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 |
A Biblical Response
See our earlier articles, “Do Good People Go to Heaven?” and “Eternal Security.”