Why Justification by Faith Alone is an Essential Doctrine    (April 25, 2010 )

SERMON:  Romans 14:13-23 ("But of righteousness, joy and peace")   We will also celebrate the baptism of Nate Penven upon his personal profession of faith.  (Nate, I'm getting a lot of water ready!).  And the Grace Orchestra will once again accompany our hymns.  By the way, thank you everyone -- there was a real feast last week at potluck!

SUGGESTED FAMILY DEVOTIONAL TEXT:  Psalm 122

ADULT CLASSES, 9:30am:  Spring Session continues!  Jump right into one of five great classes (Jonah, Parenting, College, Choir and Inquirers).  

HYMNS:  ~ For All the Saints (Trinity 358)
                  ~ And Can it Be (Trinity 455)

SONGS:  ~ Arise My Soul Arise
                ~ His Love Can Never Fail
                ~ The Heart of Worship
                ~ There is No Condemnation

DEVOTIONAL:  Why Justification by Faith Alone is an Essential Doctrine

As we continue to plug along in Romans 14, we are coming into some interesting territory; of what it means to hold to your own convictions while simultaneously not causing your sisters or brothers to stumble.  I have also worked out in my mind what I believe is the outline of Romans 14:1 - 15:7 and I am excited to try to explain that to you all Sunday morning.  Maybe you don't get excited about structure and outlines, but I sure do.   And since understanding the structure of a Scriptural passage reveals its theology and is therefore good news for us -- I have a feeling you will get excited too.  Structure sounds dry; but it isn't when it reveals Christ.

And as we have been working our way through Romans 14, we have spent a good deal of time discussing those things which are clearly secondary matters or doctrines -- the specifics of baptism, drinking alcohol (in moderation), view of the church calendar, and so forth.   These are areas where there is room for freedom and disagreement among believers.

But recently, I have been reminded why we at the same time must be clear about matters which are Essential, matters which are indisputable.  Things which must not be denied without endangering one's soul.  And one of those doctrines is the doctrine of justification by faith alone -- that is, "to the man who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, hsi faith is credited as righteousness" (Romans 4:5).   That our works add nothing to our justification before God, and that justifying faith does one thing -- it rests in Christ and His work on our behalf.  (Out of that justifying faith stem good works as a fruit, but that is a subject for another time.)

If this is so, that one must believe in Christ Alone by Faith Alone to be saved, and not trust one's own works, two questions are sometimes then posed:   First, are we then saving that we are saved by believing a doctrinal formula rather than by Christ Himself?   Second, what about Roman Catholics?   Is it impossible for Roman Catholics to be saved, since Rome officially teaches that both faith and works justify a man (cf. the Council of Trent)?  

This question came up several years ago in a theological crisis that emerged in the Reformed world, which I was asked to try to help resolve.   My task was to respond to a particular pastor from an independent church who wrote a paper which in part said this:

“It is possible for someone to so adamantly affirm ‛justification by faith alone,’ that he does not notice that he functionally believes in ‛justification by faith in justification by faith alone.’ ”

Here is how I answered that charge then, and still answer it today:

"By all means, we share the concern about the dangers of trusting one’s salvation to catechetical ability, or perhaps worse, communicating such a thing to the sheep under our care.  Such a trust in doctrine alone is just another form of works righteousness.  And just as a proud Calvinist is an oxymoron (or should be anyway; at the very least he is a moron), so anyone who believes that they will be saved by their ability to articulate the doctrines of grace does not in fact understand grace.  Moreover, we agree that there are likely many, many saints who are in fact justified by their faith in Christ and yet who cannot fully articulate what it means to be justified by faith alone.  That is not only the hope of infants, it is my only hope as well.  And as Dabney or Thornwell said somewhere, there may be many papists who are in fact justified, but it is despite the Romish doctrine of justification and not because of it.   And it is very likely and gladly so that this is the case across the whole slew of denominations.

And yet despite this, I wish to assert that justifying faith is, at some rudimentary gut level in a person, always an affirmation that it is Christ alone which saves him -- even if he cannot well articulate it.  In other words, I contend that there is some sense, at the gut level, that we are justified by faith in justification by faith.  Note, I am not asserting that we place our faith in an abstraction.  Rather, I am saying that justifying faith is at its root, not “a complex set of demanded responses” (line 205), but surrender.  As the Westminster Larger puts it, justifying faith “not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness” (Q. 72).  That’s it.  As the Heidelberg applies the Gospel so wonderfully to the Sabbath, “that every day of my life, I rest from my evil works, let the Lord work in me through His Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath” (Q. 103).  And all of my works are to one extent or another tainted with evil.  I must rest from my efforts to please God, and rest alone on Christ.  He alone is my hope, my rock, and my salvation.  In this sense, as I trust Christ alone for my justification, then I am recognizing that the instrument of that justification in me is faith plus nothing.  This is not “mere assentism,” but faith that engages the will alongside the intellect with the affections thrown in to boot.  To that initial surrender, that collapse upon Christ, God will of course add the blessings of sanctification and glorification, but that comes later.  Perhaps right after, but later.  First comes a faith which is a surrender, a refusal to do anything but trust Christ alone.

To argue further, think of it from the other end.  Suppose that there is a person who believes in Christ, and is also articulate about what he believes and why.  And this person insists that he is saved by his belief in Christ which includes his own effort to follow Him.  You quiz this man and he insists that his following Christ is part of what saves him, that his followership is the equivalent of meritorious works.  To make it plain: this man believes in salvation by faith in Christ plus his own works.  He goes on to reject clearly the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  Shall we give this person the slightest degree of assurance?  Of course not.  He is trusting himself alongside Christ, and thus still (thinks he) has reason to boast.  And God resisteth the proud.  So to argue from this extreme backwards, it follows that if one is truly justified, one must believe at some gut level, articulate or not, that one is saved by Christ alone through faith alone." [End of Quote]

This semester, it has been my great privilege to study the Bible with a Roman Catholic layman who I believe to be one of the most biblically knowledgeable, humble and gentle Christians I have ever met.   I have every confidence, from my view point, that he is justified.   He appears to embrace justification by faith alone.  But because he is not in our church, but is a guest of mine, I have felt no need to confront him with the official Roman Catholic doctrines.  If he is meant to leave, God will show him that in time (Phil. 3:15).

However, at the same time, if I know of a educated person who explicitly rejects salvation by faith alone in order to embrace the doctrines of Rome, to his own master he will stand or fall (Romans 4:5), but I have much less confidence that he will in fact stand, because he is knowingly and willfully rejecting free grace and choosing to trust his own works as part of his justification.   That is why Justification by Faith Alone is an essential doctrine, and why we must continue to oppose the doctrines of Rome, even as we love her members.  See you all Sunday! ~ Pastor H