Justification by faith

• Martin Luther was influenced by St Paul where Paul claimed that salvation comes to "everyone who has faith"
• "He who through faith is righteous shall live" - The Old Testament
• St Paul claims that God's grace is not something humans are good enough to earn, because we all sin
• We cannot earn God's grace though works, so justification by faith must be more important
• St Paul uses Abraham to illustrate that Abraham was 'righteous' because of his faith in God
• Luther proposed 'sola fide', which means justification by faith alone
• Luther was influenced by Augustine's teaching on original sin; as mankind is fallen and sinful, humans are incapable of saving themselves
• It is by faith alone that humans can be saved
• Justification is received by humans passively
• The Council of Trent responded to Luther by saying that faith and works were both required for justification because works are an essential part of faith
• The Council of Trent's argument is that if you consider what the function of faith is, you should see that good works are required in combination with it to have value
• The council held that the function of faith was to bring a person into 'fellowship' with Jesus
• The council argued that faith could not bring a person into fellowship with Jesus without hope and charity
• Aquinas and St Paul characterised faith, hope and charity as the three Christian values
• Hope and charity are a kind of work
• The council claimed that faith alone 'neither unites man perfectly with Christ nor makes him a living member of His body'
• There are two kinds of faith

  1. The faith demons have- 'dead faith'
  2. Faith combined with works
• The council were clear that good works are not 'merely the fruits and signs of justification' but are part of the 'cause' and 'preservation' of justification
• Justification is eschatological ( dealing with the death, judgement and the fate of the soul and of humanity)
• St Paul argues that humans being seen as righteous does not mean they 'earn' righteousness
• Righteousness cannot be earned by following the law because all humans have sinned and fallen short of what they should be
• If justification came only by people's work, then everyone would be judged guilty by God
• Paul argues that when we rely on God's grace, not our own works and deeds, we have 'peace with God'