How a sinner is accounted righteous before God — the roles of grace, faith, and works. Central to the Reformation: the Reformers' sola fide, and the Council of Trent's reply (Session VI, 1547). Sources span the Apostolic Fathers to the Reformation; traditions are badged, never refereed.
3 Patristic · 3 Catholic · 2 Lutheran · 2 Reformed
“For we account a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law.”
“For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.”
“Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?”
“And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
“Here he shows God's power, in that He has not only saved, but has even justified, and led them to boasting, and this too without needing works, but looking for faith only.”
“The law was therefore given, in order that grace might be sought; grace was given, in order that the law might be fulfilled.”
“Justification taken passively implies a movement towards justice, as heating implies a movement towards heat… justification implies a transmutation from the state of injustice to the aforesaid state of justice. And it is thus we are now speaking of the justification of the ungodly.”
“It is clear then that to a Christian man his faith suffices for everything, and that he has no need of works for justification. But if he has no need of works, neither has he need of the law; and, if he has no need of the law, he is certainly free from the law.”
“Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight.”
At Regensburg, Catholic and Protestant theologians agreed on a formula of twofold righteousness; the agreement was rejected by both Rome and Luther.
Trent opens. Over eighteen years and five popes it answers the Reformers point by point — on Scripture and tradition, justification, the sacraments, the Eucharist, purgatory and the saints.
“We are therefore said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation, and the root of all Justification; without which it is impossible to please God, and to come unto the fellowship of His sons: but we are therefore said to be justified freely, because that none of those things which precede justification—whether faith or works—merit the grace itself of justification.”
“If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining 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.”
“Thus we simply explain justification to be an acceptance, by which God receives us into his favour, and esteems us as righteous persons; and we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ.”
“Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness, by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.”
The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, declaring a consensus on basic truths of justification while noting that differences remained.
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.