The Just Shall Live By Faith: Resolving the Catholic-Protestant Debate on Justification from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

by Erick Ybarra

That solution is to simply realize that while faith can be credited as righteousness at one’s initial translation into the Christian life, that very same saving faith remains the “root” of the whole Christian life and can at any time be referenced to indicate one’s righteous status before God in subsequent acts of faith. The Council of Trent says the following about faith as the foundational instrument of gratuitous justification: But when the Apostle says that man is justified by faith and freely, these words are to be understood in that sense in which the uninterrupted unanimity of the Catholic Church has held and expressed them, namely, that we are therefore said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification…and we are therefore said to be justified gratuitously, because none of those things that precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification.[194]