St. Paul assures the Ephesians, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Are we, then, to conclude, as do certain Protestants, that we are saved once and for all merely by confessing Jesus to be our "personal" Savior? Has He, indeed, already done it all, so that we need not strive and struggle to uproot the sinful passions that lurk within the soul, to acquire every virtue, and to purify our hearts that we might receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
St. James, of course, states clearly that "grace without works is dead," but even in today's epistle, the Holy Apostle goes on to say "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." The truth is, however, that the entire "faith versus works" controversy in the West--Catholic versus Protestant--is based upon a false dichotomy. Salvation is indeed God's gift, and not a reward for our good deeds and behavior. Apart from the grace of God, there can be no salvation.
Nevertheless, God's grace comes at a cost. God has granted unto us the gift of free will, and unless we freely choose to cooperate with His grace by striving to live a life of sacrificial love and suffering on His behalf--to mortify every egotistical thought and desire--then it shall be proved, in the end, that we have received His grace in vain.
There is, however, a deeper issue involved here: what, exactly, so we mean by salvation? Is it, as these same Protestants teach, merely that God forgives our sins (a purely legal pardon) so that we can go to heaven when we die? Or is it, rather, as the Church Fathers teach, that the Son of God became man, that the sons and daughters of men might become gods? That is, we are called--as St. Peter reminds us--to become "partakers of the Divine Nature"--transformed and sanctified by grace--a process beginning here and now in this earthly life and extending into eternity.
As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." To be sanctified, changed, and transfigured by the uncreated grace of God, from glory to glory--it is to this that we have all been called.
But straight and narrow is the path that leads to salvation, and indeed--"The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force"... that is, our ultimate salvation demands that we do violence against our own sinful and fallen nature, ever striving to cut off at its roots every passionate thought and desire. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, "Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
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