// September 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Doctrine
How are you righteous before God? (Question 60)
“Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.”
- The Heidelberg Catechism
The Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone (Sola Fide)
Luther stated that “the doctrine of justification by faith alone is that article by which the church stands or falls, and furthermore, it’s the article by which you stand or fall, and the article upon which I stand or fall.”
Calvin followed that up by referring to justification by faith as the hinge upon which everything turns.
J.I. Packer used the metaphor of Atlas holding the weight of the world upon his shoulders, and said that Justification by Faith is the Atlas upon which the whole of Christianity rests, and if Atlas would shrug, the entire structure of the Christian faith would fall to the ground and be shattered.
That’s not exactly the same view that many contemporary Protestant theologians hold: some have called justification by faith the “small print of the Gospel.” Others have said that the reformation is over, and we should not concern ourselves with such theological issues. In addition, the rise of the New Perspective on Paul has led many respected theologians to teach that the Roman Catholicism and the Reformers both completely misunderstood Paul’s true teaching on Justification, and they have somehow only recently discovered what Paul really taught.
There is a minimalist attitude growing in our world of the lessening significance of doctrine, and especially the doctrine of justification by faith. On his death bed, Martin Luther warned that in every generation, the Gospel will have to be reaffirmed because if you ever preach the doctrine of Justification by Faith boldly and accurately, it will inevitably produce conflict.
One of the best ways to comprehend the distinctives of Reformation theology is by setting it against the backdrop of Roman Catholicism, which teaches that the grace of justification is administered by the church and the priesthood through the sacraments, baptism functioning as the moment when grace is infused (poured) into the believer’s soul. This is referred to as the righteousness of Christ that is poured into the soul. But this righteousness does not justify the believer automatically, because they are still required to cooperate with and assent to it. Once this is doen, however, they you can possess this grace to such a degree that you actually become internally righteous, and you remain in a state of grace, as long as you keep yourself from mortal sin. Mortal sin is different that venial sin because it kills the justifying grace that has been infused into the soul. A person who commits mortal sin loses their justifying grace. But the confusing thing is that RC believes that a person can commit mortal sin and have justifying grace removed, all the while possessing real, authentic faith.
Thus another sacrament comes into play at this point, namely the sacrament of penance, which is defined by RC as the second plank of justification for those who have made shipwreck of their souls. If you lose your justification through mortal sin, you don’t get it back through another baptism. Penance has several parts to it: confession, priestly absolution., etc. The priestly absolution thing get a lot of airtime, but in reality this is not the big issue. Post –Reformation Luther actually retained confession, and we Protestants do it in some sense when we have times of public repentance or confession and the pastor gives some sort of assurance of pardon. This wasn’t the eye of the storm for the Reformers, it’s the final part of the ministry of penance that was the linchpin: the works of satisfaction. These works of satisfaction, defined by the church, achieved for the penitent sinner “congruous merit”. There’s a hierarchy of merit in RC, where the next level is condine merit, followed by supererogatory merit, which only some saints were able to achieve, where they have amassed so much merit, more than they need to enter heaven. That surplus merit is then transferred to the treasury of merit, which is under control of the RC church to dispose of as they like, especially to offer it to those in purgatory who lack enough merit to make it into heaven. For example, the surplus merit of Mary, Joseph, St Francis of Assissi was all deposited into the treasury of merit and the RC church holds it and dispenses it like the Fed.
Regular old congruous merit, is achieved by the penitent sinner through works of satisfaction, which make it “congruous” or fitting for God to restore you to a state of justifying grace, giving you a new infusion of the righteousness that you need. This is what was behind the whole indulgence controversy: one of the works of satisfaction was the giving of alms.
When we speak of Protestantism vs. Roman Catholicism as a battle between Justification by Faith and Justification by Works, we are putting up a false dichotomy, which is a slander against Rome, they have never taught that.
Rome teaches that in order to be justified, a person has to have faith.
And that faith has three functions in the reality of justification: 1) the Initiation of Justification, 2) the Foundation of Justification, and 3) the Root of Justification. They teach that faith is a necessary condition for justification, but not a sufficient condition. Oxygen is a necessary condition for fire, but it’s not a sufficient condition, because if it were, then the very presence of oxygen would cause you to go up in flames. So in order to be justified, you need faith + the wood, the billowing, the tinder, etc. RC is about Jesus +, much like the Galatian heresy of the Judaizers who were saying that the gospel is about Jesus + circumcision.
Protestantism says faith is a sufficient condition for justification. Faith alone. The presence of which, if it is genuine and authentic, connects you to Jesus and his righteousness. Faith becomes the instrument by which you are justified. That is enough of a distinction to create a Reformation. Protestant’s hold that authentic faith yields instant justification. RC is about penance, merit, and grace leading to inherent righteousness. It is not the righteousness that Christ lived and died for, it is righteousness that is infused within you. So it’s grace + merit, it’s Christ + your righteousness in order to get into heaven.
Aristotle – Instrumental Causality
Illustration – sculpture
Material cause – block of stone
Formal cause – plan/blueprint/idea
Final cause – purpose for which the statue was made
Efficient cause – Sculptor
Instrumental cause – tools used to shape the sculpture, the chisel, hammer, etc.
RC and Protestantism both say the efficient cause is God’s declaration of us being just in his sight through Christ’s work. But RC says baptism and penance are the instrumental cause of justification. Protestantism says no, it is faith alone that is the instrumental cause linking us to Christ so that God declares us righteous. This is important, because it means that faith isn’t a work, and faith does not carry it’s own merit. In addition, God does not declare you just because he sees that you have faith and thinks, “He’s a good man, he deserves it.” This is where Luther’s definition of “Simul Justus et Pecator” comes into play. A Christian is one who simul “at the same time” is Justus “just/righteous” et “and” pecator “a sinner”. Luther says the person who is justified is at the same time, righteous and a sinner. The RCC called this a legal fiction, a monstrous lie, and that God would never save ungodly people. Luther said, this is exactly what the Gospel is. The Gospel shows us that God, as he did to Abraham in Gen 15:6 when Abraham believed Him, God counted/reckoned him as righteous.
How did God do this?
By virtue of the single most important word in the whole debate: imputation.
It’s amazing how much of today’s controversy and debate focuses on this idea of imputation, that the meritorious cause of your justification, the only ground of your justification, according to Luther Calvin, the Reformers, and the Bible, is the imputation of the righteousness of God to you. This truth is central and essential to the Biblical, New Testament Gospel. You never ever negotiate the concept of the imputed righteousness of Christ, not just for reasons of theological purity. It is because this is the article upon which I stand or fall. Without Christ’s righteousness, all we have to offer God is filthy rags. We go back to the beginning, “If the Lord would mark iniquities, who would stand?” Psalm 130:3. My only hope in life and death is the righteousness of Christ. This is no abstract theological doctrine that we’re messing with, this is life and death, this is all of it. We must not just believe this doctrine, we must contend for this doctrine. The righteousness that justifies us is alien righteousness, a foreign righteousness. Luther “Extranos”, external righteousness, outside of us. It is a righteousness that is apart from us, it is a righteousness that keeps us from boasting in ourselves. We are naked without the cloak of Christ’s righteousness, we are goners in the consuming fire without the asbesthos cloak of Christ’s righteousness. We are helpless without the covering of his righteousness, we are foul in the sight of God, until we have his righteousess that is imputed to us.
Lastly, we are not justified by the doctrine of justfication of faith alone. You can believe this doctrine, you can give your intellectual assent to the truth of this idea, you may contend with your all for the truth of justification by faith alone, without having the faith that alone will justify you. Justification is not accomplished by a profession of faith. If anything the evangelical world needs to learn it’s that nobody is ever justified simply by a profession of faith, a prayer prayed. It’s the possession of faith, not the profession of it, that transfers a person from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. That’s why we need to be very careful how we preach the Gospel, and not give people a false sense of assurance, saying that if you raise you hand, come to the alter, do you catechism, etc. that therefore you’re going to get into the kingdom of God. That’s why all these wacky theologies are popping up, to account for the false professions. The doctrine doesn’t save, it simply describes what does save us and bring us into a state of justification.
Example: Jesus’ Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, which one went to his home justified? the one who by faith was covered by the righteousness of Christ.
The Gospel we preach is good news. And we weep over the fact that the gospel that our RC brothers preach is bad news. Paul says in Galatians, if anybody ever preaches and other Gospel than that which you’ve received, let them be anathema.
Roman Catholicism- baptism, mortal sin, penance, if I died with any impurities on my soul, (if you died tonight, how many impurities would you take with you to the grave?”), you go to purgatory, for a week if you’re next to being a canonized saint, but it’s more likely that you’ll be in there for hundreds, thousands, millions of years, until you have been so cleansed in that purging place God sees in you an inherent righteousness. Is that good news? That’s the worst news ever, if you told me that the only way into the kingdom of God is if I had zero impurities on my soul, I would despair tonight. The good news is this: I despair of my righteousness, I acknowledge my sin, I put my trust in Christ, and in him alone, and the very instant I do that, all of the infinite treasure of God are mine, and for the rest of my days, he’s got me covered. That the Father looks at me as having perfectly fulfilled his expectations, because he sees the cloak of Christ’s righteousness. And now I am justified not for today, not for this week, not until I commit another sin, but for eternity. Is there any better news than that in the whole world.
It’s one thing to get this doctrine in your head, it’s another thing to get it in your blood stream. That’s why we need to hear the doctrine of justification by faith preached over and over and over again, because at the front door of the church, the enemy lies in wait, whispering lies to God’s people, you have to make sure everyone sees you inherent merit, your gonna lose it, it’s gotta be inherent, people have to see your perfect holiness, you’re gonna lose it if you commit that sin again. When we hear that lie, we say back, it’s God who justifies and redeems the ungodly, who shall lay any charge against God’s elect. If you once believed that the Gospel of Christ justifies us when were were yet sinners, and keeps us united with Christ forevermore. Don’t move from that, no matter what. It is the Atlas, it is the article by which we stand or fall.
–Based on a Justification by Faith, a message given by RC Sproul at the 2006 Together for the Gospel Conference
