E2: Justification and the Relationship Between Faith & Works (Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?)

For Episodes 2-10 we'll be diving into the 9 key differences between Catholicism and Protestantism in a series called Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?

In today's episode we explore the Lutheran tradition's understanding of Justification as Martin Luther's well-known phrase of "dung hills covered in snow." We'll take a look at what Catholics really mean when we teach Faith & Works, as well as the question of "are all sins equal in the eyes of God?"

Bible Passages Quoted:
-James 2:26
-Revelation 3:20
-Matthew 26:24

Video Resource:
Fr. Mike Schmitz | What You Need to Be Saved (Faith vs. Works)  

Transcript

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Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of Catholicism 101, Forever Learning and Living the Faith. And I am so excited for what we have for you all this month. So for the month of July, we're going to be focusing on explaining the teachings of the Catholic Church that make us distinct from other Protestant denominations. But before we dive into all these crucial differences, I want to read to you a passage from the Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on the Church entitled Lumingensium. And this comes from paragraph 15. It says, The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who being baptized are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter. We can say that in some real way they are joined with us in the Holy Spirit, for to them too he gives his gifts and graces, whereby he is operative among them with his sanctifying power. In all of Christ's disciples, the Spirit arouses the desire to be peacefully united in the manner determined by Christ, as one flock under one shepherd, and he prompts them to pursue this end. So we're all Christian, and we are honestly truly more alike than we are different. But as Lumingensium points out, Christ wants us to all be one holy and Catholic, meaning universal. Little see Catholic means universal. So Christ wants us to all be one holy Catholic and apostolic church, living in truth as he has taught it. And so it's prudent of us to take a look at what the differences are between the Catholic and Protestant faiths and learn why the Catholic Church takes the stances she does. So every Monday and Wednesday in the month of July, except for July 31st, we will be releasing a new episode highlighting one of the nine key differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. And today's episode is on justification and sanctification. But on Wednesday, we'll be talking about all things scripture. We've got topics like Mary and the Saints on the docket, as well as Purgatory, the Pope, the Eucharist, the priesthood, and the sacraments. So we'll be explaining these all month long. But for today, let's get into justification and the relationship between faith and works. So when it comes to looking at the differences in Catholicism and Protestantism on justification and the relationship between faith and works, we tend to go back to the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, and his famous phrase that we are dung hills covered in snow. So basically, what Martin Luther means by that is in our fallen nature, we are beyond repair and we're we're beyond help. So what Christ does, how Christ works, is he simply covers up our mess with his passion, death, and resurrection, and in our being baptized. So from that point on, God looks at us as through tinted glass provided by his son. There's no real inner transformation or even hope for inner transformation. There's only a covering up of our mess. And so the logical conclusion of this is that because our mess is veiled in the eyes of God, once we're baptized and we're saved, we are always saved, and we can't do anything that would cause the Lord to damn us. But as we'll see and we'll talk about in the scripture episode on Wednesday, all different Protestant denominations have different beliefs regarding a lot of different things. But we'll get into that. So that is the Lutheran tradition, and that's kind of the backing force of many Protestant denominations when it comes to justification. One of the other logical conclusions that comes from this is the belief that all sins are equal in the eyes of God. So in the Catholic tradition, we talk about grace as God's divine life. We believe that by the power of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection, we're given the gift of sanctifying grace, and that it's made available in the sacraments as they are established by Jesus Christ. And we'll talk about the sacraments in another episode. But for now, what we need to know is that there is no way for us to earn this grace. Rather, it's freely given through the instruments of the sacraments, most especially baptism. So when we're baptized and we receive an outpouring of sanctifying grace, which is God's divine life, it's not merely a covering. We're not dung hills covered in snow, but it's an inner transformation where he actually makes us more like himself rather than just look or seem more like himself. So that's kind of the key difference between the Lutheran, heavily Protestant tradition of justification, you know, that we're dung hills covered in snow. There's no hope for inner transformation. That doesn't happen. Um, he only sees us differently. We aren't actually different in our essence. And the Catholic tradition that says, no, when God gives us his grace, it is so powerful that it truly transforms us. It doesn't just cover us. We are not just clothed in white, but we're clothed in white because that comes from the inside out through his grace, through his divine life that is given to us freely. So now let's shift a little bit into the relationship between faith and works and what the Catholic Church truly teaches and what a lot of Protestant denominations think the Catholic Church teaches. So, commonly cited in these discussions is the passage from James 2.26, where he says, For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. And what he's getting at here, he's talking about how intimately connected faith and works are. They're as intimately connected as body and soul. And what he's saying is that good works are the fruit of faith. Works naturally flow from authentic faith. It's kind of like the saying that actions speak louder than words, or actions speak a thousand words, or the comparison that you can tell how good a tree is by its fruit. If a tree bears rotten fruit or no fruit at all, then the tree is no good. So what people typically think when they hear Catholics teach faith and works, um, we often get the rebuttal of Catholics think they can or have to earn heaven. Uh, and I just want to say right now that we don't think that. We don't believe that. That's actually a heresy called Pelagianism that was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431. So Catholics don't teach that, and we haven't taught or believed that for a long time. Um, and if anyone does, that's heresy. So, what we do believe though is that God has freely established a system by which, if while we are in a state of grace and we do a good act, it can lead to a reward from God, which namely that reward is more divine life, more grace poured into our soul. And the more divine life we have in our soul, the more grace we receive, the more we become like God. And receiving this sanctifying grace gives us the ability to exist in heaven. And we'll kind of come back to that. So put a pin on that for a few weeks because we'll come back to the ability to live in heaven, sanctifying grace when we talk about purgatory. But as I was saying, the more grace we receive, the more we are transformed into being like God, which is what Jesus wants for us. That's what He's called us and created us for. But there is no way for us to earn being in that state of grace to begin with. That first grace is freely given once we give the Lord permission to give us this gift. And we give our permission in baptism. And Jesus is a gentleman. He's not gonna barge in and give us a gift without us wanting it. In Revelation chapter 3, verse 20, it says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. So we have to give permission, and we give that permission in baptism. So by God's own design, once he has given us this grace, after we've given him permission, we're able to start cooperating in our own salvation, because we are being given that grace, and therefore we are we have what it takes. And contrary to popular belief, this does not diminish Christ as our savior. Rather, it actually shows what an incredible savior he is. So we use the analogy of the best teachers are able to make their students teachers, they're able to form their students into teachers. They say that if you learn content, like you know it best, if you're able to teach it to someone else. And the same thing goes for leaders. The best leaders, leaderers, hello, the best leaders make their followers into leaders. And fun fact, Christ also did both of these. So the best saviors help the people they are saving cooperate in their salvation. It works the same way. So I always think that that's some good food for thought. But let's go back to um that the the tag at the end of when I was talking about the Lutheran tradition, that this leads to the common belief that all sins are equal in the eyes of God. And I just wanted to address this really quick because I I feel like this comes up on Facebook all the time, that like God views our sins from an eagle view perspective, like as if looking at a graph chart, maybe you know the image I'm talking about, maybe you don't. Anyway, the there is a common belief that all sins are equal in the eyes of God. And I just want to let you know that that's not necessarily true. So there are such things as venial sins and there are such things as mortal sins. And this is especially taught in the Catholic tradition. So venial sins harm our relationship with God, but do not break it, but they do add up quick. So I kind of like to think as venial sins as like cracks in glass or like chipping glass. So, like if you have a glass mug or a glass cup or vase or whatever, if there's like a few small cracks in it or a few chips in it, you can still use the glass. It's still usable. You can still use the vase, the mug, whatever it is. It is still usable, but it's deformed. And if you add up all these cracks, if you get more and more cracks and chips over time, eventually the thing is going to shatter and be unusable. On the other hand, mortal sins completely break our relationship with God. There is a dire need for repentance, reconciliation, and penance. So if venial sins are just putting a crack or a chip in a glass, then mortal sins are completely shattering it. So in both cases, there is the need for repentance, reconciliation, and penance, but most especially, and it's more dire in the case of mortal sins. But especially if you have a ton of venial sins that just keep adding up, um, that's why we frequent confession. And we will talk about that when we talk about the sacraments. So, in another um perspective on this is that it would not be reasonable to say that murder is on the same level as reactively making a rude gesture when someone cuts you off in traffic. Even more so, it would not be reasonable to say that the sin of Judas' betrayal is on the same level as that rude gesture. So even though neither of them are good or permissible, of one of these sins, Jesus says, Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born. And that comes from Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. So, to kind of sum up everything we've talked about today, if I had to put it into one nice neat little bow, I would say that Christ does not want to just hide and cover up our mess and our brokenness. He wants us to open it up to him and allow him to enter it and truly transform us so that he can make us more and more like himself so that we can be with him in heaven. And you can kind of think of it as needing to heal a wound. We're all wounded people and we all have junk in our wounds. And in order for those wounds to heal, you have to clean them out. You have to clean the debris and the crap and the messy out. And that process can be very painful. Uh, but two verses that always give me comfort whenever I'm encountering the mess is Romans 8.18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. And then also Romans 8.28, which is essentially he is working all things out for our good. So don't lose hope. It's gonna be okay. And he wants to truly transform you. He doesn't just want to make you look nice and tidy, but he wants to truly divinize you, honestly, because that's what we're destined for. Divinization is our destiny. If what I've said today intrigues you more and you want to learn more, um, I always have that question box available in the show notes. You have a link there. And then I also have a video from Father Mike Schmidt's that talks about faith and works a little bit more. It's called What You Need to Be Saved Faith versus Works. And I have that linked in the description as well. But I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you or I hope you've learned something new. And I look forward to talking about scripture with you on Wednesday. Have a great one and a blessed day.