This is a research paper assignment that I turned in, where I examine a topic in Romans according to the professor’s criteria. I received an A.
Introduction
This paper will discuss the doctrine of justification by faith, by which we answer, “How can a man or woman become right with God?”[1] Justification is a state of acquittal; righteous. (In this paper, it is not the common meaning of “making excuses.”) Faith is in opposition to works, where man’s efforts have no bearing and trusting is everything. Together, justification by faith means that man is declared righteous by trusting God, apart from any merits he may have accumulated.
This paper will examine several key texts upon which this doctrine is founded and explain their importance. Why this doctrine is needed will be briefly sketched, as well as the mechanisms God used to bring it about, especially the concept of federal headship, and how it ties in with grace and the cross of Christ. The doctrine of justification by faith has raised several questions that will be discussed, including the issues concerning imputed or infused righteousness, the modern-day New Perspective on Paul, the relationship between works and faith, and will touch on the relationship of justification and salvation.
[1] James Montgomery Boice. Romans, vol 2: The Reign of Grace (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1991), 380
Key Texts
Justification is taught in the New Testament in several places. Justification and faith word pairings are found together in several passages. One such passage is, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28). With this verse, Paul is making a conclusion based on a wealth of information presented in the previous chapters: 1) The Jew thought he could be righteous by the law, but that was never the reason for the law in the first place, for it was introduced in part to highlight their guilt (Rom. 3:20). 2) Furthermore, through the Law and the Prophets, two sections of the Torah, God had already indicated that righteousness will come apart from the law (Rom. 3:21). 3) God intended to grant righteousness freely by grace to all who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:24–26).
Romans 3:30 is another key verse: “since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.” This passage is important because it states that the uncircumcised Gentile (condemned in chapters 1—2) and the circumcised Jew (condemned in chapters 2—3) will both be made righteous in the same way—through faith in Jesus. The two people groups are not differentiated in this doctrine, for all have sinned.
Lastly, Romans 5:1 carries this justification doctrine to new heights: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This verse concludes Paul’s argument in chapter 4 with Abraham and David. Abraham was justified by faith (Rom. 4:3) before circumcision (4:10), even four hundred years before the Mosaic law was given. David’s sin, which merited the death penalty, was not only forgiven, but he discovered that the Lord “shall not impute sin” (4:8). “We” (5:1) have peace because our status has changed from conviction to acquittal at the bar of God.
Other verses with the word grouping are found in the epistle of Galatians that echoes the same doctrine found in Romans (see Gal. 2:16; 3:8, 11, 24).
Mechanisms
How does this justification by faith come to the believer? Why is it by faith alone? The Bible tells us that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:20). McCall defines this sin as “lawlessness … and the committing of sin results in objective guilt. So the sinner, precisely as a sinner, stands guilty and condemned before the sovereign and omniscient Judge and ruler of the cosmos. Sinners who hope for rescue, therefore, need salvation that addresses the problems of lawlessness and guilt.”[1]
Man is completely helpless in getting out of his predicament of guilt before God. He cannot do enough good works to pay the remedy or die for himself and others, for he is already judged under the wrath of God. Citing John Calvin,[2] Schreiner writes, “Partial obedience will not do, and if we think our works are sufficient, we have an inadequate view of both sin and God’s justice. When we rightly understand the depth of our sin, says Calvin, our conscience testifies against us and reveals to us that God is our enemy on account of our transgressions.”[3] God’s means for dealing with man’s sin, which prompts man to enmity against God and has power to hold man in slavery to the flesh, is the cross of Christ. At the cross, His Son atoned for sin by His substitutionary death.
Romans chapter 5 introduces another link in this plan of God, the doctrine of federal headship. Adam is positioned as a representative of the whole human race. The effects of his sin, of condemnation and guilt for disobeying the Lord in the matter of eating from the forbidden tree, were passed on to the rest of humanity that was in Adam. This federal headship concept of one man passing on his unrighteousness makes it possible for God to raise up another person to pass on His righteousness. This typology is similar to the animal sin offering in the Old Testament paying the wages of death for the sinner even as it looked forward to the same truth with the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world. In this case, Christ rose from the dead as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) to become a representative of a new creation. Those who believe in Him are placed in Christ and receive His merits.Christ lived a perfect life, fulfilling the requirements of the law, so He passes on to His believers His perfect righteousness (Rom. 5:18). “The federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated.”[4] Justification by faith for the believer enters in when confessing Jesus as Lord, when one “believes to righteousness” (Rom. 10:9–10). By this justification of the sinner the wrath of God is removed, and we who were at enmity are reconciled (Rom. 5:9–10).
Doctrinal Analysis
Scholars have different views on the nature of this justification. For instance, because justification is gifted freely to the believer by grace, it seems like a believer can sin any time afterward and just believe. But that is a confusion regarding the nature of the new creation in Christ. Paul addresses it this way. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Rom. 6:1–2). Paul’s explanation in Romans 6 hinges on the fact that the person’s new creation in Christ is a fundamentally new person who has been “freed from sin” (6:7), so to willfully continue in sin is to contradict one’s nature as a new creation. The person is a slave of sin or, as a new creation, a slave of God (6:8–16) when he lives to God.
Imputed or Infused. Another consideration raised is whether the righteousness is imputed or infused. “Imputed righteousness means that we are declared to be in the right before God on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is given to us when we believe. Infused righteousness means that we are righteous before God because of our righteous behavior, because of the righteousness that transforms and changes us” (italics in the original).[5] Protestants take the first view and Roman Catholics the second view.
The disagreement turns on the idea that infusion gives us only a judicial standing before God (declares righteous; is forensic), but infused righteousness makes the person righteous from the inside also (makes righteous; is transformative). In the former view, Schreiner quotes McGrath,[6] saying, “justification is clearly distinguished from sanctification. Justification refers to the declaration that one stands in the right before God, while sanctification denotes the ongoing renewal and transformation in one’s life.”[7]
The former (imputed) comes from the idea that one is justified by faith alone (sola fide) while the latter (infused), exemplified by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) refutes sola fide. The Council’s reasoning is based on James 2:24 (“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only”), concluding that justification is not by faith alone.[8] When misunderstood, the passage from James makes it appear that he and Paul are at odds regarding justification by faith when they are not. “James did not say that works are essential to faith, or that faith is unimportant. His argument was that works are evidence of faith. … Paul, however, was arguing for the priority of faith. James argued for the proof of faith. … Works serve as the barometer of justification, while faith is the basis for justification.”[9]
The Council’s view is to be rejected because the proof texts cited above reject any possibility of righteousness by works, so it must be by faith alone. “Righteousness can’t come from ourselves since even our best works are still marred by sin. Our works can’t bring right standing with God since he demands perfection, and we all fall short in many ways.”[10] With good works of faith and obedience the believer learns to live out this new life. He is not trying to become righteous before God but lives his life as though he were already righteous. This divide between the Protestants and Roman Catholics continues today.
The New Perspective on Paul. Another issue is currently raised by what is called the “New Perspective on Paul,” advocated by James Dunn and N. T. Wright (although the viewpoints of each today are not in agreement). They contend that “the works of the law” (as used in a key text above, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” –Rom. 3:28), are Jewish ceremonial works, such as matters of sabbath observance, circumcision, and food laws. In my best understanding, this implies that justification by faith is not needed for the Jews because they are already following the laws by faith; justification by faith is for the Gentiles. In other words, the Jews can safely dispense with ceremonial observances while Gentiles could dispense with Jewish laws altogether.
This position can be refuted with Gal. 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them’ ” (italics in the original). Here, Paul ties together “the works of the law” and “all things which are written in the book of the law.” There is no segmenting here of sabbath, circumcision, and the dietary apart from the rest of the law.
Another key text mentioned above that refutes the position is Rom. 3:30: “since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.” This passage teaches that the one God justifies both Jews and Gentiles by faith, not only Gentiles. Jewish ceremonious observances are not being singled out here.
Works and Faith. Scripture affirms that we are justified by faith alone. Works exclude any kind of right standing with God. In that case, how do works and faith go together? What role do man’s works play? In our first example, a tremendously important passage that combines grace, faith, and works is found in Eph. 2:8–10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” First, we are saved because of the grace of God toward sinners. He is under no obligation to save those who unremittently warred against Him and crucified His Son. Second, by grace He saves us through faith, the very means that allows all people to be saved. All have sinned—rich and poor, male and female, any people group of Jew and Gentile—that all may enter the gates of salvation the same way, by faith in Jesus. Third, “that” faith itself is a gift of God, leaving the entire chain of salvation devoid of any human merit, so that boasting is excluded and all the glory goes to God. If a sinner thought he needed to do something in addition to faith before he could believe and be saved, then by definition it is excluded. Salvation is by faith alone.
Fourth, what did God save sinners for? To deliver them from bondage to evil works to release them to good works. To die to works of the flesh that they may be freed to live by the Spirit. To toss their idols that they may live to God. God has determined beforehand what good works He planned for us, but sin had marred that aspect of the image of God in us. Now we may partner with God instead of war against Him. So our good works will be works of faith and obedience. In the process of sanctification, we’ll do works that imitate and characterize the life of Christ so that we shine in His likeness to the world around us.
Schreiner concludes, “Ephesians 2:1–10 is a remarkable text, for we see in this one text sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus, and soli Deo Gloria (Eph 2:7).”[11]
An example of grace combined with works is found in Titus 2:11–14. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”
First, salvation is by “the grace of God” alone. Second, grace begins “teaching us” to change our works and character to live godly lives. Third, Jesus came to “redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” What we could not do by our own sinful efforts, grace does through the Spirit in the believers. “Under grace, the all powerful, abiding, indwelling and sufficient Holy Spirit of God is given to every saved person.”[12] Grace through the Spirit opens the believers’ eyes to acknowledge their horrible way of life and turn them from it. It does this by teaching the cross of Christ, the love of God demonstrated on the cross while men were still sinners (Rom. 5:8). So after salvation by faith, sinners are changed by grace from children of the devil (John 8:44) and of wrath (Eph. 2:3) to become the children of God who are zealous of good works. They develop a resemblance of Christ and His works are put on display through them. Kruse writes, “ ‘The old way of the written code’, relating to God through the Mosaic law as the regulatory norm, is now replaced by ‘the new way of the Spirit’ in which believers, having been made alive through the Spirit, now walk in the Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:25).”[13]
Justification and Salvation. Is justification the same as salvation? Salvation is a package deal where several problems with man’s sin are resolved through the Son’ work on the cross, then worked out over time by the Spirit’s work in the believer. For instance, one aspect of salvation is sanctification, God setting believers apart to be used for His purpose. Another aspect of salvation is Redemption, Christ paying the ransom to purchase us off the slave block of sin to become His own possession. In 1 Cor. 1:30 we see these aspects of salvation all together: “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”[14] Justification (“righteousness”) is one blessed core aspect of the salvation package sinners receive through faith in Christ.
Conclusion
Many sinners feel that they are in too deep to ever get right with God. Not only so, they cannot master their sins to even begin to work off their debt. God solves this in a two-pronged approach. First, when sinners trust in Christ and His atoning work, God places them in Christ and gives them righteousness as a free gift by faith, removing their judgment and guilt, and freeing them from stressful and misguided works-righteousness motives, resulting in peace with God. Second, the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell inside the justified believer who was placed in Christ where the power of sin has been broken, and to guide him to overcome his slavery to sin by walking in faith. These two avenues of help on God’s part to the sinner gives the believer hope. In this way justification by faith and sanctification have their separate, but vital, roles to play in believers’ lives.
Scripture has already concluded that due to man’s built-in virulent animosity to God on account of sin passed on from Adam that “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Many Jews have erroneously believed that law observance makes them righteous and puts them in God’s favor, as Paul once thought (Phil. 3:4–7). The passages in this report say otherwise. Justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, is the only way to a right standing with God and glorifies God. “The just (righteous) shall life by faith” (Rom. 1:17). This is the heart attitude of the justified person who looks to God and His Spirit for direction in life, living by faith in both the revealed will of God in the Scriptures and by the Spirit’s guidance within.
By making faith the door for entrance into the kingdom, the way is open for every Jew and Gentile without favoritism; “there is no condemnation for believers (8:1) because God justifies (i.e. adjudicates in favor of) those who believe in his Son and as a result will entertain no charges against them in God’s presence (8:31–34).”[15] Sola fide is truly an abundant entrance “into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:11).
Bibliography
Boice, James Montgomery. Romans, vol 2: The Reign of Grace, Romans 5-8. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1991
Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Grace: The Glorious Theme. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Kruse, Colin G. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2012
McCall, Thomas H. Feinberg, John S. Against God and Nature : The Doctrine of Sin. Crossway, Wheaton, IL. 2019
Schreiner, Thomas R. and Barrett, Matthew. Faith Alone—The Doctrine of Justification: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 2015
Walvoord, John F. and Zuck, Roy B. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament. David C. Cook, Colorado Springs. 1983
[1] Thomas H. McCall, John S. Feinberg, Against God and Nature (Crossway, Wheaton, IL. 2019), 516
[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (ed. John T. McNeill; trans. and indexed by Ford Lewis Battles; LCC 20; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 3.11.1.
[3] Thomas R. Schreiner and Matthew Barrett, Faith Alone—The Doctrine of Justification (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 2015), 54-55 ProQuest
[4] Boice, Romans, vol 2: The Reign of Grace, 567
[5] Schreiner, Faith Alone, 26 ProQuest
[6] McGrath, Iustitia Dei: The History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification; Vol. 1, From the Beginning to 1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 1:84 – 85.
[7] Schreiner, Faith Alone, 39 ProQuest
[8] Schreiner, Faith Alone, 65 ProQuest
[9] John F. Walvoord, and Roy B. Zuck (The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament. David C. Cook, Colorado Springs, 1983) 826
[10] Schreiner, Faith Alone, 59 ProQuest
[11] Schreiner, Faith Alone, 110 ProQuest
[12] Lewis Sperry Chafer Grace: The Glorious Theme. (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan), 204
[13] Colin G. Kruse Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2012), 403
[14] Schreiner, Faith Alone, 137 ProQuest
[15] Kruse Paul’s Letter to the Romans, 200
