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april 13, 2004
was martin luther wrong?
(part 2)
by r.c. sproul
What Is Justification?
Justification refers to a legal action by
God by which he declares a person just in his sight. The Protestant
view is often described as "forensic justification,"
meaning that justification is a "legal declaration"
made by God.
What is often overlooked in discussions about
justification is that the Roman Catholic communion also has
its version of forensic justification. That is, Catholics
agree that justification occurs when God declares a person
just. However, when evangelicals speak of forensic justification,
the phrase is used as a kind of theological shorthand for
sola fide, and what is tacit is the assumption that God declares
people to be just who in themselves are not just. Rome teaches
that God declares people just only when they are in fact just.
They are declared to be just only if and when justness inheres
within them. Both sides see justification as a divine declaration,
but the ground for such a declaration differs radically.
Rome saw justification as meaning "making
just," based on the Latin roots for the word justificare
(Justus and facio, facere), which in Roman jurisprudence meant
"to make righteous." For Rome, God only declares
to be just those who have first been made just.
The easiest way to understand the evangelical
doctrine of justification is to place it against the backdrop
of the Roman Catholic view.
The Roman Catholic Teaching
The Roman Catholic doctrine of justification
is sacerdotal. This means that justification is accomplished
sacramentally through the ministrations of the priesthood
of the church.
Although this understanding embraces and requires
each of the seven sacraments put forward by the Roman Church,
justification takes place initially through the sacrament
of baptism, which Rome defines as justification's "instrumental
cause." The language of instrumental causality is drawn
from Aristotle's distinctions among various types of causes.
He defined an instrumental cause as the means by which a change
is effected in something. For example, when a sculptor makes
a statue out of a block of stone, the stone would be the material
cause, that out of which the thing is made, and the chisel
would be the instrumental cause or the instrument by which
the statue is shaped.
Justification Begins with Baptism
According to Roman Catholic theology, a person
receives the grace of justification in baptism by infusion.
That is, the righteousness of Christ is infused or "poured
into" the soul of the baptized person. The recipient
is cleansed of original sin, sacramentally regenerated, and
put into a state of grace. This action is accomplished ex
opere operato ("by the working of the work"), which
means that the work is efficacious in itself as long as the
recipient does nothing to hinder it.
The New Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church
puts it this way:
Justification is conferred in baptism, the
sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness
of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy.
| Liguori, Mo.: Ligouri Press, 1994, p. 482, par. 1992|
Thus Rome speaks of justification being "conferred"
in baptism and as making people "inwardly just."
This is seen as a result of divine mercy.
- The Necessity of Faith
Baptism is also called "the sacrament of faith."
It is important to note that for Rome justification is truly
"by faith." So the issue at the time of the Reformation
was not whether faith is requisite for justification - both
sides acknowledged that - but whether it was the sole requisite.
It was the sola of sola fide, not the fide, that was crucial,
though differences did exist with respect to the role of
faith itself in justification.
That Rome sees faith as necessary for justification is made
clear in the sixth session of [The Council of ] Trent:
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 (Heb. 11:6) 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.
| Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent: Original Text
with English Translation, trans. H. J. Schroeder [London:
Herder, 1941 ], pp. 34, 35 |
Far from excluding faith as a necessary condition for justification,
Rome declares that faith is a necessary ingredient. She
declares that: 1) justification is by faith (perfidem);
2) faith is the "beginning" (initium) of salvation;
3) faith is the "foundation" (fundamentum) of
justification; and 4) faith is the "root" (radix)
of all justification (ibid., p. 313).
Often Protestants have slandered Rome by stating their differences
with Rome on justification in a simplistic and erroneous
manner, saying that the Protestant view is justification
by faith and the Catholic view is justification by works,
as if Rome did not make faith a necessary condition for
justification. This is wrong. For Rome, faith plays a necessary
role in justification, serving as its initiation, foundation,
and root.
- The Insufficiency of Faith
What Rome does not say, and in fact denies, is that faith
is a "sufficient condition" for justification.
The difference between a necessary condition and a sufficient
condition is of paramount importance. Oxygen is a necessary
condition for fire, but it is not a sufficient condition,
In order to have fire there must also be present the substance
that bums or combines with oxygen in combustion, as well
as sufficient heat and other things. If all that was required
for fire were the mere presence of oxygen, then in every
place oxygen was present the world would be in flames.
- Mortal Sin
For Rome a person may have faith and still not be justified.
We see this partly in Rome's view of mortal sin. Rome distinguishes
between mortal and venial sins. Mortal sins are called "mortal"
because they "kill" or destroy the grace of justification.
At Trent Rome declared:
Against the subtle wits of some also, who "by pleasing
speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent"
(Romans 16:18), it must be maintained that the grace of
justification once received is lost not only by infidelity,
whereby also faith itself is lost, but also by every other
mortal sin. Though in this case faith is not lost; thus
defending the teaching of the divine law which excludes
from the kingdom of God not only unbelievers, but also the
faithful [who are] "fornicators, adulterers, effeminate,
liers with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, railers,
extortioners" (I Cor. 6:9f.; I Tim. 1:90, and all others
who commit deadly sins, from which with the help of divine
grace they can refrain, and on account of which they are
cut off from the grace of Christ. | bid., p. 40 |
The concept of mortal sin includes infidelity, which is
unbelief. If a person who once had faith loses or abandons
that faith, thereby committing apostasy, that person loses
justification. By the loss of faith the person loses with
it the necessary condition for justification and therefore
justification itself.
But, as Trent clearly declared, infidelity is not the only
sin by which a person may lose his or her justification.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that people who have not
lost faith, indeed may even still be numbered among the
"faithful," can lose their justification by committing
other deadly sins such as drunkenness or adultery.
The Reformers understood these biblical texts in a different
manner. They agreed that people whose lives are characterized
by these deadly sins will not enter the Kingdom of God precisely
because such lifestyles indicate the absence of true faith,
not its presence. This does not preclude the possibility
of true believers lapsing into these sins, as David and
virtually all the other Bible characters did. We all sin,
often greatly. But the Reformers did argue that believers
will not stay in such a sinful condition unrepentantly.
Though such sins are deemed egregious and worthy of church
discipline, in themselves they are not considered mortal.
Calvin argued rightly that all sins are "mortal"
in the sense that they deserve death, but no sin is mortal
to the true believer in that it kills his justification.
What is most clear from this Tridentine passage is that,
according to Rome, a person can have true faith and not
be in a state of justification. This clearly indicates that
for Rome, though faith is a necessary condition for justification,
it is not a sufficient condition for justification. Something
else is needed besides true faith for the person to be justified-namely
inherent righteousness. Here the sola of sola fide is demolished.
Again it is important to note that for the Reformers, true
faith precludes a person's living consistently in deadly
sin, whereas for Rome such a lifestyle is possible for a
person who possesses true faith.
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