One has to acknowledge their need for God.
Scripture, however, is replete with examples of people who were saved by faith and Scripture says so.
If you want to call that a work, in order to justify doing other works, have at it.
But that is not a work as the rest of what people demand we do. And if you are then depending on those works to be made righteous before God, it isn't happening because righteousness is imputed to the believer upon confession, not earned by the believer by doing works the rest of his life.
Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Galatians 2:15-21 15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Catholics as a whole, seem to singularly not get that works don't count toward our salvation in any way. The reason? So that no man can boast before God.
And I've read and heard plenty of Catholics boasting about all the works they do and condemning others for not doing them. I've been the target of it myself so I do know what I'm taking about.
Yet Scripture says that all our RIGHTEOUSNESS is like filthy rags before God. We cannot do good enough works to satisfy God and those works do not erase sin because without the shedding of blood, there is NO forgiveness.
The only way to have the slate wiped clean is through being forgiven.
your comment: Catholics as a whole, seem to singularly not get that works don’t count toward our salvation in any way. The reason? So that no man can boast before God.
How do you know so much? Is it possible that you are not as informed as you could be?
As Catholics, we get help with God’s grace and turn away from sin, and try to follow the path of Jesus by loving Him and our neighbors and by doing good and just actions. We should all try to serve others so that we become closer to God. Do we all suceed? No, we are sinners and we are thankful for God’s mercy.
Work is generally good, whether for our job, our family, our church or our neighbor. If we don’t work, we get lazy and that can be sinful. Working can also be charitable and beneficial to society and is a way of showing Christian values.
Having Faith in God is more than saying so or reading the Bible. Having Faith is learning to love God and be a just person.
It begins with the grace of God which touches a sinner’s heart, and calls him to repentance. This grace cannot be merited; it proceeds solely from the love and mercy of God. Man may receive or reject this inspiration of God, he may turn to God or remain in sin. Grace does not constrain man’s free will.
Thus assisted the sinner is disposed for salvation from sin; he believes in the revelation and promises of God, he fears God’s justice, hopes in his mercy, trusts that God will be merciful to him for Christ’s sake, begins to love God as the source of all justice, hates and detests his sins.
This disposition is followed by justification itself, which consists not in the mere remission of sins, but in the sanctification and renewal of the inner man by the voluntary reception of God’s grace and gifts, whence a man becomes just instead of unjust, a friend instead of a foe and so an heir according to hope of eternal life. This change happens either by reason of a perfect act of charity elicited by a well disposed sinner or by virtue of the Sacrament either of Baptism or of Penance according to the condition of the respective subject laden with sin. By the merit of the Most Holy Passion through the Holy Spirit, the charity of God is shed abroad in the hearts of those who are justified.
2026 The grace of the Holy Spirit can confer true merit on us, by virtue of our adoptive filiation, and in accordance with God’s gratuitous justice. Charity is the principal source of merit in us before God.
2027 No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.
2028 “All Christians... are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity” (LG 40 § 2). “Christian perfection has but one limit, that of having none” (St. Gregory of Nyssa, De vita Mos.: PG 44, 300D).
Feel free to read the Catholic Catechism for more information on what we believe.
2002 God’s free initiative demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of “eternal life” respond, beyond all hope, to this desire: (1742, 2550)