22. Brief Analysis

Books on ecclesiastical history make it clear that the four points just mentioned, as they are taught in the Protestant churches today, are not new. They were not invented by these three reformers. Instead, they had come into existence as early as the time of the Council of Nicaea and had been passed down by writers after that; they have been preserved as part of the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.

The reason why Roman Catholics and Protestants agree concerning the trinity of persons in the Divine is that they both recognize the three [ecumenical] creeds in which this concept of a trinity is taught: the Apostles’ Creed; the Nicene Creed; and the Athanasian Creed.

As for the notion that Christ’s merit is assigned to us, the material gathered above in §§3– 8 from the Council of Trent and in §§10– 15 from the Formula of Concord makes it clear that they agree on this point as well.

As for the point about how we are justified, this will now be taken up for further discussion.

6. Concerning free choice:

(a) Free choice was by no means extinguished by Adam’s sin, but was attenuated in its powers and bent down (Session 6, chapter 1).

(b) If any say that our free choice, once it is moved and stirred by God, does not cooperate at all through giving assent to God’s stirring and calling, in order to dispose and prepare us for obtaining the grace of justification, or that even if it wants to, it cannot refuse its consent, but, like something inanimate, does nothing whatever and is merely passive, let them be anathema (Session 6, canon 4).