Annotation CCXXXIII
”Where is thy boasting?” — Romans 3:27
Whether faith alone justifies.
Origen, in the third book on the epistle to the Romans, narrating this, shows by a long digression that sinners are justified by faith alone, without any works. A fragment of this digression is cited in the Collectanea of the Lutherans, against the decree of the Council of Trent — by which it is established, according to the sentence of the Apostle James, that a man is justified not by faith alone, but by works also.
But it must be observed that Origen speaks of the first justification, not of the second — or, of the beginning and origin of justification, and not of the progress and increase of justification. For the catholics hand down that the very increase of justification, through perseverance and consummation, is obtained not by faith alone, but by the labors of the cooperating man — in that manner in which the Apostle James said:1 “Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is idle? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up his son upon the altar? Thou seest that faith cooperated with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” Therefore, [as to the fact] that Origen says [that] sinners are justified by faith alone, without any works — that assuredly looks to this: that works which are meritorious of justification be excluded [as its cause]. For if [it were] of works, grace would not be grace. But not that he would reject the free cooperation and preparation of man toward justifying grace, or the increase of justification already obtained — concerning which the sacrosanct Council of Trent,2 session 6, decrees in this manner: “IF anyone shall say that the impious [man] is justified by faith alone — so as to understand that nothing else is required to cooperate toward obtaining the grace of justification, and that it is in no way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the motion of his own will: let him be anathema.” And, in the twenty-fourth canon: “IF anyone shall say that the justice received is not preserved, and also not increased before God through good works, but that the works themselves are only the fruits and signs of the justification obtained, and not also the cause of its increase: let him be anathema.”