J
jinc1019
Guest
Can someone, in plain language, explain the difference between Catholics and Protestants on justification and grace? Thanks in advance!
Protestants vs. Catholics on Justification and Faith: In Plain Language
- Status
D
Della
Guest
Well, it depends on which Protestant understanding of justifcation and grace you wish to compare with Catholic teaching. There’s more than one. 
Having said that, the easiest thing to do is to simply state the Church’s teaching and let the other opinions speak for themselves, if anyone wishes to express them.
The Church teaches we are justfied by faith in Christ through God’s grace. It’s that simple.
Having said that, the easiest thing to do is to simply state the Church’s teaching and let the other opinions speak for themselves, if anyone wishes to express them.
The Church teaches we are justfied by faith in Christ through God’s grace. It’s that simple.
M
MarcoPolo
Guest
The Reformation deviated in a couple ways from Catholic teaching. One, is that justification is “imputed” instead of “infused.” That is, God declares a person justified even though the person is not. They believe God looks at the unjust sinner, but “sees” Christ, and therefore “declares” the sinner just. The Catholic believes grace transforms the sinner and actually makes the sinner just. In other words, Catholics belief “sanctification”–being made holy–is part of justification. Thus when God declares a soul just according to Catholic teaching, it’s because grace has resulted in the soul actually being just.
J
jinc1019
Guest
Ok but how do works fit into that?
J
jinc1019
Guest
Thank you for this, it’s a good explanation. How do works fit into the equation though? Obviously this is the most controversial piece of the debate.
M
MaryT777
Guest
A refreshing note is the Lutherans have come to an agreement on Justification signing the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Catholic Church
It’s online and well worth the read for both Church bodies comment on their understanding of Justification and how they have come to the conclusion the anathemas are no longer
necessary.
D
Della
Guest
Christian works of charity are a part of saving grace. We do them in and through God’s grace, given to us in the sacraments. This is not earning points for salvation, it is doing the works Christ commanded us to do, the works of love, such as feeding the hungry, burying the dead, teaching the faith, giving clothes to the naked, aiding the sick and dying, and so forth. St. James explains the necessity for doing these.
S
Scoobyshme
Guest
Works are an integral part of salvific faith, and cannot be done without God’s grace. (That’s about as simple as I can put it. Maybe someone else can do a better job.)
J
jinc1019
Guest
If it isn’t “earning points for salvation,” how does that differ from the Protestant view? It seems very similar.
J
jinc1019
Guest
Thanks for the suggestion!
J
jinc1019
Guest
The following is from a Protestant site…Is this the accurate depiction of what Catholics believe?:
A third major difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is how one is saved. Another of the five solas of the Reformation was sola fide (“faith alone”), which affirms the biblical doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-10). However, according to Roman Catholicism, man cannot be saved by faith alone in Christ alone. Catholics teach that the Christian must rely on faith plus “meritorious works” in order to be saved. Essential to the Roman Catholic doctrine of salvation are the Seven Sacraments, which are baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. Protestants believe that, on the basis of faith in Christ alone, believers are justified by God as all their sins are paid for by Christ on the cross and His righteousness is imputed to them. Catholics, on the other hand, believe that Christ’s righteousness is imparted to the believer by “grace through faith,” but in itself it is not sufficient to justify the believer. The believer must “supplement” the righteousness of Christ imparted to him with meritorious works.
A third major difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is how one is saved. Another of the five solas of the Reformation was sola fide (“faith alone”), which affirms the biblical doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-10). However, according to Roman Catholicism, man cannot be saved by faith alone in Christ alone. Catholics teach that the Christian must rely on faith plus “meritorious works” in order to be saved. Essential to the Roman Catholic doctrine of salvation are the Seven Sacraments, which are baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. Protestants believe that, on the basis of faith in Christ alone, believers are justified by God as all their sins are paid for by Christ on the cross and His righteousness is imputed to them. Catholics, on the other hand, believe that Christ’s righteousness is imparted to the believer by “grace through faith,” but in itself it is not sufficient to justify the believer. The believer must “supplement” the righteousness of Christ imparted to him with meritorious works.
J
jinc1019
Guest
I think I found a good, although not brief, answer to my own question:
catholicism.org/faith-and-good-works.html
catholicism.org/faith-and-good-works.html
D
Della
Guest
They have the bolded part wrong, which shows their misunderstanding of Catholic teaching.
A part of having faith in Christ is the “do the works that I do,” as he put it. Faith is not a mere mental assent to doctrine, but changes us into holy persons through God’s grace, thereby allowing us to please God by works of charity. Without this active faith it is impossible to please God, as it says in Hebrews 11:6, and as St. James tells us in his Epistle.
I
Indifferently
Guest
Protestants do not believe in the treasury of merits of saints, or in Indulgences.
Justification and sanctification are not conflated by Protestants, generally being seen as an event and a process respectively.
Justification and sanctification are not conflated by Protestants, generally being seen as an event and a process respectively.
D
Della
Guest
Justification is what Christ did for us on the cross, gaining redemption for the whole world. Sanctification is an ongoing process because we sin again and again. Salvation is the goal towards which we are moving with union with God as the ultimate end. Yes?
I
Indifferently
Guest
That being said, the Roman Church has made great strides towards justification by faith alone since the middle ages, and especially in the last half-century. Read the joint declaration with Lutherans on that very point. It is extremely encouraging. Purgatory - at least as ‘temporal punishment’ for sins already forgiven - seems to be going out of fashion in Rome too, with a more ambiguous teaching on purification creeping in.
All very encouraging.
All very encouraging.
P
pablope
Guest
This article (which I learned a lot from) from a protestant convert gives both the protestant and catholic distinction:
chnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/salvation.pdf
Justification By Faith
By Dr. William Marshner
Short excerpts:
Stages of Justification
Catholic and Protestant views on the respective roles of grace, faith and works cannot be compared meaningfully, unless one specifies what stage of the justificational process one is talking about. In the preparatory stage, for instance, in which prevenient graces first stir a person towards an interest in religious truth, towards repentance, and towards faith, Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists are at one in saying “sola gratia.”2 A second stage is the very transition from death to life, which is the first stage of justification proper. Here the parties are at one in saying “sola fide,” though they seem to mean different things by it. Protestants tend to mean that, at this stage, by the grace of God, man’s act of faith is the sole act required of him; Catholics mean that faith is the beginning, foundation and root of all justification, since only faith makes possible the acts of hope and charity (i.e. love-for-God) which are also required.
. It is at this stage that the parties sharply diverge. Catholics affirm, and Protestants strenuously deny, that the born-again Christian’s good works merit for him the increase of grace and of the Christian virtues. As a result, Protestant piety has no obvious place for the self-sacrifices, fasts, and states of perfection which are prominent features of Catholic piety. At each stage, neither the apparent agreements nor the apparent disagreements can be understood without looking at certain metaphysical quarrels, the chief of which is over the very existence of what
Catholics call “grace.”
. The Church Fathers and their successors, the Scholastic Doctors, took the trouble to work out such a metaphysics because the existence of grace as a real entity in man—ontic grace—was and is the foundation, without which the whole Catholic understanding of justification makes no sense.
But then, if grace is not something real in man, our “justification” can no longer be conceived as a real change in us; it will have to become a sheer declaration
on God’s part, e.g. a declaration that, thanks to the work of Christ, He will henceforth consider us as just, even though we remain inwardly the sinners we always were. Hence, the Protestant doctrine of “forensic” or “extrinsic” justification. Now watch what happens to our own act of faith: it ceases to be the foundational act of an interior renewal and becomes a mere requirement, devoid of any salvific power in its own right, which God arbitrarily sets as the condition on which He will He will declare us just. Whereupon, watch what happens to our good works: they cease to be the vital acts wherein an ontologically real “new life” consists and manifests itself; they become mere human responses to divine mercy—nice, but totally irrelevant to our justification—or else they become zombie-like motions produced in us by irresistible divine impulses, whereby God exhibits His glory in His elect.
P
pablope
Guest
This is from Mcgrath…which was shared here a while ago, which I share:
Found this quote from McGrath. So the event/decalartion in rcism is baptism, right? At baptism we are decalred rightous by infused grace, right?
Justification by Mcgrath
Alister Mcgrath quotes: Reformation Thoughts
Starting with Augustine, the Roman Catholic tradition has understood justification as the entire process by which God forgives and then transforms Christians. Based on their reading of the use of “justification” in Paul’s letters, the Reformers took justification to refer specifically to God’s forgiveness and acceptance. The term “sanctification” was used to refer to the lifelong process of transformation. Thus the Roman Catholic term “justification” effectively includes both what Protestants refer to as “justification” and “sanctification.” This difference in definitions can result in confusion, effectively exaggerating the disagreement. However the difference in definitions reflects a difference in substance. In the Protestant concept, justification is a status before God that is entirely the result of God’s activity and that continues even when humans sin. Thus using different words for justification and sanctification reflects a distinction between aspects of salvation that are entirely the result of God’s activity, and those that involve human cooperation. The Roman Catholic tradition uses a single term, in part, because it does not recognize a distinction of this type. For the Roman Catholic tradition, while everything originates with God, the entire process of justification requires human cooperation, and serious sin compromises it.[1]
The Catholic tradition, following Augustine, has identified justifying works as those works performed by the regenerate, i.e., the baptized, i.e., the justified. Works do not bring bring about the state of justification–God does this gratuitously in the sacrament of baptism–but they do contribute to our growth in justification. Please note that in the traditional Latin usage, “justification” comprehends initial justification, growth in justification (sanctification), and final justification. Hence it is meaningful for Catholics to speak of works as justifying–not in the sense that they earn God’s favor, not in the sense that they effect the transition from a state of sin to a state of righteousness, but in the sense that they contribute to our growth in holiness and sanctity and thus deepen our communion with the Holy Trinity
M
MarcoPolo
Guest
Dovetailing on what Della said, there are some errors in the above. First off, a person needn’t participate in all “seven” sacraments for salvation. It’s very rare that someone ever receives all 7.
Also, Catholics do not say “grace through faith” is “not sufficient.” That is factually erroneous. The problem this author has is not recognizing the Catholic notion that any works are an indivisible part of faith. Paul himself wrote that just as a body and spirit make one person, so faith and works are a singular, living concept (James 2:26). There is no “adding” works to faith, for they are an integral part of that faith. James even warns elsewhere in James 2 that the demons have a certain “faith,” but that idea of faith absent of works is something “dead.” Rather, faith itself is a transformation of one’s life, ordered toward God.
So the above author is using his/her own definition of the word “faith,” and then assigning it to Catholic teaching, which gives the illusion that faith is “insufficient,” when in reality, the entire notion of “faith” for a Catholic is a giving of oneself to God, including going forth in charity.
If you want to dig a little deeper (i.e. no longer the “simple” terms you requested in the OP), here is what the Council of Trent says on Justification’s “causes”:…Justification itself, which is not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man…Of this Justification the causes are these: the final cause indeed is the glory of God and of Jesus Christ, and life everlasting; while the efficient cause is a merciful God who washes and sanctifies gratuitously, signing, and anointing with the holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance; but the meritorious cause is His most beloved only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when we were enemies, for the exceeding charity wherewith he loved us, merited Justification for us by His most holy Passion on the wood of the cross, and made satisfaction for us unto God the Father; the instrumental cause is the sacrament of baptism, which is the sacrament of faith, without which (faith) no man was ever justified; lastly, the alone formal cause is the justice of God, not that whereby He Himself is just, but that whereby He maketh us just, that, to wit, with which we being endowed by Him, are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we are not only reputed, but are truly called, and are, just, receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure, which the Holy Ghost distributes to every one as He wills, and according to each one’s proper disposition and co-operation. For, although no one can be just, but he to whom the merits of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are communicated, yet is this done in the said justification of the impious, when by the merit of that same most holy Passion, the charity of God is poured forth, by the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of those that are justified, and is inherent therein: whence, man, through Jesus Christ, in whom he is ingrafted, receives, in the said justification, together with the remission of sins, all these (gifts) infused at once, faith, hope, and charity. For faith, unless hope and charity be added thereto, neither unites man perfectly with Christ, nor makes him a living member of His body.
M
MarcoPolo
Guest
Actually, the whole idea of purification has been essential to the idea of purgatory from the beginning, including in light of the “punishments” believed to be the means of purification: *And though the punishments cease in the course of the completion of the expiation and purification of each one, yet those have very great and permanent grief who are found worthy of the other fold, on account of not being along with those that have been glorified through righteousness." Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 6:14 (post A.D. 202).
It is one thing, tortured by long suffering for sins, to be cleansed and long purged by fire; another to have purged all sins by suffering. It is one thing, in fine, to be in suspense till the sentence of God at the day of judgment; another to be at once crowned by the Lord." Cyprian, To Antonianus, Epistle 51 (55):20 (A.D. 253).
When he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil." Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon on the Dead, PG 13:445,448 (ante A.D. 394)
Because if they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments, as Brother John has explained to us. And to relieve punishments of this kind, the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, alms, and other duties of piety, which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful according to the regulations of the Church. However, the souls of those who after having received holy baptism have incurred no stain of sin whatever, also those souls who, after contracting the stain of sin, either while remaining in their bodies or being divested of them, have been cleansed, as we have said above, are received immediately into heaven. (Council of Lyon, 1274)*
The idea of purification has been the foundation for the idea of Purgatory from the beginning, even back to the OT book of Maccabees, for instance.
- Status