Yes, "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law."
---Again, the Mosaic Covenant, the 'works of the law' do not save.
Paul separates grace and works (not faith and good works) because grace is the free unmerited gift from God. No works required, as the Catholic Church has taught from the beginning when it comes to initial justification - i.e. Baptism.
It's not a question of grace and works being separate. It's faith and works.
And faith, without works, is dead.
This is why reformation theology always fails. You take a single verse and miss the rest of the epistle, not to mention, the rest of the NT Testament canon as well as the Old Testament.
God cannot contradict Himself. This is a Truth.
Therefore, Romans 4:2-3 CANNOT be in opposition to James 2:21-24.
"Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."
Abraham's faith, is better understood as "faithfulness". As you just said, "He is talking about Abraham obeying God’s call to leave Ur, Abraham building altars, and Abraham living a righteous life."
Paul is telling you Abraham cannot boast of the works of the law because He did not have them. That's what Paul has been talking about in Romans 2 and 3. Works of the Law. Read the WHOLE thing.
@ChristySimm23@Cath_SteelMan@MitchMi68122792 Yes, precisely. He brings up Abraham because Abraham was BEFORE the Mosaic Covenant and is proof that the Mosaic Covenant and the Mosaic "works of the Law" do NOT save.
The entire premise is the Mosaic Covenant is NOT means of salvation.
@ChristySimm23@Cath_SteelMan@MitchMi68122792 Paul is talking about the works of the Law. The entire premise of the first several chapters of Romans is to discuss the old Mosaic Covenant contrasted with the New Covenant. Those works he's referring to are NOT the same as 'good works' the Church refers to.
What good is a gift that you don't use? Yes, you must cooperate with God, turning towards Him and further using His gift of Grace which infuses us with the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.
"when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body." CCC 1815
See also CCC 1812-1829
"so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit." CCC 2008
@KellyPowersBPA No, of course not. You replaced the "Pillar and Bulwark of Truth" with "the truth according to me."
You replaced God's Truth with subjective feelings.
@mikeproverbs10@Cath_SteelMan@swamthetiber25@5SolasMissy The Church…the “pillar and bulwark of truth”…who is led into truth through the Holy Spirit (the Helper, Advocate, Counselor).
Hence how you know which books are inspired and which are not. The Church, guided by God into Truth.
All Scripture is from God. But not all that is from God is in Scripture. That's the point.
All Scripture is profitable for teaching. But it does NOT say it is sufficient.
Ok so if you agree that not everything was written down, then sola scriptura is dead on arrival.
Clearly there are teachings, instructions, etc that were NOT written down but were instead passed along via oral transmission...i.e. Apostolic Tradition.
That includes how we pray, how we worship, how we live the Christian life practically speaking.
Are you saying that everything Jesus said, did and taught is written down in Scriptures?
Are you also saying everything the Apostles said, did and taught is written down in Scriptures?
Because Scripture itself refutes this.
But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. -John 21:25
@mikeproverbs10@Cath_SteelMan@swamthetiber25@5SolasMissy We, as Christians, believe those in Heaven are alive.
"He is not God of the dead, but of the living."
-Matthew 22:32
And they hear prayers the same way those in Revelation 5:8. Through the grace of God, who is omnipotent.