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According to Catholics and Eastern Orthodox we are justified by God's grace which is a free gift but is received through baptism initially, through the faith that works for love in the continuous life of a Christian and through the sacrament of reconciliation if the grace of justification is lost through grave sin.
Justificatio sola fide (or simply sola fide), meaning justification by faith alone, is a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, [1] among others, from the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian and Anabaptist churches.
Discussion of these concepts are complicated by different definitions of key terms, such as "justification" and "grace". In Protestant theology, imputed righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus credited to the Christian, enabling the Christian to be justified.
Justification differs from sanctification: Justification before God is a free unconditional gift by faith alone but sanctification requires obedience to God. Sanctification of all Christians is not guaranteed. Only final glorification of all Christians to a sinless state is guaranteed (Romans 8:30; Philippians 2:12). [89] [90]
In Western Christian beliefs, grace is God's favor, and a "share in the divine life of God". [1] It is a spontaneous gift from God – "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" [2] – that cannot be earned. [3] In the Eastern Orthodox Church, grace is the uncreated energies of God.
Imputed righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus credited to the Christian, enabling the Christian to be justified; imparted righteousness is what God does in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit after justification, working in the Christian to enable and empower the process of sanctification (and, in Wesleyan thought, Christian perfection).
The importance of this development lies in the fact that it marks a complete break with the teaching of the church up to that point. From the time of Augustine onward, justification had always been understood to refer to both the event of being declared righteous and the process of being made righteous." [1]
In Catholic theology, merit is a property of a good work which entitles the doer to receive a reward: it is a salutary act (i.e., "Human action that is performed under the influence of grace and that positively leads a person to a heavenly destiny") [4] to which God, in whose service the work is done, in consequence of his infallible promise may give a reward (prœmium, merces).