Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

The conflict concerns the doctrine of justification in the “agreement.”

Confessional Lutheranism states: “Also they [our churches] 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. Rom. 3 and 4.” (Augsburg Confession Article IV: Of Justification)

The Joint Declaration states: “38.According to Catholic understanding, good works, made possible by grace and the working of the Holy Spirit, contribute to growth in grace, so that the righteousness that comes from God is preserved and communion with Christ is deepened. When Catholics affirm the “meritorious” character of good works, they wish to say that, according to the biblical witness, a reward in heaven is promised to these works. Their intention is to emphasize the responsibility of persons for their actions, not to contest the character of those works as gifts, or far less to deny that justification always remains the unmerited gift of grace.”

That paragraph uses “grace” according to the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching: that it is “infused grace” to perform good works that contribute to salvation.

The “agreement” is a document of carefully chosen words that each side can interpret according to their belief on the topic. There can be no real agreement if one group believes that salvation is entirely God’s work and another group believes it is a cooperative effort between God and people.

God “saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5).