian Creed “ ... the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One ... the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God ... Three Persons ... the Trinity is Unity ... our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. ... God, of the substance of the Father, ... and Man, of the substance of His mother. ... Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. ”
253 The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity". The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: "The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God." In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), "Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature."
653 The truth of Jesus' divinity is confirmed by his Resurrection. He had said: "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he." The Resurrection of the crucified one shows that he was truly "I AM", the Son of God and God himself.
254 - The divine persons are really distinct from one another. God is one but not solitary. "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another ... The divine Unity is Triune
266 - The Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal (Athanasian Creed)
648 ... the three divine persons act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. ...
262 - The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God
200 The confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is equally fundamental. God is unique; there is only one God: "The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance and essence."
186 - From the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formulae normative for all. [Cf. Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 15:3-5, etc.] But already very early on, the Church also wanted to gather the essential elements of her faith into organic and articulated summaries, intended especially for candidates for Baptism: This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. And just as the mustard seed contains a great number of branches in a tiny grain, so too this summary of faith encompassed in a few words the whole knowledge of the true religion contained in the Old and the New Testaments
187 Such syntheses are called "professions of faith" since they summarize the faith that Christians profess. They are called "creeds" on account of what is usually their first word in Latin: credo ("I believe"). They are also called "symbols of faith".
250. - During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to deepen her own understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian people's sense of the faith
Second Vatican Council "Faith is a gift of grace: “in order to have faith, the grace of God must come first and give assistance; there must also be the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and gives ‘to everyone joy and ease in assenting to and believing in the truth'”. ... All children of the Church should nevertheless remember that their exalted condition results, not from their own merits, but from the grace of Christ. If they fail to respond in thought, word, and deed to that grace, not only shall they not be saved, but they shall be more severely judged”."
1697 - a catechesis of grace, for it is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life;
1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s] through charity."
1889 Without the help of grace, men would not know how "to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil, and the violence which under the illusion of fighting evil only makes it worse." This is the path of charity, that is, of the love of God and of neighbor. Charity is the greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires the practice of justice, and it alone makes us capable of it. Charity inspires a life of self-giving: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it."
160 To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very nature a free act." "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus." Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom... grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."
1989 The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.
2010 Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God's wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.
1991 Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or "justice") here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.
1993 Justification establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom. On man's part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent: When God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God's sight.
2611 The prayer of faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with the divine plan.
1826 "If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing." Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity."
1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
735 He, then, gives us the "pledge" or "first fruits" of our inheritance: the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as "God [has] loved us." This love (the "charity" of 1 Cor 13) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible because we have received "power" from the Holy Spirit.
2011 The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. The saints have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace. After earth's exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone. . . . In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself.
1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
2013 "All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity." All are called to holiness: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ's gift, so that . . . doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.
308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Far from diminishing the creature's dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, wisdom and goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator the creature vanishes." Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace.
2001 The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, "since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it:" Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.1828 The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us": If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.
1821 We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will [ Rom 8:28-30; Mt 7:21]. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere "to the end" [Mt 10:22] and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ
1281 Those who die for the faith, those who are catechumens, and all those who, without knowing of the Church but acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill his will, can be saved even if they have not been baptized (cf. LG 16).
1260 "Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery." Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.
774 The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head throughout the Church which is his Body. The Church, then, both contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is in this analogical sense, that the Church is called a "sacrament."
1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.
1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, -- or immediate and everlasting damnation. At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.
1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him" [1 Jn 3:14-15]. Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren [ Mt 25:31-46]. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell"
1874 To choose deliberately - that is, both knowing it and willing it - something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death.
2148 Blasphemy is directly opposed to the second commandment. It consists in uttering against God - inwardly or outwardly - words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one's speech; in misusing God's name. ... Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin.
1019 Jesus, the Son of God, freely suffered death for us in complete and free submission to the will of God, his Father. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men.
1038 The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust," will precede the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment." Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him. . . . Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. . . . And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
1054 Those who die in God's grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God.
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire: As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.
1023 Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he is," face to face: 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.
865 All those he has redeemed and made "holy and blameless before him in love" [Eph 1:4], will be gathered together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the Lamb" [Rev 21:9], "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God" [Rev 21:10-11]
769 The Church will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven, at the time of Christ's glorious return. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,'... be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence"
1042 At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed: The Church... will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, then will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ [Acts 3:21; Eph 1:10; Col 1:20; 2 Pet 3:10-13]
Justification by Faith and through Grace
Two key Protestant slogans are "justification by grace alone" and "justification by faith alone." (These do not contradict each other since they are speaking on different levels of what causes justification.)
Catholics have never had trouble affirming the first slogan, though Protestants commonly believe they do. But both Catholics and Lutherans often have wrongly thought that Catholics must reject the second slogan.
This confusion is based on a misreading of canon 9 of Trent's Decree on Justification, which rejects the proposition that "the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will" (emphasis added).
As a careful reading of this canon shows, not every use of the formula "faith alone" is rejected, but only those that mean "nothing else is required," etc. If one acknowledges that things besides the theological virtue of faith are required, then one's use of the "faith alone" formula does not fall under the condemnation of Trent.
St. Paul tells us that charity "believes all things, hopes all things" (1 Cor. 13:7). Thus, if you have "formed faith," you have not only faith, but hope and charity. This is why the two formulas-"faith alone" and "faith, hope, and charity"-can be equivalent. If you assert that we are justified by "faith alone"-and by that you mean formed faith-then there is no problem from the Catholic perspective. The phrase is not being used in a way that falls under Trent's condemnation.
Different Protestants mean different things when they use the "faith alone" slogan. Some (rank antinomians) really do mean that one is justified by intellectual belief alone, without hope or charity. Others (many American Evangelicals) appear to believe one is justified by faith plus hope, which is trust in God for salvation. Many others (including the Lutherans signing the Joint Declaration) believe that charity, the principle behind good works, always accompanies faith, and so believe in justification by formed faith.
This is the sense reflected in the Joint Declaration, which states that "justifying faith . . . includes hope in God and love for him. Such a faith is active in love and thus the Christian cannot and should not remain without works" (JD 25).
It is this understanding that also lies behind statements in the Joint Declaration such as: "We confess together that persons are justified by faith in the gospel 'apart from works prescribed by the law' (Rom. 3:28)" (JD, 31).
However, it should be pointed out that the "faith alone" formula is unbiblical language. The phrase "faith alone" (pisteus monon) appears in the New Testament only once-in James 2:24-where it is rejected. For those who use this language, though, it can be given an acceptable meaning.
The Church provides the means for all to be saved
… the Church teaches that salvation is only through Jesus Christ and his body, the Church. Yet at the same time it asserts that those who are ignorant of Christ and/or the Church through no fault of their own—what the Church calls "invincible ignorance"—may be saved.
Before the Law of Moses
Paul explains that, like Abraham, we have access to God’s saving grace through faith: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand" (Rom. 5:1). Jesus’ atoning, sacrificial death is what gains us access to this grace, through which we can have faith and be justified.
As James explains earlier, "Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith" (2:18). Faith—which is a gift of grace itself, not of ourselves—is the means through which God applies the blood of Christ’s redemption to grant repentance and give grace to believers so they may be able to do good works (Eph. 2:10), which he will then reward with eternal life. This is in perfect agreement with the passages of Scripture describing God’s judgment based on our works rather than whether we have explicit faith in Christ. As shown earlier, people without explicit faith in Christ can have faith in God and can repent and do good works, all of which are essential elements of salvation.
After the Law of Moses, before Christ
We are speaking here of those who through no fault of their own have no way of knowing of Christ or have not heard of him in a way that they can clearly understand who he is. If God commanded explicit faith in Christ and baptism as the only ways to be saved—even for those who have no way of knowing about Christ—then he would be commanding such people to do something they’re not capable of doing. This would be unjust and incompatible with his character. God doesn’t give us commands that we are not capable of obeying.
After the coming of Christ
This grace was given in the past without means of baptism—and in certain instances it is still given without baptism when people have either no knowledge of baptism or no access to it. Acts 10:45–47 demonstrates unambiguously God giving Cornelius the Holy Spirit (that sanctifying grace necessary for salvation) before Cornelius received baptism. This was after Christ and the apostles had already preached the necessity of faith in Christ and baptism for salvation.
Sanctifying grace stays in the soul. It’s what makes the soul holy; it gives the soul supernatural life. More properly, it is supernatural life.
Actual grace, by contrast, is a supernatural push or encouragement. It’s transient. It doesn’t live in the soul, but acts on the soul from the outside, so to speak. It’s a supernatural kick in the pants. It gets the will and intellect moving so we can seek out and keep sanctifying grace.
If sanctifying grace dwells in your soul when you die, then you have the equipment you need, and you can live in heaven (though you may need to be purified first in purgatory; cf. 1 Cor. 3:12–16). If it doesn’t dwell in your soul when you die—in other words, if your soul is spiritually dead by being in the state of mortal sin (Gal. 5:19-21)— you cannot live in heaven. You then have to face an eternity of spiritual death: the utter separation of your spirit from God (Eph. 2:1, 2:5, 4:18). The worst part of this eternal separation will be that you yourself would have caused it to be that way.
You can obtain supernatural life by yielding to actual graces you receive. God keeps giving you these divine pushes, and all you have to do is go along.
For instance, he moves you to repentance, and if you take the hint you can find yourself in the confessional, where the guilt for your sins is remitted (John 20:21–23). Through the sacrament of penance, through your reconciliation to God, you receive sanctifying grace. But you can lose it again by sinning mortally (1 John 5:16–17).
Really Cleansed
Sanctifying grace implies a real transformation of the soul. … We believe souls really are cleansed by an infusion of the supernatural life. Paul speaks of us as "a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17), "created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:24). Of course, we’re still subject to temptations to sin; we still suffer the effects of Adam’s Fall in that sense (what theologians call "concupiscence"); but God removes the guilt from our souls. We may still have a tendency to sin, but God has removed the sins we have, much like a mother might wash the dirt off of a child who has a tendency to get dirty again.
Justification and Sanctification
According to Scripture, sanctification and justification aren’t just one-time events, but are ongoing processes in the life of the believer. Both can be spoken of as past-time events, as Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 6:11: "But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." Sanctification is also a present, ongoing process, as the author of Hebrews notes: "For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). In regard to justification also being an on-going process, compare Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6 with both Hebrews 11:8; Genesis 12:1-4 and James 2:21-23; Genesis 22:1-18. In these passages, Abraham's justification is advanced on three separate occasions.
Can Justification Be Lost?
If you sin grievously, the supernatural life in your soul disappears, since it can’t co-exist with serious sin. You then cease to be justified. If you were to die while unjustified, you’d go to hell. But you can become re-justified by having the supernatural life renewed in your soul, and you can do that by responding to the actual graces God sends you.
Acting on Actual Graces
He sends you an actual grace, say, in the form of a nagging voice that whispers, "You need to repent! Go to confession!" You do, your sins are forgiven, you’re reconciled to God, and you have supernatural life again (John 20:21–23).
Once you have supernatural life, once sanctifying grace is in your soul, you can increase it by every supernaturally good action you do: receiving Communion, saying prayers, performing the corporal works of mercy. Is it worth increasing sanctifying grace once you have it; isn’t the minimum enough? Yes and no. It’s enough to get you into heaven, but it may not be enough to sustain itself. It’s easy to fall from grace, as you know. The more solidly you’re wed to sanctifying grace, the more likely you can withstand temptations.
And if you do that, you maintain sanctifying grace. In other words, once you achieve the supernatural life, you don’t want to take it easy. The minimum isn’t good enough because it’s easy to lose the minimum. We must continually seek God’s grace, continually respond to the actual graces God is working within us, inclining us to turn to him and do good. This is what Paul discusses when he instructs us: "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain" (Phil. 2:12–16).
The Mormon gospel found in the Book of Mormon is "another gospel" (Gal.1:6-7), the Book of Mormon reveals “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2Nephi 25:23), the Bible reveals “by grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph.2:8). The Bible is the inspired word of God and is useful for doctrine (2Tim 3:16). We are not saved "after all we can do" like the Book of Mormon reveals, we are saved "according to his own purpose and grace" (2Tim 1:9). We are saved " not by works of righteousness which we have done, we are justified by his grace (Titus 3:5,7). The Bible says "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God". The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth (Rom.1:16). The Atonement works by grace through faith (Rom 5:1,15).
Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high (Rom.5:1-18). We respond to God by faith, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life (Acts.16:30; Rom.10:9,10; John.3:15-21; Acts.10:43-48). It is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life (1Cor 3:9,10). Salvation is not by faith only, salvation is through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (James 2:14; 2Thes 2:13). The Lord gives us the ability to choose to believe or not believe, those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ can be saved, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Acts 16:30,31; Rom 9:9,10). We can choose to believe or not believe, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Mark.16:16; Luke.8:12,13; Rom.4:3-5).
We are not saved by faith only, we are saved by grace through faith, it is the gift of God, not of works, not of ourselves (James 2:24; Eph.2:8,9). The apostle Paul said, by the grace of God I am what I am, I labored yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1Cor.15:10). Faith alone is dead, if it has not works, without charity we are nothing even if we have faith (James 2:17; 1Cor 13:2). According to the grace of God which is given unto us we are laborers together with God (1Cor 3:9,10). Being saved is the gift of God, it is not of ourselves, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works (Eph 2:8-10). Our saved condition results from the grace of God, not from our own merits, we respond in charity to that grace (2Tim 1:9). It is by grace that we are saved and again it is by grace that our works can bear fruit for eternal life (1Cor 3:9,10).
Living faith involves charity, it is not faith only, we are doers of the word not hearers only (James 2:14-26; James 1:22). Faith alone is dead, if it has not works, without charity we are nothing even if we have faith (James 2:17; 1Cor 13:2). Faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father (Matt 7:21,22). When we love God we keep his commandments, his commandments are to believe and love one another (1John 5:2; 1John 3:23). Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Heb.11:6). The dead will be judged according to their works (Rev.20.12). Those who have done good come forth in the resurrection of life, those who have done evil come forth in the resurrection of damnation (John.5.29). Those who love their enemies and do good will have a great reward (Luke.6:35,36).
We are careful to maintain good works because these things are good and profitable unto men, we are doers of the word and not hearers only, without charity we are nothing even if we have faith (Titus 3:8; James 1:22; 1Cor 13:2). It is God which works in us as we work out your own salvation (Phil 2:12,13). We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works (Eph 2:10). We are not exalted by our works, we our exalted by our humility, under grace, we yield ourselves servants to obey, instruments of righteousness unto God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Phil 2:7-9; Rom 6:1-23). God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, we work out your own salvation (Phil 2:12,13).
We are under grace, we do not continue in sin but walk in newness of life, we yield ourselves unto God, we are instruments of righteousness unto God, we yield ourselves servants to obey, we obey from the heart, we yield as servants to God to righteousness unto holiness, we have fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom.6:1-23). We have been called unto liberty, called to the faith which works by love, by love we serve one another, we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and do not become entangled with the yoke of bondage, through the Spirit we wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, we walk in the Spirit, we are led of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, faith, if we live in the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit (Gal.5:1-25). Those who hear the word of God but do not understand fall away, those who understand the word of God bring forth fruit to perfection (Luke.8:11-15). Jesus said if you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me (Matt 19:21).
We are not "saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances" as the Mormon's third Article of Faith states. Faith and charity are not "laws and ordinances". Faith is not an ordinance, faith is a virtue by which we believe in God and believe what he has said and revealed to us, faith comes by hearing (Heb 11:6; Rom 10:17). God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, the Gentiles received "the gift of the Holy Ghost" without water baptism and without the laying on of hands, they were baptized with the Holy Ghost, God granted them repentance unto life (Acts.10:44,45; Acts.11:16,17; Rom.9:15). Those who are ignorant of the Gospel of Christ but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it can be saved, with God all things are possible, the Son can quicken whom he wills (Matt.19:26,26; Matt.25:34,35; John.5:21). If by grace, then is it no more of works (Rom 11:6).
The Bible reveals that we should not accept a perverted a gospel that comes from an angel, (Gal.1:6-12). The LDS Church teaches Revelation 14:6-7 is describing the angel Moroni brining the Mormon restored gospel to Joseph Smith (LDS GP Chapter 41; LDS GP Chapter 10). Revelation 14:6 is not describing the angel Moroni bringing the gospel to Joseph Smith as the LDS church teaches but is describing angels proclaiming imminent judgment on the pagan world, the everlasting gospel is the good news that God's eternal reign is about to begin (Rev 14:6). A false prophet like Joseph Smith can deceive many and can show great signs like the Book of Mormon, a false prophet can come in sheep's clothing (Matt 24:11,24; Matt 7:15).
We can learn if the Book of Mormon is true or false by searching the Holy Scriptures and allowing the Spirit of Truth to lead us to all truth, God will give wisdom to those who ask him (Acts.17:11; John.16:13; James.1:5). Jesus taught that we can know the truth by continuing in his words (John.8:31-32). Jesus did not teach us to use feelings to know the truth like Mormons do. Mormons will say "Feelings from the Holy Ghost are personal revelation to you that confirm the truth of the Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus Christ as restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith." (LDS Web Site). I learned by searching Holy Scripture that the Book of Mormon is false and I testify that the Book of Mormon reveals "another gospel" when compared to the Bible (Eph.2:8). We can persuade Mormons to continue in the grace of God (Acts.13:43).