Justified by Faith Apart from Works of the Law

Romans 3:28 is perhaps the most commonly proffered prooftext of the Protestant doctrine of sola fide (justification by faith alone). The argument is that the verse teaches that we are justified by faith and not by works. Consequently, justification is by faith alone. Galatians 2:15-16 teaches similarly. Good works, therefore, play no role in justification. Martin Luther explained this as follows:

All have sinned and are justified without merit [freely, and without their own works or merits] by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood, Rom. 3:23f. Now, since it is necessary to believe this, and it cannot be otherwise acquired or apprehended by any work, law, or merit, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us as St. Paul says, Rom. 3:28: For we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law. Likewise 3:26: That He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Christ (Smalcald Articles, II, I, 3-4).

Along the same lines, John Calvin argued as follows:

The reader now perceives with what fairness the Sophists of the present day cavil at our doctrine, when we say that a man is justified by faith alone (Rom. 4:2). They dare not deny that he is justified by faith, seeing Scripture so often declares it; but as the word alone is nowhere expressly used they will not tolerate its being added. Is it so? What answer, then will they give to the words of Paul, when he contends that righteousness is not of faith unless it be gratuitous? How can it be gratuitous, and yet by works? By what cavils, moreover, will they evade his declaration in another place, that in the Gospel the righteousness of God is manifested? (Rom. 1:17). If righteousness is manifested in the Gospel, it is certainly not a partial or mutilated, but a full and perfect righteousness. The Law, therefore, has no part in it and their objection to the exclusive word alone is not only unfounded, but is obviously absurd. Does he not plainly enough attribute everything to faith alone when he disconnects it with works? What I would ask, is meant by the expressions, “The righteousness of God without the law is manifested;” “Being justified freely by his grace;” “Justified by faith without the deeds of the law?” (Rom. 3:21, 24, 28) (Institutes of the Christian Religion III, 11, 19).

In response, the passage in question teaches that we are “justified by faith apart from works of law.” The key question to ask here is whether St. Paul has “good works” in mind when he uses the phrase “works of law.” By attending to the immediate context of this verse, it is clear that the answer is in the negative. In the very next verse, Paul asks rhetorically, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also?” (Romans 3:29). Given this, whatever works of law are for Paul, they are something that fundamentally separate Jew from Gentile. And good works do not separate Jew from Gentile as Paul makes clear earlier (cf. Romans 2:14-15). Thus, Paul can’t mean for works of law to include good works. Rather, what Paul has in mind are the ceremonial precepts of the Law of Moses such as, for example, circumcision, which Paul uses as an example immediately after indicating that works of law distinguish Jew from Gentile (cf. Romans 3:30). Paul then goes on to appeal to Abraham in order to provide Old Testament support for his teaching on justification, and he emphasizes the fact that Abraham was justified before being circumcised (cf. Romans 4:9-10), thus proving that works of law, i.e., the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law, are irrelevant to justification. The exact same line of reasoning applies to the passage in Galatians 2. This is in contrast to what St. James means by “works” in his epistle. It is clear from the context that by “works,” James means good works of charity and compassion that flow from faith (cf. James 2:15-16). “Works of the law” do not contribute to justification, but good works do.

What Paul, who is the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13, Galatians 2:8), is concerned to teach is that Jews and Gentiles alike are justified in Christ without the additional need for Gentiles to live under the Torah and receive, for instance, circumcision (cf. Acts 15:1-11). Salvation Is offered to the Gentiles as Gentiles, without the need to “Judaize,” i.e., live under the prescriptions of the Torah. The New Covenant, unlike the Old Covenant, embraces not just a particular people and culture but all peoples and cultures. The ceremonial works of the Mosaic Law served as outward cultural badges that separated the Jewish people from the Gentiles, marking them out as God’s chosen people. Paul even refers to the Jews as “the circumcised” and to the Gentiles as “the uncircumcised” (cf. Romans 3:29-30). Since the New Covenant is universal in scope and not confined to the Jewish people alone but is rather embracive of all peoples, these cultural badges were no longer appropriate for identifying the People of God (cf. Romans 1:5; 1:16; 3:29-30; Galatians 3:28). Pope Benedict XVI explains these ideas in his catechesis on St. Paul:

All of these observances [i.e., the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law]…had become uniquely important in the time of Hellenistic culture, starting from the third century B.C. This culture which had become the universal culture of that time and was a seemingly rational culture; a polytheistic culture, seemingly tolerant constituted a strong pressure for cultural uniformity and thus threatened the identity of Israel, which was politically constrained to enter into this common identity of the Hellenistic culture. This resulted in the loss of its own identity, hence also the loss of the precious heritage of the faith of the Fathers, of the faith in the one God and in the promises of God.

Against this cultural pressure, which not only threatened the Israelite identity but also the faith in the one God and in his promises, it was necessary to create a wall of distinction, a shield of defense to protect the precious heritage of faith; this wall consisted precisely in the Judaic observances and prescriptions. Paul, who had learned of these observances in their role of defending God’s gift, of the inheritance of faith in one God alone, saw this identity threatened by the freedom of the Christians; this is why he persecuted them. At the moment of his encounter with the Risen One he understood that with Christ’s Resurrection the situation had changed radically. With Christ, the God of Israel, the one true God, became the God of all peoples. The wall as he says in his Letter to the Ephesians between Israel and the Gentiles, was no longer necessary…it is Christ who unites us with and in the one God…The wall is no longer necessary…it is [Christ] who makes us just. Being just simply means being with Christ and in Christ. And this suffices. Further observances are no longer necessary (The Doctrine of Justification: From Works to Faith).

Another major concern for Paul is that he sees the truth of justification by faith apart from works of the law as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, which specified that Abraham would become the father of many nations, not just the nation of Israel (cf. Genesis 12:2-3; 15:5; 18:18; 22:15-19, Romans 4, Galatians 3:6-9), and these nations would receive divine blessing. If justification is through the ceremonial works of the Mosaic Law, then Gentiles could not be grafted into the family of Abraham (cf. Romans 11:17-24) and receive the promised blessing as Gentiles. Rather, they would have to join the nation of Israel and adopt a Jewish identity. But this contradicts the Abrahamic Covenant. Hence, the ceremonial works must have no role to play in justification. Instead, Jew and Gentile alike are justified by faith apart from the ceremonial works just as Abraham was (cf. Genesis 15:6, Romans 3:30; 4:9-12). St. Thomas Aquinas provides a masterful analysis of these ideas in his commentary on Galatians:

[H]e draws the minor proposition, saying Know ye therefore, that they who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. As if to say: Someone is called the son of another because he imitates his works; therefore, “if you be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham” (Jn 8:39). But Abraham did not seek to be justified through circumcision but through faith. Therefore the sons of Abraham are they who seek to be justified by faith. And this is what he says: Because Abraham is just through faith, in that he believed God and it was reputed to him unto justice; therefore, know ye that they who are of faith, i.e., who believe that they are justified and saved by faith, the same are the children of Abraham, namely, by imitation and instruction: “They that are the children of the promise are accounted for the seed” (Rom 9:8); “This day is salvation come to this house, because he also is the son of Abraham” (Lk 19:9); “God is able of these stones,” i.e., of the Gentiles, “to raise up children to Abraham,” inasmuch as He makes them believers (Mt 3:9).

Then when he says, the scripture, foreseeing that God justifieth the Gentiles by faith, he sets down the major premise, namely, that Abraham was told beforehand that in his seed all nations would be blessed. Hence when he says, the scripture foreseeing, he introduces God speaking to Abraham (Gen 12:3). Therefore he says, God told unto Abraham before that in thee, i.e., in those who in your likeness will be your sons by imitating your faith, shall all nations be blessed: “Many will come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11).

Then when he says, Therefore, they that are of faith, he draws the conclusion from the premises. Accordingly, the argument can be formulated thus: God the Father announced to Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed. But those who seek to be justified by faith are the children of Abraham. Therefore, they that are of faith, i.e., who seek to be justified through faith, shall be blessed with faithful, i.e., with believing, Abraham (Commentary on Galatians, Gal. 3:6-9).

With all this being said, Luther and Calvin are right to note that justification itself is a gift that has been merited on our behalf by Christ and without any regard for our works (cf. Titus 3:4-7). But once in a state of justification, we can be further justified by bringing forth good works as the fruit of God’s grace (cf. James 2:24). Insofar as Luther and Calvin are talking about entering a state of justification (initial justification), therefore, they are right to say that works do not justify. Insofar as they are talking about growing in righteousness after having been justified (ongoing/progressive justification), however, they are wrong to say that works do not justify.

Additionally, this understanding of “works of the law” harmonizes Romans 3:28 (and Romans 3:20 and Galatians 2:15-16) with St. Paul’s teaching earlier in Romans: “For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life…For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Romans 2:6-7; 2:13). As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches in his commentary on Romans:

[J]ustification can be considered in regard to the cause of justice, so that a person is said to be justified, when he newly receives justice, as in (5:1): "Since we are justified by faith, we are at peace with God." It must not be supposed, however, that the doers of the Law are justified as though acquiring justice through the works of the Law. This cannot be accomplished either by the ceremonial works, which confer no justifying grace, or by the moral works, from which the habit of justice is not acquired; rather, we do such works in virtue of an infused habit of justice (Commentary on Romans, Rom. 2:13).

St. Thomas teaches similarly in his commentary on Galatians:

[I]t is said in Romans (2:13): “For not the hearers of the law are just before God; but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Therefore, it seems that a man would be justified by the works of the Law. I answer that “to be justified” can be taken in two senses, namely, doing what is just [i.e., ongoing justification], and being made just [i.e., initial justification]. But no one is made just save by God through grace. It should be known, therefore, that some works of the Law were moral and some ceremonial. The moral, although they were contained in the Law, could not, strictly speaking, be called “works of the Law,” for man is induced to them by natural instinct and by the natural law [cf. Romans 2:14-15]. But the ceremonial works are properly called the “works of the Law.” Therefore, to that extent is man justified by the moral laws—so far as the execution of justice is concerned—and also by the ceremonial laws [of the New Covenant] that pertain to the sacraments [e.g., Baptism], as their observance is a work of obedience. And this is the way it is taken in the word of the Apostle to the Romans (2:13) (Commentary on Galatians, Gal. 2:15-16).

Thus, according to St. Thomas, justification cannot be brought about by our own efforts through the observance of the Law (whether its ceremonial or moral precepts). Rather, we are justified by God’s grace and are infused with the “habit of justice,” i.e., sanctifying grace, which produces within us the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity (cf. Romans 5:5, 1 Corinthians 13:3,13). Once justified by grace, we can then cooperate with that grace and do what is just (i.e., we can become “doers of the law”) and can be further justified. This is right in line with what God promised in the Old Testament to do in the New Covenant:

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live (Deuteronomy 30:6).

I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

And, according to the teaching of St. Paul, God has fulfilled this promise:

For in [Christ] the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him (Colossians 2:9-13).

He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal (Romans 2:29).

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you…So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live (Romans 8:1-9; 8:12-13).

When we are justified in Baptism, we become renewed and circumcised in heart; we are empowered by grace to walk according to the Holy Spirit, to become doers of the law, and to be united to God in a bond of supernatural love. And this justification is through faith in Christ and not through works of the law. The Jew, therefore, has no advantage over the Gentile with respect to justification. For even by the letter of the Law, the Jew cannot of his own efforts move towards justice in God’s sight. And neither are the Gentiles in an advantageous position over the Jews with respect to justification, for they had the moral law written on their hearts and still grievously sinned (cf. Romans 2:1-5; 2:12-15; 3:22-23). Along these same lines, the Council of Trent teaches:

[W]hereas all men had lost their innocence in the prevarication of Adam, having become unclean, and, as the apostle says, by nature children of wrath, as (this synod) has set forth in the decree on original sin, they were so far the servants of sin, and under the power of the devil and of death, that not only the Gentiles by the force of nature, but not even the Jews by the very letter itself of the law of Moses, were able to be liberated, or to arise, from thence (Decree on Justification, Ch. I).

Whence it came to pass, that the heavenly Father, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, when that blessed fullness of the time was come, sent unto men Jesus Christ, his own Son, who had been, both before the Law, and during the time of the Law, declared and promised to many of the holy fathers, that he might redeem the Jews who were under the Law, and that the Gentiles, who followed not after justice, might attain to justice, and that all might receive the adoption of sons (ibid., Ch. II).

If anyone shall say, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the strength of human nature, or through the teaching of the law, without the divine grace through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema (On Justification, Canon I).

No one is justified by “works of the law,” i.e., the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law (Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:15-16). But the “doers of the law” will be justified (Romans 2:13). Since the ceremonial precepts do not justify, but “doing the law” does, it must be that doing the law means following the moral precepts of the Mosaic Law, not because they are part of the Mosaic Law, but because they retain their full validity and achieve their fullest expression in the Law of Christ, which Paul teaches we must fulfill (cf. Galatians 6:2). But because we do not enter a state of justification on the basis of any works (cf. Titus 3:4-7), it follows that “doing the law” as a means of justification is made possible only after initial justification, which is by grace through faith in Christ and independent of any works (cf. Ephesians 2:8-9). Being justified by “doing the law,” therefore, refers to ongoing justification and growth in righteousness. “Doing the law” does not refer to the way in which we are initially justified. (This is in perfect harmony with the future tense used in Romans 2:13). St. Thomas expresses this nicely in his commentary on Romans 3:27-28 as follows:

[I]ndeed, works are required in the New Law, namely, the works of certain sacraments, as commanded in Luke 22(:19), "Do this in memory of me" and of moral observances: "Be doers of the word and not hearers only" (Jas 1:22). Consequently, it should be said that what [St. Paul] calls the law of works is the law outwardly presented and written, through which men’s external works are directed, when it prescribes what he ought to do and forbids what ought to be avoided. But what he calls the law of faith is the law inwardly written, through which are directed not only external works but even the very motions of the heart, among which the act of faith is first: "Man believes with his heart" (Rom 10:10). Of this second law he speaks below (8:2): "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus." Then when he says, For we hold, he shows how the Jews’ boasting is excluded by the law of faith, saying: For we apostles, being taught the truth by Christ, hold that a man, whomsoever he be, whether Jew or Gentile, is justified by faith: "He cleansed their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:9). And this apart from the works of the law. Not only without the ceremonial works, which did not confer grace but only signified it, but also without the works of the moral precepts, as stated in Titus 3(:5), "Not because of deeds done by us in righteousness." This, of course, means without works prior to becoming just, but not without works following it, because, as is stated in Jas (2:26): "Faith without works," i.e., subsequent works, "is dead," and, consequently, cannot justify (Commentary on Romans).

In summary, we do not follow the moral law so that we might be justified; rather, we are justified so that we can follow the moral law, so that “the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Romans 8:4). Justification is not acquired through good works, but it is preserved and increased through good works. Furthermore, the grace of justification is equally offered to Jews and Gentiles alike, without the need for Gentiles to live under the Torah. As St. Paul so sublimely taught,

For [Christ] is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end (Ephesians 2:14-16).

[F]or in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise (Galatians 3:26-29).