DAY 257
CHALLENGE
“The Catholic idea that there is more than one form of justification doesn’t make any sense. You are either righteous before God or you’re not.”
DEFENSE
This view doesn’t reflect the biblical data (see Day 228).
The key to understanding this issue involves the difference between the quality and the quantity of righteousness.
Along the axis of quality, people hypothetically could range from totally unrighteous (purely evil) to totally righteous (purely good). Viewed in these terms, justification (being declared, reckoned, or made righteous by God) would involve having one’s unrighteousness removed and being instead given a pure righteousness before God.
This corresponds to how justification is commonly understood in Protestant circles. It also corresponds to how initial justification is understood in Catholic circles. Thus the Church acknowledges that, when people first come to God and are forgiven, they “are made innocent, immaculate, pure, guiltless and beloved of God, heirs indeed of God, joint heirs with Christ; so that there is nothing whatever to hinder their entrance into heaven” (Trent, Decree on Original Sin 5).
If justification only operated on a single axis—quality—then from this state, no further improvement would be possible. However, justification also works along another axis—quantity.
Along this axis, there would be the possibility of further improvement in righteousness. The situation may be compared to light. Even if a light is pure white, it may be either dim or bright. One could thus take a lamp that is emitting pure white light and turn up the intensity so that it shines more brightly. In the same way, after God has given a person a pure righteousness before him, he may by his grace lead that person to grow in the quantity of righteousness he has.
This is the understanding the Catholic Church has of ongoing justification. Having been initially justified, people “increase in that justice received through the grace of Christ and are further justified, as it is written: . . . ‘Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?’” (Trent, Decree on Justification 10, citing James 2:24).
Note that it is only in regard to ongoing growth in righteousness, not initial justification, that the Church cites James 2:24 (see Day 222).