Justification (49)
Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification.
J.C. Ryle
Holiness, Ch312.1K
Without justification it is impossible to have real peace.Old Paths, Chapter 8
This doctrine is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour. What Luther Says: An Anthology Vol 2 (704)
Wherever the knowledge of it is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion abolished, the Church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown. John Calvin: Selections from His Writings (95)
As we know a tree by its fruit; so we may know justification by sanctification.
Justification takes place by works and by faith—by the works of Christ and by our faith.
Tom Wright foregrounds what the Bible backgrounds, and backgrounds what the Bible foregrounds, but Wright does more than that; he denies a crucial component of justification, namely imputation.
those who claim that justification is peripheral in Paul's thought overstate their case. The term appears in nonpolemical contexts and in confessional-type statements, signifying its importance.137, Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
N.T. Wright avers that justification has ecclesiological implications and is not equivalent to salvation, and this is certainly true. Still, justification is fundamentally a matter of soteriology and by implication ecclesiology.Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com, 136
Before the Council of Trent (1545-1563) took place, in the early 1540s some prominent Roman Catholics and Protestants attempted to find a rapprochement on justification and other doctrines in a number of colloquies, the most significant being the Regensburg colloquy (1541). Surprisingly, there was substantial agreement in Article 5 on justification.64, Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
In the matter of justification before God, faith, I repeat emphatically, stands entirely alone. Faith is the hand that lays hold on Christ. Faith begins, faith carries on, faith keeps up the claim which the sinner makes on the Saviour. By faith we are justified. By faith we bathe our souls in the great Fountain for sin. By faith we go on obtaining fresh supplies of pardoning mercy all through our journey. By faith we live, and by faith we stand.Old Paths, Ch 6
All, therefore, were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous actions which they did, but through his will. And so we, having been called through his will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our wisdom or understanding or piety or works, which we have done in holiness of heart, but through faith, by which the almighty God has justified all who have existed from the beginning, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.1 Clement 32:3-4
Luther's doctrine of justification depends upon two things: the constant preaching of the wrath of God in the face of sin; and the realization that every Christian is at once righteous and a sinner, thus needing the hammer of the law to terrify and break the sinful conscience.
Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares, on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the law are satisfied with respect to the sinner.Systematic Theology, 513
One should entertain no notions about justification if he does not at the same time possess the principle of sanctification.
It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone: just as the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone, because it is constantly conjoined with light.
the Article of justification is the Master and the prince, the lord, the ruler, and judge, over all the kinds of doctrine, which preserves and governs the entire church doctrine and sets up our conscience in the sight of God.
By faith alone one is freely forgiven of all sins and the believer is no longer burdened by the Law for meriting good works. Our works, however, are demonstrative of our faith and will determine whether we are ultimately justified.
Historically, Roman Catholics have defended the notion that the righteousness that saves us on the day of judgement is infused, while Protestants have maintained that the righteousness that delivers us from God's wrath is imputed.26, Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
Without justification salvation is not of grace, but of works.
If there is no sanctification, it means that there never was any justification.
In the plan of God, the covenant and laws of Mount Sinai played an important but temporary role as guardian of God's people until Messiah should come and deliver themJustification Reconsidered, 14
He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for those who are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! That the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!Epistle to Diognetus, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0101.htm
Let us remember that our justification means not only that our sins are forgiven and that we have been declared to be righteous by God Himself, not merely that we were righteous at that moment when we believed, but permanently righteous.Spiritual Depression (74)
It is its conviction that there is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ's sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only 'when we believe.' It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in Christian behavior may be. It is always on His blood and righteousness alone that we can rest.Miserable-Sinner Christianity in the Hands of the Rationalists, chapter III in Perfectionism, Part One, vol. 7 of The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield (New York: Oxford University Press, repr., 2000), 113-114
Works don't justify, not because they are legalistic, but because of human sin and disobedience. Salvation has to be by grace because human works fall short of the standard God requires. When we say salvation is by faith alone, we are saying that salvation is entirely God's work.110-111, Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
[Gal 3:10] Works of law, then, are defined as everything written in the law, and the curse is unleashed on those who fail to keep everything commanded. The fundamental reason for the curse, then, is not the imposition of the law on the Gentiles (through that is clearly wrong), but disobedience -the failure to keep what the law says.103, Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
Rom 3:20. Justification doesn't come by works of law, since the knowledge of sin is disclosed through the law. Paul does not say that the law fails to justify because the Jews excluded the Gentiles. Instead, the law uncovered their sin, demonstrating that they failed to keep what God enjoined.101, Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
Despite these strengths in the New Perspective view, their understanding of works of law isn't persuasive. The term doesn't limit its focus on the boundary markers but instead refers to the entire law. In other words, Paul's fundamental criticism wasn't that the badges of the law were imposed on the Gentiles, as if they were compelled to become Jews. Instead "works of the law" refers to the entire law, which includes, of course, the boundary markers.Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com, 100
In sanctification something is actually imparted
to us, in justification it is only imputed. Justification is based entirely upon the work Christ wrought for us, sanctification is principally a work wrought in us.
I no way doubt but that many men do receive more grace from God than they understand or will own, and have a greater efficacy of it in them than they will believe. Men may be really saved by that grace which doctrinally they do deny; and they may be justified by the imputation of that righteousness, which, in opinion, they deny to be imputed: for the faith of it is included in that general assent which they give unto the truth of the gospel, and such an adherence unto Christ may ensue thereon, as that their mistake of the way whereby they are saved by him shall not defaud them of a real interest therein.Justification by Faith, 164
Canon IX contains these thunderous words, "If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate 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." On the one hand, these words reflect a misunderstanding of the Protestant view, as if the latter claimed that good words were unnecessary. On the other hand, the language of preparation reflects the theology of Gabriel Biel and a view of grace that differs sharply from the Reformers, who taught there is nothing we can do to prepare ourselves to receive God's grace.Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com, 65
No doctrine can be imagined so beautifully simple as justification by faith. It is not a dark mysterious truth, intelligible to none but the great, the rich, and the learned. It places eternal life within the reach of the most unlearned, and the poorest in the land. It must be of God.Old Paths, Chapter 8
Christ has stood in the place of the true Christian. He has become his Surety and his Substitute. He undertook to bear all that was to be borne, and to do all that was to be done, and what He undertook He performed. Hence the true Christian is a justified man.Old Paths, Chapter 8
It is true that faith alone justifies, without works; but I am speaking about genuine faith, which after it has justified, will not go to sleep but is active through love.
works are done on the basis of faith through love, not that a man is justified through love.Commentary on Galatians
Justification, of course, has no degrees and is completed at one moment and in only one act. Yet, in manifestation, consciousness, and effects it has many degrees.The Marrow of Theology, 161
Because faith alone justifies... publicans and prostitutes will be the first in the kingdom of heaven.
It is not of our own accord that we have believed... and even when we had come to believe, He did not require of us purity of life, but approving mere faith, God bestowed on us forgiveness of sins.
Imputed righteousness means that we are declared to be in the right before God on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is given to us when we believe. Infused righteousness means that we are righteous before God because of our righteous behavior, because of the righteousness that transforms and changes us.Sola Fide, 26
O the sweet exchange, O the incomprehensible work of God, O the unexpected blessings, that the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one righteous man, while the righteousness of one should justify many sinners.Epistle to Diognetus, 9.5
Justification by faith alone isn't the product of rigid and brittle orthodoxy. It speaks to the minds and hearts of people all throughout history because it tackles one of the fundamental questions of our human condition: How can a person be right with God?Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com, 15
sola fide! These words declared that salvation does not come from looking at our own works of righteousness, but from looking outside ourselves to another, to the person and work of Jesus Christ.Faith Alone by Thomas Schreiner Copyright ©2015 by Schreiner. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com, 15
But when we rise to the heavenly tribunal and place before our eyes that supreme Judge... then in an instant the vain confidence of men perishes and falls and conscience is compelled... to confess that it has nothing upon which it can rely before God.
Justification is by faith alone, but it isn't a faith that is alone, for true faith produces good works. Still, good works are not the ground or cause of salvation; they are the fruit of one's faith. The perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers, so that their righteousness is not inherent but is theirs because they are united to Jesus Christ. At the final judgment God will declare publicly what was already the case in the lives of believers, i.e., that they are righteous by faith, and their works will verify (but will not be the foundation of) that declaration.
To claim that the Paul of Galatians was exercised over the terms by which Gentiles can belong to the people of God while overlooking his (still more fundamental) concern with the dilemma facing all human beings responsible before God is to suffer from a peculiarly modern myopia.Justification Reconsidered, 18
For Gentile believers in Christ, to be circumcised now would be a disaster, not because they would unnecessarily take on requirements binding only on Jews, but because they would be abandoning Christ, whose death is the sole means by which Jews and Gentiles alike can find righteousness; and they would be embracing life under a covenant that can only condemn them. Such is the thrust of Galatians.Justification Reconsidered, 14-15
the words for "righteous" (dikaios) and "righteousness" (dikaiosyne); it is typically used in a legal setting, where it means "declare innocent", "find righteous", "acquit."Justification Reconsidered, 8
We have been called by God's will in Christ Jesus, and are not justified by ourselves. We are not justified by our own wisdom, understanding, godliness, or works that we have done with the right intentions. We are justified by that faith by which Almighty God has justified all men from the beginning.Epistula I 32
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