Apologetics for the Masses #525 - Justification: Catholic vs. Protestant Teaching

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Topic

Justification: Catholic vs. Protestant Teaching

General Comments

Please keep all the folks - particularly the non-Catholics - in the 35005 zip code in your prayers. I'm about to start my Evangelization Campaign in that zip code. Phase I will be mailing a Catechism of the Catholic Church to every non-Catholic pastor in the zip code. I've identified 32 non-Catholic churches and will start mailing out Catechisms to their pastors as early as next week. (If you would like to read the letter that I send out with the Catechisms, you can find it here: Catechism Letter to Pastors.

Then, a few weeks after the Catechisms are all mailed out, I'll start Phase II, which is the mailing out of The Roman (Catholic) Road to Salvation tract to every business and household in the zip code. There are 118 businesses and 3314 households. Also keep in prayer the folks in the 35094 zip code. Phase III - mailing out the Which Church is THE Church of the Bible tract to all businesses and households (over 7000 of them) - will commence either later this month or in early November if all goes well.

By the way, if you would like me to mail a Catechism of the Catholic Church, along with the accompanying letter, to a pastor or minister you know of, the cost is $35 - which includes the mailing costs. Simply go to the donations page of our website - www.biblechristiansociety.com/donate - make a donation of $35 or more, and then send me an email (john@biblechristiansociety.com) with the minister's name, his church's name, and his address, and I'll take it from there. It will be completely anonymous unless you tell me otherwise.

Introduction

In the last few newsletters - which were mostly all about my exhange with Lutheran Pastor Dan Delzell - the word "Justification" was mentioned numerous times. Well, in response to that, I had a reader send in a question about exactly what "Justification" is. So, below, I expand a bit on the concept of justification and the difference between Catholic and Protestant teaching on the topic.

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Question from Subscriber
John, I was hoping you could explain what "Justification" is and the difference between what the Catholic church teaches about it and the Protestants.

My Response
Basically, justification simply means to be made acceptable to God, by God. The Council of Trent defines justification as "a translation from that state in which a person is born a child of the first Adam into a state of grace and of the 'adoption of sons' of God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Savior," through Baptism (Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, chapter 4).

Being justified essentially means to be cleansed of sin...to be made holy...to be sanctified...to be made pure. "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor 6:11). By being justified, we have, again, put off our old nature inherited from Adam, and been transformed into our new nature, in Christ.  "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph 4:22-24). We go from being "by nature children of wrath" (Eph 2:3), to being children of God (Rom 8:14).

The Catechism says it this way, "Justification: The gracious action of God which frees us from sin and communicates 'the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ' (Rom 3:22). Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man (CCC #1987-1989)." By justification the unrighteous becomes righteous.  Justification is an action of God by which He makes us, through "the washing of water with the word" to be "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that [we] might be holy and without blemish." (Eph 5:26-27).

God, through Baptism, makes us holy. He pours His grace out upon us and washes away our sin (Acts 2:38). Because we are made holy through Baptism, we are then worthy to receive eternal life (Titus 3:5-7). We are then worthy to become temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). We are then worthy to become members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13). We are then worthy to "see the Lord" (Heb 12:14).

Unclean to clean. Unrighteous to righteous. Unworthy to worthy. Unsaved to saved.  Sinner to saint.

I hope that helps to explain the "what" in regard to justification. Regarding the difference between Catholic and Protestant teaching on that subject, there are a few points to make:

1) In Catholic teaching, justification involves an actual infusion of grace into the soul of the person being justified, which causes that person to literally be made righteous. The soul is transformed from a state of sin to a state of grace. The soul is thus made holy and acceptable in the sight of the Lord.

Whereas, in Protestant teaching, there is no infusion of grace. There is no inner transformation of the soul. Justification is an external imputation of righteousness, in a strictly legal sense, to the person being justified. They are not actually made righteous. Rather, they are simply "declared" to be righteous. The way I have often heard it put is something like this: "Think of a courtroom. You, the sinner, are brought before the Judge - God, the Father. You are guilty as charged. However, Jesus Christ has died for your sins. He has paid the price for you. Because of that, we are now 'hid with Christ in God,' (Col 3:3). So, since we are 'hid' with Christ, the Judge no longer sees us - the guilty sinner - He only sees His Son, Jesus Christ, and His righteousness. The Judge, only seeing His righteous Son, renders a verdict of 'innocent'. Which means the righteousness of Christ has been 'imputed' to us...credited to us...since we are 'hid' in Christ. So, even though we are actually guilty, we are, nevertheless, 'declared' innocent by virtue of the innocence of Jesus Christ."

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Actually, no, it doesn't. Not when you consider what the Word of God says. The Bible talks about how we are born again in Christ (John 3:3-5). Born of the Spirit (John 3:6). How we are new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). How we have newness of life (Rom 6:4). How we've put on a new nature (Eph 4:24). We have become temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). Partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). And so forth. The Protestant belief in a forensic, legal, external imputation of righteousness to the person being justified, which results in no essential change in that person's sinful nature, flies in the face of all of that. The Bible says that through being justified, we are now new creations in Christ. Protestant theology says that through being justified, we are now the same guilty as hell sinners. The Word of God, or the Word of Protestantism? I know which one I'm going to believe.

The other thing is, God cannot lie. And if God declares us innocent, when we are actually guilty, then God is telling a lie. He is making a declaration that is not true. Protestant theology has the unfortunate consequence of making God a liar. I'm sorry, but I don't want a theology that makes God out to be a liar.

And one other thing that Protestant theology does, it makes God's Word impotent. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God spoke, it happened. Why? Because God's Word is power. So, when God declares a person is innocent, what happens? Well, in Protestant theology, nothing happens. God declares that person innocent; yet, that person is still guilty. God's Word has no power. In Catholic theology, when God declares a person innocent, God's Word makes that person innocent. God's Word is not impotent. It has power.

2) A second difference between Catholic and Protestant theology in regard to justification, is that, for Protestants, justification is a one time event. For Catholics, it is both a one time event and a lifelong process. Or, you could say a one time event that is the first step in a life long process. Both/and. For the Protestant, when a person "accepts Jesus Christ into their heart as their personal Lord and Savior," then that person is justified, or saved, and that's that. Justified is justified. Saved is saved. You can't be "more" saved than just plain ol' saved. Pastor Delzell made a rather awkward analogy between spiritual birth and growth and physical birth and growth, saying that if one could be born again - justified - and then grow in justification, it would be like a person being born, but then reaching their teenage years and still needing to have some parts of his body - a foot, an ear, a hand, etc. - still be born. Uhm...what? Sorry, Pastor, bad analogy. You can indeed make growing in justification analogous to physical growth, but not the way he did it. Rather, when a baby is born, it's complete at birth, right? It's a whole baby. It can't be more complete. Yet, it still grows, even though it's complete. It grows into a complete toddler, then a complete teenager, then a complete adult. A person is born, but then they keep on growing. It's happens physically and it happens spiritually.

For the Catholic, there is indeed a one time event where we are justified - it's called Baptism - however, after we are baptized, we can indeed grow in our justification, as we grow in our sanctification. By becoming more and more holy (sanctified), we grow in our salvation (justification). My favorite verse to point to in that regard, is 2 Cor 3:18 - "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another." If we're being changed into His likeness, from one degree of glory to another, then we are necessarily growing in holiness as we become more and more like Him. If we're growing in our holiness, we are growing in our justification.

I mean, if we can't grow in our justification, then how can we have Bible verses such as the following: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works..." (James 2:21). "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." (James 2:24). "So run [the race] that you may obtain [the prize]." (1 Cor 9:24). "...be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:10-11). "...for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Rom 8:13). "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." (1 Cor 15:58). And there are many more passages like that I could share, but suffice it to say that if one cannot grow in justification, then how was Abraham justified by works? How is it we are justified by works and not by faith alone? Why do we have to run the race to obtain the prize if we've already obtained it? How do confirm our call and election if they've already been confirmed? I think you get the picture. Protestant theology turns so much of God's Word into nonsense. If I were asking Pastor Delzell about these verses to his face, do you know what he would say? "Well, what that means is..."

3) One other difference between Catholic and Protestant theology on this subject, is that, in Protestant theology, there is a hard and fast difference between justification (being saved) and sanctification (being made holy). The two are completely separate from each other. One has nothing to do with the other. As we saw from Pastor Delzell's response to me, justification happens - in its entirety and total completeness - to a person first, and then, over the course of their lifetime, they work on their sanctification. But, being sanctified (made holy) has nothing to do with being justified (saved). You are saved in Protestant theology before you are ever made holy. If, indeed, you ever are made holy. Although, after I quoted some problematic (for him) verses to him, he started to change his tune a little bit about the separation between justification and sanctification.

In Catholic theology, justification and sanctification are basically two sides of the same coin. If you're not holy, you cannot be justified. If you're not holy, Scripture tells us, you cannot see the Lord (Heb 12:14). God justifies us by sanctifying us. God, by His grace, actually makes us holy. By becoming holy we are made acceptable and pleasing to God. Justification and sanctification - can't have one without the other.

Closing Comments

I hope all of you have a great week! Please keep those prayers coming!

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