Introductory Chapters, 1-3
- All Gentiles are sinful and warrant God’s wrath (Chapter 1)
- All Israelites are sinful and warrant God’s wrath (Chapter 2)
- Torah does not yield any special advantage (Chapter 3:1-8)
- The Torah itself was never meant to make someone righteous, but rather its purpose is to point out sin and condemn sinners (Chapter 3:9-20)
- Righteousness comes by the grace of God, completely apart from Torah, through faith in Christ (Chapter 3:21-31).
Chapters 1-3 of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans notes that both Jews and Gentiles are sinners. Moreover, in response to the universal bondage to sin, while Paul states that there are no religious prerogatives that belong to the Israelites, the Chosen People still remain God’s vehicle of revelation, despite their sins, but it is a privilege guaranteed by God’s fidelity. All human beings, though, share the common burden of sin. Paul’s referencing the law is to be understood as alluding to the Scriptures taken in their broadest scope. The last verses of chapter 3 yields what could be framed as Paul’s gospel or justification by faith in Christ.
Chapters 4-7
In referring to Abraham, Paul reaches back to the Book of Genesis, “Abram put his faith in the Lord, who attributed it to him as an act of righteousness” (Gen 15:6). Thus, what was fully expressive of Abram’s faith is his relationship with God and not the Torah or Pentateuch because “the father of many nations” lived many centuries before the Law was even given to Moses. These verses (Rom 4:3-8) pose the dilemma in regard to faith versus works. Too often, you hear that Protestants believe in “sola fidei” or salvation by faith alone, while Catholics believe in faith and works. The polemical discussion that often ensues neglects the debate’s specific context—the doctrine of justification. The Catholic position is that no one can earn their own salvation, which is a free gift from God that comes from our faith in Christ. But, the Catholic perspective adds that people have to perform good works to cooperate with God’s gratuitous grace of salvation.
The New Testament uses the word justification to refer to one of the things that God does by divine grace. Unfortunately, there is considerable disagreement about what justification involves. By invoking salvation by “faith alone,” Protestants are describing the how of justification. The idea is that in order to come to God, to be forgiven and declared righteous, you do not need to do anything to earn a place before God except to have faith in Christ. Even the Council of Trent stated that we come to God and are justified as something that happens without any merit on our part. Neither our faith nor our works—nor anything else—merits justification. If you go through the Tridentine Decree on Justification (DJ), or the section on justification in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC, nn.1987-1995), you will not find the expression faith and works. Nor would you find the word “works” at all in the Catechism’s section on justification. In the first place, God does not simply declare someone righteous; instead, God also makes us righteous in justification.
The Council of Trent defined justification as “not only a remission of sins but also the sanctification and renewal of the inner man” (DJ 7). The reason the Church refers to this growth in righteousness as a form of justification is a little unclear in English. This is because the English theological vocabulary draws on both its German and Latin roots; as a result, the same underlying concept originally appeared under more than one non-English term. And, that is the case with righteousness and justice, though two different terms in English, both words represent the same underlying concept in the three sacred languages: Latin, Greek, or Hebrew. As a result, you sometimes see Catholic works in English translated so that they speak of God giving us the gift of justice (i.e., righteousness) or of us growing in justice and, thus, of us being further justified.
Prevenient grace helps toward a better understanding that at the beginning of the Christian life, God forgives our sins and gives us the gift of righteousness, but the Lord is not done with us. He wants us to grow in righteousness over the course of the Christian life, and, if we cooperate with His grace, we will.
Nature and dignity 