Justification from two perspectives

So I had ta write a paper for Sys. Theo. class .. and here it is..
be gentle

Quote :

Justification
by Seth Reinoso

The doctrine of justification is most crucial to orthodox Christianity. In this essay I aim to explain the doctrine of justification from not only an orthodox Christian perspective, but also from the perspective of the Roman Catholic church. The word justification means the act, process, or state of being justified. To be justified means to be made or declared right or just before God.

The orthodox Christian position on justification is entirely dependent on scripture. Scriptures such as:
Romans 3:28 “for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 8:30 “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.“
Galatians 2:16 “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

In orthodox Christianity a person is solely dependent on the finished work of Jesus, the crucified savior, for their justification. According to John Murray, “Justification is still the article of the standing or falling of the Church” 1. There is nothing that one can add or subtract, Jesus before releasing his life, before gasping his final agonizing breath on that wooden beam, he said “it is finished” Jn 19:30. Furthermore the orthodox Christian position would consider it a great slander to the work of Christ to say that the agony, torture and crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was not sufficient in its efficacy. For truly how can the sins of created beings be more powerful than the omnipotence of an everlasting, infinite creator ?

So how what does justification look like in the life of an orthodox Christian? When a believer is justified, he is now seen as not only righteous for present and past sins, but he is also set free from the penalty of sin. The apostle Paul says in the book of Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Condemnation is the opposite of justification.
Once a believer is justified, he is imputed with the righteousness of Christ. Imputation means that the righteousness of Christ is accounted to us. In other words in the same manner that are sinfulness was put on Jesus on the cross, in the same manner, Jesus righteousness was put on the believer. God sees a believer according to the righteousness of Jesus and not according to his sinful state. Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3 states, “And he [Abraham] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness”.

The imputation of a believer is one of three imputations that are mentioned in scripture. The first imputation was when Adam sinned against God, his sins were imputed to all mankind. The second imputation was our sins that were put on Christ Jesus. Speaking of this imputation of our sins, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”. The third imputation, which was spoken of above, is the imputation of Christ's righteousness on the believer. It is of the utmost importance to Christian orthodoxy that justification be by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, by God's grace alone, revealed through scripture alone, for God's glory alone.


I have written about justification from a biblical orthodox Christian perspective, now I will attempt to contrast the protestant, biblical, orthodox Christian perspective with the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church. To give a clearer understanding of the Roman Catholic perspective on justification, I must first speak of the Roman Catholic stance on biblical authority.

While orthodox biblical Christianity esteems the bible as the supreme authority and sufficient in all matters of life (known as Sola Scriptura), the Roman Catholic church, on the other hand, esteems Papal authority and ecclesial canon above the scriptures (known as Sola Ecclesia). This basically means that the ruling members of the Roman Catholic church have supreme authority and whatever they declare has to be adhered to in order to be found in good standing with the church.

Now that we see that biblical authority is below papal authority and ecclesial cannon, we can begin analyzing justification according to the Roman Catholic church. In orthodox biblical Christianity justification doesn't change us from within, for its just a legal standing in the eyes of God. In the Catholic church justification is an inward change, something that makes the believer progressively holy within. Justification is not by faith alone in Christ alone, but rather by works and keeping of sacraments. The first step in justification is baptism, then after reaching adulthood, one has to have dogmatic or confessional faith in order to continue justification or attain justification.

The Catholic version of justification depends not on imputation but on infusion. Infusion is where a person receives a measure of righteousness within and that changes a person from within. Also not every believer has the same measure of grace. Not only does every believer have a differing measure of grace, but the believer is never certain of what state of grace he is in. In orthodox biblical Christianity all persons who are justified receive the same measure of grace and it becomes evident what state of grace the believer is in. Every Catholic believer can also attain a higher measure of grace by doing good works, where as in biblical orthodox Christianity it is by God's grace alone, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” Eph 2:8.

So clearly in the Catholic faith, one receives a measure of inward changing grace, but one also has to do works to attain a higher measure of grace. Not only this, but according to the council of trent's canon on justification, “If anyone saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified , is only the favour of God; let him be anathema”2 .

1 John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied
2 Anathema - an accursed thing