Mark Jones has posted a very interesting series of blog entries regarding justification, especially as it relates to the Arminian and Reformed views.
Justification by Precision Alone?
The Act & Habit of Faith in Relation to Union with Christ
In an article entitled “Resurrection and Justification” Dr. R. C. Sproul writes:
How is the resurrection of Christ linked to the idea of justification in the New Testament? To answer this question, we must first explore the use and meaning of the term justification in the New Testament. Confusion about this has provoked some of the fiercest controversies in the history of the church. The Protestant Reformation itself was fought over the issue of justification. In all its complications, the unreconciled and unreconcilable difference in the debate came down to the question of whether our justification before God is grounded in the infusion of Christ’s righteousness into us, by which we become inherently righteous, or in the imputation, or reckoning, of Christ’s righteousness to us while we are still sinners. The difference between these views makes all the difference in our understanding of the Gospel and of how we are saved.
One of the problems that led to confusion was the meaning of the word justification. Our English word justification is derived from the Latin justificare. The literal meaning of the Latin is “to make righteous.” The Latin fathers of church history worked with the Latin text instead of the Greek text and were clearly influenced by it. By contrast, the Greek word for justification, dikaiosune, carries the meaning of “to count, reckon, or declare righteous.”
But this variance between the Latin and the Greek is not enough to explain the debates over justification. Within the Greek text itself, there seem to be some problems. For example, Paul declares in Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Then James, in his epistle, writes, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar” (2:21) and “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (2:24).
On the surface, it appears that we have a clear contradiction between Paul and James. The problem is exacerbated when we realize that both use the same Greek word for justification and both use Abraham to prove their arguments.
This problem can be resolved when we see that the verb “to justify” and its noun form, “justification,” have shades of meaning in Greek. One of the meanings of the verb is “to vindicate” or “to demonstrate.”
Jesus once said, ” ‘Wisdom is justified by all her children’ ” (Luke 7:35). He did not mean that wisdom has its sins remitted or is counted righteous by God by having children, but that a wise decision may be vindicated by its consequences.
James and Paul were addressing different questions. James was answering the question: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” (2:14). He understood that anyone can profess to have faith, but true faith is demonstrated as authentic by its consequent works. The claim of faith is vindicated (justified) by works. Paul has Abraham justified in the theological sense in Genesis 15 before he does any works. James points to the vindication or demonstration of Abraham’s faith in obedience in Genesis 22.
The Resurrection involves justification in both senses of the Greek term. First, the Resurrection justifies Christ Himself. Of course, He is not justified in the sense of having His sins remitted, because He had no sins, or in the sense of being declared righteous while still a sinner, or in the Latin sense of being “made righteous.” Rather, the Resurrection serves as the vindication or demonstration of the truth of His claims about Himself.
In his encounter with the philosophers at Athens, Paul declared: ” ‘Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead’ ” (Acts 17:30-31).
Here Paul points to the Resurrection as an act by which the Father universally vindicates the authenticity of His Son. In this sense, Christ is justified before the whole world by His resurrection.
However, the New Testament also links Christ’s resurrection to our justification. Paul writes, “It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom. 4:24-25).
It is clear that in His atoning death Christ suffered on our behalf, or for us. Likewise, His resurrection is seen not only as a vindication of or surety of Himself, but as a surety of our justification. Here justification does not refer to our vindication, but to the evidence that the atonement He made was accepted by the Father. By vindicating Christ in His resurrection, the Father declared His acceptance of Jesus’ work on our behalf. Our justification in this theological sense rests on the imputed righteousness of Christ, so the reality of that transaction is linked to Christ’s resurrection. Had Christ not been raised, we would have a mediator whose redeeming work in our behalf was not acceptable to God.
However, Christ is risen indeed!
This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.
Part 1: Romans 8:28 is one of the most important and most treasured verses and promises in the Bible. In this lab, Dr. John Piper begins a series of three labs pulling apart the critical pieces in these twenty-four words for understanding and embracing our sovereign and good God.
Romans 8:28, Part 1 // All Things Work Together for Good from Desiring God on Vimeo.
Part 2: The Bible makes promises to those who love God. But how do we know if we do? In this lab, John Piper digs into the relationship between saving faith and loving God. He goes on to show why and how God works all things for good for those who love him.
Romans 8:28, Part 2 // Do You Love God? from Desiring God on Vimeo.
Part 3: When God calls a man or woman, what happens? In this lab, the third of three labs focused on Romans 8:28, John Piper draws in several other verses to try and understand the call of God. He explains why those who love God should rest secure in his sovereign care.
Romans 8:28, Part 3 // Called According to God’s Purpose from Desiring God on Vimeo.
Part 4: In this lab, John Piper tackles the next verse in Romans 8 – verse 29. The phrase “foreknown by God” has caused significant controversy and conflict within Christianity. Did God simply know ahead of time that we would believe, or did he choose who would believe?
Romans 8:29 // Foreknown by God from Desiring God on Vimeo.
Part 5: A promise as mind-blowing as Romans 8:28 needs massive faith-sustaining truth underneath it. Romans 8:30 lays out a process in which God exalts Christ by bringing ungodly people to glory. In this lab, John Piper offers assurance in God’s invincible plan of salvation.
Romans 8:29 // Conformed to the Image of Christ from Desiring God on Vimeo.
Romans 8:30 // Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified from Desiring God on Vimeo.
As a guest host on the Dividing Line this week,” the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
Hour 1: Justification and the Three Transfers found in the Bible.
Hour 2: The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ, how Paul and James compliment each other on the matter of justification, and why Rome’s ‘gospel’ cannot save.
The youtube videos below are taken from a seminar given by Dr. James White on Saturday & Sunday, February 7, 8, 2009, at the Sola Conference at Countryside Bible Church in the Dallas area. The first video is an overview of the historic and present day attacks against the doctrine of sola fide (justification by faith alone). Lasting approx. 72 minutes, this presentation is excellent for both its clarity and insight concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The second video (below) lasts approx. 55 minutes and is entitled “Living Out Sola Fide.”
This excerpt is from R.C. Sproul’s The Truth of the Cross. Original Source: http://www.ligonier.org/blog/jesus-died-he-lived/
We must see that the righteousness of Christ that is transferred to us is the righteousness He achieved by living under the Law for thirty-three years without once sinning. Jesus had to live a life of obedience before His death could mean anything. He had to acquire, if you will, merit at the bar of justice. Without His life of sinless obedience, Jesus’ atonement would have had no value at all. We need to see the crucial significance of this truth; we need to see that not only did Jesus die for us, He lived for us.
Roman Catholics call this concept a legal fiction, and they recoil from it because they believe it casts a shadow on the integrity of God by positing that God declares to be just people who are not just. In response, the Reformers conceded that this concept would be a legal fiction if imputation were fictional. In that case, the Protestant view of justification would be a lie. But the point of the Gospel is that “imputation is real—God really laid our sins on Christ and really transferred the righteousness of Christ to us. We really possess the righteousness of Jesus Christ by imputation. He is our Savior, not merely because He died, but because He lived a sinless life before He died, as only the Son of God could do.
Theologians like to employ Latin phrases, and one of my favorites is one that Martin Luther used to capture this concept. The essence of our salvation is found in this phrase: Simul Justus et pecator. The word simul is the word from which we get the English word simultaneous; it means simply “at the same time.” Justus is the word for “just.” We all know what et means; we hear it in the famous words of Julius Caesar in the Shakespeare tragedy: “Et tu, Brute?” (“You, too, Brutus?”) Etmeans “also” or “and.” From the word pecator we get such English words aspeccadillo (“a little sin”) and impeccable (“without sin”); it is simply the Latin word for “sinner.” So Luther’s phrase, Simul Justus et pecator, means “At the same time just and sinner.”
This is the glory of the Protestant doctrine of justification. The person who is in Christ is at the very same instant a sinner and just. If I could be justified only by actually becoming just and having no sin in me, I would never see the kingdom of God. The point of the gospel is that the minute a person embraces Jesus Christ, all that Christ has done is applied to that person. All that He is becomes ours, including His righteousness. Luther was saying that at the very instant I believe, I am just by virtue of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. It’s Christ’s righteousness that makes me just. His death has taken care of my punishment and His life has taken care of my reward. So my justice is completely tied up in Christ.
In Protestantism, we speak of this as the doctrine of justification by faith alone, for according to the New Testament, the only means by which the righteousness and the merit of Christ can come into our accounts and be applied to us is by faith. We can’t earn it. We can’t deserve it. We can’t merit it. We can only trust in it and cling to it.
In an article by Geoff Thomas entitled “Justification is Free, by God’s Grace, through Christ’s Redemption” he writes:
Romans 3:24 ‘And are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’
Some sentences are packed with meaning and this is a prime example. These words are a forceful explanation of what the wonderful truth of God’s justification is all about. Virtually every word in the sentence is important, even the word ‘and’ that begins the text, ‘and’ linking justification with the universality and guilt of sin that Paul has set out in the famous previous verse. We are unrighteous sinners in the sight of God. There seems to be no hope for us, yet Paul says ‘and,’ not ‘but.’ Never stop with man’s depravity for that leads to despair. Depravity must be joined to the offer of the extraordinary grace of God that freely justifies every favoured sinner who believes. You might have come here today as low as you’ve ever been in your life, feeling your sin and guilt, conscious you have sinned against much blessing and knowledge, thinking that there can be no hope for you. God has brought you here to hear these words: ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:23, 24). Let’s examine these words . . .
1. JUSTIFICATION IS FREE
To justify does not mean to make someone righteous; it is not about changing the actual substance and character of a person. It is not that. It means to declare that someone now has a new status, a righteous status. It is a forensic and legal term. A criminal is accused of a wrong-doing. The magistrate hears the evidence, takes every factor into consideration, the provocation of the event and so on, and comes to the conclusion that he will find him not guilty, that he will declare him to be righteous as far as this case and this particular charge is concerned. He is not making him a good man; he is not changing his personality. He is removing him from the status of being the accused to a sinner being declared innocent. He is the same person leaving court as the one who walked to the court that morning, but what has changed is this, he no longer carries the guilt of what he was said to have done.
Of course with us the situation is different. It is not that we are alleged to have done wrong things; we’ve done them, many of them, really bad things, but we have come to God in our guilt and shame and acknowledged that to him. ‘Here I am Lord, guilty in my eyes let alone in your sight. I have erred and strayed from your ways like a lost sheep. I have not done the things I ought to have done and I have done the things I shouldn’t have done. There is no health in me. Have mercy, Lord; O Lord, forgive. Pardon me freely. Wash me, cleanse me, declare me to be righteous. Justify me, Almighty God. I confess my sins to you and your word says, “If we confess our sins you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The publican in the Temple cried to you, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and Jesus said that the man walked out of the building justified. May I leave this building justified today! The dying thief asked Jesus to remember him when he came in his kingdom. “Remember me O Lord,” I pray today. There are millions in need of you now, praying to you now. You are in charge of the galaxies of space and you satisfy the needs of every living thing. Please hear little sinful me and declare me to be righteous. While on others you are casting the garment of the righteousness of Christ do not pass me by. Naked, I come to thee for dress; helpless look to thee for grace. Justify me, Saviour.’ So you pray like that, in your own words, and persist in praying. You will not let him go away; you keep speaking to him until he blesses you with his justification.
It is free, the apostle says. We are justified freely. We do not pay something or give something to be justified. We do not do anything to be justified. It is a free act of God which we simply receive. There is no barter, and no exchange. It is not that we offer something to God and he then checks it out and sees if it passes muster and then responds by declaring us righteous. It is nothing like that. There is nothing in our hands that we bring to the God who justifies to get imputed righteousness. Do we read that the 3,000 on the Day of Pentecost took an offering and because of that they received forgiveness for crucifying the Son of God? Were they told to fast and to crawl around the Temple seven times on their hands and knees? No. Did the Ethiopian do something to receive pardon, or Lydia to have her heart opened by God? Or there was the Philippian woman possessed with a spirit of divination; what was she asked to do to be delivered? Nothing at all. Or the Philippian jailer? He was asked not to do something, not to harm himself, and that is all. Paul insists that this word from God about a justification that changes our status for ever and declares us to be righteous is given without money and without price.
Is there a religious ceremony that obtains an alien righteousness? Does baptism get it? No. The dying thief was not baptized and yet that day he went to paradise. Does speaking in tongues get it? No. Paul says categorically that not all Christians were given the gift of speaking in a language they didn’t know. Do the hands of a bishop on your head give you free justification? No, they do not, because many who were once confirmed have long given up any desire to believe in God. You can give all your gifts to the poor and give your body to be burned and yet be a nothing, Paul tells the Christians in Corinth. Continue reading