[FactQuest]

“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:24

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: It is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9

“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Rom 5:17

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us...” Titus 3:5-6

“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Galatians 2:21

Or, to put in into the terms of the Reformation, sola gratia. Not by ordinances, not by works of righteousness.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those crazed evangelicals that thinks the Pope is the Antichrist or that all Roman Catholics are going to hell. I don't. I think God has used the RCC in a mighty way, preserving the Christian faith through the centuries. I don't, however, think they, or any other denomination, has perfect wisdom, or perfect teaching. And I think God is big enough to use us, his imperfect vessels and the imperfect Church (meaning all true believers, Roman Catholic and otherwise).

[Campion]

The passages you cite concern justification through the Mosaic Law ("righteousness ... come by the law", "works of righteousness we have done", etc.).

But the sacraments of the New Law are not anything "we have done," but are works Christ has done in is. The same St. Paul you cite says "as many as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ" (Gal 3:27). Does that sound like the Sacraments are irrelevant?

Christ himself says with crystal clarity, "Whose sins you remit, are remitted; whose sins you hold bound, are held bound." (Jn 20:23) He addresses those words to the apostles, who gave that power to their successors, the bishops, who delegate that power to their priests. Why do you think St. Paul contradicts Christ? He doesn't!

The Reformation contradicted the constant understanding of the whole Church -- East and West -- that had been in place since the earliest times. (Read the Fathers if you don't believe me.) The Sacraments are the channels of God's grace, not the antithesis of it.

[dangus]

O give me a break... There have been 13,873,615 threads about various Catholic teachings which Protestants assert are not biblical. I expected better from you than assertion that sacraments are unneccesary, even for believers. Look at the wording of your quotation from the catechism: Even in the short snippet, it plainly states that the graces are delivered through the sacraments. As in: it is the grace which does the salvation; the sacraments are the means of receiving those graces.