Do Catholics believe we have to earn our salvation? Are we saved by faith alone? What role do good works actually play in the Christian life?

In this episode, Fr. Michael and Fr. Christopher Trummer discuss faith, works, grace, justification, salvation, and sanctification from a Catholic perspective. They explain why Catholics do not believe we can earn salvation by our own efforts, while also showing why Scripture repeatedly teaches that real faith must bear fruit in love, obedience, perseverance, and good works.

This conversation looks at passages from Ephesians, Romans, James, Matthew 25, John 15, Philippians 2, and more. The goal is not to reduce salvation to self-reliance or religious performance, but also not to fall into passivity. The Christian life is a life of grace-filled cooperation with God.

We are saved by grace. We receive that grace through faith. And that faith, if it is living, works through love.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: why faith and works is controversial
01:10 Salvation, justification, and different Christian language
02:10 The objective offer of grace and how we receive it
03:00 Salvation as past, present, and future
05:00 Catholics do not believe we earn salvation
06:20 Ephesians, Romans, and salvation by grace
07:05 The good thief and the essence of salvation
08:00 What Catholics mean by “works”
09:20 Justification and God’s initiative
10:40 Persevering in grace
11:45 “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling”
13:00 Once saved, always saved?
14:10 John 15, bearing fruit, and remaining in Christ
15:30 Can salvation be lost?
17:00 Serious sin as a rupture of relationship
18:30 Confidence, certainty, and perseverance
20:40 Matthew 25 and the final judgment
24:25 The rich young man and keeping the commandments
25:20 What is faith?
26:30 James, demons, and faith without works
27:40 Biblical faith as the response of the whole person
29:30 Merit, grace, and heavenly reward
32:10 Abiding in Christ through obedience
33:35 Necessary does not mean earned
34:25 Revelation, the talents, and reward
36:00 The danger of passivity
37:15 Human cooperation with God’s grace
38:05 Righteousness, holiness, and imputed righteousness
42:00 God’s grace actually transforms us
43:30 The prodigal son and imperfect repentance
45:10 The danger of self-reliance
46:30 Pelagianism and trying to save ourselves
48:40 Trying to “muscle” love
49:30 Not self-reliance, not passivity
50:15 Cooperation with grace in concrete action
51:30 Saints, effort, and grace-filled work
52:30 Working without worry, haste, or desperation
54:00 Avoiding the “holy bunker”
55:00 Final takeaway: grace, grit, and fruitfulness
55:40 Closing prayer