" If anyone shall say that man is absolved from his sins and justified because he believes for certain that he is absolved and justified...and that by this faith alone absolution and justification are perfected: let him be anathema."

Canon 19 says the same: "If anyone shall say that nothing except faith is commanded in the Gospel, that other things are indifferent, neither commanded nor prohibited, but free, or that the ten commandments in no way pertain to Christians: let him be anathema."

Canon 29 adds the necessity of the Sacrament of Penance: "If anyone shall say that he who has fallen after baptism cannot...but by faith alone without the sacrament of penance, contrary to what the holy Roman and universal Church taught by Christ the Lord and His apostles, has hitherto professed, observed, and taught: let him be anathema." (See also Canons 10, 11, 12, 20).

It is very clear that the Council of Trent did not teach that justification comes by "faith alone." It gave four separate descriptions regarding its invalidity. The Council of Trent understands "alone" very literally, that is, it means that "nothing else" is added to faith for justification. These Canons were aimed directly at Martin Luther, for he held that "nothing else" could be added to faith for justification, and thus, he called himself a "solafideist": "Hence, faith alone justifies when it takes hold of this [Christ]...Here we are perfectly willing to have ourselves called solafideists by our opponents" (LW 26, 138).

Some Catholic apologists attempt to justify using "faith alone" by claiming that the Council of Trent meant that its definition referred only to "understand[ing] that nothing else is required to cooperate in the attainment of the grace of justification," implying that Trent would have accepted definitions which would have included other virtues, such as hope and love, as a possible meanings of "faith alone." But there is no evidence of this. Trent did not disallow only certain definitions of "faith alone" and allow other definitions. To assume that Trent would have accepted other definitions of "faith alone" is a clear case of begging the question and there is simply no way of proving it.

Of course, the real question concerns what, precisely, does the Lutheran World Federation believe? Do they still believe, as Luther, that "faith alone" means "nothing else" can be added for justification? Some commentators have suggested that modern Lutherans now include hope and love in their definition of "faith alone," and thus the phrase "faith alone" can be accepted. Is this true? We will find out shortly from the Declaration itself. Before we do, let's lead into it by looking at another media interpretation so that we can see how deep the distortions of the Joint Declaration can run.

In mid-1999, David Crumm, of the Free Press staff; wrote: "For more than 30 years, Catholic and Lutheran leaders have been discussing the thorny question...How does God dispense salvation? Does God freely give salvation to people who have faith in Jesus or must humans earn salvation by their good works? Are humans who are sinners justified before God by their faith alone — or by those works? Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation officials are agreeing that salvation is freely given to believers..." The average reader would skip right by these words without noticing anything alarming. After all, don't we all agree that "salvation is freely given to believers"?

Yes, we can agree, but historical Catholic doctrine does not agree with Mr. Crumm's suggestion that man is justified by "faith alone." Mr. Crumm's introduction to the matter makes it appear that previous to the Joint Declaration the Catholic Church believed that "humans earn salvation by their good works," and he implies that as of October 31, 1999 the Catholic Church has now abandoned that belief. This is not the case at all. The Catholic Church has never taught that one can "earn" salvation. To "earn" something means that one acquires it by legal right, without any deference to grace or benevolence. It means that God owes salvation as a matter of legal debt. But that is not at issue in this debate.

In the words of the Council of Trent: "If anyone shall say 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: let him be anathema" (Canon 1). Chapter 8 of the Council is even more specific: "...because none of those things which precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace itself of justification." It couldn't be clearer that the Catholic Church is against the idea of "earning" salvation.

Is this just an old and outdated teaching of the Catholic Church? Not according to the 1994 Catholic Catechism. Paragraphs 604, 1996 and 2010 state: "...God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part...Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call...Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion."

Hence, both the Council and the Catechism are clear that God initiates the whole process by His grace. The Catholic Church believes that through faith, which is prompted by God's grace, we accept the atoning work that Christ underwent for us. The Council of Trent said: "...we are therefore said to be justified by faith because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God" (Session 6, Chapter 8). The 1994 Catholic Catechism says that faith is "a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him..." (Para. 153). There's a lot of grace in these statements, but certainly nothing about "earning salvation" or "faith alone."

Contrary to Mr. Crumm's creative writing, the issue between Lutherans and Catholics is not that Lutherans came to the discussion table believing that a man is justified by faith alone and can't earn his salvation, while Catholics formerly believed, but now reject, that a man is justified by works and earns his salvation. In fact, in the phrase "whether faith or works," the Council of Trent warned in Chapter 8 that even faith itself could become a matter of "earning" salvation, since if one says to God: "I have faith therefore You owe me salvation" it is just as wrong as saying "I have works therefore You owe me salvation." Unfortunately, this is precisely how some Protestants understand faith—as a one-time volitional act that now obligates God to save them, no matter what they do in the future, which is popularized in the adage "once saved, always saved."

But if the Catholic Church believes one cannot earn salvation, why would they, namely, the Council of Trent and the 1994 Catechism, be opposed to using the words "faith alone" in a justification formula? There are several reasons:

(1) The Bible never says an individual is justified by "faith alone." In fact, the only time Scripture uses the phrase, it is preceded emphatically by the words "not by," to read: "a man is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:24). If the phrase "justified by faith alone" was indigenous to the discussion, one would think Scripture would at least mention it once. Rather, as we see in James, it not only avoids such phrasing, it specifies the converse. The New Testament uses the word "faith" and its derivatives over 200 times. It uses the word "alone" almost as much, but never combines the two in a positive statement. In fact, St. Paul used the word "alone" or "only" in the very contexts in which he taught about justification (Romans 3:29; 4:12, 16, 23; Galatians 2:10; 3:2; 4:18; 5:13), but never once did he use them to qualify the faith of justification as being in solitude. These facts are reinforced in that the Old Testament, neither in the Hebrew nor the Septuagint, uses the phrase "faith alone," and thus we can conclude that in all of Scripture "faith alone" is never inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is quite an ironic position for the Lutherans in this debate, since they claim to obtain their authoritative teaching from Scripture alone.

The epistle of James, the very book which explicitly denies justification by faith alone, was said by Luther to be an "epistle of straw...for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it" (LW 35, 362); and that "James concludes falsely that now at last Abraham was justified after that obedience...it does not follow as James raves" (LW 4, 26); "the epistle of James gives us much trouble, for the papists embrace it alone" (LW 34, 317); "we should throw the epistle of James out of this school, for it doesn't amount to much" (LW 35, 397).

How many times does either the Joint Declaration, the Annex, the Notes on the Resources for the Joint Declaration and Annex, or the Clarification of June 22 mention either James 2:21 ("Abraham was justified by works") or James 2:24 ("A man is justified by works and not by faith alone")? Not once. Do these same ecumenical documents ever mention the book of James at all? Only once, in JD 9, in the sentence: "In the New Testament diverse treatments of ‘righteousness' and ‘justification' are found in the writings of the Matthew (5:10; 6:33; 21:32), John (16:8-11), Hebrews (5:3, 10:37f) and James (2:14-26)." Thus, James is relegated merely to a "diverse treatment of...justification," with absolutely no explanation as to what "diverse treatment" means. This is in the face of almost two dozen citations and/or explanations to the book of Romans. Ironically, where the "papists" of the sixteenth century were not afraid to quote James to deny Luther's "faith alone," apparently our ecumenical documents have decided to "throw Jimmy into the stove," just as Luther suggested (LW 34, 317).

(2) There is a great difference in saying (a) "a man is justified by faith alone," as opposed to saying, as Romans 3:28 actually says, (b) "a man is justified by faith apart from works of law." The first sentence, if taken as literally as the Council of Trent understood the term "alone," means that nothing can be added to faith for justification, not even love. Of course, that would contradict St. Paul's teaching in Galatians 5:4-6 that a man is "justified by....faith working through love," and his teaching in 1 Corinthians 13:2 that faith without love "is nothing." The second sentence ("faith apart from works of law") merely means that "works of law," whatever it means to St. Paul, is the only thing that cannot be added to faith for justification, which leaves open the possibility of adding love and hope, that is, if they are not considered "works of law."

Of course, now we must discover just what St. Paul meant by "works of law." That answer is revealed just a few verses later in Romans 4:4: "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as a debt." In other words, the works St. Paul intends not to be coupled with faith for justification are "works of debt," that is, works whereby we try to earn, by legal right, our justification from God, as when an employee does work and then demands payment from his employer. St. Paul says "no, no!" You can't come to God by putting him in debt to you, because God owes no man anything (Romans 11:35). You must come seeking what cannot be earned, that is, God's grace. God wants you to believe in Him for who He is, not for what you can get out of Him. Thus, St. Paul is excluding only one kind of works — works of debt, wherein one tries to obligate God to pay him salvation. Then why did Luther exclude love and hope? Because, he said, St. Paul considered them as "works of law," which has certainly never been a Catholic belief.

The other kind of work that St. Paul accepts, and also commands us to perform to attain and maintain our justification, is work performed under God's grace. For example, in Romans 2:7 he says: "To those who persist in doing good...He will give eternal life." There's nothing here about "earning" eternal life, but plenty concerning God "giving," especially since Romans 2:4 refers to God's "kindness, tolerance and patience," which are His virtues we receive by grace. In Romans 2:13, St. Paul says, "For it is not the hearers of the law who are just with God, but the doers of the law will be justified." It is the grace-oriented and grace-blessed works that can be added to faith for justification because these works don't put God in debt to us. God rewards us with eternal life for our good works not because He owes us anything, but because He enjoys giving freely to those who please Him out of a sincere heart. That is what salvation is all about.

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