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C l a s s i c A p o l o g e t i c s
BY FAITH ALONE? PART II
By LESLIE RUMBLE, M.S.C.
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This Rock
Volume 4, Number 6
 June 1993 
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WITH his doctrine of "justification
by faith alone," Luther brought in a new kind of Christianity
unlike anything that had gone before. As shown in Part I of this article
[This Rock, April 1993], faith for a Catholic is an intellectual
virtue based on belief in truth revealed by God and safeguarded by
the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. For Luther it was instead
an affective virtue, a sentiment of confidence in God's favor. Religious
feelings supplanted doctrinal orthodoxy and allowed emotional experiences
to run riot at the expense of reason.
All that man can do, ran the new teaching, is to trust in the mercy
of God and believe with firm confidence that God has received him
into his favor. As the Augsburg Confession, puts it, "Men are
freely justified for Christ's sake through faith, when they believe
that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven
for Christ's sake." This doctrine of justification by faith was
the keystone of the whole Lutheran system and became the battle cry
of the Protestant Reformation.
The most drastic consequences followed upon it. An almost entirely
self-centered individualism resulted, evangelical piety making personal
conversion, guaranteed by feelings of assurance, the center of its
work. Popular Protestantism urges the individual "to believe
on Christ and be saved." The sense of community and of corporate
religion inevitably declined. No intermediaries were needed, priests,
sacraments, or saints. The individual was prior to the very Church
itself, which had to be defined in a totally different way, no longer
as a visible institution founded by our Lord, but as a vague, invisible
aggregate of the "saved," known only to God.
The Catholic has the gospel set before him by his Church; he accepts
the truth guaranteed for him by the guidance of the Holy Spirit operating
within the Church; he repents of his sins; from the Church, the mystical
body of Christ, he receives the very grace and life of Christ, a life
he must make his own in accordance with Paul's words: "I live,
yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). In Catholic teaching
neither the individual nor the Church can be ignored, but Protestant
theology, with its doctrine of justification by faith only, quite
upset this balance.
Equally disastrous was the effect upon worship. The Bible, interpreted
by each reader for himself, became the one supreme rule of faith.
It was the doctrine of the "inner light," and it led to
the chaos in religious belief and practice about which the Protestants
of today are becoming more and more acutely conscious and distressed.
In worship, the pulpit supplanted the altar, and the Eucharist became
little more than a social meal. The ministry of the Word rendered
the ministry of the sacraments almost meaningless.
In the new interpretation of Christianity the sacraments could not
be a means of grace; at most they could be "ordinances"
to symbolize a favor already conferred. So they came to be regarded
as more or less superfluous and to be neglected. Indeed, the logical
end of the road was reached in the complete abandonment of liturgical
worship and sacramentalism by such bodies as the Quakers and the Salvation
Army. The effect on the spiritual life was calculated to have equally
sad results. The theory of justification by faith alone could not
maintain Christian standards of spirituality.
Luther had failed to find peace of soul in ascetic self-discipline
and efforts at "good works." He never declared a good life
unnecessary. His "pecca fortiter sed crede fortius"
(sin boldly but believe still more firmly) was not meant to be an
encouragement to yield to sin without scruple. He intended simply
that however great a sinner one may be, granted repentance, he can
be justified solely by faith. But to be zealous for good works, thinking
them to be a means to salvation, was to manifest a lack of faith in
God's power to save.
The popular results of this teaching were tragic. Men declared that
good works prescribed in order to please God were utterly meaningless.
It was an easy step from that to conclude that the observance of the
moral law itself was not really necessary, still less any ascetical
self-discipline for the sake of an imaginary and impossible "spiritual
progress."
If there is but an exterior imputation of the righteousness of Christ,
there can be no such thing as a truly interior sanctification of the
soul, and the one supreme task is to reinforce one's feelings of assurance
in one's own personal salvation. And such feelings had no necessary
connection with obedience to the laws of God or with duties in regard
to one's fellow men. True, the conduct of the vast majority of Protestants
is better than their creed, but it is with the creed itself that we
are here concerned, and logically that creed leads to the undermining
of Christian standards of conduct and still more of all efforts to
attain to higher degrees of holiness in one's personal spiritual life.
The idea of "full, free, and present salvation" for those
"justified by faith," as if Christ had done all and the
Christian had to do nothing toward his own salvation, led to the dreadful
doctrine that it is belief and not behavior that matters - a doctrine
which is the very basis of hypocrisy. Christ warned his hearers against
imitating the Pharisees, of whom he declared, "They preach but
they do not practice" (Matt. 23:3). Quite evidently he thought
that not only what we believe matters, but also how we behave. In
other words, he insisted on the necessity of both faith and good works
for salvation, as does the Catholic Church. Against this it is urged
that Scripture forbids men to rely upon their own righteousness and
insists that all must acknowledge that they are sinners needing redemption
by Christ.
It is true that all men, when they come to Christ, must admit that
they are sinners and that he alone can redeem them. Those who turn
to Christ must acknowledge his authority as God and as our supreme
judge and that they are under condemnation for the sins they have
committed and for which they cannot forgive themselves. Nothing of
their own previous righteousness, if they had any, is of any avail
here. Yet after they have repented of their sins and have obtained
forgiveness, righteousness is expected of them. God is not indifferent
as to how we live. We must show our antagonism toward evil by trying
to live a holy life, and the will to do this is necessary for salvation.
We cannot rely upon our salvation unless we fulfill that condition.
If that be so, what are we to make of Paul's words, "For by grace
you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is
the gift of God; not of works, that no man may boast?" (Eph.
2:8-9). Paul is there referring to the fact that before one's conversion
and attaining to the grace of Christ no "good works" can
possibly deserve that grace and also to the fact that, even after
one's conversion, it is the grace of Christ which gives value to good
works done under its inspiration and with its assistance. But Paul
does not deny the value of good works performed under the influence
of grace after one's conversion as a means to eternal salvation.
Christ himself certainly went out of his way to stress the necessity
of good works for our salvation. He warned us, "Not everyone
who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matt.
7:21). Praising good works, he said, "Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward is very great in heaven" (Matt. 5:12). He declared
that such good works, or the absence of them, will be a deciding factor
in the Last Judgment. Then he will say, "Come, you blessed .
. . for I was hungry and you fed me," or "Depart you cursed,
for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat" (Matt. 25:34,
41). How can it be said that salvation is "wholly without works"
if, for lack of good works, it can be forfeited?
Paul wrote, "I have fought the good fight . . . and there is
laid up for me a crown of justice" (2 Tim. 4:8). That implies
that good works done by those in a state of grace provide one with
a just claim in Christ to eternal salvation. In the same sense Peter
says, "Wherefore, labor the more, that by good works you make
sure your calling and election" (2 Pet. 1:10). If we believe
in the Bible, we must believe in all of it, not concentrating on a
few isolated texts and forgetting all else.
Here allusion can well be made to the case so often cited, that of
the good thief to whom Christ said on Calvary, "This day you
shall be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). Since that thief
had done no good works, how can we explain his salvation, if faith
alone is not sufficient? To say that the good thief did no good works
is to take far too narrow a view of what good works mean. We must
not think only of being good to the poor or of other forms of humanitarianism.
After all, the good thief publicly proclaimed the innocence of Christ
and equally, with deep humility, acknowledged his own guilt. These
were already good works.
In any case, that the good thief did not have time to do further good
works after his conversion could not affect the principle that good
works are necessary, good works which the good thief would certainly
have the will to do, had he had the opportunity. Paul wrote to the
Galatians, "In doing good let us not fail. For in due time we
shall reap, not failing. Therefore while we have time let us work
good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household
of the faith" (Gal. 6:9-10).
It rests with God how much time each of us will have. But while we
have it God expects us to do good, and our salvation depends upon
our doing it. If we do it, Paul tells us that we shall reap our reward.
And our Lord himself tells us, as we have seen, that our not doing
it can result in the loss of our souls.
But even were we to grant that an exception was made in the case of
the good thief, the exception proves the rule, and we cannot argue
from the special dispensation in his case to what is normally required.
But did not Paul expressly tell the Galatians that we are "justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; because by
the works of the law no flesh shall be justified?" (Gal. 2:16).
He did. But with what was he concerned?
Paul was refuting the Judaizing Christians, those early converts to
the Church who claimed that, in addition to their acceptance of the
teachings of Christ and the fulfillment of his law, those baptized
were obliged still to observe the prescriptions of the Jewish or Mosaic
Law. Denouncing that, Paul insisted that Christ had abolished the
Mosaic Law, fulfilling yet transcending it and making possible by
his death on the cross and the power of grace a righteousness which
observance of the Mosaic Law of itself could give man no power to
attain. But he did not by that intend that Christians, emancipated
from observance of Jewish obligations, are to be saved merely by faith
in Christ without observing the law of Christ himself in our daily
conduct. Paul teaches, of course, that even for Christians good works,
while necessary, cannot of themselves be the cause of salvation. They
need a value derived from Christ. Divine grace is indeed a communication
of the very righteousness of Christ to our souls, giving a new value
to all the good works we strive to do. It is this grace which enables
us to fulfill the law, not according to the letter, but in the spirit.
Thus Paul writes that "the justification of the law may be fulfilled
in us who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit"
(Rom. 8:4).
James, well aware of the mind of Paul, wrote most strongly on this
subject. "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving
your own selves" (Jas. 1:22). Again: "What shall it profit
if a man if he has faith, but has not works? Shall faith be able to
save him? . . . You believe that there is one God. You do well. But
the devils also believe and tremble. But will you know, vain man,
that faith without works is dead. . . . By works a man is justified
and not by faith only. Even as the body without the spirit is dead,
so also faith without works is dead" (Jas. 2:14, 19, 20, 26).
Rightly, then, the Catholic Church insists and has always insisted
that both faith and good works are required for righteousness in the
Christian sense of the word and for salvation. Right beliefs and right
conduct are necessary.
Let us now turn to the really dreadful doctrine that a felt assurance
of salvation is the necessary sign that one has been "justified
by faith alone." This has truly been the bane of all the heirs
of the Protestant Reformation. It has resulted in a self-centered
and subjective individualism, divorced from all ideas of the Church
incorporating us as members of the mystical body of Christ. People
have tended to regard the whole of religion as consisting in their
own interior and personal state of religious feeling.
It has led to the most extravagant and even morbid attempts to induce
an artificial sense of security by periodical outbreaks of highly-charged
emotional revivalism. In those converted at such meetings there has
resulted only too often an almost sickening complacency in the thought
of being among the "saved" which is as far removed as possible
from the humility declared by the gospel to be a first condition of
our rehabilitation in the sight of God.
There is no more cruel tyranny than to demand such a "religious
experience" as a passport to salvation. What are those multitudes
of people to do who are psychologically incapable of such an upsurge
of emotion and who have never honestly felt the interior revolution
and the personal assurance required? If they take the doctrine seriously,
they must either indulge in a hypocritical pretense that they have
undergone such an experience or yield to utter despair. It is one
thing to hope for salvation, live in the light of that hope, and put
one's confidence in God's mercy. That is lawful. But it is quite another
thing to keep telling oneself, and everybody else, that one already
is saved and that all who do not have the same self-assurance are
in a state of damnation. That is a form of presumption, not only not
justified by Scripture, but absolutely opposed to it.
Christ warns us to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation (Matt.
26:41); he makes us pray to be preserved from temptation (Luke 11:4).
Surely such warnings are meaningless to the man who thinks himself
already and permanently saved. Christ also said, "Blessed are
those servants whom the Lord when he comes shall find watching"
(Luke 12:37). He there implies that it is quite possible for one who
believes in him to fall a victim to temptation and to be found unprepared
to meet judgment when death comes.
These words are often quoted: "He who hears my word and believes
him that sent me has life everlasting and comes not to judgment, but
is passed from death to life" (John 5:24). But we must ask just
what these words signify. They simply mean that one who accepts Christ's
word in the sense of his total gospel and puts its precepts into practice
passes from a "death-state" of sin into a "life-state"
of grace. If he perseveres in that state of grace, and therefore in
the love and friendship of God until death, then he will have no need
to fear an adverse judgment, but will inherit life everlasting. But
the words quoted certainly give no guarantee that one who has attained
at any stage in this life to the grace of God can never forfeit that
grace by later sin. As people of bad will can develop a good will,
so people of good will can lapse into bad dispositions, and all without
exception need to fear their own weakness and even malice.
Never, at any stage in this life, are we allowed to make it a certainty
that we shall be saved. We are warned that if we think ourselves to
stand, we must beware lest we fall (1 Cor. 10:12) and that we must
work out our salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Of himself
Paul wrote, "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection,
lest having preached to others I myself should become a castaway"
(1 Cor. 9:27). There is no room, then, in Paul's teaching for self-assurance
and presumption. Such dispositions are not Christian. They are very
dangerous, for they make salvation dependent on imagination and feelings,
most untrustworthy guides. They blind people to the necessity of belonging
to the Church Christ established, of receiving the sacraments he instituted,
of making every effort to avoid sin and practice Christian virtue.
Never were credulous people more disastrously deceived than they were
by Martin Luther's doctrine that justification is by faith alone,
guaranteed by personal assurance in each one's own heart. Such a doctrine
violates both Scripture and reason and brings Christianity into disrepute
with all thinking men.
There is a difference between being a Christian and behaving as a
Christian. It is most important to note that difference. "Being"
comes before "acting." We cannot "act" as human
beings unless we first "exist" as human beings. One has
to "be" a Christian before he can "act" as a Christian,
although, of course, one might be a Christian yet not act as a Christian
should, in which case he would be a bad Christian. The full significance
of this we shall see later.
Luther's idea of justification as a "legal acquittal'' and an
external imputation to the soul of the merits of Christ meant a change
in God's dispositions towards us, so that instead of looking upon
us with disfavor he looks upon us with favor. Of itself this would
imply no inner relationship with the Person of Jesus - such an
inner relationship would involve the Catholic doctrine of interior
grace!
Scripture insists that we must believe and be baptized (Mark 16:16)
and, as Peter declared in his first sermon, "Repent and be baptized
every one of you" (Acts 2:38). The significance of baptism was
explained by Paul when he wrote, "As many of you as have been
baptized in Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27).
Among Protestants we see a confusion between becoming a Christian
and becoming a good Christian. To be a good Christian, one must recognize
Jesus Christ as the Lord of life in practice, must be faithful to
prayer, and try to live up to the Christian ethic or moral standards
of conduct. One becomes a more or less good Christian as he succeeds
more or less in doing so. But he becomes a Christian by baptism. If
one fails to live up to requirements in conduct, that does not mean
that one is not a Christian. It means merely that he is not making
all the effort he should in order to live as he ought.
Despite Anglican divine William Chillingworth's (1602-1644) famous
dictum that "the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of
Protestants," the truth is that everyone, even Protestants, need
the Church, not only for the help it can give toward the living of
a Christian life in practice, but so one may be a Christian at all.
Christ founded his Church as a living organism, in and through which
he himself would live and act. By baptism a man becomes simultaneously
a member of Christ and a member of his Church. That is why, for the
living of a Christian life, a Christian needs the Church, even as
the living activity of any member of the human body needs to have
at its disposal the life of the whole body. Such is the teaching of
the New Testament and of the Catholic Church.
One thing above all must trouble the souls of thinking Protestants.
If no one can be a Christian without joining "the Church,"
then the question of which Church one must join is as vital a problem
as that of becoming a Christian at all. The only valid answer is,
"The Catholic Church." Protestantism, however modern its
dress and of whatever denominational type it may be, is simply unable
to give the final answers Christianity was intended to provide.
During the nearly five centuries that have elapsed since Martin Luther
gave to the world his new theory of "justification by faith alone,"
millions of good Protestants have described themselves as Christians
saved by the grace of God. They have relied upon their own personal
reading of the Bible, have regarded religion as a matter between their
own individual souls and God, and have seen no need to become members
of the Catholic Church. While believing in the Bible, they have not
understood its teachings. Apart from the fact that were it not for
the Catholic Church they would have no Bible at all, that very Bible
is opposed to their isolation from the Catholic Church. If there is
one thing clearly taught in the New Testament, it is the doctrine
of the Church as a divine society established by Christ, in which
all believers should be united, professing the same faith, offering
the same worship, receiving the same sacraments, and acknowledging
the same religious authority.
We cannot ignore our Lord's words: "I will build my Church"
(Matt. 16:18). Nor can we conceive that he would do so, if he did
not intend that we should be members of it. Certainly his further
words, "If a man will not hear the Church, let him be to thee
as the heathen" (Matt. 18:17), should make every sensible person
ask "Which Church?" and not rest until he has found the
right one.
Paul, insisting on the necessity of our being united in the true Church
instead of being led astray by independent individuals, wrote, "Now
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
you all speak the same thing and that there be no schisms among you,
but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment"
(1 Cor. 1:10). He came back to that same thought with the plea "that
there might be no schism in the body, but the members might be mutually
careful one for another. . . . You are the body of Christ" (1
Cor. 12: 25-27).
Why are Protestants divided from Catholics throughout the world, not
having the same mind and judgment, not speaking the same thing as
the millions of all nations so remarkably united religiously within
the unity of the Catholic Church? It is because they have inherited
wrong principles from the very beginning of the Reformation in the
sixteenth century, principles which were not the means appointed by
Christ for the attaining of the truth. He established his Church,
guaranteed its infallibility and perpetuity, and sent it to teach
all nations. That Church is the Catholic Church, and the only road
to the unity demanded by the New Testament is to belong to and be
guided by that Church. It is only in the Catholic Church that one
will be able to learn without error the teachings of the gospel and
receive all the means of grace Christ intended us to have.
Leslie Rumble was co-author, with his fellow priest
Charles M. Carty, of the famous Radio Replies series of books
(available from This Rock as a three-volume set for $43.95
postpaid). This essay is the last half of a booklet, published in
1955, titled So You Think You're Saved! The first half appeared
in the April 1993 issue of This Rock.
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