Contrasting Theologies of Justification: Martin Luther and The Council of Trent

In October of 1517 Martin Luther had no intention of breaking with the established church. When he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses for discussion to the church door in Wittenberg he was concerned primarily with the practice of selling indulgences. Over the course of the Reformation, however, Luther came to see the point of breaking with the Roman Catholic Church was not simply over indulgences, but over the larger issue of soteriology. For Luther the larger banner of the Reformation was “Justification by Faith Alone,” and it was on this point that he and the church clashed. A contrast of their positions on the role of works in justification follows, as a means to identify the distinguishing marks of Lutheran[1] justification.

Justification by faith alone was a theme which Luther could find in almost any passage of Scripture. In a sermon on the Good Samaritan, in 1536, Luther, speaking of the two parts of Scripture that he saw, said:

I experience indeed that God’s law is holy, right and good, but it is my death…Therefore another part is added, the Gospel, which speaks of consolation and teaches salvation, and whence we are to obtain it, so that the law may be satisfied…Thus when we now come before God the Father and are asked: whether we have also believed and loved God, and have wholly fulfilled the law; then the Samaritan will step forth, Christ the Lord, who carries us lying on his beast, and say: Alas, Father! Although they have not wholly fulfilled thy law, yet I have done so, let this be to their benefit because they believed in me. Thus all saints must do, however holy and pious they may be, they must lay on Christ’s shoulders.[2]

Here was the great distinction between the Reformer’s theology of justification and that of the established church. Luther had no place for works in his soteriology. He wrote, “Good works do not make a man good, but a good man does good works.” [3] The Roman Catholic Church, however, was not convinced of Luther’s position and protested it with great ardor.

The formal response of the church to the reformation came in 1545 at the Council of Trent. The Council made no ambiguous statements about their position on justification. Man was justified before God by both faith and good works, and faith, furthermore, was a progressive work. Chapter IX reveals plainly the reaction the church had to the reformer’s view of justification, they titled this chapter: Against the Vain Confidence of Heretics. It reads:

But, although it is necessary to believe that sins neither are remitted, nor ever were remitted save gratuitously by the mercy of God for Christ's sake; yet is it not to be said, that sins are forgiven, or have been forgiven, to any one who boasts of his confidence and certainty of the remission of his sins, and rests on that alone; seeing that it may exist, yea does in our day exist, amongst heretics and schismatics; and with great vehemence is this vain confidence, and one alien from all godliness, preached up in opposition to the Catholic Church. But neither is this to be asserted,-that they who are truly justified must needs, without any doubting whatever, settle within themselves that they are justified, and that no one is absolved from sins and justified, but he that believes for certain that he is absolved and justified; and that absolution and justification are effected by this faith alone: as though whoso has not this belief, doubts of the promises of God, and of the efficacy of the death and resurrection of Christ. For even as no pious person ought to doubt of the mercy of God, of the merit of Christ, and of the virtue and efficacy of the sacraments, even so each one, when he regards himself, and his own weakness and indisposition, may have fear and apprehension touching his own grace; seeing that no one can know with a certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error, that he has obtained the grace of God.[4]

It is important to note that this is an argument against Luther and the Reformers. Observe that word “alone”. The document insists that no one is saved by his “confidence…of the remission of his sins…alone.” Had such a statement come from Calvin we could conclude that this was an argument for continuous faith and repentance, and a living out of the Christian life.[5] From a Catholic document, however, it must be understood in light of their broader theological foundation. Faith alone without works may have been a tenet of Reformed and Lutheran theology, but no one, according to the Council of Trent, was saved who rested on this faith alone. They refer to their contrary contemporaries as “heretics” and “schismatics”. And it repeatedly, though falsely, assumes that this new justification doctrine depends on the assurance of the person that he is saved, in other words dependent on “faith alone,” as they mischaracterize it.

The Council of Trent repeatedly defines justification by stating what it is not. In the Canons on Justification we read several of these assertions. Canon VII reads:

If anyone saith, that all works done before Justification, in whatsoever way they be done, are truly sins, or merit the hatred of God; or that the most earnestly one strives to dispose himself for grace, the more grievously he sins: let him be anathema.[6]

If the denial that works dispose one for grace, that is merit one grace, is considered heretical, then it seems rather obvious that the embrace of such teaching would be acceptable. The Canons continue with further revealing comments, such as:

Canon IX: If anyone 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…let him be anathema.[7]

Canon XI: If anyone saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them…let him be anathema.[8]

The word “co-operate” in Canon IX, and “inherent” are key to understanding the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification. It is not that the Catholic Church teaches justification by works; this is a simplistic and erroneous understanding. For the church clearly understands the importance of faith. R.C. Sproul stated correctly when he said that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, “Faith is necessary for justification…but not sufficient.”[9] The word “co-operate” reveals that faith must be accompanied by both the sacraments, and good deeds (see Chapter V, Chapter VI, and Canon XXIV). The word “inherent” points to the Roman Catholic churches denial of total depravity. While the church willingly acknowledges the sinful nature of man, it denies that man’s free will is lost. “If any one saith, that, since Adam’s sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished…let him be anathema.”[10] Inherent within man is an ability for man to dispose himself towards the grace of God, to prepare himself for justification. This is quite distinct from Luther’s theology.

Luther’s teachings on justification are most clearly laid out in his work The Freedom of a Christian (1520). In the address he writes, “faith alone, without works, justifies, frees, and saves.”[11] Again Luther distinguishes between the two parts of scripture and identifies, in this distinction, how justification must be by faith alone.

Here we must point out that the entire Scripture of God is divided into two parts:

commandments and promises…The commandments show us what we ought to do but do not give us the power to do it. They are intended to teach man to know himself, that through them he may recognize his inability to do good and may despair of his own ability…Then, being truly humbled and reduced to nothing in his own eyes, he finds in himself nothing whereby he may be justified and saved. Here the second part of Scripture comes to our aid, namely, the promises of God…Thus the promises of God give what the commandments of God demand and fulfil [sic] what the law prescribes…It is clear, then, that a Christian has all that he needs in faith and needs no works to justify him.[12]

There was no work that man was capable of doing to please God, Luther points out. It is in believing the promises of God alone that man finds himself, like Abraham, credited with righteousness, that is justified.

The great distinction between the two doctrines came down to an issue of glory for Luther. God must get the glory, he determined, for all of salvation. Preaching from Galatians 3, in a sermon on New Years Day, Luther warned against the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine of justification, saying:

Now if God confers his grace because of their works, their careful preparation, Christ must be without significance. What need have they of Christ if they can obtain grace in their own name and by their works? And this doctrine they teach openly; indeed, they defend it with their utmost power and with the Pope’s bulls, condemning a contrary teaching as they very worst heresy. Therefore I have warned, and still warn, all men that the Pope and the universities have cast Christ and the New Testament farther out of the world than ever did the Jews or Turks. Hence the Pope is the true Antichrist, and his high schools are the devil’s own taverns and brothels. What does Christ signify if by effort of my own human nature I can obtain God’s grace? Or, having grace, what more will I desire?[13]

Luther saw the inconsistency in the Catholic Church’s position, and rejected it with a verbal violence like few others had or have since. He did this because he saw what was at stake, not only true salvation, but the very glory of God. The base level of their divergent views came to this: who gets the glory for salvation?

Luther could speak with experience on this subject. In the monastery he had wrestled with the question: How does one become right with God? When he found in the Scriptures that one is justified by faith alone, he determined to defend it with all his might. He had worked and failed to achieve assurance of salvation. “If ever a man got to heaven by his monkary it was I,” he stated. But that monkary left him deflated and despairing, only faith in Christ’s work on his behalf was a sure guarantee for salvation. This Luther vocalized with all his heart; works were no avail only believe Christ. While the Council of Trent espoused faith and works, Luther shouted Justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, plus nothing!


[1] I will use the term Lutheran throughout this paper to refer to the theology of the man himself, Martin Luther. The Lutheran church over the course of history has rejected some of its founder’s doctrines and I do not claim to represent their current teachings.
[2] The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther. Vol. 3. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000). 34.
[3] From Luther’s On the Freedom of a Christian. Quoted in Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1950). 178.
[4] The Cannons and Decrees of the Sacred and Oecumnical Council of Trent. Ed. and trans. J. Waterworth (London: Dolman, 1848). 36-37.
[5] Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers. (Nashville: Broadman, 1988). 224-228.
[6] Ibid. 45.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid. 46.
[9] R.C. Sproul “The Importance of Preaching on Justification,” an address delivered at the Together for the Gospel Conference. Delivered April 27, 2006 at the Gault House in Louisville, KY.
[10] Council of Trent. Canon V. 45.
[11] Martin Luther, “The Freedom of a Christian.” In The European Reformations Sourcebook. Ed. Carter Lindberg. (Malden: Blackwell, 2000). 39.
[12] Ibid. 39-40.
[13] Complete Sermons of Martin Luther. Vol. 3. 283-84.