So you wrote to defend the position that you think is NOT that of the Catholic Church?
Did you
read the post I responded to? This is
not the Catholic position-and the teachings I quoted refute it:
It's "Sola Fide" turned inside out. Luther understood it perfectly, but Catholics try to BE Richteous to establish FAITH, instead of Having FAITH, which results in Righteous acts.
But the discussion, this thread, was not about keeping the Law. It was about performing good works after justification.
It was about being righteous: sinless, producing good works, et al, which most certainly involves the law even though the law, itself, cannot possible accomplish that righteousness in us. And why would anyone suddenly begin to do good anyway, unless they've been changed, made new creations, made righteous in this new way? The Catholic position is only that such righteousness is now made possible via faith, introducing us to the life of grace, and that were still
obligated to do it.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.“ Rom 5:1-2
“…just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom 5:21
So, to be clear, what is your conclusion? That we are free to do good? If so, the question about Sola Fide seems to me to have been sidestepped. What in your reply says that it's by Faith that we are saved and not anything of ourselves?
Faith gains access to God, the only One who can save man. It's based on the personal knowledge of the true God whom Jesus came to exhaustively reveal:
"No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord." Jer 31:34
"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3
So that now, by that access, within that union or partnership with Him, a relationship that man is made for and is lost, dead, sick without, a relationship which is, itself, the heart of justice or righteousness for man, and a relationship that Adam essentially scorned and dismissed, He may work His righteousness in us; He may justify us:
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people." Jer 31:33
That's the intended product of faith. We all believe that righteousness is necessary for salvation, but Catholicism teaches that said righteousness is more than strictly declared or imputed.
One problem is that some interpret Sola Fide to mean that no amount of sin can separate us from God (and possibly that man
cannot be more than a sinner anyway), rather than understanding that faith provides the
means by which that sin can be overcome, thus keeping us in Him now rather than separated from Him, a death that sin would still earn.
"And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Rom 8:3-4
Others understand Sola Fide to mean that works will necessarily follow or accompany that faith-which, like it or not, necessarily implies a change in man, an "infused" rather than simply imputed righteousness making him more than a snow-covered dung-heap- and that is at least closer to the Catholic position than the former position.