ST. LOUIS, October 15, 1999—On October 31, representatives of the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church will meet in Augsburg, Germany, to sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.  Participating Lutheran leaders have hailed this accord as a "magnificent breakthrough."  They say it resolves the long-standing division between Lutherans and Roman Catholics over the doctrine by which the Christian Church stands or falls: the teaching of how God saves (or justifies) a sinner by grace alone, for Christ's sake alone, through faith alone. But is this "agreement" really a breakthrough?  In a word, no.
 

Disclaimers and Clarifications

In truth, the Joint Declaration is an ambiguous statement whose careful wording makes it possible for the Pope's representatives to sign it without changing, retracting or correcting anything that has been taught by the Roman Catholic Church since the time of the Council of Trent in the 16th century.   [For more on the Council of Trent—and a familiarity with Trent is essential for anyone following this story—see the sidebar story on Page 2.]

We who are members of a confessional Lutheran church body must say with all boldness and vigor that the Joint Declaration is hardly the dramatic advance some claim it to be.  The document does not represent a change in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.  It does nothing to repudiate the doctrinal formulations put forth by the Council of Trent.

Rome has indicated that the agreement does not represent an agreement on the role of renewal and sanctification in the Christian life.  For the Roman Catholic Church, this renewal and sanctification are part of justification; for Lutheranism, justification is by faith alone, apart from any works of the Law (Romans 3:28).

Still another Roman clarification concerning the declaration (the absence of any such Lutheran clarifications is telling) states that "eternal life is, at one and the same time, grace and the reward given by God for good works and merit."  This assertion contradicts Holy Scripture (such as Ephesians 2:8-9), which clearly teaches that the salvation of the sinner is always and only by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith alone, apart from works.

We would underscore the Vatican's perceptive observation that even though the Lutheran World Federation has attempted to gain signatures from a wide variety of Lutheran groups in an effort to achieve a great consensus, "there remains, however, the question of the real authority of such a synodal consensus, today and also tomorrow, in the life and doctrine of the Lutheran community."  In other words, the Lutheran World Federation does not speak officially for world Lutheranism—a point clearly recognized by the Vatican.
 

A Surrender of Sacred Truth

If, then, the Joint Declaration is not quite the breakthrough event its Lutheran signatories say it is, what is it?  It is two things: It is an opportunity for Rome to appear ecumenical without conceding a thing, and it is but the latest example of Lutherans sacrificing God's truth on the altar of unity.

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and its many partner churches around the world, as well as any number of Lutheran communions not part of our confessional fellowship, have not accepted the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.  We consider the Joint Declaration to be a surrender of the most important truth taught in God's Word.  It represents a clear, stunning departure from the Reformation and thus is contrary to what it means to be a Lutheran Christian.

That being said, Lutherans not participating in the Joint Declaration continue to pray for true, God-given unity in the confession of the Christian faith.  We thank God for the grace He gives to all believers in Jesus Christ throughout world Christendom.  We rejoice in what we have in common with the Roman church.  And, indeed, that is much.  However, it is a great tragedy when those who claim to be leaders of Lutheranism depart from the very essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through their participation in, and support for, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.  These leaders, in their quest to achieve unity, fail to see the declaration for what it truly is: a woefully inadequate and misleading document and a betrayal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 

Sidebar: Background on The Council of Trent

The Council of Trent (Trent being a town in northeastern Italy) met in three periods, under three different popes, between 1545 and 1563.  This ecumenical conclave was the Roman church's first formal answer to the challenge of the Protestant Reformation.

Council members issued a number of decrees, all of which served to codify and reaffirm Catholic doctrine.  Some of those decrees, in the form of "canons," concerned the doctrine of justification.  Here are three:

CANON IX:  If anyone says that the ungodly is justified by faith alone in such a way that he understands that nothing else is required which cooperates toward obtaining the grace of justification . . . let him be anathema.

CANON XII:  If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than trust in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this trust alone by which we are justified, let him be anathema.

CANON XIV:  If anyone says that a man is absolved from sins and justified because . . . he confidently believes that he is absolved and justified . . . and that through this faith alone absolution and justification is effected, let him be anathema.

These canons say that faith alone in what God has done for us in Jesus Christ is not sufficient to justify a sinner.  Something more is needed—i.e., the performance of good works.  Such thinking, from which the Roman church has not budged, the Joint Declaration notwithstanding, is antithetical to historic Lutheran thinking, which holds that if salvation is of works, or even partly of works, then it is not by grace.  Put another way, if we are justified by the Law, then Christ is of no advantage to us. No amount of sophistry, such as that found in the Joint Declaration, can elude this truth.
 

Sidebar: The Lutheran Stance on Good Works
Lutheran doctrine says that we are justified by faith alone, without the deeds of the Law (i.e., good works).  As the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions affirm, good works will always be present as fruits of faith, but are in no way to be considered as part of the reason God justifies us.  We are justified totally on the grounds of Christ's work for us and not by any good works that we do, either before or after we come to faith.

Yet, the wording of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification says that a believer must "intrinsically qualify" justifying faith before God by doing good works.  The document also states that the "renewal" of man (his doing of good works) is also part of justification.  This, of itself, is a gross mixing of Law and Gospel.