Sect. 226Some Effects of JustificationSome Effects of Justification
I. Justification elevates man to the dignity of adopted son of God, and confers upon him a personal nobility and worth which ennoble all his subsequent acts (read §, 145, vol. i. p. 468).
II. Sin, being an aversion from God, is absolutely incompatible with that participation in the Divine Life of Love and Holiness to which the justified are admitted. All, therefore, grant that justification remits sin. But Protestants reduce the remission to non-imputation; the sinner, according to most of them, is credited with the merits of Christ, and his sins are thus covered in some way, and no longer imputed to him; he is “accounted righteous,” or justified only in a legal sense, viz. the Judge considers him righteous without really making him so. The Catholic doctrine is that sin is completely blotted out as to all its effects. Of course, the sinful act cannot be undone; but the stain of guilt and the liability to eternal punishment disappear when grace is infused.
1. The notion that God does not impute a sin which really exists, is a contradiction in terms. We cannot conceive the all-knowing, all-holy, and all-just Being as ignoring or overlooking the rebellious position taken up against Him by a creature; as favouring with His friendship a soul turned away from Him; as allowing moral disorder to exist in the heirs of His kingdom. Whatever guilt there is in man lies bare before the eye of God, and must be dealt with by either His justice or His mercy. And even Divine mercy cannot forgive the punishment without first destroying the guilt, of which the liability to punishment is but a consequence.
2. As Bellarmine remarks (De Justif., ii. 7), Scripture uses all the terms which it is possible to think of in order to express a true remission of sin. Sins are said to be taken away (2 Kings 12:13; and 1 Paral. 21:8); blotted out (Isa. 43:25; Acts 3:19); exhausted (Heb. 9:28); removed from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 102:12); to be put away and be cast into the bottom of the sea (Mich. 7:19). Where sin is considered as a stain or an impurity, it is said to be cleansed, washed, made whiter than snow (Ps. 50:9; Isa. 1:16–18; Jer. 33:8; Ezech. 36:25; 1 Cor. 6:11). Where sin is spoken of as a wound or a sore, it is said to be bound up and healed (Isa. 30:26). If sin is mentioned as the death of the soul, justification from it is treated as a resurrection, a new birth, a gift of new life (John 3:5; Rom. 6:4 sq.).
3. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Ps. 31:1, 2; quoted Rom. 4:7). On the surface, the words of this text are an exact statement of the Protestant theory. But, according to a common rule of interpretation, it must be read in harmony with the other texts bearing on the same subject, and with the “mind of the Church.” The Psalm quoted is David’s thanksgiving for having had his sin “taken away” from him (2 Kings 12:13); it is a poetical effusion of the heart, and not a scientific statement of the process of justification. Of a stain blotted out by the power of God, the poet may well say that it is “covered,” and it is “not imputed.” In fact, the parallelism of the first verse requires that the second half should have the same sense as the first. But in the first hemistich sins are spoken of as “forgiven” (ἀφιέναι, נָשָׂא, ablata), therefore in the second hemistich the word “covered” (כָּסָח, ἐπικαλύπτειν, “to hide,”) has the same sense. Lastly, what is “covered” from the eyes of God does not exist (see above, I.).
III. Grace and mortal sin are opposed as a quality and its privation, e.g. as light and darkness, heat and cold, motion and rest. Hence they cannot coexist in the soul. Again, the remission of sin or the removal of the privation is effected by the very appearance of grace. Thus darkness ceases to be when light appears. Venial sin, however, may coexist with grace, because it is not an aversion from God as our last end, but only an inordinate attachment to the creature (cf. § 147, ii. 4, and iii.).
I. Justification elevates man to the dignity of adopted son of God, and confers upon him a personal nobility and worth which ennoble all his subsequent acts (read §, 145, vol. i. p. 468).
II. Sin, being an aversion from God, is absolutely incompatible with that participation in the Divine Life of Love and Holiness to which the justified are admitted. All, therefore, grant that justification remits sin. But Protestants reduce the remission to non-imputation; the sinner, according to most of them, is credited with the merits of Christ, and his sins are thus covered in some way, and no longer imputed to him; he is “accounted righteous,” or justified only in a legal sense, viz. the Judge considers him righteous without really making him so. The Catholic doctrine is that sin is completely blotted out as to all its effects. Of course, the sinful act cannot be undone; but the stain of guilt and the liability to eternal punishment disappear when grace is infused.
1. The notion that God does not impute a sin which really exists, is a contradiction in terms. We cannot conceive the all-knowing, all-holy, and all-just Being as ignoring or overlooking the rebellious position taken up against Him by a creature; as favouring with His friendship a soul turned away from Him; as allowing moral disorder to exist in the heirs of His kingdom. Whatever guilt there is in man lies bare before the eye of God, and must be dealt with by either His justice or His mercy. And even Divine mercy cannot forgive the punishment without first destroying the guilt, of which the liability to punishment is but a consequence.
2. As Bellarmine remarks (De Justif., ii. 7), Scripture uses all the terms which it is possible to think of in order to express a true remission of sin. Sins are said to be taken away (2 Kings 12:13; and 1 Paral. 21:8); blotted out (Isa. 43:25; Acts 3:19); exhausted (Heb. 9:28); removed from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 102:12); to be put away and be cast into the bottom of the sea (Mich. 7:19). Where sin is considered as a stain or an impurity, it is said to be cleansed, washed, made whiter than snow (Ps. 50:9; Isa. 1:16–18; Jer. 33:8; Ezech. 36:25; 1 Cor. 6:11). Where sin is spoken of as a wound or a sore, it is said to be bound up and healed (Isa. 30:26). If sin is mentioned as the death of the soul, justification from it is treated as a resurrection, a new birth, a gift of new life (John 3:5; Rom. 6:4 sq.).
3. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Ps. 31:1, 2; quoted Rom. 4:7). On the surface, the words of this text are an exact statement of the Protestant theory. But, according to a common rule of interpretation, it must be read in harmony with the other texts bearing on the same subject, and with the “mind of the Church.” The Psalm quoted is David’s thanksgiving for having had his sin “taken away” from him (2 Kings 12:13); it is a poetical effusion of the heart, and not a scientific statement of the process of justification. Of a stain blotted out by the power of God, the poet may well say that it is “covered,” and it is “not imputed.” In fact, the parallelism of the first verse requires that the second half should have the same sense as the first. But in the first hemistich sins are spoken of as “forgiven” (ἀφιέναι, נָשָׂא, ablata), therefore in the second hemistich the word “covered” (כָּסָח, ἐπικαλύπτειν, “to hide,”) has the same sense. Lastly, what is “covered” from the eyes of God does not exist (see above, I.).
III. Grace and mortal sin are opposed as a quality and its privation, e.g. as light and darkness, heat and cold, motion and rest. Hence they cannot coexist in the soul. Again, the remission of sin or the removal of the privation is effected by the very appearance of grace. Thus darkness ceases to be when light appears. Venial sin, however, may coexist with grace, because it is not an aversion from God as our last end, but only an inordinate attachment to the creature (cf. § 147, ii. 4, and iii.).
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