What Is Justification?

As often, the word itself already contains the question. The whole debate of the Reformation turned on a point of theological grammar: when Scripture says that God "justifies" the sinner, does it mean that he declares him righteous, or that he makes him righteous?

Iustificare: "to make righteous"

The English justify comes from the Latin iustificare, a compound of iustus ("righteous") and the verb facere ("to make"): literally, to make righteous. The Latin form, as received in the Vulgate and in the whole Western theological tradition, points to a righteousness truly produced in man, not merely imputed from outside. That is the meaning the Council of Trent would retain: God does not content himself with reckoning us righteous; he makes us righteous^[3].

The biblical vocabulary is richer than the Latin word alone. The Greek of the New Testament uses the verb dikaioô (δικαιόω) and the noun dikaiosynê (δικαιοσύνη, "righteousness"), derived from dikê ("what is straight, in order"). Hebrew says tsadaq ("to be righteous") with the noun tsedaqah ("righteousness"). In the Bible, "righteousness" never has the cold sense of exact bookkeeping: it denotes first of all God's faithfulness to his covenant, his way of restoring what is broken, saving the poor and doing justice to the oppressed. To "justify", already in the Old Testament, is thus far more than settling a file: it is raising up the one who had fallen^[4].

"Declare righteous" or "make righteous"?

Here is where everything is decided. A human judge, when he "justifies" an accused man, does not change him: he declares him innocent, and that is all. Righteousness remains outside him, in the sentence. Some sixteenth-century Reformers understood divine justification in this way: God "declares" the sinner righteous by imputing to him Christ's righteousness, like a cloak thrown over a reality that itself remains sinful. That is the thesis of imputed or forensic righteousness (from forum, the court).

The Catholic Church answers that the God of Scripture is not like a powerless human judge. When God declares righteous, he does what he says: his word creates. "God said, and it was" (Gen 1); likewise, when he justifies, he truly makes righteous. Justification is not only a verdict pronounced outside the accused: it is a healing from within, a new heart given. We shall return at length to this debate, central to understanding what divides — and brings together — Catholics and Protestants.

Justification, redemption, sanctification, salvation: not to be confused

Four neighbouring words keep recurring in this field, and they are often used interchangeably. Distinguishing them clarifies everything else. The following table sets them side by side.

Put as an image: Redemption is the spring gushing forth on the Cross; justification is the moment when this water reaches and washes my life; sanctification is the river that then irrigates and makes fruitful; salvation is the whole land thus brought back to life. One Catholic distinctive, to which we shall return, is that justification and sanctification are not two realities separated by an interval: as soon as he makes righteous, God already begins to sanctify.

One cannot grasp what justification resolves until one has measured the problem. This problem has a name in Saint Paul, whose Epistle to the Romans is the great treatise on justification: how can a sinful man stand before a holy and righteous God?

"All have sinned": Saint Paul's verdict

Paul's starting point is unsparing: no one is righteous by himself, neither the pagan nor the Jew observing the Law. All, without exception, need to be made righteous.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." — Epistle to the Romans 3:23-24^[5]

Two momentous words answer each other in this sentence: "freely" (salvation is a gift, not a wage) and "justified" (God makes us righteous). The whole doctrine is already there, in seed.

No one justifies himself by his own works

Against the illusion of the man who would claim to "earn" God by his own virtue, Paul is categorical: it is not by piling up observances of the Law that one is made righteous.

"A man is not justified by the works of the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ." — Epistle to the Galatians 2:16^[6]

The Council of Trent would take up this truth and make it a foundation: "nothing that precedes justification, neither faith nor works, merits the grace of justification"^[7]. One does not buy justification; one welcomes it. That is the meaning of prevenient grace, which always goes before man and makes possible even his first "yes" — a truth already settled in the sixth century against semi-Pelagianism (see below).

The expectation of a "righteousness" from God

The Old Testament expected precisely this: not that man should manufacture his own righteousness, but that God should come and give it to him. The prophets announce a day when the Lord himself will "be our righteousness" (Jer 23:6)^[8], when he will give "a new heart" and "a new spirit" (Ezek 36:26)^[9]. Saint Paul proclaims that this day has come in Christ: "the righteousness of God has been made manifest" (Rom 3:21) — not to condemn, but to make righteous those who believe. Justification is God's answer to a thousand-year expectation: man being unable to save himself, God himself becomes his righteousness.

Faced with the crisis of the Reformation, the Church gave, at the Council of Trent, the most precise and complete definition of justification she has ever formulated. The Decree on Justification, promulgated on 13 January 1547 at session VI, in sixteen chapters and thirty-three canons, remains the reference text — taken up almost word for word by the Catechism^[10].

A "translation" from one state to another

The heart of the Tridentine definition is an image of passage. Justification is not a mere change in God's regard for us; it is a real change of state in man.

"Justification [...] is the translation from the state in which man is born a son of the first Adam to the state of grace and adoption as sons of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ our Saviour." — Council of Trent, session VI, ch. 4^[11]

One passes from one state to another as one passes from death to life, from darkness to light, from slavery to the freedom of God's children. This is no veneer laid over an unchanged reality: it is man himself who changes condition.

What justification includes: forgiveness and renewal

Trent specifies what this passage includes, and this is decisive: two inseparable things — a pardon and a transformation.

"Justification [...] is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man through the voluntary reception of grace and gifts." — Council of Trent, session VI, ch. 7^[12]

The Catechism takes up exactly this formula: "Justification includes therefore the remission of sins, sanctification, and the renewal of the inward man"^[13]. In other words: God does not content himself with wiping the slate clean (remission); he infuses into the heart a new life — grace and charity (renewal). Sin is not merely covered: it is taken away, and in its place God pours out his love — "God's love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom 5:5)^[14].

The greatest work of God's love

The Church has never seen in justification a legal formality, but the masterpiece of mercy. The Catechism dares, following Saint Augustine, a breathtaking comparison:

"Justification is the most excellent work of God's love [...]. Saint Augustine even considers that 'the justification of the ungodly is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth,' because 'heaven and earth will pass away, while the salvation and justification of the elect [...] will remain.'" — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1994^[15]

Making a sinner righteous is, in God's eyes, greater than drawing the entire universe out of nothing: for the universe will pass away, but a soul saved remains for eternity.

The genius of the Council of Trent was to take apart the mechanism of justification by distinguishing its various "causes", following the classical grid inherited from Aristotle and Saint Thomas. This analysis answers precisely the question: by whom, by what, for what end is man made righteous?

The five causes according to chapter 7

The following table takes up the five causes listed by Trent in chapter 7 of its decree, with what each means^[16].

The formal cause is the most delicate point, and the most decisive in the debate with the Reformers. Trent teaches that the righteousness which makes us righteous is not only God's own righteousness remaining in him, nor Christ's righteousness merely imputed from outside, but a righteousness communicated, received in us, which truly becomes ours by grace:

"[The formal cause is] the righteousness of God, not that by which he himself is righteous, but that by which he makes us righteous — namely, that by which, endowed by him, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind." — Council of Trent, session VI, ch. 7^[17]

The instrumental cause: Baptism, "sacrament of faith"

Concretely, justification enters a life through Baptism, which Trent calls the "instrument" of first justification and "the sacrament of faith, without which no one has ever obtained justification"^[18]. That is the meaning of Paul's words: "you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor 6:11)^[19]. On this sacrament as the door of salvation, see Is Baptism necessary for salvation? and Why baptize babies?.

A grace that divinizes, not a mere pardon

The righteousness received in justification is not an outward quality: it is sanctifying grace, a share in God's own life, which makes the justified an "adopted son" and an "heir" (Rom 8:17)^[20]. The Catechism specifies: "Justification includes therefore the remission of sins, sanctification and the renewal of the inward man," and this grace "makes us 'pleasing to God'"^[21]. For the divine life thus given, see What Is Sanctifying Grace?; for God's timely helps that prepare and sustain conversion, see What Is Actual Grace?.

If justification is a gift, how is it received? Paul's answer, taken up by the whole tradition, holds in one word: by faith. But this word, misunderstood, has been the source of the greatest misunderstanding in Christian history. We must therefore specify what faith does in justification.

"The beginning, foundation and root"

The Council of Trent gives faith an absolutely first place, in a famous formula:

"Faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God." — Council of Trent, session VI, ch. 8^[22]

Faith is therefore not one element among others: it is the root from which everything starts. By it man freely welcomes God's call, believes revealed truth and turns toward the Redeemer. Nothing in the order of salvation begins without it. On this, Catholics and Protestants deeply agree: man is justified by faith.

A faith that works through charity

Disagreement arises over a single word: does faith alone suffice, or must it be a faith that works through charity? The Catholic tradition refuses to set faith and love against each other as two rival paths. The faith that justifies is not a mere trust leaving the heart cold: it is a living faith, animated by charity, which "works through love" (Gal 5:6)^[23]. Saint James said it bluntly:

"You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." — Letter of Saint James 2:24^[24]

This sentence, which Luther found hard to reconcile with Paul, does not contradict him: Paul excludes works before justification (it cannot be bought), James requires works after it (a faith without fruits is dead, Jas 2:17). The Council of Trent holds both together: first justification is received without merit, but the faith that receives it must be a faith that "is not dead," ordered to love^[25]. The debate proper to the formula "by faith alone" — its exact meaning, its verses, its limits — is treated in detail in the dedicated article Are We Saved by Faith Alone?.

Here we touch the nerve of the Reformation. The sixteenth-century disagreement was not first about "is faith needed?" (all answered yes), but about the nature of the righteousness received: does God cover us with a righteousness that remains foreign, or does he impart to us a righteousness that truly becomes ours?

Luther's thesis: an imputed righteousness

For Martin Luther (1483-1546), man remains a sinner at bottom even after justification: he is "simul iustus et peccator", at once righteous and sinner. Righteous, because God imputes Christ's righteousness to him and treats him as if he were righteous; sinner, because his nature remains wounded. Luther does affirm that a real renewal begins here below, but justification itself remains a verdict: righteousness stays a foreign righteousness (iustitia aliena), imputed from outside rather than imparted within. Man is declared righteous at God's tribunal by a sentence of grace, seized by trusting faith alone. That is the doctrine of forensic or imputed justification^[26].

The Catholic answer: a righteousness truly given

The Church recognized what this thesis sought to safeguard — the sheer gratuity of salvation, against any claim to self-justification — but judged that it belittled the power of grace. For if God can do all things, why would he content himself with "covering" sin without removing it? Trent therefore condemns the idea that men would be justified by the mere imputation of Christ's righteousness, or by the mere remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and charity poured into hearts:

"If anyone says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of Christ's righteousness or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and charity poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5) and inherent in them [...], let him be anathema." — Council of Trent, session VI, canon 11^[27]

For the Catholic faith, then, the justified sinner is not only regarded as righteous: he has become so, because God has truly changed his heart. Mortal sin is truly effaced, not merely concealed, and grace dwells in the soul. This is stronger, not weaker, than imputation: God does not cheat with reality; he recreates it.

The 1999 Joint Declaration: a real convergence

This debate, long frozen, saw a major breakthrough. On 31 October 1999, at Augsburg, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. After decades of dialogue, both sides could confess together a common core:

"Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works." — Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, § 15^[28]

This text made it possible to recognize that the mutual condemnations of the sixteenth century, on this precise point, no longer strike the other's teaching as it is presented today. This is no erasing of differences — divergences remain on the role of works, merit, assurance of salvation and human cooperation, which the Declaration itself honestly lists^[29]. But it shows that the biblical foundation — "justified freely by his grace" (Rom 3:24) — is confessed on both sides. On doctrinal relations with the Reformation world, see What Does the Church Say About Protestants?.

If everything in justification is grace, does man have nothing to do? The Catholic faith holds together, here again, two truths often set against each other: the initiative is always God's, and yet man's free response truly counts.

Prevenient grace: the condemnation of semi-Pelagianism

As early as the sixth century, the Church settled a decisive question: where does the first step toward God come from? Is it man who, by his own strength, begins to believe, with God coming afterward to help him? The Council of Orange (529) firmly denied it, condemning semi-Pelagianism: even the desire to believe, even the beginning of faith, is already an effect of God's prevenient grace, which always goes before us^[30]. The Catechism confirms it: "no one can merit the first grace, at the origin of conversion"^[31]. Man does not tear himself out of sin; God first draws him.

"He will not justify you without you"

And yet this first grace does not act as upon a stone. It awakens and solicits a freedom it respects. The Catechism states it clearly:

"Justification establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom. On man's part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God [...] and by the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1993^[32]

This is Saint Augustine's famous formula, often quoted: "He who made you without you will not justify you without you"^[33]. God does not save man in spite of himself, like an object, but with him, like a son who says yes. Grace does not abolish freedom: it heals and frees it so that it can at last love.

Fixing the doctrine is not enough unless one sees when and how justification touches a concrete existence. Tradition distinguishes three moments: first justification, its growth, and its restoration after a fall.

First justification: Baptism

At the starting point stands first justification, received at Baptism — or, for one who cannot receive it, in the desire for the sacrament joined to faith and conversion^[34]. There, freely, God forgives all sins — including original sin — and infuses sanctifying grace. Man, who is born a son of the first Adam, becomes an adopted son of God. This is the "translation" of which Trent speaks: an instant that changes everything, when the sinner is made righteous. It is in no way merited; it is received.

The growth of justification

Justification is not a frozen state: it is meant to grow. Trent teaches, against the idea of a righteousness received once for all and unchangeable, that the justified "grow" in the righteousness received and become "more righteous" by keeping the commandments, good works and the sacraments^[35]. This is the side tradition calls sanctification: under the Spirit's motion, the justified can now "merit" the graces useful for growth — a merit which itself "belongs to God," the source of all good in us^[36]. This unfolding over time is the proper subject of the article What is sanctification?.

Justification recovered: the sacrament of Penance

Finally, received justification can be lost. By mortal sin, the baptized rejects sanctifying grace and loses the state of righteousness — without losing the character of Baptism, nor necessarily faith (only a sin directly against faith destroys it). But God, rich in mercy, has provided a way back: the sacrament of Penance, which the Fathers called "the second plank of salvation after the shipwreck of lost grace"^[37]. Confession is not a second baptism, but a second justification: there God makes the repentant sinner righteous again. On this loss and return, see Can One Lose Salvation?, Can a Christian lose his salvation? and What is reconciliation with God?; on the practical steps, How to Make a Good Confession?.

Can one be sure of being justified?

There remains a question that weighed heavily in the debate: can I have certainty of being in a state of grace? Trent answers with nuance: without a special revelation, no one can have an absolute certainty of faith of his own justification, for no one knows the bottom of his heart with infallible evidence^[38]. But this prudence is neither anguish nor gnawing doubt: it calls for a firm hope, founded not on our merits but on God's faithfulness. The righteous must "firmly hope" in divine help, while working out his salvation "with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12)^[39]. This right balance — between presumption and despair — is developed in Is assurance of salvation biblical?.

Justification is the act by which God, by pure grace and by virtue of Christ's Passion, brings the sinner from the state of sin to the state of grace: he forgives his sins and, in the same movement, truly makes him righteous, sanctifies him and adopts him as his child. It is neither a legal fiction — God does not content himself with "covering" a heart that would remain sinful — nor a wage earned by our works. According to the Council of Trent, it includes the remission of sins and the renewal of the inward man; its formal cause is a righteousness "by which God makes us righteous," not a righteousness merely imputed from outside. Its root is faith — but a living faith, working through charity. It is first received at Baptism, grows through sanctification, and is recovered, after a grave fall, through the sacrament of Penance. Everything in it is grace, and yet freedom truly answers there: "He who made you without you will not justify you without you." And this work, says Saint Augustine, is greater than the creation of heaven and earth — for a soul made righteous remains for eternity.

• What Is Salvation? — the whole work of which justification is the first moment.
• What is Redemption? — Christ's act, which makes justification possible.
• What is sanctification? — justification growing over time.
• Are We Saved by Faith Alone? — the detailed debate on faith and works.
• What Is Sanctifying Grace? — the divine life received in justification.
• What Is Actual Grace? — God's helps that prepare and sustain conversion.
• What is reconciliation with God? — friendship broken and restored.
• What is repentance? — the turning of the heart that welcomes justification.
• Can One Lose Salvation? — why justification can be lost and recovered.
• Is assurance of salvation biblical? — firm hope without presumption.
• Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation? — Baptism, instrument of first justification.
• What Does the Church Say About Protestants? — doctrinal relations with the Reformation world.