The Catholic View of Justification

For more resources on this subject, see our earlier article “Catholicism.”

Catholics and Evangelicals differ over the subject of justification. We can characterize their differing views in this way:

Views of Justification
*Catholic View*	*Evangelical View*
By grace through faith and made alive by works	By grace through faith and apart from works
A perpetual process	A past, completed event
Justified by our works (made alive by the Holy Spirit’s power; Phil. 2:12-13)	Justified apart from works, but justified for good works (Eph. 2:10)
Creates a subjective change in the person, whereby they are changed to perform good works	Creates an objective change in the person, whereby they are legally justified before God (i.e. “not guilty”)
We cannot gain salvation through good works, but we can lose salvation from evil works	We cannot gain or lose salvation through our works

The Catholic View of Justification World Religions Roman Catholicism