JUSTIFICATION. A doctrine of theology. The Council of Trent defines the Roman Catholic doctrine thus: "Justification is not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and re newal of the inward man, through the voluntary reception of the grace and of the gifts, whereby man from unjust becomes just." It thus includes sanctification and is 'infused' righteousness. The distinguishing doctrine of Protestantism is that of justification 'by faith.' which. in the words of the Westminster Confession, is "accounting and accepting their [helievers'l persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone." The New Testament doctrine is developed by Paul. espe cially in the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians. The Apostle begins the former Epistle by exhibiting the universality of Sin. All men, Jews as well as Greeks. have sinned, and have therefore no ground of acceptance with God upon the basis of righteousness. Works, then, viewed as single holy deeds, performed in obedience to the divine law, and together constituting a Iletw less life, will qualify no one for justification before the bar of God. Hence God provides a righteousness of His Own. Repentant man, exer cising faith in Jesus Christ, shall be forgiven and treated as if he had obeyed the law perfectly for Christ's sake. Ile shall be 'declared righteous.' This is justification.
The historic Protestant doctrine has a second clement besides the forgiveness of the sinner embraced under his justification. viz. the impu tation to him of the righteousness of Christ. At first this phrase meant only that he was for given for Christ's sake; or, technically speaking, the imputation was of the 'passive obedience' of Christ (the Atonement). In the scholastic de
velopment of the system, the imputation came to be conceived as that of the 'active obedience' of Christ, or Ile was said to have obeyed the law for man, and this obedience, imputed to man, made him righteous before God. In spite of denials, this had too much the appearance of a transfer of moral character, which is pgyelm logically impossible. The idea of the merits of Christ, by which Ile gained a title to something which Ile could make over to man, was a further idea, of Catholic origin, which was inharmonious with the fundamental Protestant principles. And there was a still deeper error inhering in the strongest of the Protestant contentions. All the early reformers were strong determinists in their theory of the will. The holy choice which was wrought in the soul by God was not a work of man at all. because he was passive in it, God being the true agent. If•nce 'faith' was in direct antithesis to 'works,' which were conceived as something done by ourselves. Man was saved by faith and not by workg, and the most diametrical opposition was supposed to exist between the two. lint a better theory of the will has shown that faith, as ft choice, is an act of the will, in fact the most vital and important act a man can per form. and that it is essentially holy in its nature. Abraham's faith was imputed to him for righteousness because it was righteousness. Consult: Buchanan, The Doetrine of Justification (Edinburgh, 19(37) ; Cardinal Newman, Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification (1d ed., London, 1974) ; llitschl, Christian Doctrine of Justifica tion and Reconciliation: Positive Development of the Doctrine (Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1900).