How Catholics Can Answer the Question “Are You Saved?”

Jack Chick Publications played an important role in my life when I was sixteen years old. Going back to public school after a short stint at a very small Catholic school, I tried to connect with the Evangelical Christians. These were good guys who loved Jesus. They also felt they were on a mission to save Catholics. “Are you saved?” became a frequent question.

They would also hand me little Jack Chick tracts. Sometimes, you might find them in public restrooms. Many of them offer a straightforward message for people who are far from God. But there are also some tracts directed at Catholics. My two favorite booklets to remember are “The Death Cookie” and “Are Roman Catholics Christians?”

Since then, I have always been interested in the topic of salvation and how we look at it differently as Catholics and Protestants. Recently, while listening to Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin, I recognized one of the typical errors we make as Catholics. Protestants might say, “We are saved by faith alone.” Catholics might respond, “We are saved by faith and works.” It does point to a fundamental difference that is often misunderstood. The problem is that it is also wrong. Catholics do not believe that we are saved by faith and works. So how do we answer when a Protestant asks us, “Are you saved?”

One Vocabulary - Two Dictionaries

Protestants and Catholics have different understandings of the working of grace in this world, especially as regards salvation. This is complicated, however, by the fact that we sometimes use the same words to mean different things. So we could say that we have one vocabulary, but two different dictionaries. This makes it easy for us to speak past one another frequently, especially when we are talking about salvation.

Initial Salvation

If we are going to use Biblical texts as the basis of our teaching on salvation, we need to distinguish between initial and ongoing salvation. Let’s jump to the passage that Protestants usually point to when they are talking about being saved “by faith alone.”

The most typical verse would be Romans 3:28.

We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law (Rm. 3:28).

One thing to note is that while our bigger conversation is about salvation, the word Paul uses here is justification. It’s not a problem, just something to notice. The word means “to make just.” We are talking about initial justification, or initial salvation.

Paul is having a larger conversation around one of his favorite themes. One of the big questions in the primitive Church was how Jewish you had to be to be Christian. Paul was very strongly of the opinion that you did not have to hold on to all of Jewish customs as a Christian. This is what he is referring to by “works of the law.”

Now, the way we look at this initial justification might be more similar than we would imagine. The Biblical passage talks about faith, and as Catholics we would see this as the act of faith that accompanies baptism. So, we would agree with Protestants that initial justification, or initial salvation, coincides with faith, just that it is faith expressed through baptism.

Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1992).

The Catholic doctrine is very precise, placing all merit for our salvation in Jesus Christ and recognizing that our initial contact with this justification happens at baptism.

Ongoing Salvation

If we are going to look at the Biblical texts thoroughly, we cannot accept the idea of a definitive justification that comes at the moment of the initial act of faith. This is where we must depart from what our separated brothers and sisters say. Protestants following a Reformed theology understand predestination to mean that being “saved by faith alone” means that the elect will persevere to the end. This is expressed in the maxim, “once saved, always saved.” Wesleyan and Arminian traditions reject the idea that a believer’s final salvation is ultimately guaranteed.

If we look closely at the Biblical texts, we have to admit that there is a reference to salvation in the past, in the present, and in the future.

We already referenced Romans 3; now we need to jump ahead to Romans 4. Paul has established that faith is not the same as fulfilling the prescriptions of the law, particularly the ritual aspects. In Romans 4, he talks about the patriarch Abraham as an example of living by faith. Abraham did not have one definitive act of faith and then live off of that forever. Many acts of faith characterize the life of Abraham.

To one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness (Rm. 4:5).

The word for “righteousness” here is closely related to “justification” in the previous chapter. Paul describes faith as not merely intellectual assent to truth, but as trust and confidence. Beyond the initial act of faith and justification, we are in need of ongoing salvation, which can be referred to as sanctification.

Working Towards Salvation

Just like sometimes, Paul’s language suggests that we are definitively saved; in other moments, he seems to be saying that we are working towards salvation. We have already quoted two passages from Romans. A third one gives us a deeper insight into faith as it relates to salvation.

Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (Rm. 13:11).

If we are able to grow closer to salvation, especially with regard to our faith, it shows that there is a certain growth in our faith and in our salvation, which we would probably refer to as sanctification. God is calling us to be holy, and we want to grow in holiness as we grow in our relationship to God.

In Philippians, Paul has a passage where he is talking specifically about our growth in holiness, using the image that we are called to shine as lights in the world. In this context, he exhorts us:

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).

There would be no reason to work out our salvation in fear and trembling if it were already guaranteed forever. Because we are aware that our salvation is not guaranteed, we recognize our need to continue to respond to God’s grace made present by the sacraments in our lives.

God is at work in you, bot to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

Initial salvation is not the same as final salvation, although both come from the grace of God. We cannot earn our salvation, but receive it by responding to God working in us.

As Catholics, we believe that we are saved by God’s grace through faith. This same grace enables us to persevere in faith and charity. We cannot earn salvation independently of grace. Rather, we are called to continue responding to God’s grace in our lives.

Remarkably, some more recent Protestant scholarship in Paul has led to an interpretation that is much closer to the traditional Catholic formulation of the doctrine. As we approach the Biblical texts honestly and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we come to conclusions that match what the Catholic Church has always taught. So, what do you say when someone asks you if you are saved? The answer depends on how we understand salvation and what it means to live in the grace of Christ.