Rev. Dr. Jordan B. Cooper<\/a>\u00a0is a Lutheran pastor, adjunct professor of Systematic Theology, Executive Director of the popular\u00a0Just & Sinner<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>YouTube channel, and the President of the American Lutheran Theological Seminary (which holds to a\u00a0doctrinally traditional Lutheranism<\/a>, similar to the Lutheran Church \u2013 Missouri Synod). He has authored\u00a0several books<\/a>, as well as\u00a0theological articles<\/a>\u00a0in a variety of publications. All my Bible citations are from RSV, unless otherwise indicated. Jordan\u2019s words will be in\u00a0blue<\/span>.<\/p>\n This is my 16th reply to Jordan (many more to come, because I want to interact with the best, most informed Protestant opponents). All of these respectful critiques can be found in the \u201cReplies to Jordan Cooper\u201d section at the top of my Lutheranism web page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bishop Barron\u2019s words will be in green<\/span>.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n \u201cPlease Hit \u2018Subscribe\u2019\u201d!<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0If you\u2019ve received benefit from this or any of my 4,500+ articles, please follow this blog by signing up (email address) on the sidebar to the right, above the icon bar, \u201cSign Me Up!\u201d: to receive notice when I post a new blog article. This is the equivalent of subscribing to a\u00a0YouTube<\/em>\u00a0channel. Please also consider\u00a0following me on Twitter \/ X<\/a>\u00a0and purchasing\u00a0one or more of my 55 books<\/a>. All of this helps me get more exposure and concretely supports my full-time apologetics work. Thanks so much and happy reading!<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n This is a response to some earlier portions of Jordan\u2019s YouTube video, \u201cA Response to Bishop Barron on Justification\u201d<\/a> (4-20-24).<\/p>\n 3:26 we\u2019re justified or saved \u2014\u00a0 set right \u2014 not by works of the law but by faith, so Luther says by grace through faith, and he intensifies it by saying gratia sola<\/em>: by grace alone. By faith alone we\u2019re saved and not by the works of the law. <\/span><\/p>\n Catholics don\u2019t disagree with this Protestant understanding at all; particularly if we are talking about initial justification<\/a>. The Council of Trent, in addressing justification, made this very clear:<\/p>\n CANON I.-If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema.<\/p>\n CANON II.-If any one saith, that the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, is given only for this, that man may be able more easily to live justly, and to merit eternal life, as if, by free will without grace, he were able to do both, though hardly indeed and with difficulty; let him be anathema.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Man can do absolutely nothing to obtain initial justification (a position that is contrary to semi-Pelagianism); therefore, at this point it is monergistic:<\/p>\n CANON III.-If any one saith, that without the prevenient inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and without his help, man can believe, hope, love, or be penitent as he ought, so as that the grace of Justification may be bestowed upon him; let him be anathema.<\/p>\n [see also Decree on Justification: chapter 5]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n CANON IV.-If any one saith, that man\u2019s free will moved and excited by God, by assenting to God exciting and calling, nowise co-operates towards disposing and preparing itself for obtaining the grace of Justification; that it cannot refuse its consent, if it would, but that, as something inanimate, it does nothing whatever and is merely passive; let him be anathema.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Justification is by grace alone (sola gratia<\/em>): Decree on Justification: chapter 8; Canon 10:<\/p>\n CANON X.-If any one saith, that men are just without the justice of Christ, whereby He merited for us to be justified; or that it is by that justice itself that they are formally just; let him be anathema.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Good works and merit proceed wholly from the grace of God through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf (not from ourselves). They are necessary but they do not earn salvation, which is by grace alone: Decree on Justification: chapter 16; Canons 18, 19, 20, 24, 26, 32, 33.<\/p>\n Vatican I also expressed our doctrine in a beautiful way:<\/p>\n Wherefore faith itself, even when it does not work by charity [Gal 5:6], is in itself a gift of God, and the act of faith is a work pertaining to salvation, by which man yields voluntary obedience to God Himself, by assenting to and cooperating with His grace, which he is able to resist (can. v).\u00a0(Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith<\/em>, ch. III, \u201cOf Faith\u201d)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 6:20 you have the text like Romans 4 and Romans 3 in particular dealing with justification\u00a0apart from works of the law or the one who is justified apart from works . . . <\/span><\/p>\n I thoroughly dealt with Romans 4 in reply to Jordan:<\/p>\n Abraham\u2019s Justification By Faith & Works (vs. Jordan Cooper) + Catholic Exegesis Regarding St. Paul\u2019s Specific Meaning of \u201cWorks\u201d in Romans 4<\/a>\u00a0[3-1-24]<\/p>\n But he has recently stated on my Facebook page that he doesn\u2019t have the time to dialogue with me<\/a>. That\u2019s fine if he doesn\u2019t (we all prioritize and are busy). I just want my readers to know, for the record, that I have addressed this and many other claims in his talks. They are by no means unanswerable.<\/p>\n 6:32 and then you do have texts that speak for example about the final\u00a0judgment and the role of good works in the final judgment . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n See: Final Judgment &\u00a0Works<\/em>\u00a0(Not Faith): 50 Passages<\/a> [2-10-08]<\/p>\n 7:20 I really don\u2019t see any issue within Romans 13 that would even pose a difficulty at all regarding the question of justification through faith, because this text says nothing whatsoever about\u00a0justification it simply says that to love one another is to fulfill the law<\/span><\/p>\n I completely disagree and say that it is related to the overall question. Love is not faith, let alone \u201cfaith alone\u201d in the larger sense, in which Protestants (the Lutheran Melanchthon initiated this) separate sanctification from justification and make it non-obligatory for salvation. A quick search of \u201cfulfill\u201d in Romans is highly instructive (and a new motif that I was unfamiliar with):<\/p>\n Romans 8:3-4<\/strong> For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, [4] in order that the just requirement of the law might be<\/span> fulfilled<\/span> in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.<\/p>\n Romans 9:30-32<\/strong> What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; [31] but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling<\/span> that law<\/span>. [32] Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works. . . .<\/p>\n Romans 13:8-11<\/strong>\u00a0Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has<\/span> fulfilled<\/span> the law<\/span>.\u00a0[9] The commandments, \u201cYou shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,\u201d and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, \u201cYou shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u201d [10] Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore<\/span> love is the<\/span> fulfilling of the law<\/span>. [11]\u00a0Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation<\/span> is nearer to us now than when we first believed;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The commandments are fulfilled by love. Lest anyone think that the commandments are irrelevant to salvation itself (and are relegated only to non-salvific sanctification \u2014 as in Protestant theology), note what Jesus thought about it:<\/p>\n Matthew 5:16-20<\/strong> Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works<\/span> and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. [17]\u00a0\u201cThink not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them<\/span>.\u00a0[18] For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. [19] Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [20] For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven<\/span>.<\/p>\n Matthew 19:16-19\u00a0<\/strong>And behold, one came up to him, saying, \u201cTeacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?\u201d\u00a0[17] And he said to him, \u201cWhy do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments<\/span>.\u201d [18] He said to him, \u201cWhich?\u201d And Jesus said, \u201cYou shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, [19] Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Note how in both sayings, keeping the commandments (i.e., basically good works and expressions of love as opposed to faith alone) was central in the process of salvation and attaining to heaven and eternal life.<\/p>\n 8:02 love is the fulfillment of the law, so I don\u2019t really understand what the problem there would be in terms of the doctrine of justification through faith alone. because this particular text in Paul says nothing whatsoever about justification. He simply says that the love is the fulfillment of the law and therefore Christians are called to love one another and these various Ten Commandments are fulfilled in love. That\u2019s what we are\u00a0called to do.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course we are. All agree on that. The problem here for faith alone is that the keeping of the commandments is directly tied to salvation, which is contrary to Protestant teaching. This connection is made more clear in the cross-referencing of Matthew 5 and 19, but \u201csalvation\u201d is also alluded to in Romans 13:11.<\/p>\n 8:35 it\u2019s not the case that [the] Lutheran would say that the Christian does not begin to fulfill the law through love<\/span><\/p>\n I know. Again, he misses the point, which is the tie-in to salvation itself, contrary to sola fide<\/em> and Protestant imparted, external\u00a0 justification. In Lutheranism and general Protestantism, good works are required and urged, but wrongly relegated to the non-salvific category (in their view) of sanctification. Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and the Church fathers do not separate justification and sanctification in this manner. It was a 16th century novel innovation and false teaching.<\/p>\n Jordan consistently assumes (falsely) \u2014 if I am interpreting him correctly \u2014 that every reference to \u201cworks of the law\u201d is the equivalent of \u201cgood works\u201d generally. It is not. This gets into the \u201cNew Perspective on Paul\u201d<\/a> which is a Protestant movement that has many affinities with traditional Catholic soteriology.<\/p>\n 14:09 it\u2019s a question of what is the human\u2019s role in justification; what is it\u00a0by which I receive the love of God in Christ, and that is faith not my love<\/span><\/p>\n He again refers to initial justification. We fully agree about that, as seen in the citations from Trent that I provided above.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Practical Matters<\/em><\/strong>: Perhaps some of my 4,600+ free online articles (the most comprehensive \u201cone-stop\u201d Catholic apologetics site) or\u00a0fifty-five books<\/a>\u00a0have helped you (by God\u2019s grace) to decide to\u00a0become Catholic<\/a>\u00a0or to\u00a0return to the Church<\/a>,\u00a0or better understand some doctrines and\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0we believe them<\/a>.<\/p>\n Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. 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