Sect. 224Faith as a Disposition for JustificationFaith as a Disposition for Justification

I. The Reformers, distinguishing between (1) historical faith by which we believe the truths revealed in Scripture, (2) faith by which miracles are wrought, and (3) faith in God’s promises by which we “believe that He remits our individual sins,” affirm that this last is the true justifying faith. A firm confidence or trust that our sins are forgiven, would be a better name for it than faith. Further, they say that this faith alone, unassisted and unaccompanied by any other act of the soul, is sufficient to justify man.

II. The Catholic doctrine is contained in sess. vi. chap. 6, cans. 12 and 9 of the Council of Trent: “They (adults) are prepared (or disposed) to (receive) justice when, awakened by Divine grace, and conceiving faith by hearing (ex auditu), they are freely moved (moventur) towards God, believing the truth of what He has revealed and promised,—and chiefly that the sinner is justified by the grace of God, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; and when, being conscious of their sins, they turn from the fear of the Divine justice which profitably agitates them to the consideration of God’s mercy, and thus are raised to hope, trusting that God, for Christ’s sake, will be propitious to them; and they begin to love Him as the source of all justice, and are moved (moventur) against sin with a certain hatred and detestation—that is, with that penance which is required before baptism; lastly, when they resolve to receive baptism, to begin a new life and to keep the Divine commands.” “If any one saith that justifying faith is nothing but confidence (fiducia) in the Divine mercy remitting sins for Christ’s sake, or that by this confidence alone we are justified, let him be anathema” (can. 12; can. 9 is given above, § 223).

III. The conversion of the sinner consists in turning his mind and heart away from sin unto God. Now, it is impossible to turn the mind to God if God’s existence is not known, and it is impossible to turn the heart to God if He is not known as good. In the supernatural order this twofold knowledge comes by faith. Hence the Apostle says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and is a rewarder to them that seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

1. The “saving faith,” which Luther invented to make salvation easy, is as unknown to Scripture as it was to the Church before the Reformation. Not one of the texts quoted for it implies a faith equivalent to a trust that one’s sins are forgiven. When Christ says to some, “Thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matt. 9:22; Luke 17:19, and 18:42), He evidently alludes to faith in His healing power. In the case of the woman with an issue of blood (Matt. 9:22), Christ Himself makes a distinction between the faith which the woman already possessed and the confidence to which He exhorts her. Of the two blind men (Matt. 9:28–30), He expressly requires faith in His power: “Do you believe that I can do this to you?” The faith which was “reputed unto justice to Abraham” (Rom. 4:3), is that by which “against hope he believed in hope, that he might be made the father of many nations, according to that which was said to him: So shall thy seed be” (Rom. 4:18).

2. The faith which Scripture connects with our salvation is expressed by the Greek word πίστις, which chiefly and generally means “assent of the mind,” although occasionally it may also imply “trust of the heart,” or confidence (fiducia). It implies “assent of the mind” wherever the act of faith is further explained by the verbs “to believe,” “to assent,” “to know,” used with it (cf. Heb. 11:3, πίστει νοοῦμεν, “by faith we understand”); when the faith is founded upon past benefactions (John 4:53. and 9:38); when the object of the faith is such that it cannot be also the object of trust (e.g. Matt. 9:28; John 6:70; 1 Cor. 2:16); lastly, when Scripture expressly describes justifying faith as an assent of the mind to revealed truth. “Preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:15, 16). “God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him … may have life everlasting” (John 3:15; see also John 20:31; Rom. 1:16, and 10:8 sq.; Acts 8:35).

The nature of justifying faith and its necessity are professedly expounded by St. Paul in the classical text (Heb. 11:1–6). We have dealt with this text in § 38 (“Nature of Theological Faith”), and in § 49 we have said all that is needful on the “Necessity of Faith.” We invite the student to read these two sections here.

3. The proofs from Scripture brought forth by Protestants to support their doctrine “most wholesome and very full of comfort” (Art. XI., Church of England), that we are justified by faith alone, may be divided into two classes of texts: (a) texts affirming that we are justified by faith (Rom. 5:1; 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38; Acts 15:9); (b) texts which apparently exclude the necessity of works distinct from faith (Rom. 3:28; Eph. 2:8; Acts 10:43; 13:39). The famous verse (Rom. 3:28), “We account a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law,” was strengthened by Luther through the addition of the word “alone” after “faith.” He justified the change in his characteristic way: “Doctor Martin Luther will have it so, and says, ‘Papist and ass are the same thing: hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.’ “ In the same offhand way he removed the “straw epistle” of St. James from the canon of Scripture. Such tactics are alone sufficient to discredit the system they are meant to uphold. The Council of Trent (sess. vi. chap. 8) gives the “sense of the Church” on the above texts as follows: “When the Apostle says that man is justified by faith and gratuitously, his words must be understood in the sense which the Catholic Church always held and expressed, viz. We are said to be justified by faith because faith is the beginning and the foundation of man’s salvation, and the root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God, and to come to the society of His sons; we are said to be justified gratuitously, because nothing which precedes justification, be it faith or works, merits the grace of justification.”

IV. Where many partial causes combine to produce an effect, this effect is often spoken of as the result of one or other of them, no mention being made of the rest. This usage is a necessary consequence of the narrowness of our knowledge. We do not know all; we do not think of all we know; we cannot or will not express all we think. The sentences we utter represent our thoughts, as it were, in shreds; the listener must put them together to arrive at a full knowledge of our meaning. This rule is universal. Hence, when Scripture tells us that faith is necessary to salvation, we must not conclude that nothing else is necessary.

1. The dispositions which, besides faith, are set forth by the Council of Trent as either necessary or helpful to justification, are mentioned in various parts of Scripture: the Fear of the Lord (Eccl. 1:27 sq.); Love (John 3:14; Luke 7:47); Penance and its external acts (Acts 2:38; Joel 2:12); Almsgiving (Job 12:9); the Sacrament of Baptism (Tit 3:5).

2. “Come, ye blessed of My Father … for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat, etc.… Depart from Me, ye cursed, … for I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat” (Matt. 25:34 sqq.). “By works a man is justified, and not by faith only” (James 2:24). “Faith without works is dead” (ibid. 2:26). “God will render to every man according to his works … for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Rom. 2:6–13). “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by charity” (Gal. 5:6).

Questions of supernatural facts are to be settled by the dictates of authority. Scripture and tradition reveal them to us. But Luther vilifies tradition; he corrupts and curtails Scripture, and arrogantly proclaims that the only foundation for his teaching is his own words. Against such an antagonist, logic is of no avail. The Fathers and the Schoolmen, starting from the idea that justification is a change from bad to good, and an elevation from the natural to the supernatural order, argued that the process required two sets of free acts: the one summed up in detestation of sin, the other in putting on the new man. But Luther meets them with a twofold denial: sin is not remitted, but only covered; the “new man” is Christ imputing His own justice to the still sinful man! With such an opponent, controversy on the basis of theological science is impossible. Moreover, it is not necessary. For as the leading Protestant theologian of our time, Al. Ritschl, says of the German Lutherans: “Hardly anywhere, even in the most orthodox sermon (bekenntnistreu = faithful to the confession of faith), do we find a complete agreement with the proposition of the Formula Concordiæ (A.D. 1577). that salvation is dependent on faith alone” (Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung, v. iii. p. 463).