A Catholic Rebuke of Answering Catholics on Salvation, Justification, Baptism, and Good Works
Patrick O’Brien’s Answering Catholics asks the most important question a sinner can ask:
“How can I be saved?”
That question deserves a serious biblical answer.
And to Patrick’s credit, his article begins with several truths Catholics wholeheartedly confess.
Man cannot save himself.
Grace is a gift.
Jesus Christ is the Savior.
His Passion is the meritorious cause of our salvation.
Faith is necessary.
No amount of merely human effort can place Almighty God in our debt.
On those points, Catholics can say:
Amen.
The problem begins when those truths are made to carry conclusions they do not actually prove.
Patrick moves from:
salvation is by grace
to:
therefore justification is by faith alone.
From:
Christ alone saves
to:
therefore Baptism and the sacraments cannot instrumentally communicate His saving grace.
From:
good works cannot earn initial justification
to:
therefore works can only be evidence of salvation and can never have a real grace-enabled relationship to eternal life.
And from:
the believer presently possesses eternal life
to:
therefore a truly justified Christian cannot fall from saving grace through grave sin.
Those are not minor conclusions.
They are the very doctrines under dispute.
And they must be demonstrated from Scripture.
That is where the argument begins to break down. Patrick explicitly teaches “faith alone,” describes works as the fruit rather than a cause of justification, interprets Abraham in James 2 as being “justified before men,” and tells the reader not to trust Baptism or the sacraments. Answering Catholics
1. Before Refuting Catholicism, State Catholicism Correctly
The article repeatedly contrasts biblical grace with a system in which sinners supposedly accumulate religious deeds, sacramental grace, or sufficient merit until God finally owes them salvation.
There is one immediate problem:
That is not Catholic doctrine.
The Council of Trent teaches:
“None of those things which precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace itself of justification.”
Council of Trent, Session VI, Chapter 8
Notice what the Church says.
Not good works.
Not religious rituals.
Not even faith considered as an independently meritorious human achievement.
Nothing preceding justification merits the grace of justification.
The Catechism likewise teaches:
“Our justification comes from the grace of God.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1996
And:
“No one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2010
So Catholicism does not teach:
Man works → God owes him salvation.
It teaches:
God acts first → God gives grace → grace moves and heals man → man freely responds to grace → every supernatural good remains dependent upon God.
The real disagreement is therefore not:
Grace versus works.
It is:
What does saving grace actually do in the sinner, and how has Christ chosen to communicate that grace?
That is the debate Patrick needs to have.
2. Is Justification Merely a Legal Declaration?
Patrick describes biblical justification as a judicial declaration.
There is truth in that.
God truly acquits.
God forgives.
God removes condemnation.
But Scripture does not reduce justification to an external declaration in which God changes only His legal assessment of a sinner while leaving the sinner internally unchanged.
St. Paul tells the Corinthians:
“But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11
Washed.
Sanctified.
Justified.
Titus gives us the same pattern:
“According to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost… that, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs, according to hope of life everlasting.”
Titus 3:5–7
Regeneration.
Renewal.
Justification.
And Paul writes:
“The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.”
Romans 5:5
The Catholic doctrine therefore refuses a false choice.
God really declares the sinner righteous.
And by His grace God really makes the sinner righteous through interior renewal.
That is why Trent teaches:
“Justification… is not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man.”
Council of Trent, Session VI, Chapter 7
The Judge is also the Physician.
The God who forgives also heals.
3. Romans 4 Does Not Refute Catholicism
Patrick rightly emphasizes Romans 4.
Abraham cannot boast before God.
Grace is not a wage owed by God to a worker.
The ungodly cannot approach the Creator with a bill and demand payment for services rendered.
Catholics agree.
Romans 4 demolishes the idea:
“I performed enough works independently of grace; therefore God owes me justification.”
Catholicism condemns that idea too.
But Romans 4 does not say:
“Saving grace never inwardly transforms the sinner.”
It does not say:
“Baptism cannot be an instrument through which Christ gives grace.”
It does not say:
“Grace-enabled obedience has nothing to do with perseverance unto eternal life.”
And it does not say:
“faith alone.”
Paul’s argument against boasting is perfectly compatible with Catholic theology because Catholic theology teaches that even our supernatural cooperation is already the fruit of God’s grace.
As St. Augustine famously teaches in substance:
When God crowns our merits, He crowns His own gifts.
That is why Catholic merit never makes God our debtor by nature.
Everything begins with grace.
4. “Faith” Does Not Automatically Mean “Faith Alone”
Patrick accumulates many passages saying:
Believe.
Believe in Christ.
Trust Christ.
Receive eternal life through faith.
Catholics believe every one of them.
But there is a basic logical problem:
“Faith saves” does not mean “faith alone saves.”
If Scripture says repentance is necessary, that does not mean:
repentance alone.
If Scripture says Baptism saves, that does not mean:
Baptism alone.
If Scripture says hope saves, that does not mean:
hope alone.
A biblical author can identify something genuinely necessary without giving an exhaustive description of the entire economy of salvation in every verse.
That is why one passage matters enormously.
The New Testament actually does place the concepts of justification, faith, and “only” together:
“Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?”
James 2:24
The only inspired text explicitly discussing justification “by faith only” says:
not by faith only.
That does not mean James teaches sinners can purchase initial grace.
He does not.
But it certainly means we cannot take every occurrence of the word faith and silently insert the additional word alone.
That word still has to be proved.
5. St. Paul Describes Saving Faith as “Faith That Worketh by Charity”
Paul himself gives an important description of Christian faith:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision: but faith that worketh by charity.”
Galatians 5:6
Not dead faith.
Not merely intellectual acknowledgment.
Not a faith permanently detached from love.
Faith that worketh by charity.
Paul becomes even more striking in 1 Corinthians:
“And if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:2
Think about that.
Paul can speak of tremendous faith and still say:
without charity, I am nothing.
This is why the Catholic Church does not oppose faith.
Trent calls faith:
“the beginning of human salvation, the foundation, and the root of all justification.”
Council of Trent, Session VI, Chapter 8
The Catholic dispute with sola fide is not whether faith is necessary.
It is whether Scripture teaches that saving faith remains alone.
Paul says the faith that avails in Christ is:
faith working through charity.
6. James Never Says Abraham Was “Justified Before Men”
Here Patrick makes one of the most vulnerable claims in the entire article.
He argues that Abraham was justified before God in Genesis 15 but later “justified before men” in Genesis 22.
He even calls that the exact distinction between Paul and James. Answering Catholics
There is an obvious problem:
James never says “before men.”
Those words are not in James 2.
The interpretation has been supplied because the theological system requires it.
James says:
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar?”
James 2:21
Then:
“Seest thou, that faith did cooperate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect?”
James 2:22
Look at those verbs.
Faith cooperated with works.
Faith was made perfect by works.
James continues:
“And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God.”
James 2:23
Then comes his conclusion:
“Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?”
James 2:24
Patrick emphasizes James’s challenge to “show” faith and therefore concludes that the entire passage is merely evidentiary. Answering Catholics
But “show me thy faith” in verse 18 does not erase verses 21–24.
James does not write:
“Abraham was shown before men to have previously been justified by faith alone.”
He says:
faith cooperated with works.
faith was perfected by works.
a man is justified by works and not by faith only.
We should allow St. James to say what St. James actually says.
7. James Does Not Need to List Every Sacrament
Patrick next observes that James does not mention sacramental confession, the Eucharist, penance, the Mass, or an entire Catholic sacramental system. Answering Catholics
True.
But why would James need to?
Catholics do not argue:
“James 2 independently proves every sacrament and every Catholic doctrine.”
James is addressing a particular question.
Can faith exist as a dead abstraction separated from obedient action and still save?
His answer is no.
He teaches:
faith without works is dead,
faith cooperates with works,
works perfect faith,
and man is not justified by faith only.
Baptism is established from baptismal passages.
The Eucharist from Eucharistic passages.
Confession from passages concerning the forgiveness of post-baptismal sin.
Demanding that James discuss the Mass before James’s teaching on faith and works counts is simply changing the subject.
8. Acts 16 Does Not End at Verse 31
Patrick places enormous emphasis on the Philippian jailer.
The jailer asks:
“What must I do, that I may be saved?”
And Paul and Silas answer:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
Acts 16:30–31
Amen.
Catholics believe that verse.
But the chapter does not end at verse 31.
Paul and Silas then preach the word of the Lord to the household.
And what happens?
“And he, the same hour of the night, taking them, washed their stripes: and himself was baptized, and all his house immediately.”
Acts 16:33
Immediately.
Not months later as an optional public symbol disconnected from the saving response.
That very hour.
The same pattern appears elsewhere.
At Pentecost:
“Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Acts 2:38
Ananias tells Saul:
“Rise up, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, invoking his name.”
Acts 22:16
If Acts 16:31 is going to be invoked as the complete biblical answer to “How can I be saved?”, then Acts 16:33 should not mysteriously disappear.
9. Scripture Actually Says “Baptism… Now Saveth You”
Patrick tells his readers:
“Do not trust baptism.” Answering Catholics
There is a sense in which Catholics can agree.
Do not trust water apart from Christ.
Do not imagine a sacrament to be a magical human work operating independently of the Savior.
But that is not Catholic sacramental theology.
The real question is whether Christ has chosen to use Baptism as an instrument of His grace.
St. Peter writes:
“Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also…”
1 Peter 3:21
St. Paul writes:
“According to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost.”
Titus 3:5
Christ says:
“Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
John 3:5
Paul teaches that Christians are baptized into Christ’s death:
Romans 6:3–4
and:
“For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.”
Galatians 3:27
Catholicism does not teach:
Baptism instead of Jesus.
It teaches:
Jesus saves through the sacrament Jesus instituted.
That is why Trent calls Christ’s Passion the meritorious cause of justification and Baptism its instrumental cause.
The instrument does not compete with the Savior.
It receives every ounce of its power from Him.
10. The Sacraments Do Not Compete With Calvary
This is the deeper problem with telling Christians:
Christ or sacraments.
That is a false opposition.
Catholic theology teaches of the sacraments:
“They are efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1127
Who acts in Baptism?
Christ.
Who forgives sins?
Christ.
Who gives the Holy Ghost?
Christ.
Who regenerates?
Christ.
Who joins the Christian to His death and Resurrection?
Christ.
The sacraments are not independent human achievements added to a deficient Cross.
They are Christ’s saving work applied to His members.
This understanding is ancient.
St. Justin Martyr, writing around the middle of the second century, connects Christian Baptism with regeneration.
St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, 61
St. Irenaeus likewise speaks of baptismal regeneration.
St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I.21.1
Whatever else may be disputed, Christians did not need the Middle Ages to invent the idea that Baptism actually does something.
11. Good Works Are More Than Merely External Evidence
Patrick insists upon a strict sequence:
saved first,
works afterward,
works only demonstrate the salvation already completed. Answering Catholics
Catholics agree that supernatural good works come after and from grace.
But Scripture says more than:
works merely reveal something that is already permanently settled.
Paul writes that God:
“Will render to every man according to his works.”
And of those who persevere in doing good:
“eternal life.”
Romans 2:6–7
Our Lord says:
“If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Matthew 19:17
At the Last Judgment, Christ explicitly distinguishes the sheep and goats in relation to works of mercy:
Matthew 25:31–46
Paul warns Christians:
“They who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:21
Hebrews commands:
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness: without which no man shall see God.”
Hebrews 12:14
None of this teaches that natural human effort earns the first grace of justification.
It teaches that grace actually changes us and that grace-enabled perseverance in charity matters.
The Catholic position is not:
works instead of grace.
It is:
works produced by grace.
12. Catholic “Merit” Does Not Put God in Our Debt
Patrick repeatedly warns that if salvation is grace, then God cannot owe eternal life to man because of independent human accomplishments.
Again:
Catholics agree.
The Catechism explicitly teaches:
“With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2007
Why?
Because everything begins with God.
The Catechism continues:
“The merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful.”
CCC §2008
And again:
“No one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification.”
CCC §2010
Catholic merit therefore does not mean:
“God owes me because I independently produced something good.”
It means that God has freely willed to crown His own gifts operating in His adopted children.
Grace precedes.
Grace enables.
Grace accompanies.
Grace brings the good work to completion.
There is no room for boasting.
13. Ephesians 2:8–10 Is Catholic From Beginning to End
Patrick rightly emphasizes:
“For by grace you are saved through faith…”
Ephesians 2:8
Amen.
Then:
“Not of works, that no man may glory.”
Ephesians 2:9
Amen again.
Then Paul continues:
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10
Whose workmanship?
God’s.
Who prepares the works?
God.
What is the person recreated in Christ ordered toward?
Good works.
The Catholic sequence is therefore:
grace → new creation → grace-enabled good works.
Not:
independent human works → God becomes indebted → grace as payment.
Ephesians 2 demolishes boasting.
It does not demolish supernatural cooperation.
Indeed, Paul expresses the relationship beautifully elsewhere:
“With fear and trembling work out your salvation.”
And immediately:
“For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will.”
Philippians 2:12–13
You truly act.
God truly acts in you.
Those truths are not enemies.
14. A Christian Can Really Fall
Patrick’s theology allows serious Christian sin, but the consequences are treated primarily as damaged fellowship, discipline, lost usefulness, poor testimony, and earthly consequences rather than the loss of justification.
Scripture’s warnings are considerably stronger.
Paul tells Christians:
“Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.”
1 Corinthians 10:12
Paul says of himself:
“I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.”
1 Corinthians 9:27
He tells Gentile believers who presently stand by faith:
“Be not highminded, but fear.”
Romans 11:20
Why?
“Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”
Romans 11:22
Jesus speaks of branches in Him:
“If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither…”
John 15:6
Paul warns Christians that grave sins exclude from God’s kingdom:
1 Corinthians 6:9–10
Galatians 5:19–21
These warnings are difficult to reduce to:
“You will remain irrevocably justified but lose fellowship or usefulness.”
The biblical command is not merely:
once enter Christ.
It is:
abide in Christ.
15. Put the Burden of Proof Where It Belongs
Catholics do not need to deny Romans 3.
We believe it.
We do not need to deny Romans 4.
We believe it.
We do not need to deny Ephesians 2:8–9.
We believe it.
We do not need to deny Acts 16:31.
We believe it.
We do not need to deny John 3:16.
We believe it.
The question is whether Patrick’s theological system can account equally naturally for the rest of Scripture.
James 2:24
“By works a man is justified; and not by faith only.”
Galatians 5:6
“Faith that worketh by charity.”
1 Corinthians 13:2
Faith without charity leaves a man:
“nothing.”
John 3:5
“Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Acts 2:38
“Be baptized… for the remission of your sins.”
Acts 22:16
“Be baptized, and wash away thy sins.”
Titus 3:5
“The laver of regeneration.”
1 Peter 3:21
“Baptism… now saveth you also.”
Romans 2:6–7
God renders eternal life in relation to persevering good works.
Romans 11:20–22
Those who stand by faith are warned that they may be cut off.
John 15:6
Branches in Christ must abide.
So let us ask plainly:
Where does Scripture say that justification is by faith alone?
Where does Scripture say that James’s justification is merely “before men”?
Where does Scripture say that Baptism is only an outward symbol and never an instrument of regeneration?
Where does Scripture say that grace-enabled good works are merely evidence and can have no real connection to eternal life?
Where does Scripture say that one who has truly been justified can never subsequently fall from grace?
And perhaps the simplest question of all:
Why does the only biblical sentence that actually says “faith only” say that man is not justified by faith only?
That question cannot be answered merely by repeating:
faith alone.
It has to be demonstrated.
Conclusion
Patrick’s article begins with truths every Catholic should gladly proclaim.
Man is a sinner.
Man cannot save himself.
Grace is gratuitous.
Jesus Christ is our Savior.
His Cross is sufficient.
Faith is necessary.
No sinner can place God in his debt.
But those truths do not prove the specifically Protestant system Patrick builds upon them.
Catholicism does not proclaim:
“Save yourself with religion.”
It proclaims:
God acts first.
God gives grace.
Christ merits salvation.
The Holy Ghost renews the sinner.
Faith receives God’s gift.
Baptism joins us to Christ because Christ acts through it.
Charity is poured into our hearts.
Grace enables obedience.
The justified must remain in Christ.
Good works performed in grace are themselves fruits of God’s prior action.
And even the final crown remains the triumph of God’s grace operating in His children.
St. Paul therefore gives us both sides without embarrassment:
“For by grace you are saved through faith…”
Ephesians 2:8
And:
“For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish…”
Philippians 2:13
The Catholic does not have to erase either verse.
Nor do we have to rewrite St. James.
The most important question remains:
How can I be saved?
By Jesus Christ.
By His grace.
Through living faith.
Born into Him through Baptism.
Living in charity.
Abiding in Him.
Repenting when we fall.
And persevering by His grace unto the end.
That is not confidence in ourselves.
It is confidence that the grace of Jesus Christ is powerful enough not merely to declare us different, but actually to make us new.
Amen.
Sources
Target of this response: Patrick O’Brien / Answering Catholics, “How Can I Be Saved?”
Sacred Scripture — Douay-Rheims: Matthew 19:17; Matthew 25:31–46; John 3:5; John 15:1–10; Acts 2:38; Acts 16:30–33; Acts 22:16; Romans 2:6–7; Romans 4:1–8; Romans 5:5; Romans 6:3–4; Romans 11:20–22; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 10:12; 1 Corinthians 13:2; Galatians 3:27; Galatians 5:6, 19–21; Ephesians 2:8–10; Philippians 2:12–13; Titus 3:5–7; Hebrews 12:14; James 2:14–26; 1 Peter 3:21.
Council of Trent, Session VI — Decree on Justification: Chapters 7–8, 10, 15–16; Canons 9, 11, 23–24, 32.
Council of Trent, Session VI — EWTN
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1987–2029 — Grace and Justification: justification, grace, merit, cooperation, and the impossibility of meriting initial justification.
CCC §§1987–2029 — Holy See
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1127–1129 — The Sacraments of Salvation: Christ Himself acts in the sacraments and communicates the grace they signify.
CCC §§1127–1129 — Holy See
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1213–1284 — The Sacrament of Baptism: Baptism as regeneration, incorporation into Christ, and the sacrament through which sins are forgiven.
CCC §§1213–1284 — Holy See
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1257–1261 — Necessity of Baptism: Baptism’s necessity for salvation and the Church’s teaching concerning baptism of blood and desire.
CCC §§1257–1261 — Holy See
Second Council of Orange, AD 529: canons on the priority and necessity of divine grace, especially the teaching that even the beginning of faith and the desire for salvation depend upon prevenient grace.
Second Council of Orange — Catholic Culture
St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, Chapter 61: early Christian testimony describing Baptism as regeneration and connecting the baptismal washing with Christ’s teaching on being born again.
St. Justin Martyr, First Apology 61 — New Advent
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, I.21.1: reference to Baptism as “regeneration to God.”
St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies I.21 — New Advent
St. Augustine, On Grace and Free Will, Chapters 13, 18–20: grace does not arise from prior human merit; faith without good works is insufficient; and grace itself produces the good works God rewards.
St. Augustine, On Grace and Free Will — New Advent
St. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter: the necessity of the Holy Ghost for true righteousness and the inward transformation of the human will by grace.
St. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter — New Advent
Target of this response: Patrick O’Brien / Answering Catholics, “How Can I Be Saved?” The article teaches justification by faith alone, presents works as the fruit rather than a contributing grace-enabled element in justification, interprets Abraham in James 2 as being justified “before men,” rejects Baptism as a saving instrument, and teaches that the genuinely justified believer does not lose justification through subsequent grave sin.
Answering Catholics — “How Can I Be Saved?”
This will make the article match your other rebuttal much better: clean body, citations in the prose, full clickable documentation only at the bottom. The official Catechism pages explicitly support the points on justification, sacramental efficacy, and Baptism, while Augustine and Justin give you strong early-Christian evidence. Vatican