Can Faith Alone Save You?

Many good people have been taught from childhood that they need only a strong faith in Jesus Christ as their Redeemer to be saved. By this they mean that obedience to God's Laws, the practice of virtue, good works, hve no effective part to play in the saving of one's soul. Here are the reasons why this is illogical:
1. Faith in Christ is incomplete and superstations if it does not mean faith in veerything Christ was and said and did. He presented Himself to the world as a Redeemer, indeed, but also as a teacher nd lawgiver. His constant stressing of the importance of obedience to God can only mean that it is necessary for a man's savaation, just s is belief in the merits of His passion and death.
2. Faith in Christ as a Redeemercaannot save a man who neglects to heed these specefic warnings He gave: "If thou wouldst enter into life, keep the commaandments."(Matt. 19:17 "Not every man that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven."(Matt. 7:21)
3. Fith in Christ as a Redeemer should not blind one to the great effort He mde to show the world the evil nd the punishments of sin,and to inspire men to repent of and renounce sin. His pssion and death, while they paid a debt that men could not hve paid, were at the same time a dramtic appeal for sorrow for sin and reformtion of life as necessaary for salvtion.
4. The doctrine of faith alone as the means of salvation has led inevitably to the minimizing of the importnce of some of Christ's most severely promulgated laws. It has led many to deny His sttement that divorce nd remaarige are the same as adultery; it has induced maany to renounce obedience tospiritual authority, which He inculcated so clearly; it has mde it easy for men to defend their avarice and social injustice.
5. If faith alone were necessary for salvation, there would be no point in a general judgement at the end of the world, which Christ described as an event in which "every man will be judged according to his works." If good works are not necessary to salvation, why should any man be judge ccording to thier deeds?
Faith in Christ is necessary to salvation, that is indeed clear. But it mus be a complete faith, faith in everyting Christ said, faith that overflows into ction, virtue, good works, St. James put it simply when he said: "Faith without works is dead."(James 2:14,17) and in James 2:24 of Revised Standard Version, states: " You see that a man is justified by works nd not by fith alone." God bless us and Pax Christi