This paper was originally given as part of the Brady Street Reformation Project, a grassroots ecumenical dialogue between City Reformed Church & St Hedwig’s Church in Milwaukee.
Martin Luther once said: “If the doctrine of justification is lost, the whole of Christian doctrine is lost.” That might be a slight exaggeration, but it suggests how vital this doctrine really was for the Reformers and remains for the churches of the Reformation today.
There are a few foundational facts from Scripture need to be in place before we can make sense of the doctrine of justification by faith. First, the meaning of the word, “justify.” In both OT & NT, to justify means to set an accused person free from the sentence of condemnation and to vindicate him or her as righteous. It’s a forensic, legal, courtroom word. So in Prov 17.15 we find this: “He who justifies the wicked & he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” It is evil to declare a wicked person “not guilty,” as it is evil to condemn an innocent man. Likewise at Rom 8.33-4, the context of justification is legal accusation & its meaning is clearly the opposite of condemnation: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies: who is to condemn?” In the context of the Rome-Reformation conversation, we need to put a fine point on this. Both the sixteenth-century council of Trent & the modern Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification include inner transformation – together with forgiveness of sins – in their definitions of “justification.” On biblical grounds, this is an error. When the Bible speaks of God justifying a sinner, it does not mean that he transforms this sinner into a righteous man. Rather, it means he declares this sinner, as the sinner he is, to be free from the sentence of condemnation he deserves, not on the basis of his own righteousness – he has none – but on the basis of Christ’s righteousness. To be clear, God’s grace does transform us deep within; but that isn’t what justification is about. Justification is about the God who justifies the ungodly (Rom 4.5), i.e., the God who declares sinners “righteous” when they trust in his crucified Son.
The second set of facts hang together in Scripture: that we are God’s creatures, not our own masters; that God is the just judge of all the earth (Gen 18.25); that at the end of time, God will judge the living & the dead. This needs to be stated at the outset, because in our culture we tend to assume that God is a God of love but not a God of justice, a God who affirms or even forgives – that’s his job! – but who does not judge or punish evil. If those are your working assumptions, what the NT teaches about justification will make no sense at all. Now, because God is just – because his justice is as essential to his nature as his mercy and love – he must punish sin & reward righteousness if he is to be (as we say today) true to himself. For God to not do justice would be for God to cease to be God. So, in the judgment all who have done evil will receive the sentence of condemnation, and if there be found any who have kept God’s law to the full, they will be justified. In Rom 2, Paul gathers up the threads of OT teaching on this point and sums it up clearly, e.g. v. 6: “God will render to each one according to his works.” But then in Rom 3, Paul brings more OT scripture to bear to prove – shockingly – that the class of righteous people who will be justified by works on the last day is an empty set. All, both Jew & Greek, are under sin; no one is righteous, not even one; and so, on the basis of our own moral and spiritual performance, not one person will be justified before God. Just the reverse: through the law, our sinful rebellion against God is exposed all the more, our mouths are stopped, and we are held accountable to God (Rom 3.9-20).
Will all perish, then, and be lost forever? If the law were the only path to justification, if justice were the only perfection of God’s nature, then alas, yes. But the God of justice is the God who abounds in mercy & steadfast love – and that is why in Rom 3.21-22, Paul turns from the law to the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law … the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
The core of the doctrine: justification by grace, blood, faith
Justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is God’s wise, merciful, and just answer to the question: how can guilty sinners stand before him in the coming judgment? In justification, God declares: “I no longer regard this sinful man as a sinner. For though he has no righteousness of his own, and is full of sin from head to toe, by faith he has come to possess the righteousness of another, the righteousness of my crucified Son, who paid for this man’s sins in full by his death on the cross.” Let me flesh this out in three steps.
First, justification is by grace. Rom 3.24: “Justified by God’s grace as a gift.” Gal 2.21: “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” What we mean by this is that getting right with God – getting “righteousness” – is entirely God’s gift to us. When we rebelled against him, he did not have to save us. But he did. He turned to us in mercy, gave us his Son on the cross, and now – by faith in his Son – gives us the righteousness we lack as a gift. The justification that we receive by faith is the free gift of God’s grace.
Second, justification is by blood. Rom 3.24-5: “Justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood.” Rom 5.9: “Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” What does this mean? God is merciful, and therefore purposed to save us from destruction. But God is also just. In his wisdom, he found out a way to uphold his justice while also manifesting his mercy, to punish sin and to pardon sinners. That way was the cross. Belgic Confession #20: “So God made known his justice toward his Son, who was charged with our sin, and he poured out his goodness and mercy on us.” In sum: Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, took our place. He was punished, so that we might be set free. He was condemned, so that we might be justified. As Peter says: “Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet 2.24). Or Paul: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us” (Gal 3.13). The justification that we receive by faith comes to us only through the sacrificial death of Jesus in our place on the cross. We are justified by the blood of the Lamb, who took our sins & the punishment they deserved upon himself, and so took them away.
Third, justification is by faith. Rom 3.24-5: “Justified by God’s grace as a gift … through faith in his blood.” Rom 3.28: “We hold that a man is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.” Rom 5.1: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When we say that we are justified by faith, we do not mean that faith itself is what justifies us. It is not the virtue of faith that makes us right with God. God makes us right with himself by grace, through the atoning death of his Son. But faith is the empty hand of the soul stretched out to receive God’s gift of righteousness in Christ. When we say that we are justified by faith alone, we are just trying to repeat a little more clearly what I’ve already articulated so far in this talk. God is the one who justifies the ungodly through the death of his Son. Our works contribute nothing to the perfect work of Christ on the cross, which is itself the gift of God’s lavish grace. Ours is simply to receive the gift – and that receiving is what we mean by faith.
A Reformed vision of the Church and the Christian Life
In the last place, I want to tease out a handful of Reformed emphases.
First, justification consists in the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. God wipes our slate clean. But as if that weren’t enough, he also gives us the perfect obedience of Jesus unto death as our own. As he took our record of sin upon himself at the cross, so he gives his record of obedience to us. In the eyes of God, we sinners are just as righteous as his Son, for we are righteous with the righteousness of his Son.
Second, justification in Christ goes hand-in-hand with adoption in Christ. When God the Judge of all justifies a sinner, he also adopts him as his child, giving him the Spirit of adoption in order to empower him to call upon God as his “Abba,” his dear Father. You could imagine – your heart may imagine – another scenario, where God lets you off the hook for your sins but then pretty much leaves you to fend for yourself. That is not the biblical gospel. When God justifies a sinner, he embraces him in the arms of his love as his adopted son, gives himself to him as his Father, and promises him the inheritance of eternal life.
Third, the justified person, perfectly righteous in Christ by faith, remains a sinner too. This is Luther’s famous little phrase: simul peccator et iustus, a sinner & righteous at the same time. It isn’t just that we sometimes mess up and sin, though that we do. It’s that we are still sinners because we remain sinful. True, we have been reborn by grace; true, the Spirit is making us more like Christ; true, we are no longer under the dominion of sin. But the sinful flesh that Paul speaks of in the saints really is sinful; and if you have an honest heart, you know by experience that what Paul says is true. Nevertheless, after the agonizing sin-struggle of Rom 7 comes the joyful promise of Rom 8.1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The saint remains a sinner, but she is not condemned, for she is righteous by faith in Jesus Christ.
Fourth, justification is not provisional, but permanent. When God justifies a sinner, the judgment of the last day is brought back from the future into the present. That’s why in Rom 5.9, Paul says: “Since we have now been justified by Christ’s blood, much more will we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” There can be no punishment left for us on that day, since Christ already endured it all for us on Good Friday. Which explains why, in Rom 8.31ff, Paul boasts with such a glad heart in the invincible power of God’s grace for us in Jesus Christ. God has atoned for our sins in his Son, reconciled us to himself, justified us, adopted us. This means: God is for us. Not “for us” the way a human father roots for his son from the sidelines, hoping he’ll play well enough to win. Rather, for us as our sovereign champion. For us as the One who in Jesus Christ took up our ruined cause & made it his own. For us as the One who by his Spirit keeps us in the communion of his Son forever. For us as the Father whose love will never let us go.
Fifth, this final justification is the basis – not the goal – of the Christian life. Having been justified by faith, the believer does not avoid sin or do good works in order to merit right-standing with God. Nor do we kill sin & pursue virtue out of fear that if we don’t, we might lose our justification. Any such approach to the Christian life is motivated by what Paul calls the spirit of slavery & fear – the fear that I might be cast out of the household if I underperform. But we are no longer slaves! We are sons. God has redeemed us from this slavery. He has justified us fully & finally. He has welcomed us into the home of his steadfast love. There is nothing left to fear, for God is for us. There is nothing left to earn, because he has done all our works for us in Christ. All that is left to do, quite literally, is love. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but only faith working through love” (Gal 5.6). Do we fear God? Not if by “fear” you mean dread of being rejected by God if you screw up. True fear of God is the fear of a cherished son, who strives to please his father because he loves his Father back, but knows that even when he does displease him, his father’s love for him will not change. Indeed, his father’s love for him – which does not change – will change him. For the more he stumbles & falls, the more he learns the riches of Christ’s grace & the more he rests in the love of his Father. Rightly grasped, then, justification by faith is all about love: the love-gift of the Father who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us, and the responsive love that this priceless gift awakens in us.
Finally, justification is what makes the church, the church. You see this in Paul, especially in Gal, Rom & Eph, where he argues that because of this gospel of righteousness in Christ the barriers that otherwise divide the human race – race, class, gender, and all manner of invented standards of righteousness that we’ve made up for others & for ourselves – are torn down. But you see it even more vividly in the four gospels. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, and you’ll see a great divide taking place around the person of Jesus that breaks up the entire human race into two. On the one side are the religious people, the good people, who trust in themselves that they are righteous, treat others with contempt, and perceive in Jesus a threat to the established order of things. On the other are the prostitutes, the lepers, the outcasts, the sinners, who flock to Jesus because he gives them the hope of a righteousness that is by grace & of a place to belong that is defined by unconditional love for sinners. That place, it may surprise you to hear, is the church – the church that preaches the gospel of the God who justifies sinners through faith in his Son.
Phil Anderas is a Reformed pastor and missionary theologian with operations based in Milwaukee. He holds a PhD in Theology from Marquette. He is a member of the St. Basil Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
