Justification
What happens when I am "saved"?
Main teaching: De fide
The big question
Christians speak of being “saved” or “justified”. Some think of it as a legal verdict: God declares us not guilty, though we remain the same inside. Others think of it as a feeling of assurance. What does the Catholic Church mean by justification, and what actually changes in a person?
What the Church teaches
Justification is not only the forgiveness of sins, but the sanctification and renewal of the inner person through the voluntary reception of grace (Trent, Session VI, ch. 7; DH 1528; CCC 1989).
In justification, faith, hope and charity are poured into the soul together with grace (Trent, Session VI, ch. 7; DH 1530; CCC 1991).
Faith is the beginning, foundation and root of all justification (Trent, Session VI, ch. 8; DH 1532). But it is not “faith alone” in the sense of mere trust that one’s sins are forgiven (Session VI, canons 9 and 12; DH 1559, 1562).
Grace can be lost by any mortal sin, though faith remains unless the sin is against faith itself; and it can be restored through the sacrament of Penance (Trent, Session VI, ch. 14–15 and canons 27–29; DH 1542, 1544, 1577–1579).
How sure is this? De fide. See CCC 1987–2005.
Where it comes from
Scripture. Justification makes us new: “if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God “saved us… by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). It is God’s love poured into us: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). And it makes us God’s children in reality, not just in name: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).
On faith and works, St Paul says “a man is justified by faith apart from works of law” (Romans 3:28), and St James that “a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Paul himself gives the key to fitting them together: what counts is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6).
The early Church. The Fathers spoke of the Christian life as divinisation: being made sharers in God’s own nature (2 Peter 1:4). Justification, for them, was the beginning of a real transformation, not only a change in God’s verdict.
How theologians explain it
Two pictures of justification. At the Reformation, the central question was what justification actually is:
| Luther’s view | Catholic teaching (Trent) | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | God declares the sinner just, covering him with Christ’s righteousness | God makes the sinner just, by grace poured into the soul |
| Is the person changed inside? | Not as the basis of justification | Yes: a real inner renewal |
| Role of faith | Faith alone, as trust in God’s promise | Faith as the root, living by charity |
| Can it be lost? | Only by unbelief | By any mortal sin |
What sanctifying grace does. Sanctifying grace is a real quality of the soul, a share in God’s own life (CCC 1997). The Catechism and Pohle list its effects:
- It makes us holy and pleasing to God.
- It makes us adopted children of God and heirs of heaven.
- It makes us friends of God.
- It makes us temples of the Holy Spirit, in whom the Trinity dwells (Lesson 3.3).
- It brings with it the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, the moral virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Grace, charity, faith and hope. Charity stands or falls with grace: both are lost by any mortal sin. But faith and hope can remain after grace is lost, unless the sin is directly against them. Trent teaches that such faith is still true faith, though no longer living (Session VI, canon 28). This “dead faith” of James 2:17 is what makes repentance possible: a Catholic in mortal sin can still believe, hope for forgiveness, and go to confession.
How sure can I be? No one can know with the certainty of faith that they are in a state of grace, without a special revelation (Trent, Session VI, ch. 9; DH 1534). But we can have a confident, hopeful moral assurance, from signs such as love of God, love of neighbour, and the absence of known serious sin.
Common ground today. In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. Together the two churches confess that we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit by grace alone, through faith in Christ’s saving work, and not because of any merit of our own (Joint Declaration 15). Differences remain, but the two churches agreed that the sixteenth-century condemnations do not apply to each other’s teaching as set out in the Declaration.
Philosophy bridge
The philosophy course’s Ethics branch explains a habit as a stable quality that disposes a power to act well or badly. Sanctifying grace is like a habit of the soul’s essence, and the virtues it brings are habits of its powers. The difference is that these are given by God, not acquired by practice.
What the Church does not claim
- Not that we are justified by our own works. Justification is God’s free gift, received in faith.
- Not that faith does not matter. Faith is the root of justification.
- Not that once saved, always saved. Grace can be lost by mortal sin, and restored by repentance.
- Not that Catholics and Protestants agree on nothing. The Joint Declaration records a large common faith.
Check your understanding
- According to Trent, what is justification?
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Not only the forgiveness of sins, but the sanctification and renewal of the inner person through the voluntary reception of grace.
- What is poured into the soul together with sanctifying grace?
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The theological virtues of faith, hope and charity (together with the moral virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit).
- How did St Paul’s phrase “faith working through love” help fit together Romans 3:28 and James 2:24?
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Paul’s faith is not mere belief but faith alive with love, which shows itself in works. James’s “works” are the fruit of such living faith. Both reject a faith that does nothing.
- If a Catholic commits a mortal sin, what is lost and what may remain?
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Sanctifying grace and charity are lost. Faith and hope remain unless the sin is directly against them. Trent teaches that this faith is still true faith, though not living.
- What was the 1999 Joint Declaration, and what did it agree?
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An agreement between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation, which stated that we are accepted by God by grace alone, in faith in Christ, and not because of our merit, and that the old condemnations do not apply to each other’s teaching as set out in it.