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Hi Joe,
You said:
My friend is claiming that the Catechism is saying something contrary to
what the Scriptures teach. Look at the passages he quotes and what
he says:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds
of the law.
Romans 3:28
The key to this is understanding that when
Paul speaks of works,
he is referring in shorthand to the term works of Law, which
itself is specific technical term referring to the Mosaic law, including
circumcision, that all Jews were bound to. Note that Paul's argument
centers around circumcision, and he's talking to those who argue that Gentile
converts must submit to the Jewish law to be saved.
The Judaizers justify themselves by claiming to be children of Abraham. They
claimed that they are justified by circumcision — i.e., works of Law, that is, a euphemism for the Mosaic ceremonial law.
Paul refutes
them by pointing out the case of Abraham (Genesis 15:6), where it says,
Abram
believed the Lord, and he credited it him as righteousness.
- Why
does Paul quote this?
- To show that Abram was justified as soon as
he had a born-again experience?
- To show that Abram was
made righteous from the first moment he believed? <No!>
Romans
4:9-11 states:
"We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him
as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was
it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!
And he had received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness
that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised."
Paul
is refuting the Jews who claim to be justified by circumcision by pointing
out that Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised, thus
refuting them from the example of the very person whom they appeal to.
But note something else: Abraham's justification
comes in the middle of his walk with God, not at the beginning. Abram is called by God in 12:1. Abram obeys. Paul tells us he had faith (Hebrews 11:8).
Now
your friend will want to argue that we are justified as soon as we first
put our trust in God but from the beginning, Abram trusts in God's
promise — he took all his possessions, uprooted his family and life and
country, and set out for the land of Canaan.
But the LORD did not yet justify Abraham.
Abraham builds an altar at Shechem, then between Bethel and Ai. Then
there was a famine in the land where God had sent him. Later, God
repeats his promise to Abram, and asks him to walk the length and breadth
of the land (verse 17). Abram obeyed, and did what the Lord asked.
But the LORD did not yet justify Abraham.
Then Abram offered a tenth of all he owned to the king of Salem, a figure
of Christ.
But the LORD did not yet justify Abraham.
Then God made his covenant with Abraham, promising him a son, and then Abram was justified, and later circumcised.
Abraham, then, was not justified when he first believed, but only after
he had been obedient, after he had not merely given lip service to God,
but had literally been walking with God for a long time:
- giving up his
country
- moving his family
- offering sacrifice to God, and
- everything else.
Thus it is clear that Paul's point is that
Abraham was justified before he was circumcised,
against his opponents who believed that they
were justified by circumcision. Paul's
point is not that everyone who believes,
is justified as soon as they believe, for
that is clearly not true if we examine the
life of Abraham.
So the point of Romans is not that we can't
be justified by the deeds we do. St. James
(in verse 2:24 of his epistle) makes it clear that we can be. The point is we aren't justified by the ceremonial laws of
the Mosaic covenant. Read the whole book of Romans for context, don't
just focus in on one passage or another. Galatians is another good
book to read. Also check out:
for good treatments of this subject.
He also has some interesting articles on justification here:
There is a whole tape series on this which is just phenomenal by Dr. Scott
Hahn on Romans, available
here. (Romanism
in Romans)
As for the topic of merit, the New Testament is replete with examples of
merit we can earn.
Look up the word reward in a concordance
such as the one on Biblegateway.com and you'll see many examples of ways we can gain reward (which is, in essence,
merit).
A good primer on merit is:
Hope this helps,
Eric Ewanco
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