Mr. Baloga,

What you have shared is certainly a coherent way of interpreting the writings of St Paul. There are other ways of interpreting them, which (as I see it) better take into account everything that he says and the whole of Sacred Scripture. May the Lord bless you and lead you into all truth!

There's a lot I might say to respond, but I'll leave it at this for the time being: the Catholic teaching is not "salvation by faith plus works." That would be a terribly inaccurate way to put it. It is not what Bob meant to convey when he wrote his post. The Catholic position is better expressed by saying that salvation is all by the blood of Christ, all by grace, all through faith, which is "working through love" (Gal 5:6). All that meant in such a way as not to undermine free will, and to preserve the idea that God desires all persons to be saved -- though not all persons are saved. There are different ways that Catholics understand how free will and God's grace interact, when theological attempts at explanation are made.

We too, in the Catholic understanding, can say with you, "faith and works because he saved me." But there are other details which would divide us on how we understand that statement.

Again -- may the Lord bless you and lead you into all truth!