Comments on: The 5 Causes of Justification in Catholic Theology

By: Dry Fishes

Dry Fishes — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:47:56 +0000

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By: joe

joe — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:50:12 +0000

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By: Emil Anton

Emil Anton — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:59:42 +0000

I would say the most significant points are nros 4 and 5. And Protestants would indeed find fault with them. For good Protestants, the instrumental cause is faith and faith alone, whereas the sole formal cause is the active and passive obedience of Christ, i.e. “the righteousness of Christ”, i.e. what they often also call the righteousness of God by which he makes us righteous. Protestants would never accept that the formal cause of our justification is something by which we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, no, the formal cause is and must be totally outside us, extra nos. It is a declaration in God’s divine lawcourt, in his mind.

For Wes, it is overly simplifying to talk about what justification is “biblically”. There are many different uses of the dik-root (words related to justification) in the Bible. For Pauline uses that fit worst with a declarative scheme and better with a moral or constitutive one, see eg Romans 5:18-19 and 6:6-19 as well as 1 Cor 6:11. There is a passage in 2 Cor too, I forget where exactly, somewhere around chapters 8-9 I think.

By: Kjetil Kringlebotten

Kjetil Kringlebotten — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:24:13 +0000

“Biblically Justice is delarative not a process. I would be open to see support to the contrary.”

This just seem to be wrong. Firstly; your argument is based on a false dichotomy, between ‘declaration’ and ‘process.’ These words describe two different things. Secondly; when God decleares something to be something else, it really becomes that. God isn’t a human judge who simply decleares a man innocent. God really makes you just. But we know from experience that we don’t always act perfectly. Therefore we are either not just – which is simply unbiblical – or we are in a process in which we are being justified, which seems to be completely biblical. See for example Phil 3,10-14:

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (NRSV)

Couple this with Phil 2,12-13: “Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (NRSV)

We work, but it is “God who is at work in you.” Just as Taylor points out.

By: Wes

Wes — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:24:23 +0000

…receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure, which the Holy Ghost distributes to every one as He wills, and according to each one’s proper disposition and co-operation.

Seems to imply that Justice is measured not declarative. Words like proper disposition and co-operation seem to lay justice back on the one being justified. Seeing justification more as sanctificaion in process rather than as a legal declaration of right standing before God based on Christs merits. This seems always to be the protestant vs. Catholic arguement. Biblically Justice is delarative not a process. I would be open to see support to the contrary.