DAY 136
CHALLENGE
“Catholicism rejects justification by faith alone and thus the biblical truth about salvation.”
DEFENSE
While the “faith alone” formula is not commonly used in Catholic circles, it can be given an acceptable meaning.
The Catholic Church agrees that you do not have to do good works to enter a state of justification. It teaches that “none of those things that precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification” (Council of Trent, Decree on Justification 8).
When we repent and are justified, God puts the virtue of charity (supernatural love of God and neighbor) into our hearts (CCC 1991). This virtue makes supernaturally good works possible, so these flow from justification. “Good works—a Christian life lived in faith, hope and love—follow justification and are its fruits. When the justified live in Christ and act in the grace they receive, they bring forth, in biblical terms, good fruit” (JD 37).
Thus Paul refers to “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). Catholic theologians have held that if this is how faith is understood, then the formula “by faith alone” has an acceptable meaning. Benedict XVI said: “Luther’s phrase ‘faith alone’ is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. . . . So it is that in the Letter to the Galatians, in which he primarily developed his teaching on justification, St. Paul speaks of faith that works through love” (General Audience, Nov. 19, 2008).
While the formula can have an acceptable meaning, this doesn’t mean it’s a good or natural expression of the Bible’s teaching. It is not the language of Scripture. Paul never uses this phrase. The only time it does appear in Scripture, it is rejected (“a man is justified by works and not by faith alone”; James 2:24).
Faith separated from charity is not enough to save: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). Demons have purely intellectual faith, or agreement with the truths of theology: “Even the demons believe— and shudder” (James 2:19, emphasis added).
The fact that “faith” is often used to mean intellectual assent rather than “faith working through love,” and the fact that the “faith alone” formula is rejected the one time that it is used in Scripture, means we need to be careful, because the formula is very easy to misunderstand.