Justification . .

[ziapueblo]

I was in a religious discussion with a friend of mine and then justification came up. He asked me what the Catholic teaching on justification was. Well, I’m not sure what the actual teaching is, I have an idea and wanted to come to this forum to see if my response will be an accurate one.

Here is what my response will be (if anything needs to be added please let me know):

First off, baptism is a necessity because our sins are forgive (actual and original). At baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are saved by the grace of God. We persevere in faith and good works. The good works that we do come from charity. As St. Paul tells us, “faith working through love,” (Galatians I believe) and what he writes in 1 Corinthians 13:13.

In a nutshell is this an accurate response? I know that the faith alone slogan is the real difference between most Protestants and Catholics.

Anyway, thanks for the help and God bless.
ZP

 

[Catholic_Dude]

I was in a religious discussion with a friend of mine and then justification came up. He asked me what the Catholic teaching on justification was. Well, I’m not sure what the actual teaching is, I have an idea and wanted to come to this forum to see if my response will be an accurate one.

Here is what my response will be (if anything needs to be added please let me know):

First off, baptism is a necessity because our sins are forgive (actual and original). At baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are saved by the grace of God. We persevere in faith and good works. The good works that we do come from charity. As St. Paul tells us, “faith working through love,” (Galatians I believe) and what he writes in 1 Corinthians 13:13.

In a nutshell is this an accurate response? I know that the faith alone slogan is the real difference between most Protestants and Catholics.

Anyway, thanks for the help and God bless.
ZP

The most important and key difference is that Catholics and Protestants understand justification very differently.
For Catholics, we are born lacking communion with God which only the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit can fix. Justification is primarily about receiving the Holy Spirit again, and this happens first at Baptism (Acts 2:38; 22:16).
For Protestants, justification is about receiving a status of “righteous” which is given based upon perfectly obeying all of God’s laws. Since we are fallen and broken those commands, Protestants believe Jesus kept all the laws in our place, and imputes that obedience to us so we can receive the status of “righteous” even though we are in ourselves unrighteous and not kept the law.

See my signature link for more info.

 

[MarcoPolo]

You can read the Church’s teaching on Justification from the Catechism, paragraphs 1987-1995.

The shortest answer may be from paragraph 1996:

CCC#1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.Hope that helps.

 

[Pax]

It is also important to remember that Protestants view justification/righteousness as being a legal imputation, whereas Catholics believe that we are not only declared righteous but that we are “made righteous.” Righteousness is infused when we are justified.

We know this by way of Romans 5:19 which says:

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be** made** righteous.”

God makes us a new creation in Christ Jesus when we are justified. This change is not mere imputation…it is an ontological change.

We are** made** righteous on Christ’s account by God’s mercy and the Lord’s work on the cross. The word “made” in Greek is “katestathesan” which refers to a real, actual, ontological change in the person’s soul. NOT a merely legal declaration.

Romans 5:19 “made righteous.”