In his sermon 'Justification-Why We're Protestant,' Robert Bosley discusses the significant theological differences between Protestant and Roman Catholic beliefs, particularly focusing on the issue of justification by faith. The sermon identifies four main areas of disagreement: the papacy, the Mass, justification by faith, and sola scriptura. Bosley highlights the Protestant belief in justification by faith alone, contrasting it with the Catholic view where justification is seen as a process involving faith, works, and the sacraments. The sermon references the Second London Confession, which asserts that justification is an act of God declaring sinners righteous based on Christ's obedience, not through a change in the sinner's nature as the Catholics assert. Bosley explains that Protestant doctrine emphasizes imputation, where Christ’s righteousness is credited to believers, as opposed to the Catholic doctrine of infusion, where righteousness is infused into the believer. The sermon also critiques the Catholic practices related to indulgences and purgatory, emphasizing that the Protestant view is one of free grace and salvation through faith alone. Bosley concludes by urging listeners to hold fast to the Protestant understanding of free grace and to share this message with others.

Who would take out your Bibles and open up to Romans chapter 3. Last month when I spoke, I did a message on the Roman Catholic Church and why we are Protestant, focusing on the issues related to the papacy and the Roman Catholic conception of the mass. And those were two of the four areas that I suggested are our main points of disagreement with Rome. The other two being the issues of justification by faith and sola scriptura. And I focused on the Mass and the papacy because that is the areas that are very significant, but they don't get talked about as often, especially among Reformed folks.

We tend to focus on justification and the authority of Scripture. So I wanted to focus on the other two that kind of get neglected sometimes. Well, I finished and the elder said, you have to do the other two also. So we're going to now kind of turn this into a little bit of a series and we're going to today look at the issue of justification by faith compared with the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification. When we talk about the Reformation, we have these two ideas, things that are called the two principles or the two causes of the Reformation, the material principle and the formal principle.

The formal principle, the idea or the perspective that gives shape to something in the Reformation was a question of authority. Is the church and its leaders the final authority or is Scripture alone that authority? So this will be what we look at next week assuming I'm able to get everything done today that I want to get done. Today we want to look at what is called the material principle of Reformation. The subject matter that is the real center point of the debate, the material principle of the Reformation, the core of our dispute, what launched Luther and Calvin and the Reformers in their fight against Rome, the question how is a sinner made right with God?

Is it by faith and faith alone or is it by some mixture of faith and works? That is the central question when we get to this issue. In 1618 the reformed theologian Johann Alstead wrote that the article of justification is said to be the article by which the church stands or falls. Luther said something very similar. He said because of this article of justification, or if this article of justification stands, the church stands.

If this article collapses, the church collapses. As why this is the material principle, the central point of the Reformation, because if you get this wrong, everything falls apart. Justification is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. And if you or your church gets this question wrong, the consequences will be eternally disastrous. So I want us to read through a little bit here of Romans 3.

Also this is a little bit different. Maybe on your phone or if you're strange like me and you carry a copy of the confession, but it would be helpful if you have a copy of the confession on your phone or somewhere, turn to chapter 11 of the Second London Confession, the Confession of Faith of our church, the chapter on justification, because we're going to spend a lot of time looking at how the confession frames this argument, because it does a masterful job of explaining this doctrine as well as answering Rome. But I want us to begin in Romans chapter 3. So look with me at Romans chapter 3 verses 19 through 28. Paul writes, Now we know that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time this afternoon. I pray Lord that you would help me to speak the words that your people need today and keep me from error and give us hearts to receive the truth of your word today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you have a copy of the confession, look at paragraph one of chapter 11 of the Second London Confession of Faith. There we read, those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies. Not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous. Not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing Christ's act of obedience under the whole law and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves. It is the gift of God." The more I read our confession, the more I love the way it words these things and at the clarity.

It is a remarkable document. I commend it to you highly. Here I want to particularly call attention to a few key parts of this definition of justification from our Confessions perspective, which is almost word for word identical to the Presbyterian Westminster and only one single word different from the Savoy Declaration of the Congregationalists. Despite those few differences, there's no change in meaning. It's simply that the Baptist and the Congregationalists elaborate a little bit more on the active and passive obedience of Christ than the Westminster does.

Regardless, what is taught here is the historic Reformed view. It is very precise and it's very helpful for us to understand what is meant by the doctrine of justification by faith. And note the pattern that is set here as we go through this paragraph in defining this free act of God in justifying sinners. First the writers give a statement that God affectionately calls and justifies. Those he calls, he justifies.

So we're assuming the doctrine of election out of the gate, but then after this there's a pattern of denials and assertions. We have a strong denial followed by a positive assertion of what they believe. And as a general rule, when you come to the confession and you see these denials, it's almost always the case that these denials are directed to the Church of Rome. Because as the context in which these confessions were written, this is in the midst of solidifying what do the Reformed believe in opposition to Rome. So I want us to walk through this paragraph and consider the denials and the affirmations.

The first denial that justification is not an infusion of righteousness. Justification is not a radical change in the heart, will, and soul of the sinner so that righteousness itself is implanted or infused into them so that the sinner becomes inherently righteous. It is an imputation, not an infusion. That may sound like a distinction without a difference, but it is actually central to this whole discussion. You have to get a grip on that.

This is response to the Roman Catholic view where justification is an infusion of righteousness into the soul. Where the sinner is himself changed and made righteous, not declared righteous. It's a change in his nature, not his status. Well, in response to this denial, the first affirmation that is pardoning, accounting and accepting, justification is a change in how God considers the sinner, not a change in the sinner himself. Consider the language as a combination of legal and financial terms.

The sinner is pardoned and thus they are accounted or reckoned and accepted as righteous. They are acquitted in the courtroom of God and freed from the debt they owe. The second denial. Justification is not earned. This pardoning and accounting is based not on anything wrought in them or done by them.

The sinner is helpless and hopeless left to himself. The sinner is incapable of meriting any right standing before God. And again this responds to the Roman view of justification where this infusion of righteousness is earned by means of the sacramental system. The second affirmation, justification is based on the righteousness or on Christ's work and his righteousness alone. The pardoning of sinners is not based on their own merit but for Christ's sake alone.

It's all his work earned and accomplished solely by him. And this is in contrast to Rome's teaching that justification is only accomplished in or is accomplished not only by God but also by the help of the will of the sinner, in addition, through the sacramental system, to the surplus of merits of the saints, particularly Mary, in what is called the Treasury of Merit, which we'll talk about a little bit more later. The third denial, that justification is not faith in itself. Our elder talked about that a little bit in the Lord's Supper this morning. I was thankful to hear that.

Faith itself, nor any evangelical obedience, any obedience that comes from the gospel commands, none of that is imputed as our righteousness. Your faith is not your righteousness. It isn't the mere act of believing, being baptized, partaking the supper, any act done in obedience to God that is counted as righteousness. Rather, the third affirmation is Christ's obedience that is imputed. It is not earned and it is not the faith itself, but it's Christ's obedience as imputed by faith that is counted as righteousness.

Faith for faith's sake is not righteousness, rather Christ's own obedience on our behalf. Both His active obedience to the law of God and his passive obedience in his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, these are credited to our account as our righteousness. But not by infusion, by imputation. It is imputed to us by faith. And again, this language of imputation is key.

To impute something is to count it or account it or credit it to someone. The righteousness of Jesus is credited to your account when you have faith in Him. That is justification. The fourth denial. Faith is not from the sinner.

It's not something they are able to gin up of themselves. In Rome's perspective, the sinner is able of themselves to have faith in Christ and in his church. Now when I and the Confessions say of themselves, I understand that the dominant view among Rome, and it's not actually monolithic, no matter what they say, they do not all agree on everything. The dominant view among Rome is essentially a semi-Pelagian view where the fall has damaged man. We all believe in original sin, but Rome says it damaged man, it didn't kill him.

Or it damaged him, and now there's a preceding grace that reaches everyone and frees the will so that they can respond. God extends this prevenient or preceding grace so that in the words of the Council of Trent, quote, they who by their sins were alienated from God may be disposed through his quickening and assisting grace to convert themselves to their own justification, end quote. And so you see they they will say yes grace is absolutely necessary for justification But that grace that they say is necessary is given to everyone it saves no one All it does is it enables you to cooperate with God. And so the emphasis is on now what are you going to do? It is not what has God done and what is God doing for sinners.

In contrast, the fourth and final affirmation, faith is the gift of God. Even the ability to believe is the work of God. It's not something that the sinner can stir up in themselves. It's a gift given to those that God effectually calls to himself. And the response in the confession to Rome is not merely a reformed caricature of what Rome taught.

We can look at the documents of the Roman Church and especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Canons of the Council of Trent and find that what the confession here denies is the actual teaching of Rome very clearly. There's a big tendency today, a move to say, well, most of the Reformation was really a misunderstanding. We can put that aside. We're using different words, but we really all mean the same thing. I do not believe you can be a student of history and look at what these men said and wrote and did and think that they were just too dumb to realize they were misunderstanding one another.

The Council of Trent lasted almost 20 years. They had some time to make sure they were understanding the Protestants rightly. Our confession is from 1689, 150 years later. These were some of the most brilliant men in all of history. It was not merely a misunderstanding.

And so when we turn to Rome's documents we will see this is what they taught. Consider chapter 7 of the sixth session of the Council of Trent, quote, this disposition or preparation, essentially by that I mean the first inclination to have faith, is followed by justification itself, which is not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man through the voluntary reception of grace. Be sure you catch what that says. Justification contains sanctification and the renewal of the sinner in Rome's perspective. And it is dependent on your voluntary reception of God's grace.

But from our perspective, and I would argue from the biblical perspective, justification and sanctification are connected, but one is not contained in the other. They are distinct, but never separated. They are two sides of the same coin. Rome asserts that they are fundamentally the same side of one coin. The one contains the other so that sanctification maintains and improves justification.

Rather than justification being a legal declaration, they say it is, again, itself a change in the sinner through the infusion of grace. In the next paragraph in the Council of Trent, They declare that the causes of justification are various. The final cause is the glory of God. We would actually agree with that. The efficient cause is God's mercy.

We would agree with that. The meritorious cause is the death of Christ. Again, we would agree with that. But the instrumental cause, what is it that actually makes a sinner justified? We would say faith.

Rome says is baptism and the entire sacramental system. This is why our confession denies that justification is earned by any works, even evangelical obedience. Trent goes on to say, not this Trent, goes on to say, Man receives in said justification, together with the remission of sins, all these gifts infused at once, hope, faith, hope and charity. And the Catechism of the Church, Roman Catholic Church, Part 3, Section 1, chapter 3, I'm just going to stop there. There's like three more designations.

Justification is conferred in baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Again, we see an infusion of grace that changes the sinner based on their participation in the sacramental system. It is not a legal declaration of righteousness based on Christ alone. And according to Rome, you are able, not only able, but must grow in the grace of justification.

And you do this in an earned manner through good works. Since justification is not a legal declaration before God, but rather an infusion of grace that changes the heart, justification is increased by doing good works and obeying God's commands. You earn more merit before God by doing good works. Canon 24, the Council of Trent says, if anyone says that the justice or justification received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works, but that said works are merely fruits and signs of justification, but not a cause of the increase thereof. Let him be anathema." So understand, the Council of Trent damns us.

Because we would say, no, your good works are the fruit of your justification. It does not increase it. It's a complete confusion of categories. Even say you can increase justification. And so with such strong language in the Council of Trent about how justification changes the very nature of the sinner through an infusion of grace, we would expect, I would think, that Rome would confidently assert the power of this grace to persevere, right?

Overcome sin and rebellion to ensure the salvation of every believer. That's what you would expect if justification is an infusion of righteousness that changes your nature. How can that be undone? Well sadly Rome does not hold that perspective. Chapter 14 of the sixth session of the Council of Trent says, quote, as regards those who by sin have fallen from the received grace of justification, they may be again justified.

When God, exciting them through the sacrament of penance, they shall have attained to recovery by the merit of Christ of the grace lost. And in chapter 15, quote, justification is lost not only by infidelity, and here they mean apostasy, infidelity to the gospel, whereby even faith itself is lost, but also by any other mortal sin, whatever, though faith be not lost, which excludes from the kingdom of God not only the unbelieving, but the faithful who are fornicators, adulterers, effeminate liars with mankind, thieves, covetous drunkards, railers, extortioners, and all others who commit deadly sins. In other words, if you commit a moral sin, even though you're a justified saint, you will lose the grace of justification and be lost. You maintain your salvation by your works. Catechism of the Roman Church, part one, section two, chapter three, article 10, paragraph one.

It is through the sacrament of penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God and with the church. Sacrament of Penance, you go to confession and you're given a list of things to do or say or whatever and that reinforces and revitalizes the grace of justification. The sacrament of penance, again quoting the catechism, is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after baptism. So according to Rome, you can truly believe the gospel, You can truly trust in Jesus, you will truly receive the grace of justification, which infuses righteousness in you, but then you can lose and destroy the grace of justification by one mortal sin, die and go to hell, despite having truly trusted in Jesus. But then you can regain that grace of justification through the sacrament of penance or confession.

And on top of this, if you die in a state of justification, not having committed a moral sin but committed a venial sin, And so you have more sin than merit in your soul. You must be further purged of your sins and go through satispacio, the suffering of atonement, where over the course of time, you the truly justified believer in Jesus, suffer the temporal punishment of your remaining sin in purgatory before you may enter paradise. Possibly for tens of thousands of millions of years. Temporal punishment where you suffer your sins that you have supposedly been forgiven for. This is because fundamentally Rome has a works-based system where you're constantly trying to tip the scales in your favor by doing more good works than bad to earn more merit before God to improve your justification.

Christ is not enough. Speaking of purgatory, remember it was the selling of indulgences that set Luther off in 1517 and really was the match that started the Reformation. What is an indulgence? An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishments due to sin which have already been forgiven by God. So God forgives you in the eternal sense but you still have to be punished in your life.

And if you die before you've been punished enough, you go to purgatory. So you're forgiven your sins by God, you're at peace with God, yet this forgiven sin must still be punished. But to avoid this punishment, you can receive an indulgence. And there are two kinds of indulgences, partial and plenary. The first, the partial, obviously, forgives a part or portion of the temporal punishment for your sins and can be obtained by doing good works or reciting the Hail Mary or doing an act of charity.

A plenary indulgence remits all temporal punishments for forgiven sins committed up to that point. So you commit another sin, you get more punishments, even though you've already got a plenary indulgence. That only counts for the past. And so we look back 500 years ago and see the indulgences and the just insanity that Luther responded to and we can say, well, surely they don't do that still, right? Sadly they still do.

Don't think that just because it's changed a little bit on the outside that Rome is any better or closer to the gospel than in Luther's day. We are farther apart than ever. I will beat this drum until I die or until Rome repents, one of the two. We are farther apart than we have ever been. Our brother Nate was at a Catholic conference this weekend, not attending, facilitating the AV, and he sent me a screenshot of one of the slides at this conference and big letters across the top.

How to obtain a plenary indulgence. And it said, you get a plenary indulgence by making a pilgrimage to a designated site, go to confession, go to the Mass, be truly free in your heart from all attachments to sin. Good luck. Recite a creed and pray for the Pope. I'll pray for the Pope, but maybe not in the way they would like.

If you check all these boxes to their satisfaction, you will get a plenary indulgence. It hasn't changed. And then with the indulgence, how does the church confer this remission of the temporal punishments of sin? It seems like a logical question. How does the sinner escape purgatory through these indulgences?

How does this work? Well, by supposedly the church, the Roman church says it has access to what is called the treasury of merit. What is the treasury of merit? It is a theological concept that says that Jesus, Mary, and the canonized saints were so righteous that they had a super abundance of merit. Mary and Jesus particularly, since of course Jesus was sinless, but in their perspective, Mary was also sinless.

And so all her merit was redundant, it was superabundant. So this superabundance of merit is able to now be transferred from their account to yours through the system of indulgences. This is why Tetzel in Germany in the 1500s said, when the coin in the coffer rings a soul from Purgatory Springs, because they were saying you could buy merit. But even then, it's not even the merit of Jesus, technically. It's the merit of Jesus and Mary and all the saints.

So to summarize, according to Rome, sinners are justified or made right with God by a lifelong process of transformation through a cooperative effort between God's grace and man's response. It's initiated by faith, yes, but it's perfected by good works. Justification begins with baptism, which cleanses you from original sin and infuses grace, enabling you to grow in holiness. The sacraments, particularly the sacrifice of the mass and confession, are central as they sustain and restore this grace if it is lost, which this state of justification can be lost through the commission of a mortal sin. And venial sins still demand a temporal punishment, even though they're forgiven.

And for those who die in God's grace, but with less merit than sin, They still need to be cleansed of their sin by temporal punishment and purgatory, which purifies and cleanses them, preparing them for heaven. It is hard to conceive of a system more at odds with the freeness of grace and salvation presented in Scripture. And I have three minutes left. I asked for a papal dispensation for more time and I didn't get it. Get it.

Romans 3, 24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Justified freely, not earned. Justified freely by his grace. It's redundant. Grace is by definition free.

It is not earned. It is a gift of His grace, free, through the redemption that is in Christ. Verse 28, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Yes, he was primarily talking about the law of the Old Covenant. You cannot earn it by keeping the Ten Commandments.

But you can also, if you can't earn it by keeping the Ten Commandments, how could you earn it by keeping any of men's laws? Justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Look over chapter 4, 1 through 8, continuing, then, What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, accounted righteousness. It was credited to him as righteousness. His faith did not make him righteous, It was accounted to him, righteous. Now to him who works, his wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. To him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, His faith is accounted for righteousness.

Justice David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin, imputation, accounting. It is not an infusion. It is not by works.

It is all of grace, the righteousness of Christ, credited to you by the free gift of grace in Christ our Lord. So what does this mean for us? Pray for your Roman Catholic friends and family, and as you have the opportunity, share with them the freeness of grace that is in Christ. And there is a big move today to try and draw people into the Roman Church and the Eastern Church, particularly from Protestants. Why would you abandon the free gift of grace in the gospel that Paul lays out here and that our confession upholds and that we preach here every Lord's Day, why would you abandon that for a never-ending cycle of work after work after work that does not save and cannot guarantee anyone's salvation.

Hold fast to your faith. And you little ones, Do not be deceived. You cannot earn it. You cannot merit the forgiveness of your sins. You cannot do good works to satisfy God's judgment against you.

It is by faith and faith in Christ alone that you will have your sins forgiven. So trust in Him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the clarity of your word. Oh God, I pray that you would help us to grow in our love for you and our understanding of what you have done for sinners, God, what a tremendous gift your grace is.

We thank you, Lord, that you have not set before us a rat race of works and hoops to jump through to receive the forgiveness of sins. But we thank you Lord that you have credited righteousness, the very righteousness of Christ to us because of faith and faith alone. Oh Father, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for Christ. We thank you for making Him to be our only hope and our only source of salvation.

Oh God, I pray that you would protect those here, that no one would be deceived, that no one would forsake the free gift of salvation for an earned works righteousness. God may never be. Lord, I pray that you would grant us to have compassion on those who are deceived, and that we would be quick to proclaim the gospel, the true gospel, of the free justification of sinners by faith in Jesus. Lord, be with us this week. Help us to rest in you and in your Son and what He's done on our behalf until we gather again next Lord's Day in Jesus name, amen.