# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S306
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

306

II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Ecumenical Discussions on Justification
– the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
Participant ’s Guide

Introduction

forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God
out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith when we
believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his
sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal
life are given to us. For God will regard and reckon
this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says
in Romans 3:[21-26] and 4:[5]. (AC IV)1

Have you ever attended a Roman Catholic funeral? How was
it similar to a Lutheran funeral? What was different? How did
the people and the priest talk about salvation? Did the topic
of justification (how we are righteous before God) come up?
The “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification”
(JDDJ) in 1999: A breakthrough between Lutherans and
Catholics?

2. The Ecumenical Movement

4. Trent: Rome’s Answer to the
Reformation
The Council of Trent (1545–1563)

The witness of a divided Christianity on the mission field.

Art illustration provided by Concordia Historical Institute, concordiahistoricalinstitute.org.
Used with permission.

If anyone says that men are justified either by the
imputation of Christ’s justice alone or by the remission of sins alone, excluding grace and charity that
is poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit and
inheres in them, or also that the grace that justifies
us is only the favor of God, let him be anathema.3

23. When Lutherans emphasize that the righteousness of
Christ is our righteousness, their intention is above all
to insist that the sinner is granted righteousness before
God in Christ through the declaration of forgiveness
and that only in union with Christ is one’s life renewed.
When they stress that God’s grace is forgiving love (“the
favor of God”), they do not thereby deny the renewal
of the Christian’s life. They intend rather to express that
justification remains free from human cooperation and
is not dependent on the life-renewing effects of grace in
human beings.

How does this compare to the Lutheran view of the
righteousness of the Christian in justification?

5. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine
of Justification

Have you ever had a conversation where somebody said
something like: “If I do what I can, then God will be
gracious to me and I will be saved”? How is this similar to
the view that Luther was taught in his day?

24. When Catholics emphasize the renewal of the
interior person through the reception of grace imparted
as a gift to the believer, they wish to insist that God’s
forgiving grace always brings with it a gift of new life,
which in the Holy Spirit becomes effective in active
love. They do not thereby deny that God’s gift of
grace in justification remains independent of human
cooperation.4

Sometimes people think that all this talk about justification
is abstract and has nothing to do with their lives. How
would you answer?

What does this section of JDDJ say about the controversy
concerning whether justification is the forgiveness of sins
alone or also the inner transformation of the Christian?

The lines between Lutherans and Roman Catholics had
been drawn quite clearly for centuries. Could there ever
be unity? Years of dialogue seemed to promise that a basic
agreement in the central points was possible, even though
there might be differences in how the central points are
expressed. This was the method of JDDJ.

Did the Roman Catholics (in this section of JDDJ) change
their view that justification is not the remission of sins alone
or the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, as it was defined
in Trent?

From your experience, are these issues still relevant? Have
you had conversations with Roman Catholics on the topic
of justification?

Although change has taken place in the Roman
Catholic church since Vatican II, JDDJ shows how
very little headway has been made toward a genuine
resolution of the difference between Lutherans and
Roman Catholics on Justification. This statement is
not a ‘breakthrough.5

Is justification the forgiveness of sins or is it making an
individual righteous? Here is an excerpt from JDDJ. This is
rather complex, so one needs to read it slowly and carefully:

Ignatius Press, 2012), Decree on Justification, can. 9. DH 1559.
3

Decree on Justification, can. 11, DH 1561.

2 | Ecumenical Discussions on Justification

2019 Convention Workbook

First, let’s review the Roman Catholic position at the time of
the Reformation.

Read Galatians 2:14–21. How does this text address the
question of whether one is justified by faith alone?

3. The Reformation Background

This work may be reproduced by churches and schools for their own use in the study
of the Scriptures. Commercial reproduction, or reproduction for sale, of any portion
of this work or of the work as a whole, without the written permission of the copyright
holder, is prohibited.

22. We confess together that God forgives sin by grace
and at the same time frees human beings from sin’s
enslaving power and imparts the gift of new life in
Christ. When persons come by faith to share in Christ,
God no longer imputes to them their sin and through
the Holy Spirit effects in them an active love. These two
aspects of God’s gracious action are not to be separated,
for persons are by faith united with Christ, who in his
person is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30): both
the forgiveness of sin and the saving presence of God
himself. Because Catholics and Lutherans confess this
together, it is true to say that:

Discussion Question: How was the doctrine of justification
controversial in the time of the Reformation?

If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith
alone in the sense that nothing else is required by
way of cooperation in order to obtain the grace
of justification and that it is not at all necessary
that he should be prepared and disposed by the
movement of his will, let him be anathema.2

Lutheran-Roman Catholic conversations.

© 2018 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
1333 S. Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, MO 63122
888-THE LCMS • lcms.org/ctcr

Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church, The Joint Declaration
RQ -XVWL¿FDWLRQ (1999): Section 4.2, 22–24, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/
SRQWL¿FDOBFRXQFLOVFKUVWXQLGRFXPHQWVUFBSFBFKUVWXQLBGRFBBFDWKOXWK
MRLQWGHFODUDWLRQBHQKWPO.
4

5
7KH-RLQW'HFODUDWLRQRQWKH'RFWULQHRI-XVWL¿FDWLRQLQ&RQIHVVLRQDO/XWKHUDQ
Perspective (St. Louis: The Lutheran Church��issouri Synod, 1999), 10. It
should be noted that not even all Roman Catholic scholars and theologians would
characterize JDDJ as a “break-through” — or as a break with traditional and
official Roman Catholic doctrine. Some would agree with the basic assessment of
Leonardo De Chirico that the new description of justification in JDDJ “does not
give the impression of changing the theology of the Council of Trent (1545–1563),
according to which grace is sacramental and seen inside of a synergistic dynamic
of the process of salvation. This understanding of grace appears to be more in line
with the Catholic heritage of the Council of Trent, in an updated form, than with the
classic Protestant theology. In this sense, JDDJ is a clear exercise in an increased
catholicity (i.e. the ability to absorb ideas without changing the core) on the part
of Rome, which has not become more evangelical in the biblical sense.” (“Is the
Roman Catholic Church Now Committed to ‘Grace Alone’? at http://vaticanfiles.
org/en/2017/08/140-is-the-roman-catholic-church-now-committed-to-grace-

The Lutheran teaching was summarized in the Augsburg
Confession, presented in 1530:
Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain
forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through
our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive

All quotations of the Book of Concord are from Robert Kolb and Timothy
J. Wengert, eds., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000).

1

Heinrich Denzinger, &RPSHQGLXPRI&UHHGV'H¿QLWLRQVDQG'HFODUDWLRQV
on Matters of Faith and Morals, ed. Peter Hünermann, 43rd ed. (San Francisco:

2

Participant’s Guide |

1

Participant’s Guide |

3

6. Conclusion

Divisions among Christians are sad, but unity without truth
is even worse. Instead of papering over differences, Christians
are to be honest about what separates them. As Lutherans,
we rejoice in the Gospel: the free forgiveness we receive on
account of Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone. It
is a source of continual sadness that large parts of Christianity
have rejected this joyous and freeing message. Therefore,
continued conversations with Roman Catholics, be it on an
individual level or in ecumenical dialogues, are important.
Our prayer as we engage in this task is that the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of truth, will create unity in His Word.
GLOSSARY OF IMPORTANT TERMS
Grace – Lutheran: Though grace can mean gift, in the context of justification, grace is the unmerited favor of God. “It
is that merciful, affectionate disposition or goodwill of God
toward people according to which He forgives sins to those
who deserve eternal death. It is the unmerited love of God
toward all people (John 3:16; Titus 3:4–5). All consideration for
the merit of people must be excluded from this concept of
grace. God’s grace is not in the least affected, motivated, or
influenced by any worthiness in us.”6
Grace – Roman Catholic: Grace can mean several things. It
can mean that an individual looks with favor on another
person, or that someone because of that receives a gift
(“party favor”). In regard to God, God’s grace means that
He looks at man favorably and then does something that
changes man. God’s grace is therefore a gift that changes us.
The initial grace that makes a person a Christian cannot be
merited, but after that a Christian can merit more grace by
doing good works.
Justification – Lutheran: Justification is the conferring of
Christ’s perfect righteousness on Christians so that they are
righteous before God and do not lack anything. This righteousness does not need to be complemented by anything to
be saved.
Justification – Roman Catholic: Justification is the beginning of the Christian life. God makes people righteous, that
is, He forgives them their sins and transforms them internally so that they can do His will. Justification is not the
same as salvation.
alone/. See also “Ecumenical Impasse” in the Letters section of the January 2018
issue of First Things (pp. 4–5). KWWSVZZZ¿UVWWKLQJVFRPDUWLFOHOHWWHUV.
Edward W. A. Koehler, A Summary of Christian Doctrine, 3rd ed. (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 130.

6