The Biblical Foundations of Catholic Salvation
(Part 5)
Paul Newcombe
IN JUSTIFICATION WE ARE MADE RIGHTEOUS
As we continue to follow the repercussions of justification as a complete transformation of the human soul, we also begin to appreciate that our internal sanctification is a central and defining feature of our initial justification. Because justification is a familial action which occurs in a household of faith, we shouldn’t be surprised to discover that, in justification, our Heavenly Father shares everything He has with His children — including His own righteousness. This is what all good fathers instinctively do.
Due to his understanding of justification as an exclusively legal encounter with God, Martin Luther set the Protestant reformation in motion by teaching something altogether different—that is, in justification we are like a pile of dung that has been covered with snow. On the outside we look pure and white (due to the merits of Christ cloaking us) although on the inside we are unchanged, we are still a cesspool of sin. In commenting on one of the Psalms, Luther affirmed:
“Man has said to sin, ‘Thou art my father’, and every act he performs is an offense against God… He is a bad tree and cannot produce good fruit, a dunghill that can only exhale foul odors”. (Consult Wittenb. III. 518). “God’s all-powerful grace does not cleanse from sin. The almighty does not regard the sins of men. He covers them over with the merits of Christ”. (Walch XIII. 1480).[1]
Luther pried apart justification by declaring sanctification to be a separate task, one which occurs at later stages of the Christian journey. Therefore, today many Protestants believe in external or forensic justification where righteousness is merely declared or imputed by God to the sinner — it’s a legal cloaking of our state before God that does not include any internal regeneration of the soul. This neglects the fatherly nature of the one who is justifying us — a Father who gives and fills His children with all that He has and is. Understanding this, the Catholic Church continues to teach that in justification we are not just declared righteous, but we are actually made righteous — another necessary result of being a “new creation” and, more importantly, this is the necessary result of being justified by a Father who is also our judge. As already noted, a Father shares everything with his children and in the case of God this includes sharing His own righteousness with His family members. Therefore, justification is the act of our heavenly Father declaring and making us just by changing our soul which passes from a state of sin to that of sanctifying grace. As outlined by the 1994 Catholic Catechism:
“Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life.”[2]
Scripture contains many passages which provide a backdrop for justification where we are cleansed of our sinful condition; in fact, our sinful condition is taken away, completely removed, and blotted out. Our sins are obliterated, not merely “covered over”:
Behold the Lamb of God, who TAKES AWAY the sin of the world! (John 1:29).
The Lord also has PUT AWAY your sin… (2 Samuel 12:13).
…TAKE AWAY the iniquity of thy servant. (1 Chronicles 21:8).
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and CLEANSE ME FROM MY SIN!... Purge me with hyssop, and I SHALL BE CLEAN; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. …BLOT OUT ALL MY INIQUITIES. Create in me a CLEAN HEART, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:2, 7, 9-10).
As far as the east is from the west, so far does he REMOVE our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12).
I am he that BLOTS OUT your transgressions… (Isaiah 43:25)
I have SWEPT AWAY your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist, for I have redeemed you. (Isaiah 44:22).
…I …will CLEANSE them (Ezekiel 37:23).
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be BLOTTED OUT… (Acts 3:19).
…the blood of Jesus his Son CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN. (1 John 1:7).
…He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. (1 John 1:9).
And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and WASH AWAY YOUR SINS, calling on his name. (Acts 22:16).
In commenting upon Acts 22:16 Catholic theologian Dave Armstrong makes the following observations:
“The Protestant has a real difficulty explaining this passage, for it is St. Paul’s own recounting of his odyssey as a newly ‘born again’ Christian. We have here the Catholic doctrine of (sacramental) sanctification/ justification, in which sins are actually removed. The phraseology wash away your sins is reminiscent of Psalm 51:2, 7, 1 John 1:7, 9 and other similar texts dealing with infused justification… According to the standard evangelical soteriology, the Apostle Paul would have been instantly ‘justified’ at the Damascus road experience when he first converted (almost involuntarily!) to Christ (Acts 9:1-9). Thus his sins would have been ‘covered over’ and righteousness imputed to him at that point. If so, then why would St. Paul use this terminology of washing away sins at baptism in a merely symbolic sense (as they assert), since it would be superfluous? The reasonable alternative, especially given the evidence of other related scriptures, is that St. Paul was speaking literally, and not symbolically.
There is even more remarkable proof of this: The Greek word for wash away in Acts 22:16 is apolouo. It only appears one other time in the Bible, also in St. Paul’s writing:
And such were some of you. But you were washed [apolouo], you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11).
There is much here which indicates the Catholic view of the doctrines under present consideration: washing (baptismal regeneration), sanctification, justification, and even the Holy Spirit (and the Trinity). Protestant “dogma” attempts to separate all four elements, to more or less degrees. Granted, it isn’t logically certain that the three acts or processes are equivalent in this particular text, but at any rate, St. Paul is surely associating them together closely, as in Catholic teaching.”[3]
Notice also the order above: (i) “washed”; (ii) “sanctified”; (iii) “justified”. Protestant theology separates justification and sanctification — justification comes first and sanctification occurs later throughout the course of life. However, St. Paul places sanctification before justification which re-enforces the Catholic belief that man is sanctified when he is justified and then this state is deepened during the course of the Christian life. God (in sharing His divine righteousness with us) instils faith, hope and love into our souls and, by His grace, these attributes (received in our initial justification) continue to grow and mature in our relationship with God.
Another passage often cited to support the Catholic notion of infused righteousness is Revelation 21:27:
“Nothing impure will ever enter it [heaven], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27).
If, as non-Catholics often maintain, we are only legally declared righteous with our sinful condition being merely “covered over”, we immediately fail to meet the standard of purity required by Revelation 21 for entrance into heaven. Protestant denominations affirm sanctification of the believer as a separate process from justification, however, they also strongly proclaim that sanctification has no bearing upon one’s entrance into heaven. Some believers may develop great sanctity in their lives; some may develop very little sanctity. Both, however, will gain entrance to heaven because their internal state, impure as it may be, remains “covered over” by a legal declaration. This is a clear contradiction of Revelation 21 which stipulates that nothing impure will ever enter heaven.
Some denominations have tried to harmonize Revelation 21:27 by implying that God, as our judge, will only see the purity of Christ which cloaks the believer. Christ will be our substitute at our initial justification and at our final judgment and on this basis entrance into heaven is granted. According to Catholic theologian, Robert Sungenis, this interpretation overlooks John’s surrounding context:
“Although the Protestant explanation of Revelation 21:27 is plausible, one immediate problem with such a view is that it does not do justice to the literal or ‘face value’ language John chooses. John does not speak in terms of ‘imputed righteousness’ in Revelation 21:27. He speaks only of what is observable as the person attempts to gain entrance into heaven. Those who are ‘impure’ are also those who do what is ‘shameful’ or ‘deceitful’. It is not a matter of whether they have accepted the alien righteousness of Christ; it is a matter of whether they have been obedient. The remaining context provides corroboration that the internal righteousness which qualifies them for heaven is John’s intended meaning. He points to the obedience or disobedience of each individual as the distinguishing mark between them. In Revelation 22:11 he writes, ‘Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.’ Again in Revelation 22:15 he writes, ‘Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.’ The focus is on the good or evil actions of the individual, not the reception of an imputed righteousness.”[4]
GOD’S WORD DOES NOT RETURN TO HIM VOID
As already stated, the Catholic Church insists that in justification we are not only declared to be God’s children, we are also made God’s children; we are not only declared to be just, we are also made just. To gain a deeper appreciation for the Catholic Church’s determined defense of this belief we must investigate exactly how Catholicism understands the action and authority of God’s Word. In one sense we could say that the Catholic Church affirms that God cannot lie, not only because He would not lie due to His perfect holiness, but due to the fact that He literally cannot lie. To explain this another way — when God declares something He literally does it by declaring it. God’s Word is “living and active” (Heb 4:12), and it absolutely cannot return to Him void (Isaiah 55:1). A well-known example is in the first chapter of Genesis where God said to a dark cosmos: “Let there be light” and light instantly sprang into existence in obedience to His almighty Word. In declaring light, God produced light. In fact, God cannot declare anything without it immediately becoming a reality. This is the Catholic understanding of the divine authority of God’s Word. Therefore, when God declares us to be His children, we are immediately made His children — we are completely re-created by the power of His Word. Likewise, when God declares us to be just we are immediately made just. It is impossible for our state to remain inwardly defiled, or merely cloaked, once God’s Word has been decreed. Catholic theologian Scott Hahn describes the transformative power of God’s Word in our justification in the following manner:
“Justification, then, understood in the Catholic way, involves both the imputation of legal righteousness as the Protestants believe, but also the infusion of Christ’s life and grace as the divine son so that in Christ we become at justification living, breathing sons of God, not just legally but actually. That’s what the grace of the Father does for his children. In other word’s we hold with the Protestants that justification involves a legal decree, a divine word, that we are just, but unlike the Protestants and contrary to their position, we believe that the word of justification goes forth in power. In other words, God does what He declares. In the very act of declaring us just He makes us just because His word is omnipotent, it’s all-powerful. Isaiah 55:1: ‘So shall my Word go forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose’.”[5]
When God’s Word goes forth from His mouth declaring us to be His righteous children we can be certain that His Word immediately accomplishes exactly what it declares. When this principle is incorporated into any discussion about man’s justification, we see visibly that the Catholic understanding of justification as a transformation of the interior man is the only version that can keep up with the power of God’s Word. All other versions that reduce the effect of justification down to a mere legal status before God, a word that declares righteousness but does not effect righteousness — these depictions of justification fail to understand the created reality which God’s Word always produces.
Footnotes:
[1] O’Hare, Patrick. The Facts About Luther, Rockford: TAN Books and Publishers, 1987, p.100.
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, Sections 1989 & 1992.
[3] Armstrong, Dave. A Biblical Defence of Catholicism, 2003, Manchester, Sophia Institute Press, pp.39-40.
[4] Sungenis, Robert. How Can I Get To Heaven, Santa Barbara: Queenship Publishing, 1998, pp. 197-198.
[5] Hahn, Scott. The Authority Justification Debate. Participants: Scott Hahn of the University of Steubenville versus Robert Knudsen of Westminster Theological Seminary, 1990.