Category Archives: Justification

The Gospel Did Not Originate in 1517

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Christians sometimes assume that the doctrine of justification by faith alone only became clear during the Reformation. The phrase sola fide is a later Latin shorthand, but long before Luther we find early Christian writers speaking in strikingly Pauline terms about salvation as God’s gift, received by faith, not earned by works.

To be sure, later generations coined concise slogans and technical vocabulary to defend the truth more precisely. The early church writers did not use those later labels. But the underlying doctrine is the same: again and again, they deny justification by our own works and point to God’s saving initiative in Christ, received through faith.

Below are several verbatim quotations from early Christian sources (with primary citations), followed by two careful, expanded summaries (not verbatim quotations) from later patristic commentators often cited in discussions of justification.

Clement of Rome (c. AD 96–100)

“And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Source: 1 Clement 32:4 (Roberts and Donaldson translation). (ccel.org)

Polycarp (c. AD 69–155/160)

“Though ye saw Him not, ye believe with joy unutterable and full of glory; unto which joy many desire to enter in; forasmuch as ye know that it is by grace ye are saved, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.”
Source: Polycarp, To the Philippians 1.3 (Lightfoot translation as reproduced online. Wording varies slightly across editions). (earlychristianwritings.com)

Epistle to Diognetus (anonymous early Christian writing, 2nd century, chapter 9)

“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 them that 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!”
Source: Epistle to Diognetus 9. (newadvent.org)

Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 130–202)

“For faith towards God justifies a man…”
Source: Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 4 (section numbering can vary by edition; see the phrase in the linked online text). (newadvent.org)

Two Expanded Summaries (Not Verbatim Quotations)

The two entries below are not presented as word-for-word quotations. They are expanded summaries of the theological emphasis in context, commonly discussed in patristic studies and traced in the secondary source cited at the end.

Origen (c. AD 185–254)

Origen, commenting on Paul (especially Romans), argues that a sinner’s acceptance with God is grounded in God’s saving action in Christ and is received through faith, not achieved by works, whether moral achievement or the works of the law. He treats justification as something God grants to the one who believes, and he appeals to the thief on the cross as a vivid illustration: a man with no time to present a catalog of deeds is nevertheless received by Christ through faith. Origen also presses the justice of God, insisting that God does not simply wave away guilt, but provides a mediator who deals with sin so that God can justify sinners without compromising His righteousness.

Marius Victorinus (c. AD 290–364)

Marius Victorinus, writing as an early Latin commentator on Paul, emphasizes that righteousness and salvation do not arise from law-keeping as the ground of acceptance, but are given by God through faith in Christ. In his handling of texts like Ephesians 2, he underscores Paul’s purpose of shutting the door on boasting: salvation is God’s gift, not a human achievement. Victorinus presents faith as the means by which believers receive what God provides in Christ, and he treats good works as the fitting fruit of grace rather than the basis of justification.

Secondary Source (for the two summaries above)

Nathan Busenitz and John MacArthur, Long before Luther: Tracing the Heart of the Gospel from Christ to the Reformation (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2017), 169–171.

There Are Many Ways To Get Justification Wrong

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The following article by Wes Bredenhof (original source here – https://bredenhof.ca/2025/09/29/eight-ways-of-getting-justification-wrong/) outlines eight erroneous views of justification.

Justification is the Bible’s teaching on how a sinner may be right before God.  It is God’s declaration as Judge that a sinner is righteous.  This declaration is made solely on the basis of what Christ has done for the sinner in his active and passive obedience.  The sinner receives the benefits of Christ for justification through faith alone apart from works. 

It has been said that justification is the doctrine by which the church stands or falls.  John Calvin called it the hinge on which all Christian doctrine turns.  However we state it, Reformed theologians have unanimously agreed about its vital place. 

It’s also important to know the key pathologies associated with justification.  There are various ways this doctrine can become infected with falsehood.  Below I briefly note eight ways in which this can happen.  Please note that this list isn’t exhaustive.         

John Wesley:  “We have taken it for a maxim, that ‘A man is to do nothing in order to attain justification.’  Nothing can be more false.  Whoever desires to find favour with God should ‘cease from evil, and learn to do well.’  Whoever repents should ‘do works meet for repentance.’  And if this is not in order to find favour, then why does he do them for?”  (quoted in A Heart Set Free: The Life of Charles Wesley, Arnold Dallimore, p.237).

Charles Finney:  Justification is a governmental pardon on the condition of full penitence and reformed behaviour – you lose your justification if you sin.    

Modernists:  We’re justified by following the example of Jesus, the true human being.  He was justified by living a sinless life.  We have to do the same.

Friedrich Schleiermacher:  “…justification is not a transcendent act of God, but only the removal of the consciousness of guilt, a change in the consciousness of one’s relation to God.”  (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3, p.552) 

Albrecht Ritschl:  “Justification, contained in Jesus’ proclamation of the love of God, is a possession of the church as a whole, so that the individual receives it by joining the church.”  (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol.3, p.554)

N.T. Wright:  “Justification is not about how a person ‘enters’ into the true community of faith but about how a person continues to be identified with that community through faithfulness (faith plus good works.  When God ‘justifies’ a person, he is declaring that person to be one who is persevering as an ongoing part of the end-time covenant community.” (Covenant Theology, eds. Waters, Reid, Muether, p.495)

Rick Warren:  in justification, God gives you a mulligan (a do-over). 

Benne Holwerda:  “Does God speak one time, and I believe then one time, and is justification then completed?  Oh no!  We live in covenant with God and that is a living relationship; when I believe, then God comes again with his word of acquittal to the person who now believes and thus drives them to works of gratitude: justification by faith.  And when they do these, then God appears again and acquits them again, he justifies them also by works, says James.”  (De dingen die ons van God geschonken zijn, vol. 2, p. 162).

Justification And Sanctification

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We can make a distinction between the body and the head of a man and he suffers no loss, but if there is a separation, the man will be dead. The head and the body must stay together for life to continue. Similarly, though we can make a distinction between justification and sanctification, we must never separate the two.

JUSTIFICATION
Justification is a legal court room term defined as the act of God when He declares a person just or righteous in His sight. This takes place the moment a sinner places their trust in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. For the sinner who has faith in Jesus, God pronounces the sentence “I find you not guilty! I reckon (I count, I declare) you righteous in My sight, and you and I are forever at peace with each other. All of your sins were transferred to your sin bearing Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, who took the full brunt of My holy wrath for you, and what has been transferred to your account is the righteousness of My Son, who lived not only a sinless life, but a life fully pleasing to Me. This very real righteousness is yours now and forever.”

Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Christian is a justified person. God has declared him right in His sight because of Christ.

What is amazing to us (and what is at the heart of the gospel message) is that God does not wait until we are inherently righteous before He declares us righteous. He justifies “the ungodly.” Romans 4:5 says, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

How can God do this without compromising His holiness and justice? He does this because the very real righteousness of Christ has been given as a gift to the one who believes in Him. Christ’s righteousness is a real righteousness and “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).

What about sanctification then? Justification happens in an instant – the moment a sinner places faith in the Savior. Sanctification is the process of becoming more and more holy and separated to God in daily life.

SANCTIFICATION
In the Old Testament, vessels used for the house of God (the Tabernacle or the Temple) were “sanctified” and set apart for that purpose, never to be used for more mundane purposes. In one sense, the Christian is already sanctified in that he is set apart to God (1 Cor. 6:11). Yet there is another dimension of sanctification for although set apart to God, there is still much work to do because in all actuality, no Christian on earth is entirely sanctified. The battle between the flesh and spirit is a life long battle. The flesh still wants its independence, and in contrast, the spirit wishes to live in absolute dependence upon God. Sanctification is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian.

Having made the distinction between justification and sanctification, let me affirm straight away that these two cannot be separated. That is because the truly justified person will be involved in this process of sanctification. If someone claims to be justified, but there is no desire to be sanctified, the claim to justification is proven to be fraudulent. The justified man possesses the Holy Spirit and He sets about the task of sanctification the moment He comes in to the human heart. He desires holiness, and He stirs up that desire in the heart of the true Christian. The Christian still sins, but there is now a struggle against sin, whereas before there was no struggle at all. The fact that you wish to be free from sin is an indication that the Holy Spirit is at work in the heart. When a person is happy to stay in a lifestyle that knowingly displeases the Master, it raises huge red warning flags to indicate that we need to analyze any claim to true justification.

Martin Luther gave the following analogy: When we are justified, it is as though a doctor has just administered a sure and certain remedy for a fatal disease. Though the patient may still endure a temporary struggle with the residual effects of his illness, the outcome is no longer in doubt. The physician pronounces the patient cured even though a rehabilitation process must still be carried out.

So it is with our justification. In Christ, God pronounces us just by the imputation of the merits of His Son. Along with that declaration, God administers something to us; He gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins immediately to work within us to bring us to holy living.

It is both a reality and comfort to know this truth – once He begins the work, He will complete it. Scripture says, “those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). So certain is Paul that this is the case, he writes of glorification in the past tense. Though glorification has not yet happen for the Christian in this world, its future certainty is assured. It’s as good as done. No one fall through the cracks.

Imagine being a sports fan and your team is in a big final. Due to a pressing commitment, you are not able to watch the game live and so you record it for later viewing.

You are finally ready to sit down to watch the recorded game and a friend calls and, before you can stop him, he congratulates you on your team’s big win. You really didn’t want to know the final score… you wanted to watch the game not knowing the final outcome. You wanted to watch with all of the emotions of a live experience. But you cannot do that anymore. The fact is that because you now know the final result – because you know that your team wins the game – you watch the entire encounter knowing that no matter how bleak things may look, even if your teams falls behind in the score, you know… in fact you know with utter certainty… your team will win! You watch the game with this comfort: victory is inevitable.

In a similar way, in the battle for sanctification there are often struggles along the way. There are even moments when we might even feel a measure of despair at our seeming lack of spiritual progress. Yet the big picture reality is this: God the Holy Spirit having started the work will complete the massive sanctification project bringing every true Christian all the way to future glorification. All the justified are glorified. He who began the good work in you will complete it, until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6).