“JUSTIFICATION
BY FAITH #3”The Mystery of Iniquity
“JUSTIFICATION
BY FAITH #3”
The
Mystery of Iniquity
And
Dear Reader, what is the mystery of iniquity?
It
is the Roman Catholic teaching that justification is God’s renovating
act WITHIN MAN.
This
means that without the holy Spirit being poured into a man … that is …
without the new birth … without the regenerating act of God’s
Spirit WITHIN MAN … a sinner can never be saved.
Indeed,
the 1547 Council of Trent declared …
“…
if men were not born again in Christ, they would never be justified, since in
that new birth, there is bestowed upon them, through the merit of his
passion, the grace by which they are MADE just …”
The
Roman Catholic Douay Version has these footnote comments on Romans 3 and 4:
“The
justification of which St Paul here speaks is the infusion of
sanctifying grace which alone renders a person supernaturally pleasing in the
sight of God.”
and
“But
justification, that is, an infusion of sanctifying grace, cannot be
merited by us; it is an entirely gratuitous gift of God.”
In
his “Life of Grace”, Gregory Stephens writes the following …
“What
is the reality of the justification accorded by God … Is it merely like a
statement made by God declaring the sinner just? Or is it a divine act by which
the sinner is internally transformed and becomes a new reality before
God? Catholic thought has always been that the justice bestowed on man
is a gratuitous gift, and true justice which actually transforms a man
into a person pleasing to God.”
Indeed,
Pope Leo X in the Bull ‘Exsurge Domine’ June 15, 1520 states…
“Justification
is a real and profound transformation of man, a genuine gift of
sanctification to him. It can no way be reduced to something purely external.”
And
this Dear Reader, is in direct opposition to the doctrine of the extrinsic
position, of the Christian Reformation.
Summary
and Conclusion:
The
Roman Catholic doctrine of justification is accurately summarized as follows:
1.
Justification is the INTERNAL RENOVATION and renewing of a man
2.
Justification comes by an INFUSION of God’s grace … by what the holy
Spirit has done in him.
3.
Justification means that man himself is MADE just … made pleasing, to
God, in his own person.
In
other words, Roman Catholic justification can be stated as follows:
“Here
is a vile and wicked sinner, and except for God’s grace acting WITHIN HIM,
he cannot be changed into a person pleasing before God. By God’s grace acting WITHIN
HIM, he is justified before God.”
Now
Roman Catholics can say “I cannot save myself … but I can receive God’s transforming
grace into me … and his grace can change my heart … and therefore I
can be acceptable to God.”
Indeed
Jean Daujat in his ‘The Theology of Grace’ says:
“Sinful
man cannot, of himself, be pleasing to God. For that, he must receive a gift
from God which transforms him interiorly, cleanses him and sanctifies
him, by adorning him with qualities that render him pleasing to his
Creator.”
Now
Dear Reader, if you can’t see much wrong with the above Catholic doctrine on
justification, it must mean that you have been a good Catholic … but you
didn’t know it!
Harley
Hitchcock
September
2026
This
website’s front page is:
www.
“JUSTIFICATION
BY FAITH #1”
Introduction
and Questionnaire
“JUSTIFICATION
BY FAITH #8”
