Justified by Faith Only: 

A Reformation Anglican Critique of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Thesis

The Reformation—within which historic Anglicanism stands—teaches from Scripture that we are “accounted righteous before God… by Faith only” (Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, Article XI). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), by contrast, locates justification within an infused, sacramental righteousness that grows through human cooperation and merits (see CCC 1989–1993). That difference is not a small family dispute. It stands at the level of the gospel itself. From a Reformation Anglican perspective, Rome’s doctrine, as codified in the CCC, denies the biblical and evangelical teaching of justification by faith alone, and therefore must be rejected.

1. The Rule of Faith: Scripture Alone as the Final Authority

The issue at the Reformation was not “Scripture versus tradition,” but Scriptural tradition versus non-Scriptural tradition. The Reformers never rejected all tradition; they rejected traditions that contradicted or went beyond Scripture.

The Catechism teaches that divine revelation comes through both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, interpreted by the Magisterium (CCC 80–83, 85–87). In this view, the Church’s living authority serves as the final interpreter of revelation.

By contrast, the Thirty-Nine Articles teach sola Scriptura—that Holy Scripture “containeth all things necessary to salvation” (Article VI) and that the Church “may not ordain anything that is contrary to God’s Word written” (Article XX). This means Scripture alone is the final, infallible authority for faith and practice, while the Church’s creeds and confessions have a ministerial authority. They help the Church confess what Scripture teaches but are always subject to Scripture itself.

Article VIII upholds this principle explicitly: “The Nicene Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.” In other words, the Creeds have authority because they are grounded in and can be proved by Scripture, not because they stand alongside it as a second source of revelation.

Reformation Anglicanism therefore stands within what theologian Keith Mathison and historian Heiko Oberman call Tradition 1: the ancient, Scriptural tradition of the Church that recognizes Scripture as the only infallible norm. We reject both Tradition 2 (Rome’s claim of two sources of revelation) and Tradition 0 (modern individualism or solo Scriptura, which isolates Scripture from the Church’s public confession). In short, sola Scriptura means that Scripture alone is the final court of appeal, interpreted within the Church’s historic, Scriptural tradition—but never overruled by it.

2. Justification: Faith Alone vs. Faith Plus Infusion

The CCC defines justification as both the forgiveness of sins and “sanctification and renewal of the interior man” (CCC 1990). It says justification is “conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith” (1992). It “establishes cooperation between God’s grace and man’s freedom,” where faith assents to the Word of God and charity cooperates with the Holy Spirit (1993). Grace “arouses and sustains our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity” (2001). The CCC also says that while the initial grace of forgiveness cannot be merited (2010), works done in grace truly merit further graces and “the attainment of eternal life” (2006–2011).

In simpler terms, the CCC teaches that God begins the process of making a person righteous through Baptism and that, from that point forward, the believer must cooperate with God’s grace through faith and love (charity) to grow in righteousness. Justification, then, is not a single declaration by God that the sinner is righteous because of Christ’s work, but a lifelong transformation where grace and good works together make a person more just. In this view, final salvation depends not only on Christ’s merits but also on the believer’s ongoing cooperation with grace. It is a blend of divine grace and human participation—a process that must continue throughout life and even into purgatory.

The Articles answer plainly: “We are justified by Faith only” on account of Christ’s merit (Article XI). Good works are “fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification,” and although they are pleasing to God in Christ, they “cannot put away our sins” (Article XII). Works done before grace are “not pleasant to God” and “have the nature of sin” (Article XIII). Works of supererogation—supposed extra credit beyond God’s commands—are “arrogancy and impiety” (Article XIV).

The CCC collapses justification and sanctification, making charity part of what justifies. The Articles keep the biblical order: Christ’s righteousness is counted to the sinner and received by faith alone (Romans 3–4; Philippians 3:9). Renewal and good works necessarily follow as fruit, but never become the ground or instrument of our acceptance with God. The fullness of this truth is beautifully expressed in Article XII: Of Good Works

Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God’s judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.

3. Merit, Purgatory, and Assurance

The Catechism teaches that “our merits are God’s gifts” (2009), yet insists they are real and contribute to “the attainment of eternal life” (2010). It affirms purgatory as post-mortem purification (1030–1032). It also teaches that faith without charity is “dead” and does not fully unite to Christ (1815). Ordinary assurance is not offered; believers hope to persevere through grace and cooperative charity. “There are two kinds of presumption… either man presumes upon his own capacities… or he presumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).” (CCC 2092)

Rome’s vision of salvation thus reintroduces uncertainty. By teaching purgation and merit as conditions for final salvation, the Catechism locates a believer’s ultimate standing before God in an additional process beyond Christ’s finished work. Purgation refers to the Roman Catholic idea that, after death, believers who die in God’s grace but are not yet perfectly purified must undergo a temporary state of cleansing called purgatory before entering heaven. This makes salvation depend not on the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement but on a further work of purification and human merit. The “Romish doctrine” of purgatory is explicitly rejected in Article XXII: Of Purgatory—

The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.

So then, the Thirty-Nine Articles, in contrast to the CCC, anchor confidence in Christ’s once-for-all atonement. Article XVII further teaches predestination for the “sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort” of believers who are “justified freely,” and then “walk religiously in good works.”

Assurance, then, rests entirely on Christ’s completed work on the cross, not on the changing quality of human charity or a post-mortem purification. Faith looks not within to human progress but outward to Christ crucified and risen as the full and final ground of peace with God.

4. The Sacraments: Instruments of Promise vs. Causes of Justification

The CCC teaches that Baptism is necessary for salvation and is the instrument by which justification is conferred (1257, 1992). The Eucharist is described as a propitiatory sacrifice re-presented in the Mass (1365–1372). In other words, Rome views the Mass as a true sacrifice in which Christ’s offering on the cross is made present again and applied to the faithful.

The Articles teach that sacraments are “effectual signs of Grace” that “strengthen and confirm our Faith” (Article XXV). Baptism is a sign and seal of regeneration received in faith. The Lord’s Supper, however, is not a repetition of Christ’s sacrifice. The “sacrifices of Masses” are explicitly rejected as “blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits” (Articles XXVIII, XXXI). Instead, Anglicans understand Holy Communion as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, as expressed in the post-Communion Prayer of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, "O Lord and heavenly Father, we thy humble servants entirely desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving…” (see: The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, International Edition (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021), 264–265.)

Thus, the contrast is clear: while Rome teaches the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice re-presented, Anglicanism teaches the Lord’s Supper as a spiritual sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered by the redeemed in response to Christ’s once-for-all atoning death.

5. Invocation of Saints and Marian Dogmas

The CCC encourages the invocation of saints (CCC 956) and attributes to Mary an ongoing maternal intercession in the “order of grace,” even speaking of a “saving office” (CCC 969). It also teaches indulgences (CCC 1471–1479). The Articles answer plainly: “The Romish doctrine concerning… Invocation of Saints… is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, and repugnant to the Word of God” (Article XXII).

Biblically, prayer belongs to God alone and our access is secured by the one Mediator, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). Even when Roman Catholic teaching attempts to qualify these devotions as subordinate or participatory, multiplying mediators inevitably obscures the sufficiency of Christ’s once-for-all priestly work. The forthcoming Vatican doctrinal note, expected on November 4, 2025, will reportedly revisit this same question of Mary’s “cooperation in salvation” and the language of Co-Redemptrix—a reminder that the issue remains a live point of divergence between Rome and the Reformation.

6. Human Inability and Grace

The CCC affirms grace’s necessity but makes justification a cooperative process—fīdēs cāritāte fōrmāta (“faith formed by love”) (1993, 2001). The Articles teach that original sin leaves us unable to turn to God by our own strength. Even in the regenerate, “the lust of the flesh… hath of itself the nature of sin” (Article IX). We need grātia praeveniēns (grace that goes before) even to will and do good (Article X).

In Reformed theology, prevenient grace refers to God’s gracious initiative in salvation—His action in turning the sinner’s heart toward Himself before any human response or cooperation. Unlike the Roman Catholic or Arminian idea of prevenient grace, which suggests a universal, resistible grace given to all people, the Reformed confessions teach that prevenient grace is sovereign, effectual, and particular. It is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that brings the elect from spiritual death to life. The Thirty-Nine Articles, Article X, explains:

The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

Here, “the grace of God by Christ preventing us” means God’s initiating grace—the Spirit’s sovereign action that awakens and renews the sinner’s will. This is not a general helping hand; it is the effectual calling that changes the heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26; John 3:3–8). The Canons of Dort (1619) describe this beautifully:

When God accomplishes His good pleasure in the elect, He not only causes the gospel to be preached to them, but by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, He pervades the inmost recesses of the man; He opens the closed and softens the hardened heart, infuses new qualities into the will… that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions” (Canons of Dort, III/IV.11).

The Church of England was officially represented at the Synod of Dort (1618–1619) by a delegation of four theologians and one observer, sent by King James I. The delegates were Bishop Joseph Hall of Exeter, Dr. George Carleton of Llandaff, Dr. John Davenant of Salisbury, and Dr. Samuel Ward of Cambridge, with Dr. Walter Balcanquhall, a Scottish divine, serving as the King’s chaplain and secretary. These representatives participated fully in the Synod’s theological sessions and signed the Canons of Dort in agreement with the Reformed Churches. Their involvement demonstrates that early seventeenth-century Anglicanism identified itself with the broader Reformed consensus on grace and predestination, affirming that salvation is entirely the work of God’s sovereign, effectual grace from beginning to end.

So then, prevenient grace in the Reformed confessions is not a cooperative grace that enables sinners to choose God; it is the sovereign, life-giving grace that actually brings them to faith. From beginning to end—regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification—salvation is the work of God’s free grace.

Believers truly act in obedience, but their willing and doing are themselves wrought by God (Philippians 2:12–13). As the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 35 summarizes, “Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” No stage of salvation is synergistic; none makes human cooperation a co-cause of grace.

What is at Stake

This is not an abstract theological quarrel. On Rome’s scheme, a burdened sinner cannot look outside himself to a finished righteousness. He must look within—to infused charity and sacramental participation that increases grace—never knowing if he has done enough.

The 39 Articles point him outside of himself wholly to Christ crucified and risen. God imputes to the one who believes the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, so that it is as if that person had never committed any sin and had perfectly fulfilled all obedience which Christ accomplished on their behalf (Romans 3:21–26; 4:5; 5:1; see Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 60). The Spirit then renews the heart so that good works follow as fruit, not as the ground of peace with God.

Conclusion

Rome and Reformation Anglicanism preach two different messages where the sinner needs clarity most. The CCC centers justification in sacramental infusion, cooperation, and merit. The Thirty-Nine Articles confess that sinners are justified by faith only, on account of Christ alone, as Scripture teaches. Because the gospel is at stake, Reformation Anglicans must both refuse Rome’s teaching where it contradicts Scripture and invite our neighbors into the freedom and assurance of the biblical gospel—Christ for us, received by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, producing love, which necessarily springs out of a true and lively Faith.