Brass Necks

I can't believe what I have just heard. As I was driving home from work listening to BBC radio they were covering the popes visit to Scotland. Just before the pope arrived at Glasgow's Bellahouston Park the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band started playing 'Amazing Grace' and then a choir began to sing the great old hymn. What a cheek, what does the Roman Church know about 'Amazing Grace'?

The Catholic Church teaches that in order to be saved one needs to be a member of her institution for it is God's way of dispensing Grace to the sinner. This Grace is dispensed they teach in a number of ways. To name a few, the rite of baptising an infant dispenses grace to child and the child is born again at this point, the rite of communion where the faithful chew their wafer God to get grace and at the end of their days they receive the last rites and another bit of Grace is dispensed. The problem with this drip feed of grace is this, no one actually knows if they have enough to out weight their many sins but as luck would have it if they die with an imbalance they can have their outstanding sins purged in Purgatory. There is nothing AMAZING about that.

On the other hand the Grace of God as found in the Bible is AMAZING! God saves the repentant sinner who trusts in Christ's finished work on Calvary plus nothing. Now that's AMAZING.

'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.' Ephesians 2 v8-9