337. Justification is the most excellent work of God's mercy.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 337

Ave Maria series

How are we saved?

No man can save himself. Christians believe that they are saved by God, who for this purpose sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world.  For us salvation means that we are freed by the Holy Spirit from the power of sin and have been brought back from the realm of death to a life without end, a life in God’s presence.  [1987-1995, 2017-2020]

Conversion of Saint Paul by Michelangelo Buonarroti.…..337

Paul observes: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  Sin cannot exist in the presence of God, who is justice and goodness through and through. If sin is worth nothing, what about the sinner, then?  In his love, God found a way by which he destroys sin but saves the sinner.  He makes him “right” again, that is to say, righteous or just.  That is why from ancient times salvation has also been called justification.  We are not made just by our own power.  A man can neither forgive his own sins nor rescue himself from death.  For that, God has to act on our behalf—out of mercy, not because we could deserve or merit it.  In Baptism, God grants us “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22).  Through the Holy Spirit, who is poured out into our hearts, we take part in the death and Resurrection of Christ—we die to sin and are born to new life in God.  The divine gifts of faith, hope, and charity come over us and make us able to live in the light and to obey God’s will.

Justification—a central concept from the “doctrine about grace”.  It means the restoration of the right relation between God and man. Since only Jesus Christ achieved this right relation (“righteousness”), we can come again into God’s presence only if we are “justified” by Christ and so to speak, enter into his intact relationship with God.  To believe therefore, means to accept the righteousness of Jesus for oneself and one’s life.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, least any man should boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

[1987-1995, 2017-2020]

JUSTIFICATION

1987 The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" and through Baptism(Romans 3:22; compare Rom 6:3-4.)³⁴ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.(Romans 6:8-11.)³⁵–CCC

1988 Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself(Compare 1 Corinthians 12; John 15:1-4.)³⁶–CCC

[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature. . . . For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.(St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap. 1,24:Patrologia Graeca 26,585 and 588.)³⁷–CCC

1989 The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion,effecting justification in accordance with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."(Matthew 4:17.)³⁸ Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.(Council of Trent (1547): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1528.)³⁹–CCC

1990 Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God's merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and it heals. –CCC

1991 Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or "justice") here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us. –CCC

1992 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life(Compare Council of Trent (1547): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1529.)⁴⁰–CCC

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.(Romans 3:21-26.)⁴¹–CCC

1993 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, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent: –CCC

When God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God's sight.(Council of Trent (1547): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1525.)⁴²–CCC

1994 Justification is the most excellent work of God's love made manifest in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. It is the opinion of St. Augustine that "the justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth," because "heaven and earth will pass away but the salvation and justification of the elect . . . will not pass away."(St. Augustine, In Jo. ev. 72,3:Patrologia Latina 35,1823.)⁴³ He holds also that the justification of sinners surpasses the creation of the angels in justice, in that it bears witness to a greater mercy. –CCC

1995 The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the "inner man,"(Compare Romans 7:22; Ephesians 3:16.)⁴⁴ justification entails the sanctification of his whole being: –CCC

Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. . . . But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.(Romans 6:19,22.)⁴⁵–CCC

IN BRIEF

2017 The grace of the Holy Spirit confers upon us the righteousness of God. Uniting us by faith and Baptism to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, the Spirit makes us sharers in his life. –CCC

2018 Like conversion, justification has two aspects. Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, and so accepts forgiveness and righteousness from on high. –CCC

2019 Justification includes the remission of sins, sanctification, and the renewal of the inner man. –CCC

2020 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ. It is granted us through Baptism. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who justifies us. It has for its goal the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life. It is the most excellent work of God's mercy.–CCC

Apostle  Conversion of Saint_Paul