Martin Luther had tried everything: sleeping on hard floors, fasting for days, even upon bloodied knees climbing the staircase of the church of St. John Lateran in Rome. His teachers said he was doing enough to have peace in his soul, but he had no peace, for his sense of sin was too deep. He had been studying the Psalms and he often noticed the term, the “righteousness of God.” This statement brought conviction to his soul. He knew that he was a sinner and did not possess this righteousness, and these words of Scripture condemned him all the more. One day he opened the Bible and began to read in Romans 1:17, “For in it is the righteousness of God revealed…”–there was that word again. But then he read on, “The just shall live by faith” and suddenly the truth of salvation by grace through faith alone came rushing into his soul. At that moment the torch was lit which would lead the world in a spiritual revolution: a return to the biblical doctrine of justification.
A Recent Trend Toward Catholic Churches
Recent news broadcasts and newspaper articles are publishing reports that evangelical men are leaving Baptist and evangelical churches for Catholic churches in record numbers. Recently, Dr. Christopher Kaczor, in an online article entitled “Why Are So Many Young Adults Becoming Catholic?” wrote:
“This Easter, the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana saw a record number of students enter the Catholic Church. This trend is happening not just at Notre Dame but around the country. Los Angeles dioceses reportedly welcomed 5,500 new Catholics in 2025. The New York Post ran an essay entitled “Young people are converting to Catholicism en masse…” As reporter Matthew McDonald posted in another article, “Dioceses are reporting increases of 30%, 40%, 50% and even more than 70%.”1
Two commonly stated reasons many people are joining the Catholic Church are that it is considered more “masculine” and more “traditional” than evangelical churches. But what about the doctrine it espouses?
The Doctrinal Position of the Roman Catholic Church About Justification
While the light of this great truth of justification is proclaimed throughout the world today, the Roman Catholic church continues to cling to a doctrinal position established in the 16th century at the Council of Trent. Alarmed by the teaching of Luther and Calvin brought to light during the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church formulated a doctrinal position through a series of decrees and canons. The “decrees” state the church’s teaching in a positive form, while the “canons” express it in negative form. Even to the present day, it has never repudiated or revised her position set forth at the Council of Trent.
What does the Roman Catholic Church teach? What do the majority of Roman Catholics believe about justification? Both of these questions are answered by looking more closely at the decisions of the Council of Trent, for these decisions form the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on this subject.
In Roman Catholic theology, according to Trent, justification is an infusion of grace that results in a change in man’s spiritual nature. As proof of this, we note the following decree from chapter 7 of session 6 of the Council of Trent, “Whence in the very act of being justified, at the same time that his sins are being remitted, a man receives through Jesus Christ, to whom he is joined, the infused gifts of faith, hope and charity.”2 In Canon 9 of the same chapter, we read the following, “If anyone says that a sinful man is justified by faith alone,… let him be anathema.”3
Here Trent sharply attacks the biblical position by denying Romans 4:5: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” On this point, the Roman Catholic Church rejects the very cornerstone of the Reformation: that man is justified by grace through faith alone. In a careful reading of Trent, one discovers that its primary concern is spiritual renewal rather than the forgiveness of sins.
How Does the Council of Trent Influence Doctrine?
According to Trent, justification is not the declaration that one is righteous, but rather an infusion of grace that brings about sanctification. At this juncture, it is important to stress the biblical distinction between justification and sanctification, a distinction that is crucial. Three points of contrast should be recognized.
- Justification legally removes the guilt and penalty of sin, whereas sanctification removes the pollution of sin and enables believers to grow in their likeness to Christ.
- Justification takes place outside the believer and is a legal declaration by God the Father, whereas sanctification takes place within the believer and transforms him.
- Justification takes place once and is neither a process nor a repeated event. Sanctification is a process that continues throughout the believer’s life.
According to Trent, faith does not have central significance in justification, whereas the Scriptures teach that we are justified by grace through faith alone. Romans 3:28 says, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” While Trent admits that there is a sense in which we can be justified by faith, its emphasis is upon works beginning with baptism. Trent says, “We may then be said to be justified through faith, in the sense that ‘faith is the beginning of man’s salvation’…”4 In the teaching of Trent, what really justifies is not faith but the sacrament of baptism. Is this still what the Roman Catholic Church teaches today? Notice what a recent Catholic catechism for adults teaches concerning salvation:
“What is necessary to be saved? You have to be brought into spiritual contact with the saving death of Jesus by faith and baptism and loyal membership in his church, by love of God and neighbor, and proved by obedience to His commandments, by other Sacraments especially Holy Communion, by prayer and good works and by final perseverance, that is persevering in God’s friendship and grace until death.”5
This teaching reaches the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1983, Pope John Paul II also went on record as affirming that salvation is by works in a printed interview with the Los Angeles Times, “Man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”6 Rome may admit that justification is by faith, but what she fails to affirm with conviction is that justification is by grace through faith alone. This was the heart cry of the Reformation: sola fide, faith alone!
According to Trent, justification can be earned through good works, but one of Paul’s strongest emphases is that no one can earn eternal life by his or her good works. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God – not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Furthermore, the Bible guarantees that eternal life is a present possession for those who believe. In Romans 6:23, Paul states this truth emphatically, writing, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yet, disregarding the crystal-clear words of Scripture, the Council of Trent states that one can merit eternal life through his or her good works. This point is made negatively in Canon 32 of the Council of Trent:
“If anyone says that the good works of a man are not the good merits of the justified man himself; or that, by the good works he performs the man does not truly merit an increase of grace, life everlasting, and, providing that he dies in a state of grace, the attainment of that life everlasting, and even an increase of glory: let him be anathema.”7
It was this very point, the denial of salvation by grace through faith alone, that the leaders of the Reformation so vigorously opposed. They were convinced that Rome’s teaching on this point obscured and threatened the gracious character of justification, and made it necessary to add works to the once-for-all finished work of Christ. Through Rome’s teaching, the biblical truth of the grace of God and the work of Christ were not only in jeopardy but buried under a mountain of good works.
What is the Current Position of the Catholic Church Since Vatican II?
Has the Catholic Church reversed the teaching of the Council of Trent, as so many believe? In 1957, the Roman Catholic theologian Hans Küng wrote a book called Justification: The Doctrine of Karl Barth and a Catholic Reflection. The book caused quite a stir among Catholics and Protestants. Küng candidly admitted and argued that the Reformation view of justification was correct and that this view should be the position of the Catholic Church. One would expect that when a leading Catholic theologian revised his teaching on justification, it would have a deep and transformative effect on the Catholic Church and its teaching. Is this the case?
John Stott, a noted evangelical Anglican, has written concerning Küng’s impact upon the Catholic church, “More than a quarter of a century has passed since the publication of his (Küng’s) book, and one is not conscious of any widespread proclamation in the Roman Catholic Church of the gospel of justification by grace through faith alone.”8 In fact, the very opposite is true. Notice a quotation from one of Rome’s more progressive theologians, Karl Rahner, concerning Rome’s position on justification: “Justification, understood as God’s deed, transforms man down to the deepest roots of his being; it transfigures him and divines him.”9 One can conclude that there is little evidence of any change in the Catholic Church’s teaching on justification since the Council of Trent. Furthermore, Catholic leaders disparagingly describe the evangelical view of justification as “legal fiction” or “merely a robe thrown over a corpse.” Because this teaching opposes the plain teaching of Scripture, Christians must continue to oppose Rome on this crucial doctrinal point.
Why then, are so many evangelicals joining hands with Rome, even to the point of calling them “brothers and sisters in Christ”? On March 29, 1994, eight Protestant and seven Roman Catholic leaders drew up a statement of cooperation called Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium. This effort was led by Charles Colson and signed by such noted and respected evangelicals as J. I. Packer and Bill Bright, the former president of Campus Crusade.10 How will this trend of drawing together with Roman Catholics affect the witness and work of the church of Christ to the lost? Moreover, how will it affect the doctrinal purity of the gospel of salvation, which the Reformers, Scottish Covenanters, and others risked, and sometimes lost, their lives to protect from compromise? Sadly, even now seeds are being sown that portend ominously for the spiritual and doctrinal future of the Church.
This account illustrates the perilous situation in which the evangelical church now finds itself. In compromising its historic position concerning justification, the evangelical church is also compelled to compromise further its mission and character. May we resist every subtle attack and every attempt to further compromise the truth of the Word of God.
Endnotes
- Dr. Christopher Kaczor, Why Are So Many Young Adults Becoming Catholic? Word on Fire, May 5, 2025 https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/why-are-so-many-young-adults-becoming-catholic/
- John F. Clarkson et al., The Church Teaches, Documents of the Church in English Translation, St. Louis, B. Herder Books, 1955, p.234
- ibid, p.243
- ibid, p.235
- William J. Cogan, A Catechism for Adults, Youngstown, AZ: Cogan Productions, 1975, p.50
- Pope John Paul II, Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1983
- The Church Teaches, Documents of the Church in English Translation, p.246
- John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, (Downers Grove, WI: Intervarsity), 1986, p.184
- Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, Baltimore, MD, Helicon Press, 1969, p. 222
- Evangelicals and Catholics Together, Institute on Religion and Public Life, 1992