Justification by Faith: Then & Now
This article was first published in March 2022 edition of Vision, the magazine of European Mission Fellowship.
‘Justification is the doctrine by which the Church stands or falls’ (attributed to Luther).
There is actually nothing unique about justification; everybody believes in it and needs to hear the assurance of a ‘not guilty’ verdict. For that’s all it means: declared right, or not guilty. However, some of these are fakes.
Secular justification
First there is a secular justification: secularism considers some things as serious sins (depending on the season) be it homophobia, racism, climate change denial (some actually are sins!) that we must be shown to be innocent of; hence virtue signalling (demonstrating our righteousness before men). There is, however, no chance of forgiveness. Tasteless tweets from a decade ago resurface and culprits are deplatformed. Recently secular Jewish comedian, David Baddiel asked, ‘Where is the forgiveness? The redemptive ark or path for improvement.’ A young comedian answered, ‘There can be none, otherwise people will think it’s OK to say unacceptable things.’ This is, of course, by definition self-justification and literally without hope or grace.
Roman justification
The second is an older religious version. Roman Catholicism also believes we need to be justified. Unlike the secular version, it recognises that we have all offended a holy God and need to be put right with him. This is done by faith in Christ. However, it is not by faith ALONE, as the Council of Trent [1] and Vatican II [2] make clear. Although faith is essential in Catholicism, it needs to be accompanied with good works and the sacraments, in which righteousness is infused into us, so we really are being righteous. Pastorally, the result is a flitting between pride and despair. Many Protestants will object to what’s just been said and agreed wordings have been found. The problem with this approach is that we end up with the same vocabulary but different dictionaries, saying the same words but meaning different things.
The real thing
The real thing is far more liberating, but a prerequisite is to despair of ourselves and throw ourselves on Christ. In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus told a parable of two men in the Temple: the first is a religious man who thanks God for his own goodness and lack of sin; the other merely beats his chest and prays, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Jesus concludes that this is the man who is justified. We cannot be justified by our good works, as they are merely filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
We then reach out to Christ, where a great exchange happens. 2 Corinthians 5:21: ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ God considers (imputes) our sin to be Christ’s, who takes its penalty in our place, and his righteousness is considered to be ours. Even as Christians continue to sin, God looks at us and sees Christ in his perfection. Scripture affirms this comprehensively using language of the court (justified, righteous, or not guilty), clothing (stained clothes off, clothed in Christ’s righteousness) and the bank (debt paid, now made rich). The Reformers called it The Great Exchange. Rico Tice put it like this, “’When you ask yourself: how does God feel about me today? Until you can answer: he is delighted with me! You have not understood the gospel.’
This is our great comfort. In Romans 5:1-2 Justification by faith in Christ (alone) leads to peace with God, so access to him to stand in confidence rejoicing in our future hope.
And even this faith can’t be called a work; it’s the instrument by which we lay hold of Christ, itself a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8).
Not a new idea
Of course, this idea is rightly associated with the Reformation, but it did not start there. This is what the earliest Christians thought. In fact, it’s not even a New Testament idea: Romans 4 takes us to Genesis, Genesis 17:5 being the clearest verse on imputation in Scripture! The ideas of imputation, exchange and justification by faith alone are all over the Bible.
To add is to take
To add conditions to this free exchange, whether it be our duties or help from another other than Christ, is to take from God’s work. This is seen all over the New Testament, but is the main subject matter of Galatians.
Faith is never alone
Secularists and Roman Catholics alike balk at this. If we make no contribution, then we can behave as we want. Indeed, we can! Martyn Lloyd-Jones pointed out that if we have understood Romans chapters 1-5 we will ask ‘Are we to continue in sin?’ (6:1), and answer ‘by no means!’ (6:2). God has started to change what we want. We are justified by faith alone, but this faith is never alone. Ephesians 2:10 shows that we are saved for good works now, as we aim to glorify God in all that we do. Our works may be filthy rags, but once we are united to Christ, he ‘justifies’ them too ([Hebrews 13:15] This is called God’s double gift, or duplex gratia dei.)
Assurance
This is good news that the world needs to hear. The Roman Catholic and others will flit between pride and despair as their holiness ebbs and flows. The secularist virtue-signals their righteousness by the current standard, only for that standard to shift and they find themselves also out in the cold with no way back. Both have to minimise their sin and maximise their works, or else fail by their own standards. But the Christian confesses his/her sin and hears the verdict of the heavenly court room today, ‘not guilty!’, then confidently lives to glorify God.
[1] Council of Trent Canons 9, 11, 12, 24, 30, 32
[2] Vatican II: Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Introduction, para. 2; Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Chapter 1, 3, p. 324; Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Chap. 1, I, 5,6, pp. 23-24; Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences, chap. 3, 6, pp. 78,79
