| Justification by Faith An Examination of the Biblical Doctrine of Salvation |
| Brian Schwertley |
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| A doctrine which contains the heart or essence of the gospel is justification by faith alone. This doctrine is so central to the Christian faith that the apostle Paul proclaimed an anathema upon anyone who would pervert it (Gal. 1:6-9). Yet in spite of the importance attributed to it in the Bible and the critical role it played in the Protestant Reformation, most professing believers today do not understand it. We live in a time when most people are woefully ignorant of basic Bible doctrines. An obsession with entertainment and emotionalism has replaced a concern for theology. The great doctrines of grace that once thundered from Wittenburg, Geneva and Scotland have for the most part been replaced with a man-centered, subjective emotionalism. On what is called Christian television today one can observe hours of crass entertainment interspersed with the phrase “Let Christ come into your heart” or “Accept Christ as your personal Savior.” There are several programs on television and radio that deal solely with biblical prophecy. How many shows are there which deal with the doctrine of God, or the atonement, or justification? Professing Christians are often very critical of believers who emphasize doctrinal precision. People who emphasize doctrine are accused of being legalists and unloving. This attitude is puzzling considering the fact that the New Testament is full of doctrine. The apostle Paul made hair-splitting theological distinctions in his epistles. Paul makes it very clear that a mistake with regard to justification is a mistake that sends people to the lake of fire. |
| Evangelical leaders have not been immune from the unscriptural ecumenical and anti-doctrinal spirit of the age. In 1994 some evangelical and Roman Catholic leaders produced the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium. This document’s statement on justification is vague enough to satisfy the pragmatists on both sides, yet it completely ignores the critical differences between Romanism and biblical Protestantism on justification. Professing Christians must ask themselves: “Is it worth throwing out the gospel for the sake of political cooperation and a false sense of unity?” Do Evangelicals really believe that revival can come apart from an emphasis on the true gospel? The solution to the problems of society must begin with a return to justification by faith alone. We must understand it, embrace it, and shout it from the rooftops. |
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| The doctrine of justification deals with the question of how God, who is absolutely holy (Ex. 15:11; Lev. 11:44; Ps. 22:3; Isa. 6:3; 1 Pet. 1:15; Rev. 4:8) and who demands ethical perfection in His creatures, can allow men who are guilty of breaking His law into His presence and fellowship. Two problems must be resolved before men who are guilty can have eternal life with God. First, the penalty due for sin must be paid in full. God’s nature and law requires satisfaction for all disobedience. Second, God requires of all men a perfect obedience. Shedd writes: “Whoever justifies the ungodly must lay a ground both for his delivery from hell, and his entrance into heaven. In order to place a transgressor in a situation in which he is dikaios, or right in every respect before the law, it is necessary to fulfill the law for him, both as penalty and precept. Hence the justification of the sinner comprises not only pardon, but a title to the reward of the righteous. The former is specially related to Christ’s passive righteousness, the latter to his active. Christ’s expiatory suffering delivers the believing sinner from the punishment which the law threatens, and Christ’s perfect obedience establishes for him a right to the reward which the law promises.”1 When a person believes in Jesus Christ, God the Father in the heavenly court declares that that person is righteous solely on the basis of Christ’s full satisfaction for sin and perfect obedience to the law. |
| Justification is not something that occurs in man, nor is it a process. It refers to the legal, judicial and forensic declaration of God. “It is to declare forensically that the demands of the law as a condition of life are fully satisfied with regard to a person, Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1, 9; 8:30-33; I Cor. 6:11; Gal. 2:16; 3:11.”2 The ground of justification is Christ’s sacrificial death and perfect obedience to the law (i.e., “the righteousness of God,” Rom. 3:21). When a man by faith lays hold of Jesus Christ and His merits, God imputes that person’s guilt for sins past, present and future upon Christ on the cross. God also imputes Christ’s perfect righteousness to that sinner. The Father then declares that man righteous or just in the heavenly court. Because Christ has removed the guilt of that man’s sins past, present, and future legally before God, it is as though that man never committed sin. He is white as snow (Isa. 1:18). His record is perfect. Judicially, he is just as righteous and perfect as Jesus Christ. Since Christ’s perfect obedience is imputed to him, he has eternal life because Christ merited it for him. |
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| It is important to establish the forensic, declarative, objective nature of justification from Scripture. The great heresy regarding justification is that men are justified by God’s work in their own hearts and experiences. This is a confounding of justification with sanctification. The Romish church teaches that justification is “not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man, through the voluntary reception of the grace and gifts by which an unrighteous man becomes righteous.”3 Thus, for the Romanist, justification is a lifelong process that may not even be complete until after death in purgatory. A study of Scripture proves that justification is not subjective or a process, but is a legal declaration by God the Father in the heavenly court.4 |
| 1. In the New Testament the verb dikaioo means to declare righteous or just. “And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God” (Lk. 7:29). “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children” (Mt. 11:19). “That You may be justified in Your words and may overcome when You are judged” (Rom. 3:4; cf. Ps. 51:4). “But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Lk. 10:29). “And he said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts” (Lk. 16:15). The passages which refer to men justifying God cannot mean to make God righteous, for God is perfect. It is obvious that men are declaring God to be righteous. |
| 2. The term “justify” cannot mean to make just, because it is often contrasted with judicial condemnation. A judge cannot make a person guilty of a crime, he can only declare him to be guilty. Likewise, a judge does not sanctify or make a person righteous; he declares him to be righteous. |
| “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked” (Dt. 25:1). “He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord” (Pr. 17:15). “Woe to men...Who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man!” (Isa. 5:23) “Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked” (Ex. 23:7). “Should one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn Him who is most just?” (Job 34:17) “It is worthy of special observation that, in the passages cited above, the terms ‘justify’ and ‘justification’ are contrasted, not with the process of depraving or corrupting, but with the outward act of condemning; and that the expressions used to explain and illustrate them are all derived, not from the inward operation of purifying the soul or infusing into it righteousness but from the procedure of courts in their judgments, or of offended persons in their forgiveness of offenders. We conclude that these terms, wherever they have reference to the sinner’s relation to God, signify a declarative and judicial act of God, external to the sinner, and not an efficient and sovereign act of God changing the sinner’s nature and making him subjectively righteous.”5 |
| 3. The biblical words and phrases that are used to describe and define justification can only mean to declare righteous. The Bible never says that men are justified by an infusion of righteousness or by becoming righteous personally, but always uses the language of imputation. Sometimes the Bible says that a person’s sins are not imputed to him. “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity” (Ps. 32:2). “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). At other times the Bible speaks of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to those who believe. “And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 4:22-24). The apostle Paul describes the removal of guilt and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness as simultaneous. They both occur the moment a person believes in Christ. “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin’” (Rom. 4:3-8). |
| What does the word “impute” mean? It means that God reckons or regards a believing sinner as perfectly righteous who is not personally righteous. Hodge writes: “The word impute is familiar and unambiguous. To impute is to ascribe to, to reckon to, to lay to one’s charge. When we say we impute a good or bad motive to a man, or that a good or evil action is imputed to him, no one misunderstands our meaning. Philemon had no doubt what Paul meant when he told him to impute to him the debt of Onesimus. ‘Let not the king impute anything unto his servant.’ (I Sam. xix.19) ‘Neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it.’ (Lev. vii.18) ‘Blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood.’ (Lev. xvii.4)... Imputation never changes the inward, subjective state of the person to whom the imputation is made. When sin is imputed to a man he is not made sinful; when you impute theft to a man, you do not make him a thief. When you impute goodness to a man, you do not make him good. So when righteousness is imputed to the believer, he does not thereby become subjectively righteous.”7 The scriptural meaning of imputation is plain and easy to understand. To insist on the infusion of righteousness as the starting point of justification when the Bible clearly teaches the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is a willful rejection of divine truth. |
| 4. That justification in Scripture cannot refer to a process in man in which men are made righteous is proved from those passages which teach that God justifies or declares righteous the ungodly. “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other [the self-righteous Pharisee]; for everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk. 18:13-14). “And Jesus said to him [the criminal on the cross], ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (Lk. 23:43). “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). Charles Hodge writes, “If every man and all men are ungodly, it follows that they are regarded and treated as righteous, not on the ground of their personal character; and it is further apparent that justification does not consist in making one inherently just or holy; for it is as ungodly that those who believe are freely justified for Christ’s sake. It never was, as shown above, the doctrine of the Reformation, or of the Lutheran and Reformed divines, that the imputation of righteousness affects the moral character of those concerned. It is true, whom God justifies he also sanctifies; but justification is not sanctification, and the imputation of righteousness is not the infusion of righteousness. These are the first principles of the doctrine of the Reformers.”8 |
| 5. Justification cannot mean to make righteous, for the Bible explicitly teaches that no person can be saved by law-keeping. The Scriptures teach that all believers this side of heaven commit sin.9 “By Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Ac. 13:39). “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:20-24). “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28). “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Gal. 2:16). “But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil. 3:8-9). Martin Luther writes: “‘By the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified.’ This do thou amplify and run through all states and conditions of life thus: Ergo no monk shall be justified by his order, no nun by her chastity, no citizen by his probity, no prince by his benefice, etc. The law of God is greater than the whole world, for it comprehendeth all men, and the works of the law do far excel even the most glorious will-works of all the merit-mongers; and yet Paul saith that neither the law nor the works of the law do justify. Therefore we conclude with Paul, that faith only justifieth.”10 |
| 6. Justification cannot refer to something in man or to human merit, for the Bible teaches that even the best works of God’s people are tainted with sin and are non-meritorious.11 “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do’” (Lk. 17:10). “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Gal. 5:17). “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Ps. 130:3) “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous” (Ps. 143:2; cf. Rom. 7:15 ff.; Phil. 3:8-9). Good works do not and cannot cause or contribute to justification but rather flow from it. Furthermore, good works are only acceptable before God through Christ (Eph. 1:6; 1 Pet. 2:5; Ex. 28:38). |
| 7. Justification cannot refer to a subjective process in a man that may take decades to complete, for it occurs in an instant of time. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life” (Jn. 6:47; cf. 5:24). When a person believes in Jesus Christ, he has eternal life. He is in full possession of the heavenly reward. When the criminal on the cross believed in Christ, “Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (Lk. 23:43). When the tax collector said, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” the Bible says he “went down to his house justified” (Lk. 18:13-14). “He who believes in Him is not condemned” (Jn. 3:18). “Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). “It is necessary that men study much that eternal life is to be had only in and by Christ.... It is necessary that all false ways to heaven be cried down, and that men look on faith as the only and sure way of taking hold of Christ; and of getting life in Him.”12 |
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| Since the doctrine of justification is often confounded with sanctification, one should note the differences between what God in Christ has done for us and what He does in us. |
| 1. Justification is objective. It takes place outside of the sinner in the heavenly court. Justification does not directly change the believer’s inner life. On the other hand, sanctification is subjective. It takes place in the sinner and renders the sinner more holy over time. |
| 2. Justification is an act of God the Father. God renders a verdict regarding the one who believes in Christ. “It is God who justifies” (Rom. 8:33). Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled13 with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). |
| 3. Justification is instantaneous. God declares the believing sinner righteous in a moment of time. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (Jn. 5:24; cf. Lk. 18:14; Rom. 5:1). Justification is not a process, nor is it piecemeal. It takes place only once, then it is complete. “There is no such thing as being more and more justified. There are no degrees of acceptance with God. To be justified is to be wholly justified.”14 A “man is either fully justified, or he is not justified at all.”15 Sanctification is a continuous process. The Christian grows in holiness and more and more conforms to the character of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit applies God’s word to his heart. “The old sin nature is progressively subdued, but never entirely abolished in this life.”16 Sanctification is progressive, imperfect, and not completed until death. |
| 4. Justification removes the guilt of sin and clothes the believer with Christ’s perfect righteousness, thus entitling him to eternal life in God’s own family. Sanctification progressively removes the pollution of sin; subdues the power of sin, and increasingly enables the believer to live in conformity with the word of God. |
| 5. Justification is an act of God obtained by or through faith. “There is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Rom. 3:30). Faith is not the ground or cause of justification but the instrument by which the believer receives justification. Faith is the gift of God which lays hold of and receives what Christ has accomplished. The believer’s salvation and justification are totally a work of God. Sanctification requires faith and flows from Christ’s death and justification, but it is a process in which the justified sinner cooperates and contributes. Sanctification involves obedience to God’s law and good works. In justification there is not one iota of human merit, good works, or lawkeeping involved, except Christ’s perfect righteousness. |
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| In order for men who are sinners to have eternal life, the guilt and penalty of sin must be removed and men must have a perfect record of obeying God’s law. Thus, justification contains two elements: one negative and the other positive. Simply put, the negative element deals with the removal of guilt and the penalty due for sin, while the positive element provides a perfect righteousness. These elements are the ground, or foundation, of justification. They are what enable God to be just while at the same time the justifier of sinners (Rom. 3:26). These grounds of justification are both provided for in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “The ‘righteousness of God’ is the active and passive obedience of incarnate God. It is Christ’s vicarious suffering of the penalty, and vicarious obedience of the precept of the law which man has transgressed. It is Christ’s atoning for man’s sin, and acquiring a title for him to eternal life.”17 |
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| The negative element refers to Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, all his sins past, present, and future are placed upon Jesus Christ on the cross. A whole life of sin and guilt is imputed to Christ’s account. Sin is removed and the penalty—the curse of the law—is endured for us by Christ. “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Rom. 5:18). “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Gal 3:13). “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.... For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.... Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:12, 14, 17). God does not overlook sin or arbitrarily pardon it, but judges it and punishes it in Christ. Christ’s death was the demonstration of the judging and justifying judgment of God. “Paul’s gospel or good news is ‘the power of God unto salvation.’ The omnipotence of God, His absolute power, is operative in His revelation of His righteousness. His law stands; His court requires atonement, and Christ renders it for the elect people.”18 Because Christ has suffered the penalty in the place of His people, they are pardoned, forgiven and forever released from punishment. Many evangelicals regard the negative element of justification as the only element needed for eternal life, but the Bible teaches that more than forgiveness is needed. To have the guilt and penalty of sin removed is to be in the same place Adam was before the fall. It is true that one whose sins are removed cannot go to hell, but a perfect, positive righteousness is required before one is entitled to eternal life. This perfect righteousness is also provided by Jesus Christ. |
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| The positive element refers to Christ’s perfect obedience to God’s law lived in behalf of the believer. Christ’s life lived in perfect submission to God’s will in thought, word, and deed is imputed to the believer’s account. In the entire history of mankind there are only 331/2 years lived on earth by one Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, that God will accept. Both elements of justification are discussed in Zechariah 3:3-4. Note that God removes the filthy garments (the negative aspect) and then provides new garments (the positive aspect). “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.’ And to him He said, ‘See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes’” (Zech. 3:3-4). Paul writes: “For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:6). Paul says that those who receive grace also receive “the gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17). |
| The necessity of obtaining a perfect, positive righteousness was taught by Jesus Christ. “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:20). Bavinck writes, “[W]hen Jesus regards such a righteousness as being necessary for entering the kingdom of God He does not mean that a person is in his own strength to accomplish it. Were that necessary, He would not have been a Messiah and His gospel would not have been a glad tiding. His purpose, rather, is to shed light upon the nature, the spiritual character, the perfection of God’s kingdom: no one can enter it unless he is in perfect harmony with the law of God and shares in the perfect righteousness.”19 Similarly, when Paul says “the doers of the law will be justified” (Rom. 2:13), he is not teaching that sinful men have the ability to perfectly obey God’s law. He is simply pointing out a biblical principle of justice: that if a person did perfectly obey God’s law he would be declared righteous by God. Since the Bible makes it abundantly clear that no one can perfectly obey God, the believer must look to and depend solely on Christ’s perfect righteousness. Christ came “to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt. 3:15) for us. “God declares us righteous because we are legally righteous by virtue of the imputation of Christ’s perfect righteousness to our account.”20 |
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| The Bible teaches that God’s people are justified by or through faith (Rom. 1:17; 3:25, 28, 30; 5:1; Gal. 2:16; 3:11, 24; Eph. 2:8; Phil 3:9). The apostle Paul uses three different expressions—dia pisteos, ek pisteos, and pistei (dative)—that reveal the role that faith plays in a person’s justification. The phrase dia pisteos means “by means of” or “through” faith. Faith is the instrument which lays hold of Jesus Christ and His merits. God, through His regenerating power, enables a person to believe. He gives a person the gift of faith, and then by faith a person embraces Jesus Christ and all His benefits. “Regeneration is the act of God and of God alone. But faith is not the act of God; it is not God who believes in Christ for salvation, it is the sinner. It is by God’s grace that a person is able to believe, but faith is an activity on the part of the person and of him alone. In faith we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation.”21 |
| The phrase ek pisteos (“from,” “out of” or “by faith”) describes faith as that which logically precedes a person’s justification. It “describes faith as the occasion of justification, though never as the efficient or ultimate cause of justification.”22 The dative use of the noun pistis is used in an instrumental sense (cf. Rom. 3:28). In the Bible, justifying faith is never presented as the grounds for a believer’s justification. People are never described as being saved because of their faith or on the grounds of their faith. “If this were the case, faith would have to be regarded as a meritorious work of man. And this would be the introduction of the doctrine of justification by works, which the apostle opposes consistently, Rom. 3:21, 27, 28; 4:3-4; Gal. 2:16, 21; 3:11.”23 |
| This point needs to be emphasized, because in our day faith is often presented as virtuous in itself, as if God accepts men because of their faith rather than because of Jesus Christ. People are told to have faith in faith itself. But faith apart from the proper object of faith is useless and even harmful. “We are justified not merely by faith, but by faith in Christ; not because of what faith is, but because of what faith lays hold of and receives. We are not saved for believing but by believing. In the application of justification, faith is not a builder but a beholder; it has nothing to give or achieve, but has all to receive. Faith is neither the ground nor the substance of our justification, but the hand, the instrument, the vessel which receives the divine gift proffered to us in the gospel.”24 To teach, as many do, that men generate their own faith and are saved because of an act of their own will is a denial of the gospel as taught by Christ and the apostles. God does not accept a man’s faith in place of a perfect obedience to the law, but rather accepts Christ’s perfect obedience laid hold of by faith. There is a world of difference between these two views. |
| Illustrations have often been used to explain the instrumental and appropriating nature of faith; faith can be compared to an empty vessel which holds a great treasure or an empty ring which holds a priceless diamond. Faith is described as the hand of the soul. “Nothing in my hand I bring; only to the cross I cling” (Augustus Toplady). Faith is spoken of as an eye which looks away from itself toward Jesus Christ. True faith is always directed toward Jesus Christ. True faith always acknowledges that we have nothing to contribute to our salvation; that all our righteousness is as filthy rags; that apart from Christ we are hopeless, destitute, dead, and damned. “‘Faith alone’ is a confession that all which is necessary for our acceptance with God has been done by God Himself in His redemptive act in Jesus Christ. It is an acknowledgement that Christ Himself, in our name and on our behalf, met all our obligations before the bar of eternal justice.”25 |
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| It is important that people have a proper understanding of the biblical concept of saving faith. Most people who regard themselves as Christians in this day do not have saving faith. Many people are confused because the word “faith” is often used in a manner that is contrary to the Christian usage. Some people speak of faith as an irrational leap in the dark. Faith is described as a willingness to accept what is totally absurd and illogical. The idea that faith and reason are incompatible like oil and water is the language of infidelity, “for faith in the irrational is of necessity itself irrational. It is impossible to believe that to be true which the mind sees to be false. This would be to believe and disbelieve the same thing at the same time.”26 The idea that faith is irrational may be fine for the eastern mystic or Zen Buddhist, but it has nothing to do with Scripture. |
| Others speak of faith as mental assent to certain propositions which are probably true but cannot be proven to be true. A man who is on a walk encounters an old wooden bridge that crosses a deep gorge. The bridge has not been in use for many decades and has termite damage and dry rot. The man carefully examines the bridge and determines that it is likely to support his weight. He then carefully crosses the bridge. The man exhibits a trust that the bridge will not collapse, but he is not sure. This illustration is an accurate description of how the term “faith” is often used in every day speech. However, as an illustration of biblical faith in Christ it is seriously defective. One certainly does not find the apostles preaching the high probability of Christ’s resurrection. This definition of faith would not apply to the apostles who saw, touched, listened to, and dined with the resurrected Christ (e.g., 1 Jn. 1:1; Lk. 24:36-43). Did Thomas believe that Christ probably rose from the dead when he place his fingers into Christ’s hands and hand into his side (Jn. 20:27-29)? Doesn’t the Bible speak of a faith that precludes the possibility of doubt? In certainly does! Job said, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25), “I know that I shall be vindicated” (13:18). Paul says, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). The author of Hebrews says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). “[F]aith lays hold of what is promised and therefore hoped for, as something real and solid, though as yet unseen.… Faith...is the foundation on which the structure of hope is raised.”27 The word translated substance (hypostasis) can mean assurance, confident assurance or certitude (e.g., RSV; NASB; ASV, “assurance”; NIV, “being sure”; Young’s Literal Translation, “confidence”). The assured conviction spoken of in Hebrews is much more than a hope in probabilities. |
| In everyday use the word “faith” refers to the trust that a person has in the testimony of another. Based on the knowledge that one has regarding another, one is convinced that his word is trustworthy, or true. A person believes that something is true even though he has not personally witnessed that thing. When the Bible says that “faith is a conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1, A.S.V.) it is describing the fact that Christians believe in what the Bible teaches even though they have not observed the historical events, miracles, etc., which the Scriptures describe. The Christian believes in things not seen based on God’s testimony. |
| This is the common definition found among orthodox Protestant theologians both past and present. Turretin writes, “‘The object of faith is none other than the written word of God according to the measure of revelation.’ Faith (pistis) is one thing; knowledge (gnosis) another. The latter is gained even from nature by beholding the works of God, but the former only from supernatural grace and revelation by the hearing of the word (which alone is the object of faith [piston]).”28 “Owen [writes], ‘All faith is an assent upon testimony; and divine faith is an assent upon a divine testimony.’ John Howe asks, ‘Why do I believe Jesus to be the Christ? Because the eternal God hath given his testimony concerning Him that so He is.’ ‘A man’s believing comes all to nothing without this, that there is a divine testimony.’ Again, ‘I believe such a thing, as God reveals it, because it is reported to me upon the authority.’”29 The Confession of Faith says, “By this faith a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein.”30 “Saving faith rests upon the truth of the testimony of God speaking in his Word.... Saving faith receives as true all the contents of God’s Word, without exception.”31 To believe in God means that a person believes or trusts in everything that God has spoken. “Mark 1:15 commands us to ‘believe in the Gospel.’ Some people make a distinction between believing a written account and believing in a person. This verse undermines such a distinction. Really, when one believes in a person, he believes the words the person speaks—he believes his promises and his asserted ability to perform. This is what is meant by saying that we trust in a person.”32 |
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| The Bible sometimes speaks of people who believe in Jesus or receive the truth but who do not have saving faith. The Scriptures describe people who believe in Christ, but the Christ they believe in is either one of their imagination or one who fits preconceived notions regarding the Jewish messiah. Also, there are biblical examples of people who have temporary faith. God’s word says that they believe for a season. The epistle of James describes people who have a dead faith. That is a counterfeit faith that does not result in a life of obedience. Theologians refer to this type of faith as a historical faith or a mere intellectual assent. The biblical examples of false faith will be briefly considered as a warning to professors of Christ and as an aid in sharpening our understanding of true saving faith. |
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| There are multitudes of people today who say that they believe in Christ but who in reality believe in a false Christ. They do not believe in Christ as He is presented in the Scriptures. They reject certain aspects of the scriptural testimony regarding Jesus and they add their own doctrines in their place. This is precisely what modernists and cults have done and continue to do. The apostle John warned of heretics who deny Christ: “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son” (2 Jn. 9). Gordon Clark writes, “Saving faith...is faith in Christ. But we must be careful not to empty the name of Christ of its New Testament meaning. Some ecclesiastical leaders want to restrict faith in Christ to such an extent that Christ becomes a mere name about which nothing is to be said. The general tenor of modern religion is so antagonistic to doctrine that the Virgin Birth, the two natures in one Person, and even the Atonement are said to be unessential. One must believe in Christ, they say, but not in a Christ who pre-existed as the second person of the trinity, not in a Christ who was virgin-born, not in a Christ who rose from the grave. What Christ then do they believe in? The answer is, no real Christ at all. They have put their faith in an empty name; or, better, they have disguised their lack of faith by pious terminology.”33 |
| Faith in a Christ that is not defined by Scripture was common even in the days of Jesus. “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men” (Jn. 2:23-24). Because of the miracles that Jesus performed, many Jews believed that He was a great prophet or even the messiah. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them because He knew that their concept of who he was false. They were trusting in a physical warrior king (cf. 6:15), not the suffering servant. They were trusting in the miracles but were not listening to Christ’s words. “Observe, that all do not derive equal profit from the works of God; for some are led by them to God, and others are only driven by a blind impulse, so that, while they perceive indeed the power of God, still they do not cease to wander in their own imaginations.”34 |
| The one who believes in a Christ fashioned by the imagination, or a cult or popular culture is like the stony ground hearer in the parable of the sower, for he never really even understands the gospel. “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart” (Mt. 13:19). The fault of the word not being understood lies with the hearer and not God’s word. The seed cannot take root in a heart of stone, and thus is consumed by Satan. Satan’s ministers take away the good seed out of the hearer’s mind and replace it with poison. |
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| The are many people who say they believe in Christ yet live worldly and wicked lives. They honor Christ with their lips, yet prove they do not love Him by their actions. James says that their faith is dead: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead” (Jas. 2:18-20). Kistemaker writes: “In this chapter James refers to two kinds of faith: true faith and pretense. The first kind is characteristic of the true believer who shows faith ‘by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom’ (James 3:13). The second kind is a demonstration of dead orthodoxy that is nothing more than a series of doctrinal statements accurately reflecting the teaching of Scripture.”35 |
| James points to the example of demons who “believe and tremble”—because demons know the truth about God and Christ. They know that Christ is fully God and fully man and that He rose from the dead. But they certainly do not trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior. The demons’ orthodox knowledge is easily established from Scripture. In the book of Acts Luke describes “a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination.” Does this demon-possessed girl spout forth new age mysticism? No. The girl said regarding Paul and Silas: “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation” (16:17). When Jesus encountered two demon-possessed men in the country of the Gergesenes the demons “cried out saying, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’” (Mt. 8.29; cf. Lk. 4:34; Mk. 1:24; 5:7). Satan and the demons believe that certain doctrines and historic events are true, yet they hate the Lord Jesus Christ. There is knowledge but there is not trust. There is no fiducial apprehension of Christ. That is the reason that Reformed theologians refer to this spurious form of faith as a “bare assent” or a “mere intellectual assent.” “It is rather expressive of the idea that this faith accepts the truths of Scripture as one might accept a history in which one is not personally interested.”36 |
| Many people are just going through the motions (i.e., they walk an aisle, kneel at the front of the church, and even pray the sinner’s prayer), but they really do not believe. If one would ask them if they believe in Jesus Christ, they would answer “yes,” but their actions prove that they really couldn’t care less about Christ and His gospel. Jesus strongly warned all false professors by saying, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Mt. 7:21-23) |
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| The Bible describes people who apparently believe for a period of time and then fall away. The prime example is from the parable of the sower: “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arise because of the word immediately he stumbles” (Mt. 13:20-21). Luke’s account says, “they believe for a while” (Lk. 8:13). There are many who hear the gospel and receive it with joy. They appear very excited about Jesus Christ. They go to church and even get involved in good works and evangelizing others, but after a period of time they eventually return to their former sinful life. The problem was that these people had no root. “Till strong hearts are changed it must alway be so. We meet with many who are soon hot and as soon cold. They receive the Gospel ‘anon,’ and leave it ‘by and by.’ Everything is on the surface, and therefore is hasty and unreal.”37 Even the great sower Paul suffered such disappointments. He wrote to Timothy, “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:9-10). |
| These temporary professing Christians were never genuine believers. The apostle John said, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 Jn. 2:19). A temporary faith is not a real faith, for it proceeds from an unregenerate heart. “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Heb. 3:12). In this day of church growth methodology, evangelistic crusades and rock concert revivalism, the vast majority of professors endure but a short time. They look like wheat, but as time passes by it is evident they are tares. “May we all have broken hearts and prepared minds, that when truth comes to us it may take root in us and abide.”38 |
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| Saving faith is a faith which secures eternal life. Although the Bible describes it as an activity of man, it is a direct result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit upon man’s heart. The Holy Spirit uses the knowledge of the word of God to convict a person of his sins, to convince a person of the truth of Scripture—in particular the gospel, and to place his trust in Jesus Christ as He is presented in Scripture. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Unlike the spurious forms of faith discussed above, saving faith has the proper object: Jesus Christ as He is presented in the Scriptures. It is a faith which leads to a life of obedience and good works. It is permanent. The faith produced by the Holy Spirit cannot ever fail. Everyone who truly believes in Christ is justified, sanctified, and eventually glorified (Rom. 8:30). |
| The Holy Spirit produces saving faith and guarantees that a believer’s faith will never fail.39 Since faith is a gift of God, God receives all the glory in the salvation of men. After the apostle John said that those who left the church of Christ were never truly saved, he wrote, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things...the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (1 Jn. 2:20, 27). Paul wrote, “the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things” (1 Cor. 2:14-15). God “even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ.... For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:5, 8). Saving faith does not depend on the enticing words of man’s wisdom. It does not rest on clever philosophical proofs, or on the latest archeological and historical evidences, but on the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. “The testimony of God is given through the Spirit, whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us.”40 The Holy Spirit shows the truth to the regenerate mind and protects believers from heresy. Jesus said, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out...the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (Jn. 10:3-5). “The Spirit demonstrates the truth to the mind, i.e., produces the conviction that it is the truth, and leads the soul to embrace it with assurance and delight.”41 |
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| The first thing needed in order to have saving faith is knowledge; one must have a certain amount of knowledge of God’s special revelation, the Bible.42 One cannot believe in a Christ he knows nothing about. Paul said, “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?... So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:14, 17). Can a person believe that Christ is the Son of God when he does not know what “Son of God” means? Can a person believe that Christ is a “propitiation” for the sins of His people when he doesn’t understand what “sin” or “propitiation” mean? It is crucial that God, Christ, sin, justice, and salvation, etc., receive their definitions from God’s word and not human speculation. Otherwise faith is useless. “For as truth is the object of faith (and indeed not any truth, but the divine and supernatural truth revealed in the word of God), it requires above all knowledge for its apprehension.”43 |
| A question that often arises is: “How much knowledge of the Scriptures is required before a person has enough knowledge to believe and be saved?” Obviously a number of doctrines must be covered to an extent before a person can have a proper object of faith. When Paul preached to the Athenians he discussed the doctrines of God, creation, providence, man, repentance, the judgment, Christ, and the resurrection (Ac. 17:22-32). Keep in mind that Paul was cut off in midstream and was just getting started. For Paul, the more doctrine and detail the better. Jesus directed His church to disciple all nations, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:20). In preaching the gospel the following doctrines should be covered as a minimum: God, the fall, the law, sin, the incarnation, justification, the history and scriptural meaning of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Clearly the central focus is going to be on Christ and His mediatorial work. Paul wrote, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Note, for Paul there is no such thing as an uninterpreted salvation event. Everything related to the gospel is defined by the Scriptures. “The more real knowledge one has of the truths of redemption, the richer and fuller one’s faith will be.... Naturally one who accepts Christ by a true faith, will also be ready and willing to accept God’s testimony as a whole.”44 Unfortunately in our day the philosophy of church growth is to present as little doctrine as possible and instead as much entertainment and emotionalism as time permits. Doctrine is considered offensive and unimportant. Many people under such a system may shed a tear and walk an aisle, but the Christ they are receiving is unknown to them. |
| Having knowledge about Christ is not enough to save; one must believe what the Scriptures teach regarding Christ. There are many modernists and secular humanists who have an excellent grasp of what the Scriptures teach, but they do not believe it at all. They regard it as a book full of myths and stories. The person who has saving faith believes the Bible; he embraces the truth. “This special act of faith in Christ, which secures salvation, is constantly paraphrased by such phrased as ‘coming to Christ,’ John vi. 35; ‘looking to him,’ Isa. xlv. 22; ‘receiving him,’ John i. 12; ‘fleeing to him for refuge,’ Heb. vi. 18; —all of which manifestly involve an active assent to a cordial embrace, as well as an intellectual recognition of the truth.”45 To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe that everything the Scriptures say about Him is true: Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem. He lived a sinless life of perfection. He was tortured and crucified as a blood sacrifice for His people. He died and was in a state of death for three days. Then He rose from the dead a victorious king and ascended to the right hand of God the Father, etc. |
| That trusting in God is equivalent to believing and trusting His word is proved from the following biblical examples: |
| 1. Eve’s sin arose because she did not believe God’s word on authority but submitted His word to an empirical experiment (Gen. 3:6). |
| 2. Noah had no natural evidence of an approaching flood but believed God’s word, built the ark, and was saved from the deluge with his family (Gen. 6:13-22; 7:23). |
| 3. Abraham left behind his country and kinsmen to take possession of Canaan because he believed the promise of God that he would be the father of many nations and that through his seed the whole earth would be blessed (Gen. 12-17). Abraham believed God’s word even when it contradicted normal biological limitations (i.e., old age and childbearing). |
| 4. The Israelites who were disobedient and perished in the wilderness did so because they did not believe God’s word (Heb. 3:19; 4:2). Hebrews chapter 11 is full of examples of godly men and women who trusted in God’s promises. People who claim to believe in Jesus and yet reject His doctrine really do not believe at all. One must receive all of Christ or he shall have none of Him! Note, that in every scriptural example of true faith belief in God’s word resulted in obedience. Also, every example of unbelief resulted in disobedience. |
| Believing in Christ involves a trust and reliance upon Him for salvation. There are many people who give an assent to what the Bible says about Christ but who continue to live in sin or who after a time go back to the world. Theologians say that such people had only a bare intellectual conviction of the truth. They never really trusted in Jesus Christ. Given the fact that believing in Christ and trusting Christ for salvation mean essentially the same thing in Scripture, one could say that such people were living in self-deception. They never truly believed in Christ at all. In our day of “easy believism,” the element of trust needs to be emphasized. Saving faith means that one accepts as true what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and trusts in Him. “[F]aith consists in a fixed, unshaken trust and reliance upon him.... As we depend on his promise as a God that cannot lie, and give up ourselves to him as one who has a right to us; so we trust him as one in whom we can safely confide, and on whom we can lay the whole stress of our salvation. This act of faith is more frequently insisted on in Scripture than any other, it being a main ingredient in all other graces which accompany salvation, and there being nothing by which God is more glorified. It is not one single perfection of the divine nature which is the object of it; but everything which he has made known concerning himself, as conducive to our blessedness. We trust him with all we have, and for all we want or hope for. This implies a sense of our own insufficiency and nothingness, and a sense of his all-sufficient fulness.”46 Hodge writes, “By faith the Christian is said to be ‘persuaded of the promises;’ ‘to obtain them;’ ‘to embrace them;’ ‘to subdue kingdoms;’ ‘to work righteousness;’ ‘to stop the mouth of lions.’ Heb. xi. All this plainly presupposes that faith is not a bare intellectual conviction of the truth of truths revealed in the Scriptures, but that it includes a hearty embrace of and a confident reliance upon Christ, his meritorious work and his gracious promises.”47 |
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| Many people ask, “How much faith is needed for one to be justified by Christ?” The biblical answer is that one’s faith may indeed be quite weak and imperfect, yet one is still saved by Jesus Christ. One must keep in mind that it is Christ that saves and not one’s faith. One’s faith may be very feeble, yet the Christ it grasps is infinitely strong to save. “This faith is different in degrees, weak or strong; may be often and many ways assailed and weakened, but gets the victory; growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ; who is both the author and finisher of our faith.”48 Christians should not make the mistake of looking to their faith when they need to be looking to Jesus Christ. A person with a weak faith may lack assurance of salvation, but he is every bit as much saved as the apostle Paul or John Calvin. The faith of a sinner can never be perfect, but the sinless life of Christ and His sacrificial death it lays hold of is perfect. “A small and weak hand, if it be able to reach up the meat to the mouth, as well performs its duty for the nourishment of the body as one of greater strength, because it is not the strength of the hand but the goodness of the meat which nourishes the body.”49 |
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| Some Protestant theologians teach that Christians are justified from eternity; that is, they believe that justification occurs in the mind of God prior to the existence of the universe. They regard the justification that occurs in time to be basically a recognition by the elect sinner that he was already justified by God in eternity past. In other words, justification in time only refers to what occurs in the conscience of the believing sinner. The objective declaration of God occurred not when the sinner believed, but before the foundation of the earth. Is such a view biblical? |
| The idea of eternal justification must be rejected for a number of reasons. First, the doctrine of justification from eternity confounds the decree of justification, which does occur from eternity, with justification itself, which occurs in history. Turretin writes, “The decree of justification is one thing; justification itself another—as the will to save and sanctify is one thing; salvation and sanctification itself another. The will or decree to justify certain persons is indeed eternal and precedes faith itself, but actual justification takes place in time and follows faith.”50 In no place in the entire New Testament does one find Christ and the apostles telling people to believe that they were already justified. Their message was: “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). |
| Second, when the apostle Paul lists what theologians refer to as the order of salvation in Romans 8:29-30, he places justification within the sphere of human history. Justification occurs after calling and before glorification. No one would dispute that the external and internal calling of the sinner occur in time. Justification occurs after a person hears the gospel and is convinced by the Holy Spirit that it is true. |
| Third, the Bible says that faith or belief in Christ is necessary before a person is justified (Rom. 3:21-26, 28-30; Jn. 3:36). “[I]f justification takes place by faith, it certainly does not precede faith in a temporal sense.”51 Furthermore, when Paul discusses faith in Christ and imputation in Romans chapter 4, it is clear that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the sinner occurs only when a person believes (Rom. 4:5, 9, 11, 22, 23, 24). |
| Fourth, if God’s people were not justified in time but from eternity, all the passages which speak of a real deliverance from sin, death, wrath and condemnation in time would be meaningless and contradictory. Paul says that believers before their salvation “were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Eph. 2:3). “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (Jn. 5:24). “We know we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren” (1 Jn. 3:14). “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, not idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor coveteous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). “For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit unto death. But now we have been delivered from the law having died to what we were held by” (Rom. 7:5-6). Although a Christian’s salvation was decreed in eternity and Christ’s perfect redemption occurred in the past, justification occurs in time only when a person actually believes and repents. “So that he is evidently a stranger to the Scriptures who does not know that God is often set forth as justifying believers in this life, as is evident from the examples of Abraham (Gen. 15:6), of David (Ps. 32:1, 2, 5; Rom. 4:6, 7), of the sinful women (Lk. 7:48), of the publican (Lk. 18:14) and of all believers (Rom. 5:1).”52 |
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| There are many reasons why all Bible-believing Christians should have a solid grasp of the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification. First, the Romish theory of justification is a complete denial of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a damnable heresy. Anyone who adheres to such a gross perversion of the gospel cannot be saved. Second, it is a subtle doctrine of Satan. The papal perversion of justification is one of cleverest perversions of Scripture that the mind of man has ever conceived. This papal doctrine is not the typical amateur heresy one finds in many cults today. It was formed over a period of one thousand years. It is a combination of errors found in the Patristic fathers, and the speculations of the Aristotelian-influenced medieval scholastic theologians. The doctrine was fully developed at the Council of Trent (1543-1563) in reaction to the great Reformation doctrine of justification by faith alone. At Trent Rome slammed the door shut upon the gospel of Christ; it has remained shut ever since. The Second Vatican Council (1965) and the recent Roman Catholic Catechism (1994) both clearly affirm Trent (all Roman Catholics are supposed to affirm the teachings of Trent as infallible truth). Since Trent, the Romish church is truly a synagogue of Satan. Her pope, cardinals, bishops and priests are all antichrists, enemies of the gospel. Third, there has been a move by many Protestants for closer ties with Rome. This move reflects an ignorance of the basic theological differences between Christianity and Romanism, and a shift within Protestantism away from objective justification toward spiritual existentialism. Fourth, Romanism has adopted an aggressive apologetic toward Protestants. There are some intellectual ex-Protestants who are defending Rome on the radio, internet, and books. These papal apologists frequently take advantage of Evangelicals who have a poor understanding of the Romanist view. In order to avoid the accusation that this author is misrepresenting the Roman Catholic view of justification, quotes from Rome’s own doctrinal statements will be provided for each assertion. |
| To many Christians, Roman Catholicism sounds very evangelical. The Council of Trent declared: “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.”53 The Roman Catholic Catechism also appears very evangelical at times: “Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and it heals.”54 A good Roman Catholic would say that Christians are saved solely by God’s grace. “Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.”55 The statement regarding salvation from the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together also appears evangelical: “We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ.... All who accept Christ as Lord and Savior are brothers and sisters in Christ.”56 |
| Although Roman Catholic doctrine sounds very evangelical at times, a close look at their teachings regarding salvation reveals a clear but clever denial of the biblical doctrine of justification. Gerstner writes: “Romanists many times fool Protestants by their claim to teach ‘by grace alone’ (sola gratia). And they sometimes fool themselves when they are more evangelical than a Romanist can honestly be. Romanists are saved by their works which come from grace, according to their teaching. It is not the grace but the works which come from it that save them!”57 Virtually anyone can say “I am saved by grace” or “I am saved solely by Christ.” One must look at the fine print to understand what lies behind these statements. An orthodox Protestant and a good Roman Catholic mean two completely different things when they confess Christ. |
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| Before going into detail, a brief statement of the difference between Romanism and the biblical view of justification is in order. The Bible teaches that justification is a legal declaration of God in heaven regarding the sinner who believes on earth. Justification is objective. The Romanist confounds the doctrine of justification with sanctification. “The Tridentine theory makes inward holiness in conjunction with the merits of Christ the ground of justification. It founds human salvation upon two corner-stones.... The unintentional confounding of the distinction between justification and sanctification, which appears occasionally in the Patristic writers, becomes a deliberate and unemphatic identification, in the scheme of the Papal church.”58 |
| The Bible teaches that God accepts men solely on the merits of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-4:8; Phil. 3:8-9). Men are declared righteous because their guilt is imputed to Christ on the cross, and Christ’s perfect righteousness is imputed to the believer’s account. Romanism teaches that grace is infused into man and that people are justified only after becoming righteous. Justification is subjective; it is the internal renovation and renewing of man. Men are justified because of what the Holy Spirit does in them. “Justification means that man himself is made just—made pleasing to God in his own person.... A devout Catholic may say: ‘Righteousness by faith means that I cannot save myself, but by faith I can receive God’s transforming grace. His grace can change my heart, and by His grace in my heart I can be acceptable in His sight....’ The focal point of Catholic theology is God’s work of grace within human experience.”59 |
| The Scriptures teach that justification is an instantaneous act of God. It is whole, never repeated, eternal and perfect, not piecemeal or gradual (Jn. 5:25; Lk. 18:13, 14; 23:43; Rom. 4:5; 5:1; 8:3-8). Romanism teaches that justification is a gradual process which may not even be completed in this life. It usually is completed by the tortures of purgatory.60 The Bible teaches that sinners are saved solely because of what God has done in Jesus Christ. Papal doctrine affirms that justification is a cooperative effort between God and man. Man must cooperate with inward grace until he achieves justification. The Roman Catholic believes that good works contribute to his salvation. However, he would argue that since these good works flow from inward grace, that ultimately he is saved by grace and not by works. |
| Romanism is the most clever attempt of man to take a religion of human merit, works-righteousness and personal achievement and dress it with the terminology of grace. Romanism teaches “the most subtle form of the doctrine of justification by works that has yet appeared, or that can appear. For the doctrines of Trent do not teach, in their canonical statements, that man is justified and accepted at the bar of justice by his law. This is, indeed, the doctrine that prevails in the common practice of the papal church, but it is not the form in which it appears in the Tridentine canons. According to these, man is justified by an inward and spiritual act which is denominated the act of faith; by a truly divine and holy habit or principle infused by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit. The ground of the sinner’s justification is thus a divine and gracious one. God works in the sinful soul to will and to do, and by making it inherently just justifies it. And all this is accomplished through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ; so that, in justification there is a combination of the objective work of Christ with the subjective character of the believer.”61 Protestants who are not aware of these subtleties are often tongue-tied in debates with knowledgeable Roman Catholics, because Romanists insist they do not believe in salvation by works-righteousness. They simply assert that God is the author of infused grace and inherent righteousness. The Romish system is easily exposed as a doctrine of demons when one considers that their theory of an inward infused grace in the heart as a second pillar of justification clearly means that they regard the death of Christ as insufficient for pardon. For them “Christ alone” is not enough. Jesus, according to their statements of faith, did not perfectly satisfy God’s justice by His life and death. Romanism is in reality a cleverly disguised form of humanism. |
| “The Protestant trusts Christ to save him and the Roman Catholic trusts Christ to help him save himself.”62The Roman Catholic looks at what Christ accomplished as something that enables a person to begin a long journey that possibly leads to salvation. The Protestant looks to Christ and His merits as salvation itself. Good works prove that justification has already occurred. They do not contribute one iota toward salvation.63 |
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| The key to understanding Romanism’s heretical view of justification is their false understanding of Christ’s atonement and their rejection of the doctrine of imputation. The papal church teaches that Christ’s satisfaction for sin only applies to sins committed before baptism and to eternal punishments for sins committed after baptism. The satisfaction rendered for the sins committed before baptism is the first plank of justification, but even in this first plank regeneration is confused with justification. Trent, the sixth session, chapter III says: “in that new birth, there is bestowed upon them, through the merit of his passion, the grace whereby they are made just.”64 Chapter IV says: “Justification of the impious is...a translation.... And this translation, since the promulgation of the Gospel, can not be effected, without the laver of regeneration.”65 Chapter VII continues: “the instrumental cause [of justification] is the sacrament of baptism, which is the sacrament of faith, without which no man was ever justified.”66 Romanism teaches baptismal regeneration. For baptized infants, baptism removes original sin. Adult converts (according to Rome) have original sin removed as well as all actual sins committed before baptism. This is an ancient heresy that led (quite logically) to the practice of putting off baptism until one was old and about to die. |
| Baptismal regeneration which bestows justification was reaffirmed in the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church. “Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy.... The grace of Christ...is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in baptism.”67 Even in this initial act of justification the pardoning of sins is not viewed in judicial terms, “which implied a charge of guilt and a sentence of condemnation for what was past, but in the sense of being ‘deleted’ in the heart of the baptized person,—deleted by an infused principle of grace which ‘renewed him in the spirit of his mind.’”68 |
| The Romanist confounding of justification with sanctification starts with this defective view of baptismal regeneration. Baptism is not “the laver of regeneration” but is the visible sign that regeneration has taken place.69 Regeneration does not bestow justification but enables the sinner to believe. Faith, not baptism, is the instrument of justification. Although regeneration logically precedes or coincides with justification, regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit in man which purifies the heart (Jn. 3:5, 6; Ezek. 36:25-26; Col. 2:11). The second aspect of the change which the Holy Spirit effects upon a man’s heart is one of renovation. The scriptural terms used to describe man’s spiritual birth are “born again” (Jn. 3:3), “regeneration” (Tit. 3:5), and “made alive” or “quickened” (Eph. 2:5). The person regenerated by God is called a “new creation” (Gal. 6:15, 2 Cor. 5:17) and a “new man” (Eph. 4:24). Regeneration deals with a man’s heart. It is what enables a person to believe in Christ (1 Cor. 2:12; 2 Cor. 4:6; Ac. 16:13-14). Justification occurs only when a person believes. Justification is judicial; it is not the purification of the heart. The Bible teaches that regeneration is the beginning of the process of sanctification. The Romanist teaches that regeneration is the first ground and also the beginning of the second ground of justification. Hodge explains the Romanist teaching as follows: “As life expels death; as light banishes darkness, so the entrance of this new divine life into the soul expels sin (i.e., sinful habits), and brings forth the fruits of righteousness. Works done after regeneration have real merit, ‘meritum condigni,’ and are the ground of the second justification; the first justification consisting in making the soul inherently just by the infusion of righteousness. According to this view, we are not justified by works done before regeneration, but we are justified for gracious works, i.e., for works which spring from the principle of divine life infused into the heart. The whole ground of our acceptance with God is thus made to be what we are and what we do.”70 |
| The second ground of the Romish doctrine of justification flows not only from their confounding of the purificatory aspect of regeneration with pardon, but also their idea that Christ only rendered satisfaction for eternal punishments but not for temporal punishments. Trent says: “If any one saith, that satisfaction for sins, as to their temporal punishment, is nowise made to God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, by the punishments inflicted by him, and patiently borne, or by those enjoined by the priest, nor even by those voluntary undertaken, as by fastings, prayers, alms-deeds, or by other works also of piety; and that, therefore, the best penance is merely a new life: let him be anathema”71 Furthermore: “If any one saith that God always remits the whole punishment together with the guilt, and that the satisfaction of penitents is no other than the faith whereby they apprehend that Christ has satisfied for them: let him be anathema.”72 The Romanist theologians at Trent in their concept regarding the temporal punishments due for sin were following in the footsteps of the medieval scholastic theologians who made a distinction between the guilt of sin and the guilt of punishment. Romanists teach that Christ did not render a satisfaction or pay the price for the guilt of punishment. Out of this legal obligation of punishment flows the entire system of penance and purgatory. Protestants maintain that God chastises His children to aid them in their sanctification. Roman Catholicism teaches that God actually metes out penal sufferings on His people, that Christians are required “as a satisfaction to God’s avenging justice” to pay for their sins. |
| Roman Catholicism teaches that Christ’s death did part of what was needed, but that man through prayer, fasting, attending masses, rosary prayers, vows of chastity and poverty, and other “good” works completes the job. Boettner writes, “Penance, as the catechisms say, involves confession of one’s sins to a priest and the doing of good works as the only way by which sins committed after baptism can be forgiven.... Romanism...teaches that salvation depends ultimately upon ourselves, upon what we do, that one can ‘earn’ salvation by obedience to the laws of the church....”73 In any debate with a Romanist regarding justification, one must always remember that the confounding of justification with sanctification and the Romanist idea of the necessity of human merit stands upon the foundation of their deficient view of Christ’s sacrifice. A biblical view of Christ’s atoning death would instantly render unnecessary the whole anti-Christian popish system (e.g., the mass, works of penance, purgatory, etc.). |
| Can the Romanist view that Christ rendered only a partial satisfaction for sin be proven from the Bible? No. The Bible clearly teaches that the satisfaction for sin that Christ offered in His death was perfect and totally sufficient. Jesus removed every bit of a believer’s guilt for sin. This includes all judicial punishments both eternal and temporal. God requires no more propitiatory offerings (e.g., the mass)74 or satisfactions of any kind for sin (e.g. penance and purgatory). Christ satisfied all the claims of the law for believers. The idea that Christ removed the guilt of sin but not its punishment is absurd. If Christ totally removed all the guilt of sin, then He also has removed the punishment for sin both temporal and eternal. “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). Christ’s expiation of sin for His people was either full and complete or it was not. The Bible teaches that Christ’s perfect obedience is the ground of our justification (Rom. 5:18-19); that by His death He removed all guilt and every penalty (Rom. 5:21; 8:1, 32-34; Heb. 10:14; Ps. 103:12; Isa. 44:22, etc.); that He actually achieved reconciliation with God (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18); that He completely propitiated God’s wrath against the elect (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17); that He paid the ransom price in full (Gal. 3:13; Rom. 7:4, 6; Heb. 9:12; Rev. 5:9; Isa. 53:6; 1 Pet 2:24). “As a creditor does not liberate a surety from prison unless a full payment has been made, so neither could Christ be set free unless he had satisfied to the full. Therefore, since he rose again so gloriously and was raised by the Father himself, there is no room left for doubt concerning the perfection of satisfaction and the full payment of the price of redemption....”75 Once this perfect satisfaction is established, “the Roman dogmas of the sacrifice of the Mass, of human merit and satisfaction in this life and of the purgatorial punishments to be endured hereafter are at once overthrown. For such things cannot be allowed without either accusing his satisfaction of insufficiency or God of injustice (exacting a double price and a double punishment of the same sin).”76 |
| The Protestant recognizes that believers often suffer the consequences of sin. The Christian man who backslides, gets drunk and slams his car into a tree—who as a result spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair—suffers the consequences of sin. But his sufferings in no way expiate the guilt of punishment. Furthermore, a man who commits murder and then becomes a Christian in jail must still be executed for his crime, even though Christ has removed the guilt of that sin. His execution is not a temporal punishment inflicted by God to expiate sin, but is the proper restitution rendered to his victim by the civil magistrate. Christians who sin are obligated to make restitution when necessary, but acts of restitution do not contribute to one’s salvation or remit temporal punishments. God often chastises His people, but these chastisements are never spoken of in Scripture as rendering satisfaction for sin. God chastises those He loves not as a vengeful judge, but as a loving Father who is concerned with His children’s sanctification. He is giving medicine, not judicial punishment.77 |
| The Romanist doctrine of justification flows not only from their heretical view of the atonement, but also from their rejection of the biblical concept of imputation. The Romanist doctrine of salvation is a combination of errors found in the church fathers and medieval scholastic theology. Schaff writes: “The fathers lay chief stress on sanctification and good works, and show the already existing terms of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the meritoriousness and even the supererogatory meritoriousness of Christian virtue.”78 Furthermore, in the Western church the Latin translation of the Greek word for justify held a different meaning than the biblical terminology. “The etymology of iustificare, drawn from Roman culture, means to make just, from the root facare.”79 The medieval scholastic theologians who were strongly influenced by Aristotle regarded the idea of imputation as irrational. Thus, Roman Catholicism at Trent completely rejected the Protestant doctrine of an imputed righteousness. Trent, the sixth session, canon 11, says, “If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favor of God: let him be anathema.”80 Imputation and the forensic nature of justification are also rejected in canon 9: “If anyone saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified, in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will: let him be anathema.”81 |
| Romanism regards the doctrine of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ to be a legal fiction “because it declares sinners to be righteous contrary to fact.”82Protestants, however, have never held to position that believers are simultaneously both righteous and sinful in themselves. But they do teach that God the Father reckons or regards the believing sinner as righteous because of Christ’s righteousness. They are not subjectively righteous, but are clothed with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Christ’s righteousness, which is objective to the sinner, is imputed to them by faith. This doctrine is so clearly taught in the New Testament that only a rank heretic would deny it. The apostle Paul says, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works” (Rom. 4:4-6; cf. 4:7-25; 5:12-21). Charles Hodge writes: “To whom God imputeth righteousness without works, that is, whom God regards and treats as righteous, although he is not in himself righteous. The meaning of this clause cannot be mistaken. ‘To impute sin,’ is to lay sin to the charge of any one, and to treat him accordingly, as is universally admitted; so ‘to impute righteousness,’ is to set righteousness to one’s account, and to treat him accordingly. This righteousness does not, of course, belong antecedently [i.e., going before in time] to those to whom it is imputed, for they are ungodly, and destitute of works. Here then is an imputation to men of what does not belong to them, and to which they have in themselves no claim. To impute righteousness is the apostle’s definition of the term to justify. It is not making men inherently righteous, or morally pure, but it is regarding and treating them as just. This is done, not on the ground of personal character or works, but on the ground of the righteousness of Christ. As this is dealing with men, not according to merit, but in a gracious manner, the passage cited from Ps. xxxii. 1, 2, is precisely in point: ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.’ That is, blessed is the man who, although a sinner, is regarded and treated as righteous.”83 To reject the imputed righteousness of Christ in favor of an infused righteousness inherent in man, as Romanism does, is an explicit rejection of the gospel. |
| Given Romanism’s defective view of the atonement and their rejection of justification by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, they developed a system of salvation by works that flows from grace. Roman Catholic theologians knew that the Bible condemned the notion of salvation by keeping the law; however, they believed that these passages did not apply to them because God was the author of such works. They attributed a person’s meritorious good works to the grace of God. The Roman Catholic Catechism says: “The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man’s free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man’s merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit....84 The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness....85 Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life....86 Merit is to be ascribed in the first place to the grace of God, and secondly to man’s collaboration. Man’s merit is due to God.”87 The Romanist’s system is subtle and deadly. He constantly speaks of salvation by grace, and yet continuously denies it. Grace for the Romanist means that God starts the process and gives aid along the way, but if man does not do his part, he will not merit eternal life. Salvation is called a “collaboration” between God and man. Collaboration means “to labor together; work or act jointly.”88 |
| The Romanist believes that Christ’s death was insufficient; that imputation is a legal fiction and that man can merit eternal life by cooperating with God’s grace. Thus, the fundamental principle of the Romish system is a righteousness inherent in man. Sanctification is confounded with justification. Trent, sixth session, chapter seven says, “This disposition, or preparation, is followed by Justification itself, which is not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man, through the voluntary reception of the grace, and of the gifts, whereby man of unjust [sic] becomes just.”89 Since Romanists do not believe that justification is a legal declaration but a process inherent in man, they speak of the increase of justification. Trent says, “They, through the observance of the commandments of God and of the church, faith cooperating with good works, increase in that justice which they have received through the grace of Christ, and are still further justified.”90 Since justification is ultimately dependent upon man, Romanists teach that justification can be lost and then regained through the sacrament of Penance. Trent says, “As regards those who, by sin, have fallen from the received grace of Justification, they may be again justified, when, God exciting them, through the sacrament of Penance….”91 The Romanist believes that good works and the sacraments of the church are necessary to increase and preserve justification. “The medieval church thought of grace as being infused to change and transform the sinful nature of man. By this transforming change within him, the believer was said to be made just in God’s sight. Then, as he received more and more grace, the believer was said to become less and less sinful and at the same time more and more just in the sight of God. Good works were done in the believer by the indwelling of Christ and, because of this, were thought to be entirely pleasing and acceptable to God. Rome held out to men the possibility of becoming pure and sinless saints (ontological perfection), and those who attained this perfection reached sainthood and were qualified to enter heaven at the hour of death. Those who did not become perfect and absolutely sinless in the flesh, would need to go to purgatory after death and thus be made completely just and qualified to enter heaven.”92 |
| The Roman Catholic system of salvation is a devilish combination of biblical terminology and human invention. In their councils and catechisms there is much talk about the grace of God and the merits of Christ. Also, there are a few fairly evangelical-sounding statements, but the bottom line is that man must save himself: partly with Christ’s merits, partly with the merits of the saints, partly from the Mass, partly from his own merits, and partly from penance and purgatory. Buchanan says the papal church “did not recognize One only Mediator, and One only sacrifice for sin: it taught the merits and mediation of the saints,—the repetition of the one sacrifice on the Cross by the sacrifice on the Altar,—and addition satisfactions for sin in the austerities of penance, and the pains of purgatory. It made the pardon of sin dependent on the confession of the penitent and the absolution of the priest,—thereby placing the church in the room of Christ, and interposing the priest between the sinner and God: and when absolution was granted on condition of penance, or some other work of mere external obedience, it led men to look to something which they could themselves do or suffer, instead of relying by faith simply and solely on Christ and His finished work.”93 The beauty and perfection of Christ’s completed work are replaced by the filthy, stinking rags of human merit. Roman Catholicism offers a deadly mixture of faith and works in the matter of justification but labels this mixture “pure grace.” One can label a bottle of deadly poison anything he wants to, but the contents remain the same. To offer up a system of salvation by works and excuse the whole thing by saying it all flows from grace is contradictory and deceptive. Paul says that as soon as works of any kind enter the picture, grace is no more grace. “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt” (Rom. 4:4). “You who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4). |
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| The Roman Catholic doctrine of justification contradicts the Scriptures in several areas. First, the biblical terms used to speak of justification, dikaioo, always means to declare righteous and never means to make righteous (see Lk. 7:29; 10:29; 16:15; Mt. 11:19; Rom. 3:4). Justification is a judicial, forensic term and is often contrasted in Scripture with judicial condemnation (see. Dt. 25:1; Pr. 17:15; Isa. 5:23; Job 34:17). Second, when speaking of justification the Bible speaks of the imputation of righteousness and not the infusion of righteousness (see Rom. 4:12, 22-24). Third, the Bible describes justification as something achieved in an instant of time. It is never described as a long process (see Jn. 5:24; Lk. 18:14; 23:43; Rom. 5:1). Fourth, the Scriptures repeatedly declare that all that a person needs to be saved is to believe in Jesus Christ. “Everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Ac. 13:39; cf. Ac. 16:31; Jn. 3:15-16; 5:24; 11:25-26; Rom. 10:9; 1 Th. 4:14). Fifth, the apostle Paul says that God “justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). This proves that God does not justify people because they are personally righteous but because of the imputation of Christ’s perfect righteousness. Sixth, God’s word makes a clear distinction between justification and sanctification. “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). Justification deals with the guilt of sin and the merits needed for eternal life, while sanctification deals with the pollution of sin. Sanctification proves that a person has already been justified but does not contribute one iota to a person’s salvation. Seventh, the Bible teaches that the good works of believers are tainted with sin and are non-meritorious (Is. 64:6; Lk. 17:10; Gal. 5:17; Rom. 7:15 ff.; Phil. 3:8-9). This side of heaven not one believer is without sin (1 Jn. 1:8). Eighth, the Scriptures say that faith alone is the instrument which appropriates Jesus Christ and His saving work (Rom. 3:22, 25-31; 4:5-25; 5:1, 18; 9:30-32; Gal. 2:16; 3:11-13, 24; 5:1-4). After one is justified, the sacraments and other means of grace are used in order to help the believer grow spiritually (i.e., for sanctification not for justification). Ninth, God’s word teaches that Jesus Christ actually accomplished a perfect redemption for His people, the elect (Mt. 1:21; Jn. 10:11-29; Ac. 20:28; Eph. 5:25-27). Romanism erroneously teaches that Christ merely made salvation a possibility if people cooperate with grace. But, as noted, such a view must presuppose that either Christ’s death was insufficient to save or that God is unjust by punishing the same sins twice. Both options are thoroughly unscriptural. |
| The Roman Catholic doctrine of justification is diametrically opposed to the biblical method of justifying sinners. It contradicts the experience of Abraham and the teachings of Jesus Christ and all the apostles. Therefore, the Protestant reformers opposed the papal doctrine with every fiber of their being. Also, the Reformed churches rightfully opposed the Romish heresy in all their confessions. Now that modern Evangelicalism has degenerated so far in so many critical areas (e.g., soteriology, worship, eschatology, etc.). Protestants need to be even more diligent in defending justification against all attacks from antichrist and his lieutenants. |
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| Modern Evangelicalism has to a large extent lost many of the biblical doctrines that were emphasized by the Protestant reformers. In the nineteenth and especially the twentieth centuries, the doctrine of justification by faith alone has been assaulted on all sides by a variety of false doctrines. Today, there are many Evangelicals and even many church leaders and pastors who could not explain the doctrine of justification. Doctrine is no longer considered important in many circles. Given the choice between a church with biblical worship and solid doctrinal and exegetical preaching and a church with a solid rock group, a comedian pastor, and a fun youth program, the vast majority of professing Christians choose the latter. “Evangelicals, no less than the Liberals before them whom they have always berated, have now abandoned doctrine in favor of ‘life.’... For evangelicals today, this life is also an ‘essence’ detached from a cognitive structure, a detachment made necessary by the external modern world in which it no longer has a viable place, and it really does not require a theological view of life. Evangelicals today only have to believe that God can work dramatically within the narrow fissure of internal experience; they have lost interest (or perhaps they can no longer sustain interest) in what the doctrines of creation, common grace, and providence once meant for Christian believers, and even in those doctrines that articulate Christ’s death, such as justification, redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation. It is enough for them simply to know that Christ somehow died for people.”94 Thus, it is not uncommon to watch a “Christian” TV program or hear a sermon in which Christ’s work is not discussed and the gospel is not defined, and then hear the mantra, “accept Christ as your personal savior” or “let Christ come into your heart.” A Roman Catholic, Buddhist, Eastern mystic, Russian Orthodox, or any flaming heretic would have no problem asking Christ to come into his heart. But believing in Jesus and His objective work of redemption according to the Scriptures requires a change of mind concerning God, creation, sin, Jesus, etc.. |
| The anti-doctrinal spirit of this age is only part of the problem. There are a number of doctrines and practices, which are popular among evangelicals, that tangentially affect the doctrine of justification. A brief consideration of each doctrinal perversion will assist one’s understanding of the current situation. |
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| Justification is a legal, forensic concept. In order to understand it one must have a biblical view of God’s moral law. God’s law reveals His nature and character, and defines justice and righteousness. What Christ accomplished by His sinless life and sacrificial death was the satisfaction of the penalty and the precept of the law. Thus, Christ’s active and passive obedience is called “the righteousness of God” (Rom. 3:21-22; 10:3), “the gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17-18) or “the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13; 9:30; 10:6). Hodge says that justification “rests purely upon the state of the law and of the facts, and is impossible where there is not a perfect righteousness.... It pronounces the law not relaxed but fulfilled in its strictest sense.”95 Justification honors God’s law in every respect because the law is not ignored, bypassed, or put away, but rather perfectly obeyed by Christ and perfectly satisfied, as regards the penalty, by His death. But what happens to justification when the ten commandments and the moral law are considered as something negative, intrinsically bad or harsh, and only for a past dispensation (i.e., for Israel only)? |
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| Dispensational theology has contributed to the perversion of the gospel in two major ways. First, it has radically changed the way in which the gospel is presented. The preaching of the law has been largely replaced with either a vague general reference to sin, or with a hedonistic offer of the gospel. The Protestant Reformers and the Puritans preached the specifics of God’s law to emphasize God’s holiness, to emphasize God’s hatred of sin, and to convict people of specific sins so that sinners would understand their condition and guilt and flee to Christ. Such preaching is eminently scriptural. Jesus didn’t make general statements about the sinfulness of mankind but was very specific in applying the law to the heart (see Mk. 10:17-21; Jn. 4:4-19). The apostle Paul said that “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). He pointed out that it was the law that convicted him of sin. “I would not have known sin except through the law...apart from the law sin was dead” (Rom. 7:7-8). The more a person understands God’s specific requirements for him in thought, word and deed, the more that person will see that his only hope is Christ’s imputed righteousness and bloody death. But for those who regard the law as something negative—as something belonging to a former dispensation—it would be illogical to spend time expositing an abrogated law. Thus, much preaching and many tracts simply say, “admit that you are a sinner.” There is no conviction in such generalities. Furthermore, if the law has been abrogated, then why is the cross necessary? If the law is not based on God’s nature and character, but is arbitrarily imposed on different dispensation, why is there a need for a divine satisfaction? “If the [moral] law were subject to change, or replacement, then it was futile for Christ to die if the law given to Moses has no permanently binding character. Where the law is denied, justification is eventually denied, because an antinomian religion has no need of a judicial act of God to effect salvation.”96 |
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| The unbiblical view of the law has contributed to the hedonistic presentation of the gospel. Apart from the law and the doctrine of justification (in which Christ satisfies the just demands of the law against sinners), the gospel for many has become something which enables people to find prosperity and self-fulfillment. Christ is presented as a cosmic Santa Claus. “Much contemporary evangelism is done in the atmosphere of a ‘Christian’ rock concert, with all its accompanying beat and emotionalism. The music and general excitement make the hearers feel absolutely at home in the evangelistic meeting. The presentation of the gospel is often accompanied with hedonistic promises such as ‘Come to Christ so that you may experience life with a capital “L”’ or ‘Be released from the past so that you will be free to really do your own thing.’”97 At “healing” crusades, “Christian” rock concerts, prophecy conferences, “Christian” pop psychology seminars, charismatic entertainment television shows, etc., the candy-coated hedonistic version of the gospel is tacked on to the whole proceedings so as to “sanctify” a whole evening’s worth of theological nonsense and crass, mediocre entertainment. “Accept Christ, and have whiter teeth, a better car, a bigger house—your problems will evaporate.” Christ is presented as a Baal god who gives people bigger crops and happy livestock. |
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| Dispensationalism has led to what has been called the “carnal Christian heresy.” The idea is that repentance is not necessary in order to be a Christian. Repentance is said to belong to the “dispensation of law.” It is said that one can have Jesus Christ as Savior while ignoring Christ’s lordship. Advocates for the carnal Christian heresy argue that if repentance is required, then salvation is not by faith alone, but also by works. Thus, one can find multitudes of people who claim to be evangelical believers who are leading lifestyles characterized by sin. There are many people who have been deceived by such teaching, and thus it is common to run into professing Christians who are adulterers, fornicators, drunkards, pot-heads, Sabbath-desecraters, thieves, idolaters, and so on. The idea that repentance is optional for believers is unscriptural for a number of reasons: |
| 1. The Bible repeatedly says that repentance is a vital element of the gospel message. “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Lk. 24:47). Christ emphasized repentance in His preaching (Mt. 4:17; Mk. 1:14-15). Jesus warned the apostles: “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:5). The teaching that says repentance is only a Jewish message is refuted by the apostles’ preaching to the Gentiles. Paul says, I “taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ac. 20:21). To the Greek Athenians Paul said, “Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men [i.e., Jews and Gentiles] everywhere to repent” (Ac. 17:30). |
| 2. The Scriptures teach that repentance is connected with faith in Christ. When a person truly believes in Jesus Christ, he is not adding Christ onto his pagan, idolatrous worldview. Christ is not added to a pantheon of gods. Believing in Christ involves a change of mind about sin, about Christ, about self, and about God. Berkhof writes: “According to Scripture, repentance is wholly an inward act, and should not be confounded with the change of life that proceeds from it. Confession of sins and reparation of wrongs are fruits of repentance. Repentance is only a negative condition and not a positive means of salvation. While it is the sinner’s present duty, it does not offset the claims of the law on account of past transgressions. Moreover, true repentance never exists except in conjunction with faith, while on the other hand, wherever there is true faith, there is also real repentance. The two are but two aspects of the same turning—a turning away from sin in the direction of God.”98 A person turns to Christ because he |