Agreeing on justification

Christian Century, June 30, 1999

LUTHERAN AND Roman Catholic officials announced June 10 that they have come to full agreement on the doctrine that "grace alone" leads to salvation, thus resolving a dispute that was at the heart of the Protestant Reformation of four centuries ago. The officials, speaking in Geneva, said the agreement also means that the 16th-century anathemas, or condemnations, the two churches leveled at one another--sometimes with vitriolic rhetoric--no longer apply. This is believed to be the first time the Roman Catholic Church has held that Catholic doctrinal condemnations of a Protestant communion are now null and void.

"The understanding of the doctrine of justification set forth in this declaration shows that a consensus in basic troths of the doctrine of justification exists between Lutherans and Catholics," the agreement states. Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, said the joint declaration on justification is expected to be formally signed October 31--celebrated as Reformation Day in Lutheran churches in honor of Martin Luther's posting of his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517, thus sparking the debate that led to the Reformation division. The Lutheran World Federation includes 124 member churches in 69 countries, with some 57 million members. Its membership includes the largest body of Lutherans in the U.S., the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with 5.2 million members. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the second largest U.S. Lutheran body, with 2.6 million members, did not endorse the statement.

Cardinal Cassidy noted that Pope John Paul II has given his blessing for the signing of the joint declaration and the official common statement. The joint declaration is "one of the great acquisitions of the modern ecumenical movement," Cassidy said. "What we are doing is not just of importance for the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, but for the whole ecumenical movement."

The agreement involves three separate documents: an official common statement, the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" and an annex to the joint declaration. According to the doctrine of justification as presented in the joint declaration, people become "right with God" because Jesus won their salvation through his life, death and resurrection; salvation is a gift through faith and is not something that can be earned. "Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to do good works," the declaration says.

Lutherans have held that justification is achieved by faith alone; Catholics, while also recognizing the primacy of grace in the economy of salvation, have historically emphasized that good works contribute to growth in grace. Cassidy told a news conference that the new statement "explains clearly and unequivocally just what the two partners understand by their action of signing the joint declaration." It is intended to "affirm the consensus reached and overcome the doubts that had arisen." The annex, he said, "takes up those questions that were causing some uncertainty on the part of one or other of the two partners and, without altering the joint declaration, removes that uncertainty."

"Justification takes place by grace alone," the annex adds. "By faith alone, the person is justified apart from works." The declaration acknowledges that the role of good works, or Christian living, remains an issue, but it is "not church dividing."

Together, the joint declaration and the common statement also spell out the lifting of the anathemas. It is "on the basis of this consensus" on justification that the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church declare: "The teaching of the Lutheran churches presented in this declaration does not fall under the condemnations from the Council of Trent. The condemnations in the Lutheran Confessions do not apply to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church presented in this declaration."

But the new documents make clear that the two communions have not said the last word on justification and still have a long way to go before achieving unity. It does not mean, for example, that Lutherans and Catholics will be able to share the Eucharist. "We do not claim agreement on all issues related to the doctrine of justification," Noko said. "Nevertheless, we have reached consensus on principal points of a doctrine which can itself rightly be called fundamental within the faith of the Christian church."

In the statement, the two churches affirm that they are "committed to continued and deepened study of the biblical foundations of the doctrine of justification" and "will also seek further common understanding" of the doctrine. The statement goes on to say that "based on the consensus reached, continued dialogue is required" to provide "further clarification in order to reach full church communion, a unity in diversity, in which remaining differences would be reconciled and no longer have a divisive force."