JUSTIFICATION
Sole fide. Faith Alone. These two, simple words set in motion a theological sandstorm on the desert of tradition. In the 16th century, against the prevailing view that humanity participates synergistically in salvation, a German priest denounced as heretical this doctrine of “works-righteousness.” Despite the substantial and vociferous objections of the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther denied that we possess the ability to earn salvation by obedience to God’s law or by allegiance to the Church or by any other humanmeans. Luther declared that in matters of salvation, all we bring is a desperate need and all we can offer is our earnest trust in God through Jesus Christ – and even this trust (or, faith) is from God. Thus, salvation is truly a free gift from God. All glory is due to Him and to Him alone.
Luther’s unshakable conviction resonated with the masses hungering for a meaningful encounter with God. It resonates still. The just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; cf. Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11). The text says “live” (ongoing), not “come to life” (one-time). Regeneration is about a new heart (one-time); justification is about a new status.
What is justification? It is a legal or forensic term, belonging to a court of law and declared by a judge. It is the opposite of condemnation. Justification is not the same thing as pardon. Pardon is negative, the remission of a penalty or a debt; justification is positive, the bestowal of a righteous status, the sinner’s reinstatement in the favor and fellowship of God.
Martin Luther understood the doctrine of justification in the terms: simul justus et peccator – at the same time just and a sinner. Justification affects our standing before God, forensically (legally): we are declared righteous by the efficacious imputation of Christ’s own righteousness. Luther wrote: Since the saints are always conscious of their sin, and seek righteousness from God in accordance with his mercy, they are always reckoned as righteous by God. Thus in their own eyes, and as a matter of fact, they are unrighteous. But God reckons them as righteous on account of their confession of their sin. In fact, they are sinners; however, they are righteous by the reckoning of a merciful God. Without knowing it, they are righteous; knowing it, they are unrighteous. They are sinners in fact, but righteous in hope.
Luther goes on to consider the connection between this forensic justification and the progressive sanctification of the believer: Now is this man perfectly righteous? No. But he is at one and the same time a sinner and a righteous person (simul justus et peccator). He is a sinner in fact, but a righteous person by the sure reckoning and promise of God that he will continue to deliver him from sin until he has completely cured him. And so he is totally healthy in hope, but is a sinner in fact. He has the beginning of righteousness, and so always continues more and more to seek it, while realizing that he is always unrighteous.
Grace: The source of our justification
The cornerstone, the very foundation of the process of salvation – and all of life, in fact – is the grace of God. No other doctrine can stand for long apart from grace. Even the justice of God is routinely applied with the tempering of grace in its delay, if not in its ultimate dispensation. Particularly in a secular, irreverent culture, we see God’s gracious restraint in not immediately pouring out divine wrath on those who curse His holy name.
The Cross: The ground of our justification
The Cross of Jesus Christ accomplished three divine objectives. Each was designed to glorify the wisdom, love, and mercy of a holy God. Taken together, there is only one sensible response: utter humility and overwhelming awe.
1. Redemption (Greek: apolytrosis). Redemption is a term borrowed from the marketplace. In the Old Testament, for example, slaves were redeemed, purchased so that they could be set free. This is the concept behind the term kinsman-redeemer. Jesus paid a price for us – redeeming us from the bondage of sin and death. As the old hymn proclaims: Now I belong to Him. Not only does the Cross give us cause for wonder in that we have received salvation, but the idea of redemption reminds us of the cost associated with securing that salvation.
2. Propitiation (Greek: hilasterion). Propitiation means to placate someone’s anger or wrath. The Bible clearly indicates that God’s wrath is eternally directed at evil. We are, in fact, His enemies (Romans 5:10) and children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) before we are saved. And, frightfully, there is simply nothing of our own that we can do to remedy this dilemma. Our best works are without any merit for salvation before God. Thus our response can only be overwhelming gratitude when we learn that God Himself has done for us what we ourselves could never do. He gave His Son to be a propitiation in our place (Romans 3:25).
3. Demonstration (Greek: endeixis). Not only did the Cross redeem sinners and propitiate God’s wrath, but Christ accomplished the vindication of the justice of God (Romans 3:25b-26a). He made a public, universal display of the application of divine justice. God left unpunished the sins of former generations, letting the nations go their own way and overlooking their ignorance (Acts 14:16; 17:30), not because of any injustice on His part, or with any thought of condoning evil, but in His forbearance (Romans 2:4) and only because it was His fixed intention in the fullness of time to punish these sins in the death of His Son. Both justice (the divine attribute) and justification (the divine activity) would be impossible without the Cross.
Faith: The instrument of our justification
“According to your faith in yourself, according to your faith in your job, according to your faith in God, this far you will get and no farther.”[1]
This idea of faith, popularized by Norman Vincent Peale, has developed deep roots that reach throughout Christendom. His work certainly wasn’t the first, of course, but it was widely circulated and accepted by the general public who had neither the inclination nor the sense of urgency to seek biblical confirmation. For if they had sought it, they would have found it conspicuously absent. Yet such teaching feels so comfortable to our unenlightened lives.
We revel in the notion that we can manipulate the very hand of God and bring about whatever end we may desire – if only we focus our faith strategically and intensely. The problem with such doctrine, of course, is that it finds no support in Scripture. Faith is not a magic wand.
Additionally, it divorces faith from repentance, while they should be understood to be two sides of the same coin. These two central tenets are discussed together because they are so intricately fused together as to be considered one. Where there is repentance there is faith, for they can never be separated. Particularly germane to our present topic is the integral role of faith and repentance in one’s salvation.
What is faith? Charles Spurgeon said that “faith which saves the soul is believing on a Person, depending upon Jesus for eternal life.” This is an important point: whereas many teachers today tend to emphasize a faith in our faith or a faith in self or a faith in a vague concept of God’s provision, biblical faith is placed in the very real Person of Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. And faith is not faith unless it has a clear understanding of its object. We must, for instance, recognize that Jesus is God: for nothing short of a divine Savior can ever deliver us from the infinite wrath of God.
We must also believe in the reality of the atonement – regarding Jesus as standing in the place of sinful men, bearing for them the terror of the law’s curse until justice was satisfied and could demand no more. Further, faith must believe that just as Christ, by His dying, put away forever the sin of His people, so by His living He gave unto those who trust in Him a perfect righteousness in which, despite their own sins, they are accepted by God in Him.
The warrant for a man to believe is this and nothing more: the command of God. This is the commandment, that you believe on His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23). No other warrant is necessary; in fact, none other is possible. We don’t believe because there is some good thing in us that entitles us to trust in Christ. Even here we can tend toward self-righteousness and pride. Rather, we must accept that the warrant for a sinner believing is not in himself in any sense, but in the fact that he is commanded then and there to believe. A heart that has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit will acknowledge this command, and respond by faith. By faith alone.
[1] Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1952), p. 99.
Luther’s unshakable conviction resonated with the masses hungering for a meaningful encounter with God. It resonates still. The just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; cf. Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11). The text says “live” (ongoing), not “come to life” (one-time). Regeneration is about a new heart (one-time); justification is about a new status.
What is justification? It is a legal or forensic term, belonging to a court of law and declared by a judge. It is the opposite of condemnation. Justification is not the same thing as pardon. Pardon is negative, the remission of a penalty or a debt; justification is positive, the bestowal of a righteous status, the sinner’s reinstatement in the favor and fellowship of God.
Martin Luther understood the doctrine of justification in the terms: simul justus et peccator – at the same time just and a sinner. Justification affects our standing before God, forensically (legally): we are declared righteous by the efficacious imputation of Christ’s own righteousness. Luther wrote: Since the saints are always conscious of their sin, and seek righteousness from God in accordance with his mercy, they are always reckoned as righteous by God. Thus in their own eyes, and as a matter of fact, they are unrighteous. But God reckons them as righteous on account of their confession of their sin. In fact, they are sinners; however, they are righteous by the reckoning of a merciful God. Without knowing it, they are righteous; knowing it, they are unrighteous. They are sinners in fact, but righteous in hope.
Luther goes on to consider the connection between this forensic justification and the progressive sanctification of the believer: Now is this man perfectly righteous? No. But he is at one and the same time a sinner and a righteous person (simul justus et peccator). He is a sinner in fact, but a righteous person by the sure reckoning and promise of God that he will continue to deliver him from sin until he has completely cured him. And so he is totally healthy in hope, but is a sinner in fact. He has the beginning of righteousness, and so always continues more and more to seek it, while realizing that he is always unrighteous.
Grace: The source of our justification
The cornerstone, the very foundation of the process of salvation – and all of life, in fact – is the grace of God. No other doctrine can stand for long apart from grace. Even the justice of God is routinely applied with the tempering of grace in its delay, if not in its ultimate dispensation. Particularly in a secular, irreverent culture, we see God’s gracious restraint in not immediately pouring out divine wrath on those who curse His holy name.
The Cross: The ground of our justification
The Cross of Jesus Christ accomplished three divine objectives. Each was designed to glorify the wisdom, love, and mercy of a holy God. Taken together, there is only one sensible response: utter humility and overwhelming awe.
1. Redemption (Greek: apolytrosis). Redemption is a term borrowed from the marketplace. In the Old Testament, for example, slaves were redeemed, purchased so that they could be set free. This is the concept behind the term kinsman-redeemer. Jesus paid a price for us – redeeming us from the bondage of sin and death. As the old hymn proclaims: Now I belong to Him. Not only does the Cross give us cause for wonder in that we have received salvation, but the idea of redemption reminds us of the cost associated with securing that salvation.
2. Propitiation (Greek: hilasterion). Propitiation means to placate someone’s anger or wrath. The Bible clearly indicates that God’s wrath is eternally directed at evil. We are, in fact, His enemies (Romans 5:10) and children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) before we are saved. And, frightfully, there is simply nothing of our own that we can do to remedy this dilemma. Our best works are without any merit for salvation before God. Thus our response can only be overwhelming gratitude when we learn that God Himself has done for us what we ourselves could never do. He gave His Son to be a propitiation in our place (Romans 3:25).
3. Demonstration (Greek: endeixis). Not only did the Cross redeem sinners and propitiate God’s wrath, but Christ accomplished the vindication of the justice of God (Romans 3:25b-26a). He made a public, universal display of the application of divine justice. God left unpunished the sins of former generations, letting the nations go their own way and overlooking their ignorance (Acts 14:16; 17:30), not because of any injustice on His part, or with any thought of condoning evil, but in His forbearance (Romans 2:4) and only because it was His fixed intention in the fullness of time to punish these sins in the death of His Son. Both justice (the divine attribute) and justification (the divine activity) would be impossible without the Cross.
Faith: The instrument of our justification
“According to your faith in yourself, according to your faith in your job, according to your faith in God, this far you will get and no farther.”[1]
This idea of faith, popularized by Norman Vincent Peale, has developed deep roots that reach throughout Christendom. His work certainly wasn’t the first, of course, but it was widely circulated and accepted by the general public who had neither the inclination nor the sense of urgency to seek biblical confirmation. For if they had sought it, they would have found it conspicuously absent. Yet such teaching feels so comfortable to our unenlightened lives.
We revel in the notion that we can manipulate the very hand of God and bring about whatever end we may desire – if only we focus our faith strategically and intensely. The problem with such doctrine, of course, is that it finds no support in Scripture. Faith is not a magic wand.
Additionally, it divorces faith from repentance, while they should be understood to be two sides of the same coin. These two central tenets are discussed together because they are so intricately fused together as to be considered one. Where there is repentance there is faith, for they can never be separated. Particularly germane to our present topic is the integral role of faith and repentance in one’s salvation.
What is faith? Charles Spurgeon said that “faith which saves the soul is believing on a Person, depending upon Jesus for eternal life.” This is an important point: whereas many teachers today tend to emphasize a faith in our faith or a faith in self or a faith in a vague concept of God’s provision, biblical faith is placed in the very real Person of Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. And faith is not faith unless it has a clear understanding of its object. We must, for instance, recognize that Jesus is God: for nothing short of a divine Savior can ever deliver us from the infinite wrath of God.
We must also believe in the reality of the atonement – regarding Jesus as standing in the place of sinful men, bearing for them the terror of the law’s curse until justice was satisfied and could demand no more. Further, faith must believe that just as Christ, by His dying, put away forever the sin of His people, so by His living He gave unto those who trust in Him a perfect righteousness in which, despite their own sins, they are accepted by God in Him.
The warrant for a man to believe is this and nothing more: the command of God. This is the commandment, that you believe on His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23). No other warrant is necessary; in fact, none other is possible. We don’t believe because there is some good thing in us that entitles us to trust in Christ. Even here we can tend toward self-righteousness and pride. Rather, we must accept that the warrant for a sinner believing is not in himself in any sense, but in the fact that he is commanded then and there to believe. A heart that has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit will acknowledge this command, and respond by faith. By faith alone.
[1] Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1952), p. 99.