Justification by Faith in Catholic – Protestant Dialogue (Part 5)

Traditional Catholic Doctrine

This is my last post for 2007 as well the fifth part of my series of posts (or reviews) on a book written by Prof. Anthony N.S. Lane: Justification by Faith in Catholic – Protestant Dialogue.  Prof. Lane is Professor of Historical Theology and Director of Research at the London School of Theology.  His book was published in 2002 and 2006 (second edition).  In this post I try to extract what he wrote about Catholic Justification – as usual all his statements, whether his own or quotation from others, as long as copied from his book, are in italic.

Prof Lane started with the work of Augustine, whom he claimed to be ignorant of Greek and therefore derived his works on Justification based on its Latin word, iustificatio.   He noted that only once Augustine understood that the verb ‘to justify’ means ‘to hold just’ or ‘to account just’, which agrees with Protestants’ understanding.  Following Augustine, the Catholic Church always understand the word ‘justified’ to mean ‘made righteous’ – made righteous by him [God] who justifies the ungodly, so that he who was ungodly becomes righteous (quoted from Augustine work: The Spirit and the Letter 26:45).  Prof. Lane quoted the following Augustine’s words:

By the law comes the knowledge of sin; by faith comes the obtaining of grace against sin; by grace comes the healing of the soul from sin’s sickness; by the healing of the soul comes freedom of choice; by freedom of choice comes the love of righteousness; by the love of righteousness comes the working of the law.

Augustine, The Spirit and the Letter 30:52

Prof. Lane stated that what Augustine wrote above corresponds to Protestant’s understanding of Sanctification by faith.  Keep in mind that in Protestantism Sanctification and Justification are distinct entities but inseparable – one cannot have one without the other.  Catholics, on the other hand, consider Sanctification as part of Justification and therefore, as noted by Prof. Lane, Catholics understand that to be justified means to become a righteous person through the inner working of the Holy Spirit.  To Protestants, to be justified means to be declared righteous through the imputation of Christ’ righteousness, and this comes through faith.  

Next Prof. Lane noted that before (council of) Trent there was no authoritative pronouncements on Justification from the Catholic Church.  He is right but this is commonly happens through out history – the Catholic Church made official or authoritative declaration on something related to faith when there is dispute or events that related to it.  It was Reformation that made the Catholic Church declares her official positions on matters contested by the Reformers – Justification is one of them.  The Council of Trent (1545 – 63) set out to define Catholic dogma in a firmly anti-Protestant manner and this is true in particular of the Decree on Justification (1547).  Based on Trent council’s pronouncements, Prof. Lane summarizes Catholic Justification in three parts:

1. Initial Justification of Adults

• All people have lost their innocence in Adam’s sin and are children of wrath.

• Neither Gentiles nor Jews could by their own efforts escape from their bondage to sin.

• God sent his Son as a propitiator for our sins and those of the whole world.

• In order to be justified they [men] need to be born again in Christ, i.e. to move from their fallen state in Adam to a state of grace and adoption. This move cannot take place without baptism or the desire for it. With adults the first move is taken by God’s predisposing grace, a call which comes from him without any merits on their part. They then have the free choice as to whether to assent to this grace and cooperate with it or to reject it.

• It is wrong to suppose either we do nothing or that we can turn to God of our own free will without grace.

• Cooperating with grace leads to a series of events which prepare us for justification:

  • believing that God is the one who justifies by his grace

  • recognizing that we are sinners

  • considering God’s mercy, we turn from fear of divine justice to hope in God’s mercy, trusting that God will be favourable to us for Christ’s sake.

  • We begin to love God, who is the source of righteousness; to hate sin and to repent of it

  • We receive Baptism, begin a new life and keep the commandments

• Justification is not only the forgiveness of sins but also the sanctification and renewal of the inner person, whereby we change from being unrighteous to righteous.

• We are not only considered to be righteous but are truly called and are righteous, each receiving righteousness [of God] within ourselves.

• To be justified we need to receive the merits of Christ’s passion but this involves the love of God being poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and abiding in us. In justification we receive not just the forgiveness of sins but also the infusion of faith, hope and love.

2. Progression in Justification

• We need to keep the commandments and preserve our righteousness spotless for the day of judgement and thus gain eternal life.

• We need (through faith and works) to grow in the righteousness which we have received through Christ’s grace, increasing in justification. This comes through day-to-day discipleship and obedience to the commandments of God and of the church.

• Justification does not exempt us from keeping the commandments and we should not say that they are impossible to observe, with God’s help.

• God will reward the works of the faithful Christian. Eternal life at the end is both a grace promised in mercy and a reward given to good works and merits. It is indeed a gift of grace in that it is only by God’s help that we can achieve it.

• Our righteousness is our own, but it does not originate from us. Our righteousness is the same righteousness that is imparted to us by God through Christ’s merit.

• God has promised a reward for our works, but we must remember that our merits are his gifts and trust and glory in him, not in ourselves.

3. Loss and Recovery of Justification

• Only those who persevere to the end will be saved and therefore we need to be vigilant

• If we lose the grace of justification we can regain it through the sacrament of penance.

• Grace of justification is lost through falling from faith or through committing mortal sin, even if faith remains.

• Through sacrament of penance God remits the eternal punishment but temporal punishment remains.

Justification by Faith in Catholic – Protestant Dialogue (Part 4)

On Reward

This is the fourth part of my review on a book by Prof. Anthony N.S. Lane: Justification by Faith in Catholic – Protestant Dialogue.  Anthony N.S. Lane is Professor of Historical Theology and Director of Research at the London School of Theology.  Published by T & T Clark in 2002 and 2006 (second edition) it carries on its front cover the words: Scholars’ Edition in Theology.  In the first part I wrote my review on what Prof. Lane wrote on three distinctive features of Protestant Justification.  Second part deals with what he explained about the real meaning of sola fide or (by) faith alone while the third part on how God assesses our good works.  Prof. Lane relies mostly on the work of John Calvin: Institutes of Christian Religion (Inst. for short).   In this fourth part is my review on what he wrote about reward of our good work, also based on Calvin’s Institutes.  His statements, if quoted directly, are in italic.

Following Calvin Prof. Lane admits that we do receive reward of our works – our reward includes eternal life (Inst. 3:18:1-5), but quoted from Calvin (Inst. 3:18:2) he stated that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is not servants’ wages but sons’ inheritance’ (Inst. 3:18:2). Our works are rewarded not according to strict justice but generously and because their blemishes are overlooked. ‘Our works are pleasing only through pardon’ (Inst. 3:18:5). God rewards them both because of his grace and generosity and in order to encourage us and give us an incentive to good works.  Prof. Lane noted a problem in Calvin’s statement: He [Calvin] seems to teach that the content of the reward is no different from that which is promised to the new believer who has yet to perform any works. ‘The Lord rewards the works of believers with the same benefits as he had given them before they contemplated any works’ (Inst. 3:18:2). But what incentive is it to be offered as a reward that which one has been promised freely?  Calvin is aware of this objection as he proceeds to state that ‘The Lord does not trick or mock us when he says that he will reward works with what he had given free before works (Inst. 3:18:3), although it is not altogether clear why this should be so.  Prof. Lane concluded that according to Calvin the reward is on the basis of generosity and there is no strict correlation between the work and the reward.  But is he [Calvin] also saying that the works are totally lacking in any worth at all? This is what he at times appears to say. Our works have value only because of God’s fatherly generosity in accepting and approving them after we have been justified by faith (Inst. 3:11:20, 3:14:12, 3:15:3, 3:17:3, 8,15, 3:18:6).  Here works justified by faith means their imperfections are covered by Christ, through faith (refer to part 3).

How do Catholics view reward from our good works or do we merit reward from them?  Merit is a term used by Catholics, which Calvin disliked (cf. page 38 of Prof. Lane’s book). He disliked it because it is non-scriptural term, prone to abuse, to describe the value of good works (Inst. 3:15:2).  Merit is not legitimately inferred from Scripture (Inst. 3:15:1, 4, 3:18:7).  Merit is not scriptural term but there are other non-scriptural terms used by both Catholics and Protestants to describe certain teachings (Trinity, Original Sin etc.).  Do Catholics believe we merit something from God?  The answer is No, if by merit we mean we deserve something from God from our works.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church declares (# 2007) ‘with regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.  Catholics understand that our merits are God’s gift (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2009).  This sounds similar to what Calvin stated: our works receive reward ‘not because they so deserve but because God’s kindness has of itself set this value on them (Int. 3:15:3).  The difference is according to Calvin the imperfection of our works must be first covered by Christ in order to make them produce reward and even after what Christ did, this reward comes from God kindness.  Catholics, on the other hand say that our merit is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2008).  In part 3, I used the analogy of a father who proudly displays drawings made by his children despite of their imperfection – children’s drawing is never perfect.  His children do not need free service from professional painter (representing Christ) to retouch their drawings and to make them presentable to the father – this is what Calvin (and Luther) taught.  The father accepts their drawing as it is, simply because he is their father who fatherly appreciates their work.  If the father rewards his children for the drawings, be it in the form words of praise, kisses or even ice cream treat – the reward is a gift from him.  Again his children cannot make those drawings unless the father first provides paper, crayon and some encouragement.

Virgin Mary and the Evangelicals

“The vast majority of Protestants, liberal or evangelical, have simply said nothing about Mary. Because to talk about Mary is to be Catholic and we’re not Catholic,” said Prof. Perry [Tim Perry is associate professor at Providence College and Theological Seminary in Manitoba], whose latest book is called Mary For Evangelicals. “We get her out of the box around Christmas time, preach a couple of sermons and then put her back in the box after Boxing Day [26 Deember] and we don’t see her again for a year. The reluctance is a hold over from the Reformation. We will accept what the Bible says about Mary, but we don’t want to say too much about her.”

He said the Protestant Reformation moved away from what was seen as a Catholic obsession with Mary. Catholics believe in her bodily assumption into heaven and that she herself was immaculately conceived – though Catholics believe that only Christ is divine. The Reformation rejected all notions of Mary not found specifically in the Bible. Somehow, though, over the generations, said Prof. Perry, many evangelical Protestants have pushed Mary aside and that has taken away from the richness of Christian belief.

He said that trend is even worse among liberal Christians who prefer to see Jesus as more of a teacher of spiritual truths and his birth being quite ordinary: “I don’t think it’s an embarrassment with Mary in particular, I think it’s an embarrassment with miracles generally.”

Extracted from National Post, 22 December 2007

Justification by Faith in Catholic – Protestant Dialogue (Part 3)

 How God assesses our good works

This is the third part of what I can deduce from, Justification by Faith in Catholic – Protestant Dialogue, a book by Prof. Anthony N.S. Lane (first published in 2002).   The first two posts deal with what Prof. Lane describes as three distinctive features of Protestant Justification and what sola fide really means.  This post will discuss on what he wrote about how God assesses our good works, which again he relies mostly on Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion (Inst. for short).  As usual all his statements, if quoted directly, are in italic.

In relation how our good works are assessed before God, Calvin divided mankind into four groups: (1) unbelievers, (2) nominal Christians, (3) hypocrites and (4) believers who are born again of the Spirit and seek after holiness (Inst. 3:14:9-11).  We concentrate on the fourth group.  According to Calvin even the works performed by this group are tainted – It is not that their works are not good but that they are less than 100 per cent good.  Judged by the standard of God’s holiness and purity they fall short, they are less than perfect. Prof. Lane admits that this is a negatively depressing and demotivating message.  What is the point of bothering to do good?  Why seek to serve God if one’s best works will be flung back in one’s face as tainted and inadequate? God looks more like strict quality controller or judge with zero tolerance of imperfection.  But there is “good news” – we have solution.  The solution is as believers we can relate to God as our gracious Father through Christ, instead as strict judge through the law.   According to Calvin God both accepts and rewards the good works of the justified believers (Inst. 3:15:3f, 3:17:3-10, 3:14:8, 13, 16, 3:18:5).  Works are of no value to those who seek justification from them outside of Christ.  But for the justified believer the situation is different.  Prof. Lane explains the difference: When we approach God in faith we are accepted as righteous, in Christ. But it is not only we who are accepted.  God also accepts our good works in Christ, overlooking whatever defects and impurities may remain in them. ‘Therefore, as we ourselves, when we have been engrafted in Christ, are righteous in God’s sight because our iniquities are covered by Christ’s sinlessness, so our works are righteous and are thus regarded because whatever fault is otherwise in them is buried in Christ’s purity, and is not charged to our account.’ Thus, ‘by faith alone not only we ourselves but our works as well are justified’ (Inst. 3:17:10). ‘Everything imperfect in them [works] is covered by Christ’s perfection, every blemish or spot is cleansed away by his purity (Inst. 3:17:8). Prof. Lane refers the concept of “by faith alone we and our works are justified” as double justification.

What is Catholic’s understanding of how God assess our works?  First Catholics believe that we cannot do good works, not even have the initiative to do them, unless we are first moved by His grace.  Think His grace as initial push from God without which we cannot do any good works.  Yet we have freedom to choose whether to cooperate with this grace or not.  When God looks at our (graced) works, He is our Father who appreciates our works, done sincerely and without hidden agenda, even if they are imperfect. As analogy, consider a father who displays drawings made by his children at his office – those drawings are far from perfect but the father proudly displays them. Note also that his children cannot make those drawings unless the father provides them first with paper, crayon and some encouragement. The concept of fatherly nature of God in assessing our works is also employed by Calvin, as explained above, but in different context, i.e. He overlooks the imperfection because they are covered by Christ – to me this does not look like fatherly behaviour.  Just like on Justification, Protestants (in this case Calvin) applies forensic approach to our works – they are accepted simply because Christ covers up their imperfections, in other words they are declared perfect, a forensic term.