Roman Catholic theologians are in error not by claiming that good works are necessary but only in how they claim them to be necessary. Good works are not a necessary condition for salvation but a necessary result of salvation. In other words, good works do not contribute to the declaration of righteousness in our justification, but they do necessarily flow from that declaration.

One of the more difficult aspects of Christianity to understand is the place of good works in the life of a believer. This has been true historically, since much of the contention between the Roman Catholic Church and the magisterial Reformers was centered on the role that works play—or do not play—in our justification. Even today, believers can be confused about the role that good works play in our salvation. It is important, however, to consider good works in light of the gospel itself. Yet to get to the good news of salvation in Christ, we must first consider the “bad news” that the entrance of sin brings.

The opening chapters of Genesis speak of the creation of man as the apex of God’s creative work. God made man in His image and set him to work and keep the garden of Eden. Likewise, God made Eve as a helper for Adam, someone who corresponded to him and was perfectly suited to assist him in his work. Although Genesis does not use this language, we see already in Adam and Eve the “chief end of man”—that we are made to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (Westminster Shorter Catechism 1). But glorifying and enjoying God was not just something that Adam and Eve were made able to do. There in the garden, they actually enjoyed and glorified Him in their whole being.

The third chapter of Genesis, however, speaks of the entrance of sin and misery into the world. Because Adam ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he broke the covenant that God had made with him. The curse that God had decreed against such sin and disobedience was that “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). While God graciously held back the fullness of that curse—Adam did not drop dead the moment his teeth pierced the fruit—Adam did experience spiritual death. By his disobedience, he lost the natural ability to glorify and enjoy his Creator and covenant God.

Here is the “bad news”—because sin entered the world through Adam’s disobedience, all those who are descended from him by natural generation (that is, all but Jesus) lost the ability to obey and love God. Indeed, since we are dead in our sins and trespasses, we do not even desire to obey Him or love Him.

In this fallen condition, humanity faces two problems: the presence of guilt and the absence of righteousness. Not only are we guilty in Adam as our covenant head (see Rom. 5:12), we are also guilty of our own actual sins. Moreover, since the “wages of sin is death” (6:23), all those who are guilty of sin deserve the punishment that sin requires.

As those fallen in Adam, we also face the problem of a complete absence of righteousness. Paul speaks of the “righteous requirement of the law” that must be fulfilled (8:4). The corruption of sin means, however, that we are completely unable to fulfill the law’s demand of perfect obedience to its every command. We therefore owe a double debt: the perfect righteousness that the law demands and the full penalty that breaking the law requires. We cannot do the former, and even an eternity in hell cannot fully satisfy the latter.

The good news of the gospel, however, speaks into the whole of our circumstance before God. Jesus came down from heaven, for us and for our salvation, to save sinners. Throughout the whole of His life, Jesus lived in perfect conformity to God’s law. He did not violate a single commandment—neither in His thoughts nor in His actions. Furthermore, His obedience was not merely formal or feigned. No, Jesus rejoiced to do His Father’s will.

His obedience culminated on the cross. There, Jesus took the wrath that we deserve for our sins and paid the penalty that the law demands of sinners. But that death could not hold Him. On the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead—a vindication of His every word and work and the down payment of resurrection for all whom He saved. Jesus, the perfect Savior, perfectly accomplished our salvation in His life, death, and resurrection.

The cross reveals at once both the desperate need of sinners and the gracious offer of God in our salvation. We lack a righteousness of our own, and the cross reveals what our sins deserve: to be forsaken by God and to suffer the weight of our sinful disobedience for all eternity. When Paul states that God “made him to be sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), he turns us back to the cross that we might clearly understand what sin deserves. Yet Christ was made to be sin “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The question on which the whole of the gospel turns is this: How does a sinner receive this perfectly accomplished salvation? The Bible gives only this answer: We receive the finished work of Christ by grace alone through faith alone. In saying that we receive the righteousness of Christ by grace, we affirm that it is not the result of works. There is nothing in us or done by us that deserves or merits the salvation that is in Christ. God offers this righteousness by grace—His merciful favor in the face of our utter lack of merit.

What is given as a gift by grace is received by the sinner only through faith. Yet still we might ask: How does faith “receive” the righteousness of Christ? When we believe in Christ as He is offered in the gospel, a double imputation happens: First, our sins are given to Christ such that His sacrificial death is counted as full payment for all that they deserve; and second, His perfect righteousness is given to us, such that we are accepted by God as those who have fully obeyed all that the law requires.

In the Bible, this double imputation is called justification—a declaration by God that our sins are forgiven and we are now righteous in His sight. That God declares sinners righteous by grace alone through faith alone was a central point of contention during the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church taught that “to justify” does not mean “to declare someone righteous” but “to make someone righteous.” In other words, God does not simply say that the sinner is righteous but does something in the person such that he becomes righteous in himself. There is, according to this view, an “infusion” of grace that transforms a sinner into a saint.

The Reformers, however, realized that justification was a legal term. A judge declares someone “not guilty”; he does not make him “not guilty.” Indeed, a just and righteous judge would not declare someone “not guilty” unless he was, in fact, innocent. But God is not unrighteous when He declares sinners righteous because He has promised to accept a surety on their behalf. The whole sacrificial system taught that God was willing to accept the death of a substitute in the place of the sinner.

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