God “justifies the wicked.” (Romans 4:5) As counterintuitive as it is simple, that claim which lies at the heart of the good news has brought immeasurable blessing – and trouble – to the church and the world. The arguement surrounding the doctrine of justification, of how we are made right before God led to the largest split in Christendome in the history of the world. And became the volatile controversy of all time. How is it that a wicked person can be made right before a just and holy God?
Justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or fall.
It is not the Pharisee, confident in his own righteousness, who went home justified, said Jesus, but the tax collector, who could not even raise his eyes to heaven but cried out, “God, have merciful to me, a sinner!”” (luke 18:9-14). It was precisely these outcasts who would be seated as the wedding guest clothed in the wedding garment, said Jesus, whole those who entered in their own attire would be cast out (Matt 22:1-14). It was the doctrine of justification by faith alone that caused the apostle Paul to look back on all of his zealous obedience to the law as that of “a Pharisee” and to call it “rubbish,” “in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (phil. 3:8-9). As the revelation of the righteousness of God, the law condemns and leaves no one standing. Yet the gospel is the revelation of the righteousness from God, the good news that sinners “are justified but his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whome God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be receved by faith” (Romans 3:24-25). “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Paul considered this doctrine to be so central that he regarded its explicit denial as “anathema” – that is, an act of heresy that the galatian church was on the verge of committing (Gal. 1:8-9). For Paul, a denial of justification was tantamount to a denial of grace and even to a denial of Christ, “for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:21). God justifies the wicked – not those who have done their best yet have fallen short, those who might at least be judged acceptable because of their sincerity, but those who at the very moment of being pronounced righteous are in themselves unrighteous. “And to the one who does not work but believes him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works...” (Rom. 4:5-7)
Martin Luther was chiefly concerned with How is a person justified before the sight of God. The urgency that the reformers thought about this issue was of the highest degree. It touches the very heart and soul of the gospel. Convinced of the truth of justification by faith alone, and believed it was of critical importance.Luther said that “justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls”. The reformer John Calvin took a similar view saying that justification by faith alone is the hinge on which everything in the Christian life turns. J.I. Packer used another striking metaphor where He aliked the doctrine of justification by faith alone to the mythological figure of atlas who’s task it was to bare the world on His shoulders. What Packer was saying was that just as Atlas was required to hold up the world so the doctrine of justification by faith alone is that which holds everything else up.
Luther said “this doctrine is the head and the corner stone. it alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves and defends the church of God. And without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.” “the article of justification by faith alone is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler and the judge over all kinds of doctrines. It preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our conscience before God. Without this article the world is utter death and darkness. No error is so mean, so clumsy, and so outworn as not to be supremely pleasing to human reason and to seduce us if we are without the knowledge and contemplation of this article.” And later he said “there are few who know and understand this article and I treat it again and again because I greatly fear that after we have laid our head at rest it will soon be forgotten and again will disappear. And indeed we cannot grasp or exhaust Christ the eternal righteousness, with one sermon or thought for to learn to appreciate Him is an everlasting lesson which we shall not be able to finish either in this or yonder life.”
R.C. Sproul says “i think that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, of all of the doctrines of systematic theology, is relatively easy to grasp with the mind, its not that complicated, but to get the doctrine from our heads to our blood streams is another matter altogether. Because it is one thing to understand a doctrine it is another thing to have it be the controlling aspect of the faith by which we live before God...We are not saved by a doctrine. It is the content to which the doctrine points that is so central and crucial to our salvation”
So what does Rome Teach?
Rome teaches in their Catechism that “’justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 492, Quoting the Council of Trent (1574))
Justification is therefore regarded as a process of becoming actually and intrinsically righteous. The first justification occurs at baptism, which eradicates both the guilt and corruption of original sin. Entirely by God’s grace this initial justification infuses the habit (or principle) of grace into the recipient. By cooperating with this inherent grace, one merits an increase of grace and, one hopes, final justification. So while initial justification is by grace alone, final justification depends also on the works of the believer, which God graciously accepts as meritorious. Since the believer’s progress in holiness is never adequate to cancel the guilt of actual sins, he or she must be refined in purgatory before being welcomes into heaven.
Righteousness is imputed
In scripture, especially in Paul, Luther discovered that the righteousness that God is, which condemns us, is the same righteousness that God gives, freely, as a gift, through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:19-31). The greek word used here is Logizomia, here translated as credited in Vs 3 and Vs 5, can also mean “to reckon” or “impute”. This “marvellous exchange” of Christ’s righteousness for the sinner’s guilt was beautifully articulated by some medieval theologians such as Luther and Calvin... the understanding of justification as an exclusively forensic (legal) declaration, based on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness through faith alone, was the chief insight of the Reformation... they recaptured the clear biblical teaching that God “justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5)... God justifies the wicked on the basis of Christ , apart from our inherent righteousness. This is the solo Christo (by Christ Alone). And he credits this righteousness through faith alone (sola fide), apart from works. Believers are just before God not to the extend that they are inherently righteous; rather, they are “simultaneously just and sinner” (simul iustus et peccator)
“Therefore”, Calvin responds, “we explain justification simply as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favour as righteous. And we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.”The logic of Calvin’s argument in the institutes (book 3, chapters 11-19) may be summarized as follows:
· To save us from judgement, the Son became flesh and merited our salvation (2.15-17)
· Thus, the righteousness by which we are saved is alien to us (3.11.2, etc)
· Yet Christ must not only be given for us; he must be given to us (3.1.1);
· We are not only recipients of Christ’s gifts but of Christ himself with his gifts (3.11.’ 3.1.4;3.2.24;4.17.11)
Faith unites us to Christ (3.1.1), but it is the Holy Spirit who gives faith and it is Christ, rather than faith itself, who always remains the sole ground of salvation. In other words, faith is nothing in itself; it receives Christ and with him all treasures (3.11.7;3.18.8). After all, “if faith in itself justified one by its own virtue, then, seeing that it is always weak and imperfect, it would be only partly effe tual and give us only a part of salvation.” (3.11.7)
One of the clearest summaries of the evangelical doctrine of justification is found in chapter 13 of the Westminster Confession:
“Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, its is the gift of God. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the sole instrument of justification; yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is not dead faith, but works by love.”
Martin Luther was chiefly concerned with How is a person justified before the sight of God. The urgency that the reformers thought about this issue was of the highest degree. It touches the very heart and soul of the gospel. Convinced of the truth of justification by faith alone, and believed it was of critical importance.Luther said that “justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls”. The reformer John Calvin took a similar view saying that justification by faith alone is the hinge on which everything in the Christian life turns. J.I. Packer used another striking metaphor where He aliked the doctrine of justification by faith alone to the mythological figure of atlas who’s task it was to bare the world on His shoulders. What Packer was saying was that just as Atlas was required to hold up the world so the doctrine of justification by faith alone is that which holds everything else up.
Luther said “this doctrine is the head and the corner stone. it alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves and defends the church of God. And without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.” “the article of justification by faith alone is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler and the judge over all kinds of doctrines. It preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our conscience before God. Without this article the world is utter death and darkness. No error is so mean, so clumsy, and so outworn as not to be supremely pleasing to human reason and to seduce us if we are without the knowledge and contemplation of this article.” And later he said “there are few who know and understand this article and I treat it again and again because I greatly fear that after we have laid our head at rest it will soon be forgotten and again will disappear. And indeed we cannot grasp or exhaust Christ the eternal righteousness, with one sermon or thought for to learn to appreciate Him is an everlasting lesson which we shall not be able to finish either in this or yonder life.”
R.C. Sproul says “i think that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, of all of the doctrines of systematic theology, is relatively easy to grasp with the mind, its not that complicated, but to get the doctrine from our heads to our blood streams is another matter altogether. Because it is one thing to understand a doctrine it is another thing to have it be the controlling aspect of the faith by which we live before God...We are not saved by a doctrine. It is the content to which the doctrine points that is so central and crucial to our salvation”
So what does Rome Teach?
Rome teaches in their Catechism that “’justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 492, Quoting the Council of Trent (1574))
Justification is therefore regarded as a process of becoming actually and intrinsically righteous. The first justification occurs at baptism, which eradicates both the guilt and corruption of original sin. Entirely by God’s grace this initial justification infuses the habit (or principle) of grace into the recipient. By cooperating with this inherent grace, one merits an increase of grace and, one hopes, final justification. So while initial justification is by grace alone, final justification depends also on the works of the believer, which God graciously accepts as meritorious. Since the believer’s progress in holiness is never adequate to cancel the guilt of actual sins, he or she must be refined in purgatory before being welcomes into heaven.
Righteousness is imputed
In scripture, especially in Paul, Luther discovered that the righteousness that God is, which condemns us, is the same righteousness that God gives, freely, as a gift, through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:19-31). The greek word used here is Logizomia, here translated as credited in Vs 3 and Vs 5, can also mean “to reckon” or “impute”. This “marvellous exchange” of Christ’s righteousness for the sinner’s guilt was beautifully articulated by some medieval theologians such as Luther and Calvin... the understanding of justification as an exclusively forensic (legal) declaration, based on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness through faith alone, was the chief insight of the Reformation... they recaptured the clear biblical teaching that God “justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5)... God justifies the wicked on the basis of Christ , apart from our inherent righteousness. This is the solo Christo (by Christ Alone). And he credits this righteousness through faith alone (sola fide), apart from works. Believers are just before God not to the extend that they are inherently righteous; rather, they are “simultaneously just and sinner” (simul iustus et peccator)
“Therefore”, Calvin responds, “we explain justification simply as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favour as righteous. And we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.”The logic of Calvin’s argument in the institutes (book 3, chapters 11-19) may be summarized as follows:
· To save us from judgement, the Son became flesh and merited our salvation (2.15-17)
· Thus, the righteousness by which we are saved is alien to us (3.11.2, etc)
· Yet Christ must not only be given for us; he must be given to us (3.1.1);
· We are not only recipients of Christ’s gifts but of Christ himself with his gifts (3.11.’ 3.1.4;3.2.24;4.17.11)
Faith unites us to Christ (3.1.1), but it is the Holy Spirit who gives faith and it is Christ, rather than faith itself, who always remains the sole ground of salvation. In other words, faith is nothing in itself; it receives Christ and with him all treasures (3.11.7;3.18.8). After all, “if faith in itself justified one by its own virtue, then, seeing that it is always weak and imperfect, it would be only partly effe tual and give us only a part of salvation.” (3.11.7)
One of the clearest summaries of the evangelical doctrine of justification is found in chapter 13 of the Westminster Confession:
“Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, its is the gift of God. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the sole instrument of justification; yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is not dead faith, but works by love.”
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