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This is Part 7 of a continuing series discussing areas of agreement and disagreement between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. Most of the information for this series of blogs is taken from the excellent book Roman Catholics and Evangelicals by Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie. Today, I briefly outline the differences in two areas: Justification and the sacraments. (I, once again, remind you that I am unable to give a defense of the Catholic teaching in each area due to the restraints of the blogging medium. This entire series is a greatly compacted review of the arguments presented in the aforementioned book. If you have an interest in this area, I would highly recommend the book.)

Catholics and Protestants differ strongly over the doctrine of justification. Catholics assert the primacy and necessity of grace, but evangelicals hold to the exclusivity of grace (sola gratia) apart from any good works. While Catholics hold to the necessity of faith (at least in adults) for justification, evangelicals hold to the doctrine of sola fide, faith alone is necessary for justification. The Council of Trent proclaimed that …

… by his good works the justified man really acquires a claim to supernatural reward from God.

Evangelicals disagree. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, “meritorious works” are a nonsensical to evangelicals. They reject any teaching which makes works a condition of eternal life such as that found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church…

… the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful.

Romans 6:23 clearly opposes a salvation derived from grace plus works. One cannot work for a gift. Making works of sanctification a condition of ultimate salvation is misled. Grace and works are as incompatible as the concept of unmerited merit. This teaching confuses working for salvation and working from salvation (the Protestant view). It is similar to the error confronted by Paul in Galatians. Paul argues that justification and sanctification both come by grace through faith alone. Works are not a condition of justification, but a consequence of it. The evangelical teaching is that man is not made righteous in justification (Catholic teaching), but is accounted and accepted as righteous at justification (extrinsic, not intrinsic justification).

Roman Catholicism views the sacraments as causes of grace, not merely “signs” of grace. Catholics teach that sacraments bestow grace objectively, irrespective of whether there is subjective confirmation and without the mediation of fiducial faith. These sacraments (seven in all) are held to be necessary for salvation. Protestants respond to Catholic dogma by asserting that there is a glaring lack of scriptural or historical support for the number of sacraments being seven. The Catholic teaching that a sacrament causes grace ex opere operato (by the work that has been worked) is a mystical, almost magical view of sacraments.

Catholics hold that the sacrament of baptism confers the grace of justification. Evangelicals argue that baptismal regeneration appears to be contrary to grace and is in conflict with the need for faith. In regard to the sacrament of the Eucharist (communion), Catholic dogma teaches transubstantiation, that the wine and bread are literally transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ. Since, this is held to be the case, it is appropriate to actually worship the consecrated elements as God. Evangelicals argue that to consider the wine and bread to be the actual body and blood of Christ is unscriptural and impossible to defend. It is idolatrous to worship the “host” as this violates the command to worship God under a physical image. The view of the mass as a sacrifice in which Christ is sacrificed afresh is contrary to the scriptural teaching that Christ was sacrificed once and for all, negating the need for further sacrifice (Hebrews 10:12-14).

Next, even more differences between evangelicals and Roman Catholics.