Reference · Teaching 22

What “Justified” Means — Cheat Sheet

Same word, two meanings

Term	Reformed usage	Catholic usage
Justification	A legal declaration of righteousness, once for all	Forgiveness plus inward renewal; grows through grace-enabled works
Sanctification	Growth in holiness after justification; a separate thing	Closely tied to justification; two aspects of one renewal
Righteousness	Imputed: Christ's credited to you	Infused: given to the soul by grace

What both sides agree on

No one earns the first grace. Trent, Session 6, ch. 8 and canon 1.
Salvation is a gift received by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Living faith bears fruit. Calvin rejected a faith "devoid of charity," and Benedict XVI said Luther's "faith alone" is true "if it is not opposed to faith in charity."

Reconciling Paul and James

Reading	Idea
Reformed	James describes how living faith is shown to be righteous; dead faith is not saving faith.
Catholic	Paul rejects works of the law as the way into the covenant; James insists the faith that justifies is alive and works through love (Galatians 5:6).

Quotations to cite (checked against the texts)

Source	Point
Trent, Session 6, ch. 7	Justification is not remission of sins merely, but also sanctification and renewal of the inward man.
Trent, Session 6, ch. 8	Nothing before justification, faith or works, merits the grace of justification.
Chrysostom, Homily 31 on John	A man who believes rightly but lives wrongly gains nothing for salvation from that faith.
Benedict XVI, 19 Nov 2008	"Luther's phrase: 'faith alone' is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love."

Cautions

"Faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is not alone" is a later Reformed summary, not a verbatim line from Calvin.
"I hated him" is a biographer's paraphrase of Luther. His own 1545 words are "hated the just God who punishes sinners."
McGrath's "theological novum" and Calvin's exact wording are not yet checked.