Justified by Faith
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16-17
The rich young ruler asked Jesus ‘what must I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ (Luke 18:18ff.). That is a good question. It was the key question asked at the time of the Reformation. How can a sinner be justified before God? How can I be saved? It was the question that Luther asked as a young monk, ‘How can man stand before God and not perish?’ And it almost drove him to despair.
Original sin is the source of all sin; it is the universal human condition. We are all conceived and born that way, bent away from God, curved inward on ourselves. It is the absence of righteousness and holiness, and the presence of lust and evil desire. Of ourselves, we do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Opposing His will, we are competitors against God, being ‘like God’ instead of ‘in the likeness of God’, gods in place of God. This is succinctly articulated with Paul’s opening statement in Romans 3:10: “None is righteous, no, not one.”
Luther did not doubt that there was a God and a righteous one at that. But he felt himself unable to fulfill the will of God and thus he was condemned because of the inability to conform to the Law’s demand. It was only when Luther understood the words “the just shall live by faith” in Paul’s letter to the Romans (1:16), that he found consolation and freedom.
The direct connection between Christ’s death and our salvation is described by Paul, who declares that we are “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Explicitly, Paul states that this redemption occurs in Christ because Christ alone was “a propitiation by His blood” (Romans 3:25, see also Hebrews 9:12). This proclamation of the Gospel is echoed in the Small Catechism which testifies that Christ “purchased and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death” (SC II; Kolb & Wengert, p. 355).
The depth and nature of God’s love is revealed when Paul contrasts it with the self-centred love of sinful humankind. Paul reiterates that “Christ died for the ungodly” while we were “still powerless” (Romans 5:6) and “still sinners” (Romans 5:8), while we were “dead in our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:5). Christ’s love was showered upon us precisely when we did not deserve it, when we were still in rebellion against Him, and when, being “dead in sin,” we could do nothing to alter this predicament.
The Law cannot save us. It cannot commend us to God. The Law can, and does, keep us in line, show us our sin, magnify and amplify our sin, instruct and guide us, but it cannot justify us before God. “We know that whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the Law no human being will be justified in God’s sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20).
The solution is not in yourself. It is in Christ. Follow Paul closely here, “For there is no distinction. All have sinned. All fall short of the glory of God. All are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.”
That’s it in a nutshell; the Gospel. We all deserve to be sentenced to death, but because Jesus paid for our sin in full when he died on the cross, when God looks at us, he sees Jesus’ righteousness instead of our filthy rags of sin. We stand before God clothed with the righteousness of Christ. We are justified (made right with God) by faith alone through Christ. Moreover, faith itself is not a work that we do to earn God’s approval. Faith is a gift of grace, given by the Holy Spirit – it is not our own doing (Ephesians 2:8).
This central teaching on justification, the axis around which all of Christian doctrine spins, is the heart of the Christian faith, and is clearly articulated in Article IV of the Augsburg Confession.
Despite this, justification remains just as obscured as it was in the Reformation. Many want to define it as Christ plus something extra (i.e. your obedience, your decision, your love, your piety, your works, etc.). Some relegate it to one among many teachings or as the first step up the ladder of the Christian life. Others elevate it at the expense of other doctrines, as in ‘gospel reductionism.’
Then there is the question about how we should live as justified believers. What now? This issue of sanctification and how to properly distinguish it from justification will be examined in my next article on 30 July.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2
By Pastor Andrew Ruddell