Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic TreatisePohle, Joseph
Religion
Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic Treatise
Pohle, Joseph
Grace (Theology)
1. HERETICAL ERRORS AND THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH.—Martin Luther, to
quiet his conscience, evolved the notion that faith alone justifies and
that the Catholic doctrine of the necessity of good works is pharisaical
and derogatory to the merits of Jesus Christ. This teaching was
incorporated into the symbolic books of the Lutherans(811) and adopted by
Calvin.(812) It has been called one of the two basic errors of
Protestantism. The Tridentine Council solemnly condemns it as follows: “If
anyone saith that by faith alone the impious is justified, in such wise as
to mean that nothing else is required to coöperate in order to obtain the
grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be
prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be
anathema.”(813) Other acts that dispose or prepare the soul for
justification, according to the same Council, are: the fear of divine
justice; hope in God’s mercy; charity, which is the font of all
righteousness; detestation of sin, and penitence.(814)
2. REFUTATION OF THE SOLA FIDES THEORY.—The Lutheran theory involves an
open rupture with the traditional teaching of the Church and is positively
unscriptural. Luther himself felt this, as appears from his interpolation
of the word “alone” in Rom. III, 28 and his rejection of the entire
canonical Epistle of St. James.(815)
a) The teaching of the Bible in regard to the rôle played by good works in
the process of justification may be summarized as follows:
(1) A man may believe all that the Church teaches and yet be lost for want
of good works or because he has not the love of God; consequently, faith
alone does not justify or insure eternal salvation. Our Divine Saviour
Himself declares: “Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is
in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”(816) St. James
says: “Do you not see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith
only?”(817) And St. Paul: “If I should have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”(818)
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