I am a Protestant, and my understanding is that God saves me....I do not save myself.
That means that God, in an act of sheer grace -- unmerited faor -- saves me from eternal separation from him. There is nothing -- nothing -- I can do to say that I am good enough to enter heaven.
I have no desire to denigrate the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, but, as I understand those teachings, there is an emphasis on the human activity necessary in order to achieve salvation.
For instance, I think Catholic teaching is that one must partake of the sacraments of the church (confession and communion, for instance) in order to be saved. It is human activity that count for something.
My Protestant understanding says that none of that really counts. What counts is what God has done, and my belief that God sent His Son to the world to die for my sins -- all of the actiity necessary for my salvation was God's, not mine.
And, since I have accepted God's gift of salvation, God's own Holy Spirit is at work in my heart, transforming me -- sanctifying me. It is a process that changes my heart from one that eagerly looks forward to sin to a heart that shuns sin.
I confess that this is a somewhat oversimlified view, but I hope it helps.
Bob Loblaw: “I have no desire to denigrate the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, but, as I understand those teachings, there is an emphasis on the human activity necessary in order to achieve salvation
For instance, I think Catholic teaching is that one must partake of the sacraments of the church (confession and communion, for instance) in order to be saved. It is human activity that count for something.”
Dear Bob: that is not a clear understanding. The sacraments do not somehow multiply righteousness. That is a mechanical understanding. Rather, the sacraments are food to the soul, enabling, pardoning and sanctifying grace that the Holy Spirit imbues in us as we travel our pilgrimage. If somehow we each gained sufficient grace from one administration of the sacraments we really need continuously, then that would be fine, but the life of the Church suggests otherwise. Sanctifying grace is in no way sufficient, nor does it obliterate the free will of the recipient. The seal of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Order is likewise no gurantee against personal waywardness, selfishness and sin. At all times and all points, the individual must co-operate and freely consent at every level of being to have the benefits of the sacraments be fully effective.
It is true that faith without works is dead, and it also true that works outside of the faith are useless. It is not the accumulation of works that matters, it is the cleansing and purifying effect of God’s grace working within us that grows our spirits and builds our souls until they reflect the perfection that is Christ Jesus in His Glorified Manhood that matters. Such persons being cleansed display the works of righteousness that are the fruits of faith as strengthened and enabled by grace.
All this is to say that grace as conveyed by the sacraments is emphatically not a species of magic and that human life is a pilgrimage from which any of us can stray at any time. The race is not decided until we finish it by death, and even then we may need further purgation. Exactly how is not precisely defined but it is so indicated in Holy Scripture (not least by Peter). In the end, we must be perfect as our Holy Father in heaven is perfect before we come to enjoy the Beatific Vision and partake of eternal blessedness in the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.