Morality, Choosing Sinful Actions, Consequences - Salvation in Christianity

Protestants believe that grace is the only means to salvation (Sola gratia).  Good or bad actions - including sinful actions - are works and works cannot grant or takeaway salvation. On the other hand, Catholics believe that good works along with grace lead to salvation.  Both positions lead to problematic issues that will be examined in this article.

Let us start with the common ground.  All Christians admit that humans are incapable of avoiding sin. There are two reasons why humans are incapable of achieving salvation solely by the merit of their own actions: (1) Humans are incapable of living a sinless life; (2) Humans actions are limited and cannot redeem for egregious sins (such as the Original Sin which all humans inherit).

Given the limited nature of their actions, humans need God's help, God's forgiving nature, to achieve salvation. That is where the Christian concept of God's grace comes in - receiving as gift what one does not deserve.  Grace is unmerited favor bestowed by God.  Grace is mercy, not merit.  Grace cannot be earned - either by avoiding negative works or performing positive works.

Grace is mercy and not merit. Grace, then, is the opposite of karma, which is all about getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve, and not getting what you do deserve. Christianity teaches that what humans deserve is death with no hope of resurrection.  It is only with grace of God that humans are saved.  With grace of God, achieved as a gift for having faith in the redemptive power of the sacrifice of Jesus, all can achieve salvation.  This is the Christian Good Word.

In the Bible, positive works had no redemptive value.  Hindus have a concept of punya and papa.  Punya is the collective value of positive works that had the potential to mitigate the impact of papa.  Such a possibility is never contemplated in the bible.  Social service then, has no redemptive balue whatsoever.

Old Testament provides commandments.  Violating those commandments is a sin.  Violation of a command is a negative work.  Thus, in the Old Testament, one becomes a sinner by doing negative works.  The only positive works that could mitigate the cumulative burden of sin is making sacrifices to the God.

New Testament is clear that living under the guardianship of the laws is not going to save or ever bring salvation.  What saves is grace of God gained by living a life of faith.  Righteous living lived through the law will not save!

Galatians 2:20-21

 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

Galatians 3:23-25

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custodyunder the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

Bible is clear that grace is only received as a gift and not as pay for works.  

Romans 4:4-8

When people work, their pay is not given to them as a gift. They earn the pay they get.  But people cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in him. Then he accepts their faith, and that makes them right with him. He is the one who makes even evil people right.  David said the same thing when he was talking about the blessing people have when God accepts them as good without looking at what they have done: “It is a great blessing when people are forgiven for the wrongs they have done, when their sins are erased!  It is a great blessing when the Lord accepts people as if they are without sin!”

Protestants believe that salvation is entirely by grace, received by all Christians for the redemptive work (sacrificing his own self) of Jesus alone.  Protestant view is that no one can avoid sinful actions; thus works can never be a means to salvation.  Consequently, Protestant Reformers argued that a sinner is not accepted by God on account of the change brought in the believer by God's grace, but that the believer is accepted without any regard for the merit of his works.

Antinomianism is the name given to the doctrine that argues that if someone is saved by grace, he/she has no need to live a holy life, to ensure good works, given that salvation is already ensured.  The word antinomianism comes from two Greek words, anti, meaning "against"; and nomos, meaning "law."Antinomianism means “against the law.” Theologically, antinomianism is the belief that there are no moral laws of God for Christians to obey to ensure their salvation.  For, obeying laws is related  to works.  If works do not lead to salvation, if salvation is purely by God's grace (free gift of God), then obeying God's laws as layed out in the Bible is metely good living and not a means to salvation.

People may wonder, “If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?”

Paul the Apostle was fully aware of this question and offered a clear answer.

Ephesians 2:8-10

I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.  You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.

Romans 6:1-7

So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more and more grace? Of course not! Our old sinful life ended. It’s dead. So how can we continue living in sin?  Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ Jesus when we were baptized? In our baptism we shared in his death. So when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and took part in his death. And just as Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father, so we can now live a new life. 

Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from death as he did. We know that our old life was put to death on the cross with Christ. This happened so that our sinful selves would have no power over us. Then we would not be slaves to sin. Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control.

Paul is clearly saying two things:

1. You are free from sins you have committed before coming to Christ.
2. You are not free to commit sins after you receive grace (saved).  You are new, not the old sinful person.

But what if a Christian really chooses to commits sin after accepting grace?  After all, a Christian has free will?  Will he lose the gift of grace?  Is he eligible for asking for repentance again and again? 

Paul is aware of these questions as well and offers a response.

Titus 2:11-14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, who died to make us pure—people who belong only to him and who always want to do good works.

What Paul is saying is that, once you received grace, it is no longer a choice for you to live a life of sin.  Your sinful life is dead - it cannot resume.

There is  further strengthened by James who says faith without works is useless.

James 2:20-26

You fool! Faith that does nothing is worth nothing. Do you want me to prove this to you? Our father Abraham was made right with God by what he did. He offered his son Isaac to God on the altar. So you see that Abraham’s faith and what he did worked together. His faith was made perfect by what he did. This shows the full meaning of the Scriptures that say, “Abraham believed God, and because of this faith he was accepted as one who is right with God.”  Abraham was called “God’s friend.”  So you see that people are made right with God by what they do. They cannot be made right by faith alone.  Another example is Rahab. She was a prostitute, but she was made right with God by something she did. She helped those who were spying for God’s people. She welcomed them into her home and helped them escape by a different road.  A person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead. It is the same with faith—faith that does nothing is dead!

Unfortunately, the question remains left unaddressed.  But what if a Christian really chooses to commits sin after accepting grace?  After all, a Christian has free will?  Will he lose the gift of grace?  Is he eligible for asking for repentance again and again? 

What if a Christian, after accepting grace, chooses and commits evil works?  Do they lose grace?  If so, then no human would receive grace.  If the Christian commits evil works, is the Christian still worthy of retaining or regaining grace?  Are there ANY ethically wrong negative works make them unworthy of grace forever?  Is there a level of ethically wrong works where Christians become unworthy of grace?

Christians admit that humans are incapable of avoiding sin.  That is exactly what grace means - receiving as gift what one does not deserve.  Grace is unmerited favor bestowed by God.  Grace is mercy, not merit.  Grace cannot be earned.  But does this grace accept repentance after any sin?  After relapsing into sin any number of times?

This is the crux of the Christian dilemma.

(1) If humans are incapable of avoiding sinful choices and actions, can works ever lead to salvation?  (2) Can God shower his grace on sinful just for repenting?  Can God continue to shower his grace on those who continue to choose a sinful life?  

(3) Can someone other than the victim ever forgive?  By saying God forgives, have the Christians invented a psychological means to suppress need for true repentance and acts if reparation?

(4) What about people who committed sins all their lives but come to accept Jesus as their savior towards the end of their lives?

(5) What about those who commit sins freely knowing that future repentance or acceptance of Jesus as Christ can always absolve them of their sins?

(6) What about those who commit sins freely unknowing that future repentance or acceptance of Jesus as Christ can always absolve them of their sins?
(6) What about people who live an exemplary life yet never choose to accept Jesus as their savior? If Hitler repents at the time of his death and accepts Jesus and Gandhi dies not accepting Jesus as his savior, does it mean that Hitler receives grace and not Gandhi?

Who among these are worthy of being absolved for their sins?  If some of the Christians do not receive grace because of the egregious nature of their sins and from the consequences of their sins, is grace limited somehow?  If all Christians are eligible for grace irrespective of the sins they commit, no matter how egregious their sins are, then what is the moral imperative for Christians?

These are tough challenges that create the unbridgeable schism between Catholics and Protestants.