Reformed Theology and the Doctrines of Grace — Unit 7: Justification by Faith Alone

Key Verse

"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law." (Romans 3:28, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define justification as a legal declaration by God and distinguish it from sanctification.

2. Explain the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer and why it rests on Christ's work alone.

3. Explain why faith is the instrument, and not the ground, of justification.

4. State the Roman Catholic, the "New Perspective" and the James 2 objections fairly, and give the Reformed answer to each.

5. Answer the charge that justification by faith alone leads to careless living.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and confessional. We hold the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and we confess the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, or the Westminster Standards. Other Christians read some passages differently, and we state their views fairly before we answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Why This Doctrine Matters

The Reformation of the sixteenth century was, at its center, a recovery of this doctrine. Course 1 told the history, and we do not repeat it here. The question the Reformers asked was the question of every human conscience: how can a sinner stand before a holy God? Scripture's answer is that the sinner is declared righteous, not because of his own works, but because of Christ's work, received by faith alone.

For a pastor, this is not a technical matter. It is what you say to a dying man, to a person crushed by guilt, and to a proud person who thinks he is good enough. The Heidelberg Catechism, in its answer to the question how you are righteous before God, gives the Reformed reply: only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing else gives peace to the conscience.

What Justification Means

In the Bible, the word "justify" is a legal word. It does not mean "to make righteous" in the sense of changing a person's character. It means "to declare righteous." The Bible sets it against "condemn." Paul writes, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?" (Romans 8:33-34). A judge who justifies does not make the person good. He declares that the law has no claim against him.

This is why Reformed theology carefully separates two works of God.

Justification is God's act, once for all, in which He pardons our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight. It is a declaration about our standing before God. It is complete at the moment we believe and does not grow.

Sanctification is God's work in us, by which we are renewed in the whole person and grow in holiness. It begins at the new birth, which Unit 6 explained, and it grows throughout life. It is incomplete in this life.

The two always go together, since everyone who is justified is also being sanctified. But they are not the same. Justification gives us a right standing, and sanctification gives us a changed life. When they are mixed together, the believer is left asking whether he has become holy enough to be accepted, and that question has no peace in it.

Imputation: Christ's Righteousness Counted as Ours

How can God declare a sinner righteous without lying and without ignoring the law? Scripture answers through the idea of imputation, meaning "to count" or "to credit." Two great exchanges are taught.

Our sin is counted to Christ. Paul writes, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ took the guilt and penalty of our sin on the cross.

Christ's righteousness is counted to us. Paul writes that "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by One Man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). In Philippians 3:9, Paul says he wants to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of his own from the law, but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.

Paul's example is Abraham. In Romans 4:3-5, Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 to show that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He then reasons that wages are paid to a worker as a debt, while God justifies the ungodly. If justification were a wage, it would be owed. Paul says it is a gift.

Many Reformed teachers speak of Christ's "active" and "passive" obedience. His passive obedience is His suffering and death, which pays the penalty for our sins. His active obedience is His perfect keeping of the law, which supplies the righteousness we lack. Together they are the ground of our acceptance. Not all Reformed writers use these terms in the same way, and there have been discussions among Reformed scholars about how exactly to express the imputation of Christ's obedience. But all Reformed churches agree that our righteousness before God is Christ's, and not our own.

Faith: The Instrument, Not the Ground

If we are justified by faith, does faith itself earn something? The Reformed answer is clear: no. The Westminster Confession, chapter 11, teaches that God justifies, not by infusing righteousness, but by pardoning sins and by accounting and accepting persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone. It teaches that faith receiving and resting on Christ is the alone instrument of justification.

An instrument is the hand that receives a gift. A beggar's hand does not earn the bread, and it does not contribute to the bread's value. It only receives. Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Even the faith is a gift. The ground of our justification is Christ's righteousness. The instrument is faith. The source is God's grace.

This is why we say "faith alone," in Latin sola fide. We do not mean that faith is a lonely thing. We mean that in the matter of justification, faith is the only instrument, and nothing else is added to it.

Objection One: The Roman Catholic View

The Roman Catholic Church taught a different doctrine at the Council of Trent, in its Sixth Session in 1547. Stated fairly, the Catholic teaching is that justification is not only forgiveness but also an inward renewal, in which grace is poured into the soul. It is received at baptism, and it can be increased by good works done in grace, and lost by mortal sin and restored through the sacrament of penance. Catholic teachers insist that all of this is by God's grace and through Christ's merits, and that works have no value apart from grace. Catholics also point to James 2 and to the many passages that speak of judgment according to works.

Our answer has three parts.

First, we agree that salvation is by grace through Christ, and that renewal is a real work of God. The difference is that Rome includes renewal inside justification, and we distinguish them. We believe this is the clear teaching of the New Testament, where "justify" is the opposite of "condemn."

Second, if justification is a process that can be increased and lost, no sinner can be sure that he is accepted. Paul says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). This is a past action with present peace. Peace is possible only if the verdict has been given.

Third, Paul in Galatians treats the addition of any human requirement as a departure from the gospel. We say this with respect for sincere Catholic believers, many of whom love Christ. Our concern is the doctrine, and we speak about it with charity.

Objection Two: The New Perspective on Paul

Since the 1970s, a group of scholars has argued that the older Protestant reading of Paul was shaped by the Reformation's own struggles. E. P. Sanders argued that first-century Judaism was not a religion of earning salvation, but of covenant membership kept by obedience. James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright developed this into what is called the New Perspective on Paul. On this reading, the "works of the law" that Paul opposes are mainly the boundary markers that separated Jew from Gentile, such as circumcision, Sabbath and food laws. Justification is then mostly about who belongs to God's covenant family, and Paul's concern is the inclusion of the Gentiles. These scholars often love the Bible and defend the resurrection. Their work has helped many to see the importance of Jew and Gentile in Paul's letters.

Our answer, with respect:

First, we agree that Paul cares deeply about Jew and Gentile in one church, as Ephesians 2 shows. That theme is true and important.

Second, we do not think it replaces the question of guilt. In Romans 1:18 to 3:20 Paul argues that the whole world is guilty before God, Jew and Gentile alike, and "by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20). The problem he describes is sin, not only separation.

Third, in Romans 4:4-5 Paul speaks of wages and debt, and of God justifying the ungodly. That language belongs to the matter of earning, and it cannot be reduced to boundary markers.

Fourth, many students of Paul, including some who take part in the discussion, have argued that the sixteenth-century reading is not simply an invention of the Reformation. We admit that Sanders's work corrected some unfair pictures of Judaism, and Reformed teachers should avoid such caricatures.

Objection Three: James Seems to Say Otherwise

James writes, "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only" (James 2:24). This seems to contradict Paul. Skeptics have long said so, and some Christians have been troubled by it. Roman Catholic writers have used the verse, and some others use it to say that final salvation depends on works.

The Reformed answer is that Paul and James are not opposing each other, because they ask different questions and use the word "justify" differently. Paul is answering how a guilty sinner is accepted by God. James is answering how a person can know whether another's claim to faith is real. James is writing against people who say they have faith but show none. A faith without works, he says, is dead (James 2:17). In this sense a man is "justified," meaning shown to be righteous, by his works. Both writers use Abraham, but Paul points to Genesis 15, where Abraham believed, and James to Genesis 22, where Abraham obeyed and so showed that his faith was real.

The Reformers expressed it this way: faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is never alone. It always produces fruit. Works are the evidence of justification, and not its ground.

Objection Four: Does This Lead to Careless Living?

This is the oldest objection. Paul raised it himself: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:1-2). If we are accepted without works, why strive for holiness?

The Reformed answer is that the same union with Christ that brings justification also brings new life. Everyone who is joined to Christ receives both. Paul says we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:10). Good works are not the root of acceptance, but they are the fruit of it. A person who says he trusts Christ and has no desire to obey Him gives no evidence that he has been joined to Christ. Further, assurance of pardon is itself a strong motive for holy living, because gratitude is a better teacher than fear. The Heidelberg Catechism is organized around three themes: our sin and misery, our deliverance, and our gratitude. The last part of the catechism teaches obedience as thankfulness.

An Honest Note on Different Voices

Not all who hold to justification by faith alone say exactly the same thing. The Arminian and Wesleyan traditions also confess salvation by grace through faith. John Wesley preached justification by faith, and Arminius believed in it, though historians discuss how each of them understood the place of Christ's imputed righteousness and the way that faith is "counted." We rejoice in the large agreement and speak about differences with care. Within the Reformed family there are also discussions about how to state imputation, and about the relation of justification to union with Christ, which Calvin stressed. We invite students to study these discussions in the readings below.

Pastoral Application

A young man in your church comes from a devout Roman Catholic home. After he was baptized and joined your congregation, his mother asked him sadly, "Do you think that going to Mass and doing good works count for nothing?" He is hurt and unsure how to answer.

First, you encourage him to honor his mother and to speak gently. His mother's love for God is real, and she is not an enemy.

Second, you help him find a simple answer from Scripture. Good works matter, but they cannot make us right with God. Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 5:1 are the verses to open together.

Third, you teach him to say what he is for, and not only what he is against. He can tell her that he is trusting Christ fully for his acceptance with God, and that he wants to love and serve God with his whole life.

Fourth, you pray with him for his mother, and you ask the Lord to give him patience.

Summary

Justification is God's legal declaration that a sinner is righteous. It is different from sanctification, which is the lifelong renewal of the believer. The ground of justification is the righteousness of Christ, who bore our sin and whose obedience is counted as ours. Faith is the instrument that receives this gift, and even faith is God's gift. The Roman Catholic view includes renewal within justification and teaches that it can grow and be lost; we answer that this leaves the conscience without peace and does not fit Paul's use of the word. The New Perspective rightly reminds us of Jew and Gentile but does not replace the problem of guilt. James speaks of the evidence of faith, while Paul speaks of acceptance before God. The same union with Christ that justifies also renews, so justification by faith alone does not lead to careless living but to grateful obedience.

Further Reading

• Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47), chapters 11, 14 and 16.

• Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the questions on justification and on gratitude.

• Belgic Confession (1561), articles on justification and on good works.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation, 1845), Book III, chapters 11 to 19.

• Council of Trent, Sixth Session (1547), Decree on Justification, as a primary source for the Roman Catholic position.

• Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1872-73), the section on justification.

Submit Exam & Check Pass Reset