Victor R. Claveau, MJ
The differences between Catholic and Protestants on Justification (God declaring and making a person just) are foundational to the split that occurred during the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther writing about justification by faith alone said “If this article stands, the church stands; if it collapses, the church collapses”.
Both Catholics and Protestants believe that because of sin, mankind finds itself in a state of sin and unrighteousness. Both believe that our need is righteousness (i.e., justification). The question is how this comes about.
Evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestants have an extremely keen sense that salvation is by grace. This insight has been continually reinforced through preaching, teaching, publications and broadcasts.
Many Bible-Protestants believe that Catholics are not saved (i.e., are not going to heaven). This is not caused by an uncharitable prejudice against Catholics. Rather, it is motivated by a genuine conviction that salvation is by grace.
Since most Bible-Christians are convinced that Catholics believe that salvation is by works, they conclude that they are not saved.
“Mainline” Protestants are prone to be unaware of the biblical and doctrinal teaching about justification. Hence, the weaker prejudice against Catholics from mainline Protestants stems from a weaker doctrinal grounding.
Catholics believe:
- That salvation is by grace. By this is meant that salvation is God’s free gift in Jesus Christ.
- Justification is by faith working in love,
- We are justified by faith and good works. These good works are not the self-generated “works of the law” and “works of the flesh,” but the outworking of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
- Justification is a legal act. It is God’s declaration that we are righteous because of the atoning death of Jesus. Although Catholics believe that justification includes a legal aspect, they believe in a much fuller understanding of justification.
- Justification works an internal change in those justified. Through justification we are not only declared righteous, but that we are also made righteous. God gives us His righteousness so that we share in the divine nature as sons and daughters of God.
Rom. 8 15-17 – For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
2 Pet. 1:4 – by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.
Eph. 2:8 – For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.
(Faith is a gift – includes belief in mind, confidence, obedience.)
Heb. 10:38 – but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
Heb. 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
1 Pet. 2:2 – Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation…
Rev. 2:2 – I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false…
Mt. 5:16 – Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Mt. 25:31-36 – When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. 34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.
Rom. 3:20 – And the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Rom. 3:24 – they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
1 Cor. 6:9-10 – Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Rom. 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Tit. 3:5 – he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit
Jas. 2:24 – You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Jas. 2:17 – So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Jas. 2:26 – For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
Phil. 2:12 – Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Gal. 5:6 – For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.
1 Cor. 13:2 – And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Cor. 15:10 – But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
2 Cor. 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.
Rom. 2:6 – For he will render to every man according to his works.
Rev. 22:12 – Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done.
Mt. 16:27 – For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.
1 Cor. 3:8 – He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor.
Origen [AD 226-232] Whoever dies in his sins, even if he profess to believe in Christ, does not truly believe in Him; and even if that which exists without works be called faith, such faith is dead in itself, as we read in the Epistle bearing the name of James (Commentaries on John 19, 6).
Council of Trent
The constant teaching of the Catholic Church on these Scriptures was clearly restated by the Council of Trent on January 13, 1547. “When the Apostle says that man is justified by faith and freely, these words are to be understood in that sense in which the uninterrupted unanimity of the Catholic Church has held and expressed them, namely, that we are therefore said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, ‘without which it is impossible to please God” and to come to the fellowship of His sons; and we are therefore said to be justified gratuitously, because none of those things that precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification. For, ‘If by grace, it is not now by works, otherwise,’ as the Apostle says, ‘grace is no more grace'” (On Justification, Ch. 8).
The Council also reiterated the relationship of good works to man justified by faith. “Therefore, to men justified in this manner, whether they have preserved uninterruptedly the grace received or recovered it when lost, are to be pointed out the words of the Apostle: ‘Abound in every good work, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. For God is not unjust, that he should forget your work, and the love which you have shown in his name’; and ‘Do not lose confidence, which hath a great reward.’ Hence, to those who work well ‘unto the end’ and trust in God, eternal life is to be offered, both as a grace mercifully promised to the sons of God through Jesus Christ, and as a reward promised by God himself, to be faithfully given to their good works and merits” (On Justification, Ch. 16).