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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 304

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304

II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Ecumenical Discussions
on Justification

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– the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
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Art illustration provided by Concordia Historical Institute, concordiahistoricalinstitute.org.
Used with permission.

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2. The Ecumenical Movement

The witness of a divided Christianity on the mission field:
The ecumenical movement is one of the important
movements in the history of the church in the twentieth
century. It was born in part out of the frustration of
the mission field. Many denominations were sending
missionaries to the same area, competing with each other.
Non-Christians were asking: Which of you is the true
Christian? If you Christians do not even agree on this, how
and why should we choose? It was also born out of the
new situation after World War I, when the churches were
confronted with aggressive atheist communism, bent on
destroying all religion. Thus, the question was: Can different
Christian churches cooperate? But in order to cooperate,
churches had to discuss their theological differences.

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

Introduction

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?
Alternatively, or additionally, a clip from the funeral service
of Justice Antonin Scalia can be used, if it is deemed appropriate and will not lead the class into a different direction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIq1fYzMhcc, from 10:20
to 12:55. What strikes the participants as different from what
they hear at a Lutheran funeral? According to this sermon,
what is the basis for entering heaven?
The difference in preaching at a funeral in a Lutheran and
a Roman Catholic Church has to do primarily with the
different beliefs on justification. But haven’t we overcome
these differences?
A breakthrough between Lutherans and Catholics?
Almost 20 years ago, a major announcement went through
the news: Lutherans and Roman Catholics had overcome
their differences in the doctrine of justification, so that there
was a common answer to the question: How is a person

saved? Some Lutherans hoped that, after this important
step, unity between the churches or least intercommunion
(i.e. that both churches would freely allow members of the
other church to go to Communion at their altars) would
be near. However, neither of these things have happened.

On October 31, 1999 (Reformation Day), the “Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” (JDDJ), was
signed in Augsburg, Germany, by the LWF and the Papal
Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity as an official
agreement. Although this document is now almost 20 years
old, it is still important. In July 2017, the World Alliance
of Reformed Churches signed JDDJ, and some Anglicans
have given their assent.1 Many Lutherans in the LWF — this
includes the ELCA in the United States — are convinced
that JDDJ has solved the disagreement on the doctrine of
justification between Roman Catholics and Lutherans.

The “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification”
(JDDJ) in 1999:
It would have been a great step toward Christian
unity if the document at the center of this news story
had accomplished such agreement. Called the “Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,” the statement announced a new agreement on the doctrine
of justification between the members of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF), an international community
of Lutheran churches, and the Roman Catholic Church.
In this Bible study we will look at the background and
some of the key content of this ecumenical document.
We will seek to explain why The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod maintains that the Roman Catholic
teaching on justification still contradicts the biblical
teaching and that therefore the divisions of the time
of the Reformation are still necessary for the sake of
the Gospel.
Leader’s Guide |

2019 Convention Workbook

Lutheran-Roman Catholic conversations:
As part of the ecumenical movement, there have been
dialogues on a national level between Lutheran Churches
and the Roman Catholic Church. The LCMS participated
in these conversations for some time. Internationally, the
LWF, an organization that encompasses a large number of
Lutheran churches (but not the LCMS) also had a dialogue.
In the 1990s, an effort was made to bundle the results
of all these dialogues into one document that would be
officially adopted.

When JDDJ was signed, the euphoria was great. “Lutherans
and Catholics Agree on Justification” was the headline in
the news. President Alvin Barry of the LCMS published
advertisements in newspapers declaring that the LCMS
did not agree with JDDJ and that not all Lutherans agreed
with it. What were the issues? Why could the LCMS not
agree with it?

The Anglican Consultative Council affirmed key elements of JDDJ in 2017.

2 | Ecumenical Discussions on Justification

3. The Reformation Background

Discussion Question: How was the doctrine of justification
controversial in the time of the Reformation?
First, let’s review the Roman Catholic position at the time of
the Reformation.
The controversy about indulgences was central to the
Roman Catholic position on justification during this time.
Indulgences were sold because even after sins were forgiven,
there was still a stain — namely, temporal punishment for
sins. If one did not bear this temporal punishment on earth,
one had to bear it after death, in purgatory. But (said the
church) an indulgence can remove the temporal punishment after death. The question on justification was: Was the
blood of Christ alone a sufficient means to free man from
sin and its consequences?
Maybe this statement will come up in the class discussions:
“Roman Catholics thought they could earn salvation.”
Strictly speaking, this was not quite true in the time of
the Reformation — but the idea of merit was important.
Merit means that one has to do something, and then God
will give what is needed. Some theologians at the time of
the Reformation said: If an unbeliever does what he can,
then God will give him grace to become a Christian. James
Kittelson, in his biography of Martin Luther, describes it thus:
The theology that Luther was taught therefore amounted
to a contract between God and human beings. God graciously initiated the contract for the sake of Christians,
the elect. God did so by creating a world that included
the church and human beings who strove for self-preservation. In this way, grace was protected by locating it
both in the church and in the makeup of human nature.
At the same time, a place was found for human initiative.
Individual Christians had active roles to play in their
own salvation. All that was necessary was to fulfill the
human side of the contract. This theology made such
good sense and was so pervasive in Luther’s day that
everyone encountered it. It appeared not only in depictions of God’s righteousness and mercy, but also in a
slogan that at least university students knew by heart:
‘God will not refuse grace to those who do what is within
them.’ It appeared in sermons for lay people as well. One
preacher commonly exhorted his congregation, ‘Do what
is within you. Use well your natural powers and whatever
special gifts God has given you!’ Salvation would follow.