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separate statements, that he regarded the grace of God in the redemption of sinners as free,
sovereign, and efficacious, and in no way dependent on any merits of men. The confounding of
justification and sanctification continued into the Middle Ages and gradually acquired a more
positive and doctrinal aspect. According to the prevailing teachings of the Scholastics,
justification includes two elements: man’s sins are forgiven, and he is made just or righteous.
There was a difference of opinion as to the logical order of these two elements, some reversing
the order just indicated. This was also done by Thomas Aquinas, and his view became the
prevalent one in the Roman Catholic Church. Grace is infused in man. whereby he is made just,
and partly on the basis of this infused grace, his sins are pardoned. This was already an
approach to the evil doctrine of merit, which was gradually developed in the Middle Ages in
connection with the doctrine of justification. The idea found favor ever-increasingly that man is
justified in part on the basis of his own good works. The confounding of justification and
sanctification also led to divergent opinions on another point. Some of the Scholastics speak of
justification as an instantaneous act of God, while others describe it as a process. In the Canons
and Decrees of the Council of Trent we find the following in Chap. XVI, Canon IX: “If any one
saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is
required to co-operate in order to the obtaining of the grace of justification, and that it is not in
any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will: let him
be anathema.” And Canon XXIV speaks of an increase in justification and therefore conceives of
it as a process: “If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased
before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of
justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof: let him be anathema.”
2. THE DOCTRINE AFTER THE REFORMATION.
The doctrine of justification was the great
material principle of the Reformation. With respect to the nature of justification the Reformers
corrected the error of confounding justification with sanctification by stressing its legal
character and representing it as an act of God’s free grace, whereby He pardons our sins and
accepts us as righteous in His sight, but does not change us inwardly. As far as the ground of
justification is concerned, they rejected the idea of Rome that this lies, at least in part, in the
inherent righteousness of the regenerate and in good works, and substituted for it the doctrine
that it is found only in the imputed righteousness of the Redeemer. And in connection with the
means of justification they emphasized the fact that man is justified freely by that faith which
receives and rests in Christ only for salvation. Moreover, they rejected the doctrine of a
progressive justification, and held that it was instantaneous and complete, and did not depend
for its completion on some further satisfaction for sin. They were opposed by the Socinians,
who held that sinners obtain pardon and acceptance with God, through His mercy, on the
ground of their own repentance and reformation. The Arminians do not all agree on the
subject, but in general it may be said that they limit the scope of justification, so as to include