Luther’s
understanding of justification
102. Luther gained one of his basic
Reformation insights from reflecting on the
sacrament of penance, especially in
relation to Matthew 16:19. In his
late medieval education, he was trained
to understand that God would
forgive a person who was contrite for
his or her sin by performing an
act of loving God above all things, to
which God would respond according to
God’s covenant (pactum) by
granting anew God’s grace
and forgiveness (facienti quod in se
est deus non denegat gratiam),36
so that the priest
could only declare that God had already
forgiven the penitent’s
sin. Luther concluded that Matthew 16
said just the opposite,
namely that the priest declared the
penitent righteous, and by this act on
behalf of God, the sinner actually
became righteous.
Word
of God as promise
103. Luther understood the words of God
as words that create what they say and
as having the character of promise (promissio).
Such a word of promise is
said in a particular place and time, by
a particular person,
and is directed to a particular person.
A divine promise is directed toward a
person’s faith. Faith in turn grasps
what is promised as promised to
the believer personally. Luther insisted
that such faith is the only
appropriate response to a word of divine
promise. A human being is called
to look away from him or herself and to
look only at the word of God’s
promise and trust fully in it. Since
faith grounds us in Christ’s
promise, it grants the believer full
assurance of salvation. Not to trust
in this word would make God a
liar or one on whose word one could
not ultimately
rely. Thus, in Luther’s view, unbelief
is the greatest sin
against God.
104. In addition to
structuring the dynamic between God
and the penitent within
the sacrament of penance, the
relationship of promise and trust
also shapes the relationship
between God and human beings in the
proclamation of the Word. God wishes
to deal with human beings by giving
them words of promise – sacraments are
also such words of promise
– that show God’s saving will
towards them. Human beings, on the
other hand, should deal with
God only by trusting in his promises.
Faith is totally
dependent on God’s promises; it cannot
create the object in
which human beings put their
trust.
105. Nevertheless,
trusting God’s promise is not a matter
of human decision;
rather, the Holy Spirit reveals
this promise as trustworthy and thus
creates faith in a person. Divine
promise and human belief in that
promise belong together. Both aspects
need to be stressed, the »objectivity«
of the promise and
the »subjectivity« of faith. According
to Luther, God not
only reveals divine realities
as information with which the
intellect must agree;
God’s revelation also always has a
soteriological purpose directed
towards the faith and salvation of
believers who receive the promises
that God gives »for you« as words of
God »for me« or »for us«
(pro me, pro nobis).
106. God’s own
initiative establishes a saving
relation to the human being;
thus salvation happens by
grace. The gift of grace can only be
received, and since this gift is
mediated by a divine promise, it
cannot be received
except by faith, and not by
works. Salvation takes place by grace
alone. Nevertheless, Luther constantly
emphasized that the justified person
would do good works in the
Spirit.
By Christ
alone
107. God’s love for human beings is
centered, rooted, and embodied in
Jesus Christ. Thus,
»by grace alone« is always to be
explained by »by Christ alone.«
Luther describes the relationship of
human persons with Christ by using the
image of a spiritual marriage. The
soul is the bride; Christ is the
bridegroom; faith is the wedding
ring. According to the laws of
marriage, the properties of the
bridegroom (righteousness) become
the properties of
the bride, and the properties of the
bride (sin) become the properties of
the bridegroom. This »joyful
exchange« is the forgiveness of sins and
salvation.
108.
The image shows that something
external, namely Christ’s
righteousness, becomes something internal. It
becomes the property of the soul, but only in
union with Christ through trust in
his promises, not in separation from him.
Luther insists that our
righteousness is totally external because it is
Christ’s righteousness,
but it has to become totally
internal by
faith in Christ. Only if both sides
are equally emphasized
is the reality
of salvation properly understood.
Luther states, »It is precisely in faith that
Christ is present.«37
Christ is »for us« (pro nobis)
and in us (in
nobis), and we are in Christ (in
Christo).
Significance
of the law
109. Luther also perceived human
reality, with respect to the law in
its theological or spiritual
meaning, from the perspective of
what God requires from us.
Jesus expresses God’s will by
saying, »You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind«
(Matthew 22:37). That means that
God’s commandments are fulfilled only by total
dedication to God. This includes not
only the will and the corresponding
outward actions, but also all
aspects of the human soul and heart
such as emotions, longing, and human
striving, that is, those aspects and
movements of the soul either not
under the control of the will or only
indirectly and partially under the
control of the will through the virtues.
110.
In the legal and moral spheres,
there exists an old rule,
intuitively evident, that nobody can
be obliged to do more than he or she
is able to do (ultra
posse nemo obligatur). Thus,
in the Middle Ages, many theologians were
convinced that this commandment to
love God must be limited to the will.
According to this understanding, the
commandment to love God does not
require that all motions of the soul
should be directed and dedicated to
God. Rather, it would be enough that
the will loves
(i. e., wills) God above all (diligere
deum super omnia).
111.
Luther argued, however, that there
is a difference between a legal and
a moral
understanding of the law, on the one
hand, and a theological
understanding of it, on the other.
God has not adapted God’s commandments to the
conditions of the fallen human
being. Instead, theologically understood,
the commandment to love God shows
the situation and the misery of
human beings. As Luther wrote in the
»Disputation against Scholastic
Theology,« »Spiritually that person
[only] does not kill, does not do evil,
does not become enraged when he
neither becomes angry nor lusts.«38
In this respect, divine law is not
primarily fulfilled by external
actions or acts or the will but by
the wholehearted dedication of the whole
person to the will of God.
Participation
in Christ’s righteousness
112. Luther’s position, that God
requires wholehearted dedication in
fulfilling God’s
law, explains why Luther emphasized
so strongly that we totally depend on
Christ’s righteousness. Christ is
the only person who
totally fulfilled God’s will, and
all other human beings can only
become righteous in
a strict, i. e., theological sense,
if we participate in Christ’s righteousness.
Thus, our righteousness is external
insofar as it is
Christ’s righteousness, but it must
become our righteousness, that is, internal, by
faith in Christ’s promise. Only by
participation in Christ’s wholehearted
dedication to God can we become
wholly righteous.
113.
Since the gospel promises us, »Here
is Christ and his Spirit,«
participation in Christ’s
righteousness is never realized
without being under the power of
the Holy Spirit who renews us. Thus,
becoming righteous and being
renewed are intimately and
inseparably connected. Luther did not
criticize fellow theologians such as
Gabriel Biel for too strong an emphasis
on the transforming power of grace;
on the contrary, he objected that
they did not emphasize it strongly
enough as being fundamental to any
real change in the believer.
Law and
gospel
114. According to Luther, this
renewal will never come to
fulfillment as long as we live.
Therefore, another model of
explaining human salvation, taken from
the Apostle Paul, became important
for Luther. In Romans
4:3, Paul refers to Abraham in
Genesis 15:6 (»Abraham believed God, and it was
reckoned to him as righteousness«)
and concludes, »To one who without
works trusts him who justifies the
ungodly, such faith is reckoned as
righteousness« (Romans 4:5).
115.
This text from Romans incorporates
the forensic imagery of someone in a
courtroom being declared righteous.
If God declares someone righteous, this changes
his or her situation and creates a
new reality. God’s judgment does
not remain »outside« the human
being. Luther often uses this
Pauline model in order to emphasize
that the whole person is accepted by
God and saved, even though the
process of the inner renewal of the
justified into a person wholly
dedicated to God will not come to an
end in this earthly life.
116.
As believers who are in the process
of being renewed by the Holy Spirit, we still do
not completely fulfill the divine
commandment to love God wholeheartedly
and do not meet God’s demand. Thus
the law will accuse us and
identify us as sinners. With respect
to the law, theologically
understood, we
believe that we are still sinners.
But, with respect to the gospel that
promises us »Here is Christ’s
righteousness,« we are righteous and justified
since we believe in the gospel’s
promise. This is Luther’s
understanding of the Christian
believer who is at the same time
justified and yet a sinner (simul
iustus et peccator).
117.
This is no contradiction since we
must distinguish two relations of
the believer to
the Word of God: the relation to the
Word of God as the law of God
insofar as it judges the sinner, and
the relation to the Word of
God as the gospel of God insofar as
Christ redeems. With respect to the first
relation we are sinners; with
respect to the second relation we
are righteous and
justified. This latter is the
predominant relationship.
That means that Christ involves us
in a process of continuous renewal as we trust
in his promise that we are eternally
saved.
118.
This is why Luther emphasized the
freedom of a Christian so strongly: the freedom
of being accepted by God by grace
alone and by faith alone in Christ’s
promises, the freedom from the
accusation of the law by the forgiveness
of sins, and the freedom to serve
one’s neighbor spontaneously without
seeking merits in doing so. The
justified person is, of course,
obligated to fulfill God’s
commandments, and will do so under
the motivation of the Holy Spirit.
As Luther declared in the Small
Catechism: »We
are to fear and love God, so that we
. . .,« after which follow his
explanations of the Ten
Commandments.39
Catholic
concerns regarding
justification
119. Even in the sixteenth century,
there was a significant convergence
between Lutheran and
Catholic positions concerning the
need for God’s mercy
and humans’ inability to attain
salvation by their own efforts.
The Council of Trent clearly taught
that the sinner cannot be justified either by the
law or by human effort,
anathematizing anyone who said that »man can
be justified before God by his own
works which are done
either by his own natural powers, or
through the teaching of the Law, and without
divine grace through Christ Jesus.«40
120.
Catholics, however, had found some
of Luther’s positions troubling. Some of
Luther’s language caused Catholics
to worry whether he denied personal
responsibility for one’s actions.
This explains why the Council of Trent
emphasized the human person’s
responsibility and capacity to cooperate
with God’s grace. Catholics stressed
that the justified should be
involved in the unfolding of grace
in their lives. Thus, for the
justified, human efforts contribute
to a more intense growth in grace and communion
with God.
121.
Furthermore, according to the
Catholic reading, Luther’s doctrine
of »forensic
imputation« seemed to deny the
creative power of God’s grace to overcome
sin and transform the justified.
Catholics wished to emphasize not only the
forgiveness of sins but also the
sanctification of the sinner.
Thus, in sanctification the
Christian receives that »justice of God«
whereby God makes us just.
Lutheran–Roman
Catholic dialogue on
justification
122. Luther and the other reformers
understood the doctrine of the
justification of
sinners as the »first and chief
article,«41 the »guide
and judge over
all parts of Christian doctrine.«42
That is why a division on this
point was so grave and the work to
overcome this division became a matter of
highest priority for
Catholic–Lutheran relations. In the
second half of the
twentieth century, this controversy
was the subject of extensive
investigations by individual
theologians and a number of national and
international dialogues.
123.
The results of these investigations
and dialogues are summarized in the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine
of Justification and were, in
1999, officially received by the
Roman Catholic Church and the
Lutheran World Federation.
The following account is based on
this Declaration, which offers a
differentiating consensus comprised
of common statements along with
different emphases of each side,
with the claim that these differences
do not invalidate the commonalities.
It is thus a consensus that does not
eliminate differences, but rather
explicitly includes them.
By grace
alone
124. Together Catholics and
Lutherans confess: »By grace alone,
in faith in Christ’s
saving work and not because of any
merit on our part, we are accepted by
God and receive the Holy Spirit, who
renews our hearts while
equipping and calling us to good
works« (JDDJ 15). The phrase
»by grace alone«
is further explained in this way:
»the message of justification ... tells us
that as sinners our new life is
solely due to the forgiving and renewing
mercy that God imparts as a gift and
we receive in faith, and never can
merit in any way« (JDDJ 17).43
125.
It is within this framework that the
limits and the dignity of human
freedom can be identified. The phrase »by
grace alone,« in regard to a human
being’s movement toward salvation,
is interpreted in this way: »We confess
together that all persons depend
completely on the saving grace of
God for their salvation.
The freedom they possess in relation
to persons and the things of this
world is no freedom in relation to
salvation« (JDDJ
19).
126.
When Lutherans insist that a person
can only receive justification, they mean,
however, thereby »to exclude any
possibility of contributing to one’s own
justification, but do not deny that
believers are fully involved personally in
their faith, which is effected by
God’s Word« (JDDJ 21).
127.
When Catholics speak of preparation
for grace in terms of »cooperation, « they mean
thereby a »personal
consent« of the human being that is »itself an
effect of grace, not an action
arising from innate human abilities« (JDDJ
20). Thus, they do not
invalidate the common expression that sinners
are »incapable of turning by
themselves to God to seek
deliverance, of
meriting their justification before
God, or of attaining salvation by their own
abilities. Justification takes place
solely by God’s grace« (JDDJ
19).
128.
Since faith is understood not only
as affirmative knowledge, but also
as the trust of
the heart that bases itself on the
Word of God, it can further be said
jointly: »Justification takes place
›by grace alone‹ (JD nos 15 and 16),
by faith alone; the person is
justified ›apart from works‹ (Romans
3:28, cf. JD no. 25)« (JDDJ,
Annex 2C).44
129.
What was often torn apart and
attributed to one or the other
confession but
not to both is now understood in
an organic coherence: »When persons come by faith
to share in Christ, God no longer
imputes to them their sin and
through the Holy Spirit effects in
them an active love. These two
aspects of God’s gracious action are
not to be separated« (JDDJ 22).
Faith and
good works
130. It is important that Lutherans
and Catholics have a common view of
how the coherence
of faith and works is seen:
believers »place their trust in God’s
gracious promise by justifying
faith, which includes hope in God
and love for him. Such a faith is
active in love and thus the
Christian cannot
and should not remain without works
(JDDJ 25).« Therefore, Lutherans
also confess the creative power of
God’s grace which »affects all
dimensions of the person and leads
to a life in hope and love« (JDDJ 26).
»Justification by faith alone« and
»renewal« must be distinguished but not
separated.
131.
At the same time, »whatever in the
justified precedes or follows the free gift of
faith is neither the basis of
justification nor merits it« (JDDJ 25).
That is why the creative effect
Catholics attribute to justifying grace is not
meant to be a quality without
relation to God, or a »human possession to
which one could appeal over against
God« (JDDJ 27). Rather, this
view takes into account that within
the new relationship with God the
righteous are transformed and made
children of God who live in new
communion with Christ: »This new personal
relation to God is grounded
totally on God’s graciousness and
remains constantly dependent on
the salvific and creative working of
the gracious God, who remains
true to himself, so that one can
rely upon him« (JDDJ 27).
132.
To the question of good works,
Catholics and Lutherans state
together: »We
also confess that God’s commandments
retain their validity for the justified« (JDDJ
31). Jesus himself, as well as
the apostolic Scriptures, »admonish[es]
Christians to bring forth the works
of love« which »follow justification
and are its fruits« (JDDJ 37).
So that the binding claim of the
commandments might not be
misunderstood, it is said: »When Catholics
emphasize that the righteous are
bound to observe God’s commandments,
they do not thereby
deny that through Jesus Christ God has
mercifully promised to his children
the grace of eternal life«
(JDDJ 33).
133.
Both Lutherans and Catholics can
recognize the value of good works in view of a
deepening of the communion
with Christ (cf. JDDJ 38f.),
even if Lutherans
emphasize that righteousness, as
acceptance by God and sharing in
the righteousness of Christ, is
always complete. The controversial concept of
merit is explained thus: »When
Catholics affirm the ›meritorious‹
character of good works, they wish
to say that, according to the
biblical witness, a reward in heaven
is promised to these works. Their
intention is to emphasize the
responsibility of persons for their actions, not
to contest the character of those
works as gifts, or far less to deny
that justification always remains
the unmerited gift of grace« (JDDJ 38).
134.
To the much discussed question of
the cooperation of human beings, a quotation
from the Lutheran Confessions is
taken in the Appendix to the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification as a common
position in the
most remarkable way: »The working of
God’s grace does not exclude human
action: God effects everything, the
willing and the achievement,
therefore, we are called to strive
(cf. Philippians 2:12 ff.). ›As soon as the
Holy Spirit has initiated his work
of regeneration and renewal in us through
the Word and the holy sacraments, it
is certain that
we can and must cooperate by the
power of the Holy Spirit . . .‹«45
Simul
iustus et peccator
135. In the debate over the
differences in saying that a
Christian is »simultaneously justified and
a sinner,« it was shown that each
side does not understand
exactly the same thing by the words
»sin,« »concupiscence,« and
»righteousness.« It is necessary to
concentrate not only on the
formulation but
also on the content in order to
arrive at a consensus. With Romans 6:12
and 2 Corinthians 5:17, Catholics
and Lutherans say that, in
Christians, sin must not and should
not reign. They further declare with 1 John
1:8–10 that
Christians are not without sin. They
speak of the
»contradiction to God within the
selfish desires of the old Adam« also in the
justified, which makes a »lifelong
struggle« against it necessary (JDDJ
28).
136.
This tendency does not correspond to
»God’s original design for
humanity,« and it is »objectively in contradiction
to God« (JDDJ 30), as Catholics
say. Because, for them, sin has the
character of an act,
Catholics do not speak here of sin,
while Lutherans see in this
God-contradicting tendency a refusal
to give oneself wholly to God and
therefore call
it sin. But both emphasize that this
God-contradicting tendency
does not divide the justified from
God.
137. Under the
presuppositions of his own
theological system and after studying
Luther’s writings, Cardinal
Cajetan concluded, that Luther’s understanding
of the assurance of faith implied
establishing a new church.
Catholic–Lutheran dialogue has
identified the different thought forms of
Cajetan and Luther that led to
their mutual misunderstanding. Today, it
can be said: »Catholics can share
the concern of the Reformers to ground
faith in the objective reality of
Christ’s promise, to look away from one’s
own experience, and to trust in
Christ’s forgiving word alone (cf.
Matthew 16:19; 18:18)« (JDDJ 36).
138. Lutherans and
Catholics have each condemned the
other confession’s teachings.
Therefore, the differentiating
consensus as represented in the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of
Justification contains a
double aspect.
On the one hand, the Declaration
claims that the mutual rejections of Catholic
and Lutheran teaching as depicted
there do not apply to the other
confession. On the other, the
Declaration positively affirms a
consensus in the basic truths of
the doctrine of justification:
»The understanding of the
doctrine of justification set
forth in this Declaration shows that
a consensus in basic truths of the
doctrine of justification exists
between Lutherans and Catholics« (JDDJ
40).
139. »In light of this
consensus the remaining
differences of language,
theological elaboration, and emphasis in
the understanding of justification are
acceptable. Therefore the Lutheran
and the Catholic explications of justification
are in their differences open to
one another and do not destroy the
consensus regarding the basic
truths« (JDDJ 40). »Thus
the doctrinal
condemnations of the sixteenth
century, in so far as they relate to the
doctrine of justification, appear
in a new light: The teaching of the
Lutheran churches presented in
this Declaration does not fall under the
condemnations from the Council of
Trent. The condemnations in the
Lutheran Confessions do not apply
to the teaching of the Roman Catholic
Church presented in this
Declaration« (JDDJ 41).
This is a highly
remarkable response to the
conflicts over this doctrine that lasted for
nearly half a millennium.
Notes:
36 »God will not deny his grace to the
one who is doing what is in him.«
37 WA 40/II; 229, 15.
38 Luther,
»Disputation against Scholastic
Theology (1517),« tr. Harold J.
Grimm, LW 31:13;
WA 1, 227, 17–18.
39 Luther, »The
Small Catechism,« in BC, 351–54.
40 Council of Trent, Sixth
Session, 13 January 1547, can.
1.
41 Luther,
»Smalcald Articles,« in BC,
301.
42 WA 39/I; 205, 2–3.
43 JDDJ, op. cit. (note 4).
44 Ibid., 45.
45 JDDJ, Annex
2C, quoting »The Formula of
Concord, Solid Declaration,«
II. 64f., in BC, 556.
