Gregory interpreted Augustine through Cassian and advocated a strong principle of merit. “He teaches almost juristically that God ‘inquires into the life of men simply by the quantity of merits.’”¹ Not only this, but he advanced the claim that the merits of the saints avail for others. He did not view Christ as our Substitute, as the perfect Sacrifice that makes satisfaction for our sins by suffering in our place. Rather he viewed Christ as the God-man whose perfect life “reproved men of sin”—providing a new standard by which we must live. He viewed Christ’s death as the ultimate act of virtue because of His righteousness, thereby acquiring an abundance of merit to avail for poor sinners. The great difficulty in his view is how the sinner may actually obtain the merit of Christ (or any merit from any of the saints) in order to merit acceptance from God. The solution to this difficulty, offered by the Roman Church, is formalized in the sacramental system.

The word “sacrament” derives from the Latin, sacramentum, a military oath of enlistment. In its original use it represented a religious sanction with a serviceable allegiance to what was then the church-state. At the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563, convened in response to the Reformation), the Roman Church plainly agreed that the word generally meant to express the obligation of an oath, pledging to the performance of some service; and hence, the oath by which soldiers promise fidelity and service to the state has been called a military “sacrament”; and amongst [profane writers] this seems to have been the most ordinary signification of the word. But among the Latin Fathers who have written on divine things, the word sacrament was used to signify some sacred thing that lies concealed; as the Greeks, to express the same idea, have made use of the word mystery. This we understand to be the meaning of the word.²

The problem with this use is that the Greek word μυστήριον (mystery) is never used for the Lord’s Supper or baptism. The Roman Church teaches that “a sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace, instituted for our justification.”³ This alludes to two distinct doctrines: (1) grace is treated as a metaphysical substance that serves as an antidote to a sinful condition, being received through sacraments, and (2) justification is a progressive process advanced through the sacraments of the Roman Church.

This is the foundation of a religious system of works. The Roman Church asserts the exclusive authority to dispense the merits of Christ (through the “keys” given to Peter) and other saints, through channels called sacraments. Sacraments are the means by which a sinner could acquire merit in order to be made, ever so gradually, acceptable to God.

One of the most full and explicit statements made by the Roman Church on the matter is contained in a letter from Pope Eugenius (1442), which states:

The sacraments of the new law are seven—namely, baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony—which differ much from the sacraments of the old law: for those do not cause grace, but represent it as only to be given through the passion [suffering] of Christ; but the sacraments of the new law contain grace, and confer it on those who worthily receive them. The first five are ordained for the spiritual perfection of each man in himself; the last two, for the government and multiplication of the whole Church.⁴ Pope Eugenius IV

Medieval sacraments were darkly veiling the light of the gospel. Sacraments hid the pure and free gift of salvation by grace through faith alone. Christ was mediated by sacraments rather than proclaimed as mediator. Sacraments served more as vitamins to an ill soul, thought to be capable within its own strength to save itself by such means. They were as levers that could be pulled to mysteriously dispense justifying substance. These are all sad and tragic departures from the light that had dawned in Christ and the gospel.

Corruptions

Often, discussions about the Reformation focus on the corruptions that preceded it. And such cannot be denied. But unless we see that the moral corruptions are the outworking of a Church without the gospel and therefore in darkness, we miss the point. Yes, there were many corruptions at that time, as B. B. Warfield has well said, “men everywhere were fully alive to the corruption of manners and morals in which the world was groveling, and were equally helpless to correct it.”⁵ The key is in his ending clause, all “were helpless to correct it.” It is easy to identify and decry moral corruption; it is an entirely different thing to dispel corruption from the heart. The force of law has always failed to change the desires of man; only the gospel could cause a true Reformation.

In the midst of a darkened works-based religious system, Europe was suffering spiritual oppression. Lack of spirituality, creativity, and joy increasingly robbed life from the culture. The darkness was deeply felt, and man was groping for light. The medieval⁶ solution to this problem is best captured in a movement called the Renaissance.

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