Johann
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- Oct 26, 2022
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JUSTIFICATION. Justification is a divine act whereby an infinitely Holy God judicially
declares a believing sinner to be righteous and acceptable before Him because Christ has
borne the sinner’s sin on the cross and has become “to us … righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30;
Rom. 3:24).
Justification springs from the fountain of God’s grace (Titus 3:4–5). It is
operative as the result of the redemptive and propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, who has settled
all the claims of the law (Rom. 3:24–25; 5:9). Justification is on the basis of faith and not by
human merit or works (3:28–30; 4:5; 5:1; Gal. 2:16).
In this marvelous operation of God the
infinitely holy Judge judicially declares righteous the one who believes in Jesus (Rom. 8:31–
34). A justified believer emerges from God’s great courtroom with a consciousness that
another, his Substitute, has borne his guilt and that he stands without accusation before God
(8:1, 33–34).
Justification makes no one righteous, neither is it the bestowment of
righteousness as such, but rather it declares one to be justified whom God sees as perfected
once and forever in His beloved Son. As Lewis Sperry Chafer says: “Therefore, this may be
stated as the correct formula of justification: The sinner becomes righteous in God’s sight
when he is in Christ: he is justified by God freely, all without a cause, because thereby he is
righteous in His sight” (Systematic Theology, 7:222). M.F.U.
Throughout the whole history of this doctrine the principal point of difference and dispute
has been as to whether faith is the only condition of justification or whether good works in
connection with faith are also to be regarded as an instrumental cause. Upon this question
E.MCC. E. McChesney
opinion has run to opposite extremes—
from antinomianism to the doctrine of penances and
works of supererogation. A chief cause of error has been an undue magnifying of the
intellectual element in faith at the expense of the element that is moral and practical. Even in
the earliest days of Christianity the tendency was to regard faith as merely a mental assent to
Christian doctrine.
The possessor of such faith deemed himself as having fully met the gospel
requirement, though regardless of the claims of Christian service and even of ordinary
morality.
Passages in the epistles of Paul and James were written to correct this antinomian
error (e.g., Rom. 6:1; Gal. 5:16–25; James 2:14–26). Partly as a recoil from this error the
demand arose that, in addition to good works as evidences of true faith in believers, the sins
of believers should be expiated by penances.
And still further came the false idea of the
character of good works. Instead of the clear recognition of the only relative and imperfect
character of the righteousness of even the best Christians, the distinction was made between
the divine commands and the divine counsels, and the belief obtained footing that by keeping
both, men might do more than meet the divine requirements.
Thus the scriptural doctrine of
justification by faith became, to a considerable extent, beclouded in the early period of the
history of the church. The abuses that later became prevalent in the Roman Catholic church
through the failure to maintain the Scripture conception of faith and through the false
conception of good works are well known. Without entering in detail into the views of this or
of the Greek church, it must suffice us to emphasize the fact that the rescuing of the Scripture
doctrine upon this subject, largely, though not wholly, lost sight of for a long time, was the
work of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.
Justification by faith is a fundamental
doctrine of Protestant and evangelical Christianity. It stands opposed to those rationalistic
conceptions of sin, and the attitude of God toward it, that reduce justification to a nullity, and
to those views of Christian merit, cherished by Romanism, that derogate from the efficacy of
Christ’s atonement; at the same time it holds before men the great hope of the gospel and lays
deep the foundation of Christian morality. E.MCC.; M.F.U.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Bennett, Justication as Revealed in Scripture (1840); G. C. Berkouwer, Faith
and Justification (1954); A. M. Hunter, Interpreting Paul’s Gospel (1954); J. Buchanan, The
Doctrine of Justification (1955); L. L. Morris, Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (1955); H.
Küng, Justification (1964); L. S. Chafer, Salvation (1965); F. B. Westcott, The Biblical
Doctrine of Justification (1983).
Shalom
Johann
declares a believing sinner to be righteous and acceptable before Him because Christ has
borne the sinner’s sin on the cross and has become “to us … righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30;
Rom. 3:24).
Justification springs from the fountain of God’s grace (Titus 3:4–5). It is
operative as the result of the redemptive and propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, who has settled
all the claims of the law (Rom. 3:24–25; 5:9). Justification is on the basis of faith and not by
human merit or works (3:28–30; 4:5; 5:1; Gal. 2:16).
In this marvelous operation of God the
infinitely holy Judge judicially declares righteous the one who believes in Jesus (Rom. 8:31–
34). A justified believer emerges from God’s great courtroom with a consciousness that
another, his Substitute, has borne his guilt and that he stands without accusation before God
(8:1, 33–34).
Justification makes no one righteous, neither is it the bestowment of
righteousness as such, but rather it declares one to be justified whom God sees as perfected
once and forever in His beloved Son. As Lewis Sperry Chafer says: “Therefore, this may be
stated as the correct formula of justification: The sinner becomes righteous in God’s sight
when he is in Christ: he is justified by God freely, all without a cause, because thereby he is
righteous in His sight” (Systematic Theology, 7:222). M.F.U.
Throughout the whole history of this doctrine the principal point of difference and dispute
has been as to whether faith is the only condition of justification or whether good works in
connection with faith are also to be regarded as an instrumental cause. Upon this question
E.MCC. E. McChesney
opinion has run to opposite extremes—
from antinomianism to the doctrine of penances and
works of supererogation. A chief cause of error has been an undue magnifying of the
intellectual element in faith at the expense of the element that is moral and practical. Even in
the earliest days of Christianity the tendency was to regard faith as merely a mental assent to
Christian doctrine.
The possessor of such faith deemed himself as having fully met the gospel
requirement, though regardless of the claims of Christian service and even of ordinary
morality.
Passages in the epistles of Paul and James were written to correct this antinomian
error (e.g., Rom. 6:1; Gal. 5:16–25; James 2:14–26). Partly as a recoil from this error the
demand arose that, in addition to good works as evidences of true faith in believers, the sins
of believers should be expiated by penances.
And still further came the false idea of the
character of good works. Instead of the clear recognition of the only relative and imperfect
character of the righteousness of even the best Christians, the distinction was made between
the divine commands and the divine counsels, and the belief obtained footing that by keeping
both, men might do more than meet the divine requirements.
Thus the scriptural doctrine of
justification by faith became, to a considerable extent, beclouded in the early period of the
history of the church. The abuses that later became prevalent in the Roman Catholic church
through the failure to maintain the Scripture conception of faith and through the false
conception of good works are well known. Without entering in detail into the views of this or
of the Greek church, it must suffice us to emphasize the fact that the rescuing of the Scripture
doctrine upon this subject, largely, though not wholly, lost sight of for a long time, was the
work of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.
Justification by faith is a fundamental
doctrine of Protestant and evangelical Christianity. It stands opposed to those rationalistic
conceptions of sin, and the attitude of God toward it, that reduce justification to a nullity, and
to those views of Christian merit, cherished by Romanism, that derogate from the efficacy of
Christ’s atonement; at the same time it holds before men the great hope of the gospel and lays
deep the foundation of Christian morality. E.MCC.; M.F.U.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Bennett, Justication as Revealed in Scripture (1840); G. C. Berkouwer, Faith
and Justification (1954); A. M. Hunter, Interpreting Paul’s Gospel (1954); J. Buchanan, The
Doctrine of Justification (1955); L. L. Morris, Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (1955); H.
Küng, Justification (1964); L. S. Chafer, Salvation (1965); F. B. Westcott, The Biblical
Doctrine of Justification (1983).
Shalom
Johann
