Gospel Prism

The first reason I am not an altar boy is because I disagree with Roman Catholic understanding on the doctrine of justification, a central tenet in our understanding of our salvation. Roman Catholicism teaches what is known as ‘infused justification.’ R. C. Sproul in his book Faith Alone and also in his address on the Together for the Gospel Conference does such a great job in developing the RC (funny eh, R. C. Sproul speaking on the RC (Roman Catholics) view of justification, that rather than explaining it in my own words, I’ll quote Tim Challies’ overview of Mr. Sproul here from the Together Conference. He writes:

Rome did teach and does continue to teach that justification is a sacerdotal matter. The grace of justification is administered by and through the church, by the priesthood, through the sacraments. Justification begins by the sacrament of baptism which functions by the working of the works (near-automatically) and in baptism the grace of baptism is infused into the recipient of the sacrament, which is to say it is poured into their soul. This grace is sometimes called “the righteousness of Christ.” This does not fully justify the recipient because the person needs to assent to and cooperate with this grace to such a degree that he actually becomes righteous. If you are righteous, then you will be justified and remain in a state of grace as long as you keep yourself from mortal sin. Mortal sin is defined as sin that kills the justifying grace that has been infused into the soul. A person who commits moral sin loses his justifying grace. When mortal sin occurs, and justifying grace is lost, that can and often does happen, while authentic, genuine faith remains. A person can have real faith and not be justified. Once mortal sin has been committed, the church requires the sacrament of penance which is called “the second plank of justification for those who have made shipwreck of their souls.” The sacrament of penance gains “congruous” merit, which makes it fitting that God once again restores a person to grace and gives him a new infusion of the grace that is needed.

Too often Protestants slander the Roman Catholic Church [RCC] by not being accurate in regards to Catholic doctrine. Rome teaches that, in order to be justified, a person needs to have faith. The Church says that faith has three functions to perform in justification: the initiation of justification, the foundation of justification, and the root of justification. They maintain the importance of faith. It is a necessary condition for justification, but not a sufficient condition. Protestants believe that faith is a sufficient condition. The presence of genuine faith links you to Jesus and His righteousness and becomes the instrument by which you are justified. This distinction alone is enough to generate a reformation. The difference, then, is faith versus faith alone. Rome teaches grace plus merit. Christ plus your own righteousness is necessary to be redeemed. You cannot be justified without grace, but you also cannot be justified without merit.

Obviously, there is much to explain here. The sacraments (which will be covered later in detail) for the RCC play a significant role in the ‘process’ of justification.
Of course, the idea of any series of things playing any role in justification runs counter to a biblical understanding of justification. Since we as Protestants believe that it is faith alone and not faith alongside other things (sacraments, etc.) that is a necessary condition for justification, the distinction between the two camps, while seeming minor, is actually terribly significant.

R. C. Sproul is absolutely right, however, that Protestants do the RCC an injustice when it assumes that the RCC does NOT believe in justification by faith. They DO believe in justification by faith. But what this justification by faith looks like is that it is faith as represented by the actions of the sacraments. Here is what the Council of Trent (the RC Council that countered Martin Luther’s teachings on justification) teaches on the subject:

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. [Emphasis mine]

It sounds so good until you read that last line and you see that justification by faith has an instrumental cause that is more that a declaration of righteousness by the Father through the work of Christ, but it is through the SACRAMENT of baptism which is a SACRAMERNT OF FAITH.

R. C. Sproul adds further in Faith Alone (p. 123):

Trent indicates that the grace of justification can be lost in two ways. The first is by infidelity, in which case faith is lost and justification with it. The second and more significant way is by mortal sin, in which case one may have faith but lose justification. If it is possible to have true faith but not have justification, then it is clear, by resistless logic, that justification is not by faith alone.

John Gerstener adds:

Some Romanists will say that they too teach justification by grace—by Christ’s righteousness, in fact. But the righteousness of Christ which they claim justifies is not Christ’s own personal righteousness reckoned or credited or given or imputed to believers. Romanists refer to the righteousness which Christ works into the life of the believer or infuses into him in his own living and behavior. It is not Christ’s personal righteousness but the believer’s personal righteousness, which he performs by the grace of God. It is Christ’s righteousness versus the believer’s own righteousness. It is Christ’s achievement versus the Christian’s achievement. It is an imputed righteousness not an infused righteousness. It is a gift of God versus an accomplishment of man. These two righteousnesses are as different as righteousnesses could conceivable be. It does come down to the way it has been popularly stated for the last four and a half centuries: Protestantism’s salvation by faith versus Rome’s salvation by works…The Protestant trusts Christ to save him and the Catholic trusts Christ to help him save himself. It is faith versus works. Or, as the Spirit of God puts it in Romans 4:16 (NIV), ‘Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace, and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring.’ It is ‘by faith so that it may be by grace…’ If a Romanist wants to be saved by grace alone, it will have to be by faith alone. ‘The promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace.’ You can’t be saved ‘sola gratia’ except ‘sola fide.’…We agree with Roman friends—salvation is by grace. That is the reason it must be by faith. If it is a salvation based on works that come from grace, it is not based on grace but on the Christian’s works that come from grace. The works that come from grace must prove grace but they cannot be grace. They may come from, be derivative of, a consequence of, but they cannot be identified with it. Faith is merely union with Christ who is our righteousness, our grace, our salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:30, ‘It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God,’ that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Christ is our righteousness. Our righteousness does not result from His righteousness, it is His righteousness (Justification by Faith Alone, Don Kistler, Ed. (Morgan: Soli Deo Gloria, 1995), John Gerstner, The Nature of Justifying Faith, pp. 111–113).

You can’t have both, say that grace saves you alone and yet believe that it is even an iota of your works or what RCs will call your ‘participation’ that leads you to the Father. If your participation is required of your faith, then surely it cannot be grace ALONE that saves a person. It is a half-measured grace which is quite contradictory to what Scripture teaches. I praise God that I am justified by faith alone. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for my works, any works, to add to what Christ has done. I would never be certain if my works are sufficient to make me justified. I would never be certain if I had enough faith to be justified. It would make life quite tenuous and much more anxious, to say the least. Or it would make my worship filled with rituals of faith, in hopes that some of these rituals actually made me justified before God. RCs can call that faith, but in the end, I’ll take faith alone over faith through baptism and the sacraments any day.

There is so much out there that wrestles with the biblical view of justification, that I’d rather refer you to the articles below that will give you an in-depth view of justification. May 2 Corinthians 5:21 ring through our hearts as we praise God for His great grace alone that justifies us through Christ by faith alone: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.�

J. I. Packer on Justiifcation

D. A. Carson on Justification

R. C. Sproul, “The Importance of Justification”

Louis Berkhof

John Calvin, “Justification is by Grace Alone”

John Gerstner, “The Nature of Justifying Faith”