Scripture Wars!!

I was out last Thursday with a friend doing evangelism on the University of Florida campus and we saw a guy sitting under a tree with a black T-shirt on. I approached him and asked him the question, "If you were to die today, are you 100% assured you would go to heaven?" He immediately answered "no" and that "it is a sin of presumption to say that you are". All of a sudden we knew that we were talking to a Catholic. He began to explain to us to what the Catholic church believes about assurance of salvation, and to my knowledge the Catholic church does not believe in the assurance of salvation. A person can never be sure if he or she is going to go to heaven after death, but what is interesting is that the Bible says that we can know what for sure that we have eternal life (1 John 5:12-13). He continued to explain that a person must continually confess their sins to God to stay in His grace. In other words, a Christian can have eternal life and lose that eternal life! I get a free gift from God and lose that gift if I mess up! That's not actually a gift. It's works righteousness in disguise, and the Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith, not works(Ephesians 2:8-9).
The guy's friend came over and joined in the discussion, and we began to bring up opposing scriptures to one another about salvation. My friend and I thought of Titus 3:5, Romans 4, John 3:16, Romans 11:6, and Colossians 2 to show that salvation is not earned. We also used Ephesians 1:13-14 to show that it cannot be lost. They brought up James 2:24 to show us that we are saved by our works as well. We spent a good twenty minutes debating with scripture about biblical salvation ( being saved from God's wrath and sin). I have to admit that scripture always confuses me a little and Catholics and Cults love to bring this verse up to argue for a works based salvation, fully or in part. However, I have come to realize however that the Bible cannot teach salvation by faith and salvation by works at the same time... It does not contradict itself even though both verses seem contradictory. I believe that it teaches that a person who is saved will have works that result of that salvation that justifies us in the sight of men. True faith will show in the life of a believer through his or her works, but these works do not save a believer. It is the work of Christ on the cross that will save a person.

John 6:28-29 says,

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Our work for salvation is this..... trust Christ!