The Catholic Understanding of Salvation

[00:00:01] What does it mean to be redeemed, to be justified, to be saved? [00:00:06] These theological terms are often confused by Christians and often debated between Protestants and Catholics. We're going to break it down today on Crisis. [00:00:29] Foreign. [00:00:32] So it's Holy Week, and I hope everybody here is who's listening has a blessed and fruitful Holy Week. [00:00:40] That means, of course, that this weekend, Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we are celebrating the events of our redemption, the events of our salvation, the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:00:55] But I've noticed over the years that a lot of people get confused, a lot of Catholics get confused about the different terms like redemption and salvation, justification, sanctification, that they often confuse those terms or don't know exactly what they mean, or they interchange them when they shouldn't be interchanged. [00:01:15] And also, of course, this is where we have a major area of dispute with Protestant Christians, particularly the term justification. [00:01:25] And so you will get, for example, here's how it comes up. Often you might get a Protestant who comes up to you and says, are you saved? [00:01:34] And honestly, it's a bit of a weird question for Catholics because we're kind of like, well, I've been baptized. [00:01:41] When I die, I hope to go to heaven. [00:01:44] They don't know exactly what it means. [00:01:47] And the fact is, is that, yes, we have a very different theology from Protestants when it comes to our redemption, justification, salvation. [00:01:59] But also, we use the terms differently at times. And I think that causes a lot of the confusion and a lot of the debate that isn't necessarily needed in our discussions with Protestants about this. [00:02:13] Like I said, we definitely don't agree with Protestants on justification. This is in fact, what Martin Luther broke away for. It wasn't sola scriptura. It wasn't the Pope, the role of the Pope. It was the Catholic teaching on justification, which Martin Luther ultimately rejected. [00:02:34] And so as Catholics, we really do need to understand what these terms mean and what the Catholic Church teaches about our salvation. [00:02:48] Now, I'm going to go through four terms in particular in this podcast. [00:02:54] Redemption, justification, sanctification, and salvation. But I do want to make one thing very clear. [00:03:03] These terms have not always. [00:03:06] They were more loosely defined in the early church, in Sacred Scripture and in the early church and through the years. It's only in the process of the development of doctrine, as we would say as Catholics, but really in thinking more about it and understanding it and making distinctions, theological distinctions, that these terms came to mean exactly what they mean today. [00:03:29] And so that is actually part of the reason for the confusion at times Is is because if you look at maybe some scriptural texts or some ancient texts, you might see the terms used a little more interchangeably, a little bit different, a little different nuances. [00:03:41] But the Church, in her wisdom, has come up with a basic definition, a basic understanding of each of these terms and how they're different and how they all play into our process of salvation. [00:03:57] So let me just go through these four, and I'm hopefully, I'm hoping that this will help people when they talk to Protestants, but also just in understanding our teaching about what it means to be saved. So if we ask, are you saved? [00:04:12] We'll know how to answer it. [00:04:14] And even more importantly, when we attend Mass on Holy Thursday or the liturgy on Good Friday or Easter vigil, Easter Sunday, in any Mass for that matter, that we appreciate what our Lord has done for us and we understand how to apply what the Lord has done for us to our own lives. [00:04:38] As we'll see, that's a very important distinction that we're going to make here. What the Lord does and how we have what he did for us applied to our lives individually. [00:04:50] Okay, so the first term I think we need to define is redemption. [00:04:56] You could also use the word atonement here. Often those two terms, redemption and atonement, are very similar. [00:05:03] And what I would say redemption is, that is Christ's objective, universal act of paying the debt for humanity's sin on the cross at atonement. Another way to look at it is at one meant, it's basically reconciling the human race which fell through its sin at the fall, Adam and Eve, and was therefore separated from God with no way to bridge that gap to bring us back together. Well, Christ's death on the cross, it redeemed us and it redeems everybody. This is important to note. Every single human being who has ever lived is living now, or whoever will live is redeemed by Christ's death on the cross. [00:05:57] What that means is, is that salvation is now available to everybody because of Christ's redemption. Redemption is okay. There's a whole debate about whether or not, you know, the legal aspects of this. You even get this debate with, for example, Catholics and Orthodox. [00:06:16] The Orthodox don't really like the whole legalistic part of it, but there is definitely a legal aspect to this. [00:06:24] I think sometimes Protestants in particular lean too much into the legal aspect and they warp it a little bit. So I don't want to go too far on that. But I do think it's good to look at this from a legal standpoint as well, in that when Adam fell, he created a debt. [00:06:43] Basically he went against God. And so that had to be repaired. For example, if when my son was young, if he broke a window playing baseball in my house, it'd be just and right for me to ask him to pay for that window to be repaired, I. E. Maybe he had to do chores around the house, maybe he had to get a job delivering papers or mowing the grass or something like that, order to pay for that. That would be just because he did damage. [00:07:14] And so likewise, when Adam and Eve fell, that did irreparable damage to the relationship between God and man. Now there's a problem. This is St. Anselm's classic, why the God man? There's a problem here. [00:07:32] The damage done was done by a man, but it was done to an infinite God. [00:07:39] And so the debt was infinite. [00:07:43] The debt was infinite, but it was done by a man. So an angel couldn't redeem us, couldn't make up that debt because he's not a man. He doesn't represent man. Just like Adam represents all of us. [00:07:57] All of us fall under that Blessed Mother obviously exclude on to some extent, not fully, but to some extent. [00:08:07] So man had to redeem, had to be the, the, the instrument of our redemption. But the problem is man is finite and man can't pay that debt. [00:08:18] It would be like if my son, when he was 12, if he did something that, that caused $5 billion of damage to the country or something like that, and they're like, okay, you have to pay that back. The 12 year old just simply can't do that. It's even more extreme than that. The point is it's impossible though for man to pay that infinite debt. [00:08:41] And therefore Saint Anselm says that's why we need a God man. We need somebody who's man, who truly represents man. Not pretending to be man, not faking anything like that, but an actual man. [00:08:53] That has to be the representative, it has to be the new Adam, but it has to be God as well. [00:08:57] Because only God is infinite and can repay an infinite debt. [00:09:01] That's why Jesus Christ had to be God and man. [00:09:05] And so the redemption, again, this is the important part for today. The redemption is the payment. [00:09:10] It's the payment of that infinite debt. And so the debt has been paid. There's nothing we have to do, there's nothing we can do to repay that. [00:09:22] This is something Protestants will, you know, I think Protestants are with me so far on this. [00:09:27] And so the reality is that Christ's Redemption, he paid the debt, the infinite debt on the cross, and so all of us are redeemed. In other words, salvation is now available to everybody who's ever lived. So that's redemption. That's the kind of. The first. I'm going in somewhat chronological kind of logical order here. [00:09:48] So redemption, though, is first. [00:09:51] The second important term we use when you talk about the process of salvation is justification. [00:09:59] Justification. [00:10:01] This is the application of the redemption to an individual. [00:10:07] And it's a transformation of that individual from a state of sin to a state of righteousness through faith and baptism. [00:10:20] Baptism is the key here. Now, I know I'm going off of the Protestant reservation by saying this, but this is the way we know it happens. [00:10:29] Baptism is the means of our justification. What it does is it makes us individually right with God. [00:10:37] When God died on the cross, when our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, he redeemed all of us. But that had to be applied to each of us. So when I'm born, I'm born in a state of sin. [00:10:50] I am redeemed, it's true. [00:10:53] But that redemption hasn't been applied to me individually. [00:10:57] That is what is called justification. And it happens through baptism. [00:11:02] Justification is the term that's the most debated between Protestants and Catholics by far. And like I said, this is the thing that led Martin Luther to leave the church. [00:11:15] Justification is fundamentally becoming a child of God. This is where we go a little bit away from the legal definition. Yes, it is somewhat of a legal process in one sense, but really, the Protestants see it much more as a legal process, whereas Catholics, we see it more as a transformation, an adoption into a child of God. We truly are children of God. And so the justification is the start of this process of becoming like Christ, of becoming truly his brother and sister. We are. I mean, just to be clear, when you're baptized, you become a child of God. [00:11:53] That's. It's. It's. It's not like you become part of a child of God. You become truly a child of God. The problem, of course, is we continue to sin after baptism. And so we mar that sonship on some level. We mar that justification on some level. [00:12:10] And so another point that is important when it comes to justification, it's truly a transformation. [00:12:17] This is where Martin Luther got it wrong. Among other places, he saw it as just a legal decree. Decree that the judge says, okay, now you're righteous. Now you're justified. [00:12:31] Done. [00:12:32] But nothing changed in you. [00:12:35] It was truly just a legal. It's like somebody commits murder, truly is guilty the judge knows he's guilty, but just says, no, you're not guilty. [00:12:48] Not for any reason. Not because of, like, you know, they don't have enough proof, something like that. All the evidence is, is that the person's guilty. [00:12:56] It's obvious he killed this person. The judge just says, no, you're not. That's somewhat the Protestant idea of how somebody is justified. What justification is, in the Catholic view, it's not really a legal process as much as a transformation, a family process that you really become part of God's family. [00:13:15] And you yourself, me, myself, we actually get turned into children of God. There's the famous analogy attributed to Martin Luther where he says, we're a pile of dung. [00:13:33] And justification in some sense is God putting a layer of snow over it so it looks like a pile of snow. He knows you're a pile of dung underneath, but you actually look like. Now the covering. Christ's covering, you know, his. His. His. [00:13:52] His work covers that dung and makes it look white as snow. [00:13:56] Catholics reject this analogy completely. It's not what happens. [00:14:00] We would say, yes, you are a pile of dung when you are born. You're born in sin. We don't believe in total depravity. [00:14:09] We do think there's some good. [00:14:11] Even. Even a fallen, unbaptized human being does have capacity for good, but we are a pile of dung, basically. [00:14:19] However, Christ transforms us into a pile of snow, actually from the inside out. So we actually become children of God. We become pure and holy. [00:14:33] That's. That is justification. The beginning of that process is justification. [00:14:39] And so again, redemption is the objective act of Christ to redeem us all. Justification is more subjective act in the sense that it's a person deciding or having their parents decide for them, something like that, to be baptized and therefore be made right with God. To take what happened on the cross, point over here where the cross is. Take what happened on the cross and then make it apply to me. [00:15:07] So that's justification. [00:15:10] The next step in the process is sanctification. [00:15:14] This is the process itself after justification before salvation. This is where many Protestants today get tripped up, because they believe in the perseverance of the saints. Once saved, always saved. The idea that once you are justified, you can't lose that justification. That's why when they ask, are you saved? They're really asking, are you justified? And they're assuming, if you have been, you can't lose it. [00:15:41] Catholics would say, no, you can lose it. And it's very clear from Sacred Scripture that this is the. This is the case. In fact, I was just reading. I'm reading the book of Revelation. [00:15:49] I. I don't have the. Actually. Let me look. It was a. [00:15:53] Actually, I have. I'm grabbing my Bible here real quick. [00:15:56] My New Testament. It was in Revelation, and I was reading about his message this to the church. In which. Which one was he having a message to? Let me look it up here real quick. [00:16:08] Not Philadelphia to Sardis. [00:16:13] And this is chapter three of Revelation. [00:16:17] And he says, I know your works. You have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake and strengthen. What remains is on the point of death. For I have not found your works perfect in the sight of God. [00:16:30] Remember then that what you received and heard, keep that and repent. [00:16:34] If you will not awake, I will come like a thief. You will not know at what hour I come to you. [00:16:40] And he basically then goes on to say, you know, you've sold your garments. Oh, and this is the. Here's the key verse here. It says, he who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments. And I will not blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. And I was reading a Protestant commentary about it. Don't hate me. There's some good insights in some Protestant commentaries, if you know what you're looking for. And it basically was like, oh, this is hard. Basically saying, this is very difficult to explain, this idea of blotting people out of the book of life. If you believe in the perseverance of the saints, you believe in one saved, always saved. And it is. It makes no sense. [00:17:18] If you think once you're justified, you can't lose that justification, can't lose your salvation, then that passage makes no sense. And other things that St. Paul says, I work out my salvation in fear and trembling. That's sanctification. [00:17:30] The idea is, once you're justified, if you die at that moment, you're going straight to heaven, you know, at the moment your baptism, it's finished. The baptism's finished. And you die immediately afterwards. Yeah, you're going straight to heaven. [00:17:42] But for the rest of us who sin and mar, that we can commit mortal sin and lose our justification, so that if we died in that state of mortal sin, we will not be saved, we will go to hell. [00:17:57] And so sanctification, though, is first and foremost. It's like keeping that justification, you know, avoiding mortal sin so that when we die, we will go to heaven, we will be saved. But it's more than that. It's that process of transformation. [00:18:12] Because, like I said, when you're first baptized, let's say you're baptized in an adult. It's not like that moment. All of a sudden you're a saint and you're, you know, you can. You're not sinning anymore. We all know that doesn't happen if you're baptized as a baby. We know once you reach the age of reason, parents tell you you start sinning pretty quickly. [00:18:31] And so the point is, we want that pile of dung to become a pile completely of pure white snow. [00:18:39] And so that's the process of sanctification. We are growing more and more into the likeness of Christ. St. Paul says, is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It's this transformation, that process over time, that we're working out our salvation, fear and trembling, as St. Paul says. [00:18:58] And so this is the moment most of us are in right now. We've been redeemed, we've been justified, and now we're trying to be sanctified. We're working our salvation, fear and trembling. And it's always a battle. It's a daily battle. It's a daily grind. [00:19:14] But it's something our Lord calls us to. He tells us, take up your cross and follow me. [00:19:19] He doesn't say, okay, once you're baptized, once you're saved, it's all good. No, take up your cross and follow me. And taking up your cross has a lot of imagery to it. It means dying to self, letting Christ live in you. It means falling. Our Lord fell three times on the way to Calvary. [00:19:35] It means falling at times and getting back up. That's the key. I remember learning that years ago from a spiritual director, that the key is not avoiding the falls as much as it is getting back up. Yes, we do everything we can to avoid the falls. [00:19:50] But scripture say even the righteous man sins seven times a day, or falls seven times a day or something like that. And so we want to get back up. That's the key, that's sanctification, of growing more and more in our salvation. And of course, more and more, most importantly, not falling, it's into mortal sin. And if we do fall into mortal sin, we go to confession and we start the process over again. [00:20:14] Okay, so that's the third. So we had redemption, justification, sanctification. [00:20:19] And now the final step is salvation. This is the outcome. [00:20:25] This is the outcome, the goal in which we are striving for, which is salvation, the ultimate goal. It is often it's used to turn the whole process like I've been talking about the process of salvation. Well, salvation is the goal, the final angle, the telos of. Or telos, I think you'd pronounce it, of what we are striving for. Union with Christ forever in heaven. Union with the Blessed Trinity, the beatific vision. That's our salvation. You cannot achieve salvation until you die. It's a necessary step in being saved, is dying, I mean. And so, yeah, so it is necessary that you die first. So before you die, you're not saved yet. [00:21:13] And so you are working out that process of salvation. So. And salvation is so much more than we imagine it. [00:21:20] We have this idea of, like, you go to heaven. It's like this place where, I don't know, it's like a nice country club or something like that. It's like, pretty, and people are all nice to each other and you walk around golden streets and things like that. [00:21:33] It's so much more. It is union with the Blessed Trinity. It is. Deification is literally the term used by the east, particularly, but by the Catholic Church. This idea of deification, God became man so that man might become God. We become gods. I think I can say that without hesitation. Now, of course, we have to make sure we explain what that means. [00:21:57] It doesn't mean we are God by nature. [00:22:00] It means you are gods by grace. [00:22:03] If you're becoming conformed to Christ. Christ is God, you're becoming conformed to God, you're becoming more and more like God. And that's. Sanctification is also that process of deification. It doesn't start when you die. It starts at your baptism. [00:22:18] And that's why God in his mercy, gives us purgatory, though, because the fact is, when you die, most of us are not ready to be in the presence of God. It would destroy us in a certain sense. In fact, I've heard it. I don't. I don't. I'm not super comfortable with this theologically, but I think you can learn something from it. This idea of everybody after they die faces God. And in the fire of God, the fire of his divine love, those in heaven are prepared and they. And it transforms them, turns them into, like. To be like God, that divine fire of love. [00:23:00] Those in hell are those who also receive it, but it burns that it really. [00:23:07] It. It. They're so. They've rejected God. And so that divine fire of love is a burning, a terrible punishment. [00:23:17] Like I said, I think there's some theological issues with that. But I think you. Hopefully you get my point of that. [00:23:23] The idea is we have to be prepared to receive that divine love. And God, in his mercy, he gives us purgatory so that when we die, if we're not fully sanctified, fully deified in this life, then what happens is that purgatory purges out all those parts of us that are not united to God. [00:23:46] All the things that all our attachments to this world, which are ultimately attachment to this world, is a detachment from God. [00:23:54] So it attaches us completely to God. [00:23:57] And so I would even say in heaven, the process of deification never ends. It's not a static thing. Once you get to heaven, I think it starts at your baptism. There's ups and downs in this life. Hopefully, though, it's moving up and up and you're becoming closer to God. [00:24:13] Be more like Christmas before you. And then you die, and then you. You get to heaven, assuming you. You may be gone through purgatory. [00:24:23] And then once in heaven, though, you draw more and more deeply into the divine love of God that I. I don't think that ever stops. I think that process of deification continues throughout your entire exit, all of eternity in heaven. [00:24:40] And so that is the final step of the process. It's the goal, which is salvation. So we have redemption. [00:24:46] That's Christ's work on the cross that makes salvation available to everybody. We have justification, which we apply that redemption to us individually, which transforms us into children of God. [00:24:59] We have sanctification, in which we draw closer and closer to Christ and we grow in holiness. And then we have salvation after our death, where we unite ourselves completely to God continually, forever in eternity. [00:25:12] So if you ask, are you saved? [00:25:15] The answer really is yes in that I've been redeemed and justified. [00:25:21] It's also I'm being saved. So kind of a maybe because I'm in the process of sanctification. [00:25:29] And also it's a no in that I have not yet been saved fully. I have not made it to heaven. I have not gone. [00:25:36] I'm not. My salvation is not complete. So in a certain way, you could say, are you. Are you saved? Say yes, maybe, and no. [00:25:43] Yes, I am redeemed and justified, maybe in that I'm working out my salvation. And no, I've not yet finally been saved. I'm not yet in heaven with God. [00:25:53] And so I could lose that salvation. [00:25:56] So I hope this helps some. I found it useful for me and other people I've taught this to, like, classes I've taught this to and people I've explained to. Hopefully, it also allows you to appreciate the great love our Lord has for us. The great love he showed us in his passion, death, and resurrection, that he did this for us so that we could be with him in heaven forever. We were the ones who messed it up, so we couldn't be with him forever in heaven. [00:26:21] And we had to. [00:26:23] We were the ones who should have fixed it, but we couldn't. And God didn't just say, okay, we'll forget you. No. He said, I love you so much. I will send my son to save you. And that's exactly what he did. So in response, what we need to do is we need to work out our salvation, fear and trembling, and one day be with him forever in heaven. [00:26:46] Okay, I'll wrap it up there. Until next time, everybody. God love you. And remember, the poor.