REFUTING LUTHER'S HERESY ON JUSTIFICATION [Part Two]

 

This a the second part in this series. Here we shall see one of the arguments presented by Luther and his brood as biblical foundation for their heresy on justification.

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In the first place, they say, that by means of faith in the merits and promises of Jesus Christ, our sins are not taken away, but are covered. 

This supposition is, however, totally opposed to the Scriptures, which teach that the sins are not alone covered, but are taken away and cancelled in a justified soul: “Behold the lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sins of the world” (John, i, 29); “Be penitent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts, iii, 19); “He will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea” (Micheas, vii, 19); “So also Christ was offered once, to exhaust the sins of many” (Heb. ix, 28). 

Now that which is taken away, which is blotted out, which is annihilated, we cannot say exists any longer. We are also taught that the justified soul is cleansed and delivered from its sins: “Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed, thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 1, 9); “You shall be cleansed from all your filthiness” (Ezech. xxxvi, 25); “And such some of you were, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified” (I. Cor. vi, 11); “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification” (Rom. vi, 22). It is on this account that Baptism, by which sin is remitted, is called regeneration and renovation: “He saved us by the laws of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost” (Tit. iii, 5); “Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John, iii, 3). The sinner, therefore, when he is justified, is generated again, and re-born to Grace, so that he is changed in all, and renovated from what he was before.

How is it, then, that David says our sins are covered? “Blessed are they whose sins are covered.” St. Augustine, explaining this Psalm says, that wounds may be covered both by the sufferer and the physician; the sufferer himself only covers them, but the physician both covers them with a plaster and heals them… Our sins, by the infusion of Grace, are covered at the same time and healed, but the heretical opinion is, that they are covered, but not healed; they are covered only inasmuch as God does not impute them to the sinner. If sins remained in the soul as far as the fault was concerned should not God impute them to us? God judges according to truth: “For we know the judgment of God is according to truth” (Rom. ii, 2); but how could God judge according to the truth, judging that man not to be culpable, who is in reality culpable? These are truly some of Calvin’s mysteries which surpass our comprehension. The Scripture says, “To God the wicked and his wickedness are equal alike” (Wisdom, xiv, 9). If God hates the sinner on account of the sin that reigns in him, how can he love him as a child, because he is covered with the justice of Christ, while he is still a sinner all the while? Sin, by its very nature, is contrary to God, so it is impossible that God should not hate it as long as it is not taken away, and he must also hate the sinner as long as he retains it. David says: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin.” We understand by this not that God does not impute sin by leaving sin in the soul, and not pretending to see it, but that he does not impute it because he cancels and remits it, and hence David says, in the very same passage, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven.” The sins that are forgiven to us are not imputed to us.

(Culled from St. Alphonsus Liguori's "History of heresies and their refutations")