As the gavel came down to close the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563, Rome had officially and, according to her own commitment down to the present moment, irreversably, declared that the Gospel announced by the prophets, revealed in and by Christ, and proclaimed by the apostles, was actually heretical. The most relevant Canons are the following:
Canon 9. If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone...let him be anathema.
Canon 11. If anyone says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins...or also that the grace by which we are justified is only the good will of God, let him be anathema.
Canon 12. If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy (supra, chapter 9), which remits sins for Christs sake...let him be anathema.
Canon 24. If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of the increase, let him be anathema.
Canon 30. If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.
Canon 32. If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified; or that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit an increase of grace, and eternal life...let him be anathema.
It was, therefore, not the evangelicals who were condemned in 1564, but the evangel itself. The good news, which alone is the power of God unto salvation was judged by Rome to be so erroneous that anyone who embraced it was to be regarded as condemned. In consequence, however, Rome condemned herself.
But the same judgment applies to all Protestants--liberal, conservative; evangelical, fundamentalist; charismatic, or even Lutheran or Reformed, who in any way reject or obscure this Gospel of Christ. At the beginning of this statement, I referred to the popular medieval slogan, God will not deny his grace to those who do what lies within their power. A modern equivalent might be, God helps those who help themselves. According to recent surveys, 87% of todays evangelical Protestants affirm this view of salvation, with 77% agreeing with the statement that man is basically good by nature. Not even at the Council of Trent did Rome tolerate this essentially Pelagian concept, and yet it is affirmed by the clear majority of the supposed heirs of the Reformation.
Therefore, this is not an exercise in bigotry, nor an attempt to renew ancient hostilities; it is a battle for the Gospel in the face of any--whether pope or evangelist, who would allow this doctrine to be hidden from those who even today will be passing from this world to face the judgment of our God and of his Christ.
In the time remaining for this opening statement, I would like to explain the evangelical doctrine of justification, defend it, and the contrast it with the Roman position.
What Is Justification? Infusion or Imputation, Process or Declaration? Both Roman Catholics and Protestants believe in justification. Furthermore, it can be said that at least historic Roman Catholics and Protestants believe in justification by grace. However, the definitions of these terms could not be more diametrically opposed between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Rome maintains that justification begins with baptism, as the habit or disposition of grace is planted in the soul. This renews the individual, thus giving him or her a capacity for cooperating with Gods grace in the process of justification. Later, there are other sacraments that may be appropriated for the infusion or inpouring of grace. Sin may interupt or impede this progress, but the sacrament of penance may restore the level of grace necessary to continue the process of justification. By cooperating with the grace thus offered in the sacraments, an individual may actually merit the grace of final justification, but as this is at the end of the process, the believer can never know whether he will actually attain final justification. In short, justification and sanctification are essentially synonymous in the Roman system: God declares us righteous because we are truly righteous in our disposition and actions.
(Again more at the site. I cut the article short 'cause I hate reading huge articles from this usually unformatted plain text'd site, preferring to read from the original site...but I am sure there will be someone to complain about fairness.)
The Reformations critics - LOL- If it were up to these ..err, "critics", no one would have a bible in their native tongue to examine Luther's teachings.
If justified = saved, and I assume they are the same here, then what else is needed to be saved?
Rome maintains that justification begins with baptism, as the habit or disposition of grace is planted in the soul. This renews the individual, thus giving him or her a capacity for cooperating with Gods grace in the process of justification. Later, there are other sacraments that may be appropriated for the infusion or inpouring of grace. Sin may interupt or impede this progress, but the sacrament of penance may restore the level of grace necessary to continue the process of justification. By cooperating with the grace thus offered in the sacraments, an individual may actually merit the grace of final justification, but as this is at the end of the process, the believer can never know whether he will actually attain final justification. In short, justification and sanctification are essentially synonymous in the Roman system.IMO an exceptionally good summary of the Catholic teaching/practice of justification and sanctification. Makes for a good starting place to understand our differences....
In the Reformed faith, justification is the one-time offering of Christ for His sheep. Christ suffered, died and was resurrected for our sins. Those sins, every last one of them, have been paid for by the shed blood of Christ.
We have been redeemed.
Justification means we are right in God's eyes because of the work of His perfect Son on our behalf. We could not save ourselves. Christ saved us. He took the punishment due us, thus enabling us to now stand acquitted before God.
“Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares, on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the law are satisfied with respect to the sinner” -- (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 513). "The phrase in ipso (in him) I have preferred to retain, rather than render it per ipsum (by him,) because it has in my opinion more expressiveness and force. For we are enriched in Christ, inasmuch as we are members of his body, and are engrafted into him: nay more, being made one with him, he makes us share with him in every thing that he has received from the Father." -- (John Calvin Commentary on 1 Cor 1:5) "This calling is an act of the grace of God in Christ by which he calls men dead in sin and lost in Adam through the preaching of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, to union with Christ and to salvation obtained in him." -- Francis Turretin"Those whom, God effectually calls he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God" -– Westminster Confessions of Faith, Ch. 11.