Treading with Trent

The Council of Trent convened for the first time on December 13, 1545. Trent met on and off for eighteen years to address the challenges of the 16th century Protestant Reformation and to clean up the abuses of the Medieval Church.

Several years ago I was invited to talk to a group in Phoenix on the difference between Catholics and Protestants. They were really devout young Catholics and so eager to learn. After affirming my agreement with them on many things, I told them that I couldn’t ever become Catholic because of “justification.” I know this sounds weird - like a small, esoteric theological point - but for me it is the heart of what I believe as a Protestant and as an Anglican. I want Christian unity like everyone, and in all honesty I probably can’t bring myself to overlook the unbiblical and extra-biblical dogmas of Catholicism (e.g., the pope as God’s vicar, the dual authorities of Scripture and tradition, transubstantiation, the extraordinary place of Mary as a co-redeemer, purgatory, etc.). But how Roman Catholics answer the most basic human question, “Can mortal man be in the right before God; can a man be pure before his Maker?” (Job 4:17), is by far my biggest hurdle to becoming one.

Catholics believe that justification is a process by which a person is actually, innately made righteous through the infused righteousness of God available in the sacraments. Protestants, on the other hand, believe that we are never righteous enough, not innately and not in this lifetime, therefore our salvation depends on Christ’s righteousness credited to our account (justification by grace through faith alone). 

Both Catholics and Protestants start in the same place, that we are made in the image of God and therefore have the capacity for a relationship with God. And we both agree that because of the disobedience of Adam (the Fall) we are legally declared to be sinners even before we sin (original sin). Protestants, however, claim that our sinful condition is adequately addressed in one way only: by another legal pronouncement whereby we are declared righteous based on God's own righteousness that is ours by faith. It was a legal pronouncement that made us sinners and another legal pronouncement that makes us righteous - the affects of the first Adam are made right by the Second Adam - by one man's disobedience and by one Man's obedience.  Catholics, on the other hand teach that we we become righteous in our standing with God when we are actually, morally right, and that this happens through the incremental righteousness distributed throughout a lifetime in the sacraments.

This may be confusing, I know, especially when the pressure is for us all to just get along. But I can’t get past the fact that Catholics believe in a righteousness that is inherent to the person resulting in his or her eventual right to stand holy before God. Protestants believe that, at our best, our righteousness is as “filthy rags” and our only hope is Christ’s righteousness imputed/credited to us. Catholics say that those who are baptized “are made innocent, immaculate, pure, guiltless and beloved of God” (Trent, Session V.5). Anglicans, on the other hand, affirm in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion that “we are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings” (Article 11). Catholics see justification as sanctification: salvation by increments. Protestants, on the other hand, believe in a moment of justification in which God imparts to undeserving sinners both faith and love, and the result is that a believer lays hold of the extrinsic righteousness of Christ for salvation and forgiveness. 

Is this important? It is simply the critical distinction between classical Protestant thinking (Anglican) and Roman Catholicism. Anglican Elizabethan theologian, Richard Hooker, said, “The grand question, which hangeth yet in the controversy between us and the Church of Rome is about the matter of justifying righteousness.” Martin Luther, the German instigator of the Reformation, said that the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone is “the doctrine by which the church stands or falls.” St. Paul wrote, “Not having a righteousness of my own that comes through the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9). Each Sunday in Anglican churches around the world we acknowledge and pray: “We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. . .” (Prayer of Humble Access).

So since our righteousness does not depend on our moral rectitude but on God's legal declaration (“...it was counted/reckoned to him as righteousness” Romans 4:3), how does moral change fit into the equation? Catholics don’t make the distinction between justification and sanctification that Protestants do. The life-long process in which a Christian changes to become more and more righteous in line with their righteous standing with God Protestants call “sanctification.” But we believe that, while on this earth, we will always be simultaneously justified and sinners (simul justus et peccator) because “this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated” (Article 9).

My difference with Roman Catholicism doesn't keep me from standing to recite the Creed together with them, and working together where we can for justice issues and for the sanctity of every human life. The big issue that keeps me from becoming Catholic is the age old problem of the first formal cause of justification: is saving righteousness imputed or infused over time? Are we righteous because of our own righteousness or because of the righteousness of God credited to our account by faith? There is not a more glorious and liberating biblical doctrine than justification by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone. It is my greatest hope and conviction.