The Question Beneath Every Other Question
Every Catholic and every Baptist who takes the Bible seriously faces Job's old question: how should man be just with God? (Job 9:2). Both will answer that a sinner is justified by God's grace because of what Christ did on the cross. Both will speak of faith, of grace, and of the merit of Christ. Yet they mean different things by those words, and the difference is the Gospel itself.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that God justifies a sinner by pouring His grace into the soul, first in baptism, so that the sinner is made inwardly righteous. That righteousness grows through good works, is lost through mortal sin, and is restored through the sacrament of Penance. We believe, because Scripture teaches it, that God justifies a sinner by declaring him righteous the moment he believes, crediting to him the perfect righteousness of Christ. Nothing is added to it, nothing increases it, and nothing can undo it.
The Roman Catholic teaching that in justification God pours grace, with faith, hope, and charity, into the soul, so that the justified person is made inwardly righteous, and that this righteousness within him is what God accepts (Trent, Session 6, Chapter 7; Catechism, §1992).
The biblical teaching that God credits, or counts, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to the account of the sinner who believes, and on that ground declares him righteous (Romans 4:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
The Catechism quotes Paul's great passage on justification, Romans 3:21–26, in full (§1992), and it teaches that no one can merit the first grace of justification (§2010). A Catholic friend is being honest when he says he believes in grace. The question to ask is what God accepts when He declares a sinner righteous: a righteousness formed within the sinner, or the righteousness of Christ counted to him.
This topic does not repeat the full study of Justification. It sets out what Rome teaches from its own documents, the Council of Trent and the Catechism, and answers it from Scripture. For a side-by-side summary, see How is a sinner made right with God?
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For Deeper Study
- Catechism of the Catholic ChurchAmazon The primary source for Catholic teaching today. Read its article on grace and justification, §§1987–2029, in Rome's own words. Roman Catholic.
- Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical AssessmentAmazon Gregg R. AllisonA Southern Baptist theologian works through the Catechism section by section, describing it fairly before answering it. Reformed in its wider theology.
- The Gospel According to Rome: Comparing Catholic Tradition and the Word of GodAmazon James G. McCarthyA former Catholic compares the Catechism's teaching on salvation with Scripture, with full references to Catholic sources.
- The God Who JustifiesAmazon James R. WhiteAn exposition of Romans, Galatians, and James on justification that interacts directly with Trent. White is a Reformed Baptist.
- Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of JustificationAmazon R. C. SproulA clear account of imputed and infused righteousness and of why the difference matters. Sproul was Presbyterian.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Justification
God declares the believing sinner righteous, forgiving all his sins and crediting to him the righteousness of Christ, on the ground of Christ's blood and through faith alone.
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