re: I don’t understand how there can be so many liberal Catholics

quote:

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When the israelites walked around Jericho, they had faith that God would deliver them to victory.

They still had to walk around Jericho.

Faith without works is dead.

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I don’t deny that works are necessary. What I’m speaking to is the legal basis for our justification: are we made right before God based on anything we do, or are we made right by trusting in what Christ has done for us?

I believe the Scriptures are clear that our legal justification is based solely on believing in Jesus by faith. Paul gives the clearest account of this truth in several of his epistles, including Romans and Ephesians.

So if faith is all that is needed to be declared righteous before God, why, might you ask, did I say works are necessary? It’s because works are a necessary evidence or fruit that proves we are engrafted into the living vine of Christ.

A dead tree produces no fruit, and a dead Faith (intellectual only, tradition only, or verbal profession only) produces no fruit or good works. As I said previously, an apple tree is not an apple tree because of the apples growing in its branches, but the apples are an evidence that the tree is an apple tree and is alive. Likewise, our good works do not make us Christians but prove that we are united to Christ with a living and active faith, which is itself a gift from God.

I agree entirely that if someone says they have faith but show no evidence of it with good works, it is like a dead fruit tree that bears no fruit. That’s what James was saying: he will show you his faith by his works. His works prove he has a living and true faith, unlike the demons whose faith is merely intellectual and not transformative for good works.