Quest for Godliness # 7

The Doctrine of Justification

The doctrine of justification is truly the articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae – the doctrine which upholds and supports the entire church. If justification collapses so goes the church. Throughout the history of the church no doctrine has been more attacked and assailed on every side, but as noted no doctrine is more important and central to the health and spiritual stability of the church. It is only by grace whereby the doctrine is maintained and saved in the face of continual and pervasive error and false teaching.

Why is this one doctrine so important? First, it is a gospel mystery which serves as the supreme humbler of human pride and sinfulness. It is continually under threat by human pride. Second, justification is a climactic mystery which is like the top rung of a ladder which supports many other doctrines. Its truthfulness is integrative to the rest of theology and many other doctrines will crumple if justification were to fall. Thus, heretical theology is a threat to justification. Third, justification is a spiritual mystery. Only those enlightened by the Spirit of God are able to comprehend and apply it to their lives. A spiritual frivolity is an enemy of justification. Fourth, justification is a life-giving mystery. It is the source of peace, hope and spiritual vitality with satanic hostility standing against it. Fifth, justification is a contradicted mystery. Justification by works is a natural part of human religion and the grace of God continually reviles against such false and unbiblical teaching. Natural religion is therefore an enemy to true gospel justification.

Biblical justification may be defined as follows: Every man because of sin deserves the wrath of God and faces eternal judgment. The act of justification is God’s pardoning act of declaring the guilty sinner as righteous. The ground of justification is Christ’s own righteousness worked out in his perfect life and perfect death while the means of justification is faith in Jesus Christ. Then the fruit of that faith is worked out in bearing evidence to justification in the acts of good works performed by the justified sinner.

Three important aspects of justification needed further clarification and working out. First, concerning the ground of justification, Rome taught that the ground of justification was God’s righteousness imparted or infused righteousness because we have become genuinely righteous. However, the Puritans argued that the ground of justification is actually based alone on the imputed righteousness of Christ. Second, in regards to regeneration and justification the Roman church taught that regeneration was not a necessary precondition for justification thus enabling the necessity of good works to be rendered void. However, the Puritans upheld the biblical notion that good works flow out of regeneration and justification as obedience to the law of God. Third, justification was placed within the realm of covenant theology thus planting it securely into a coherent theological system which linked God’s promise to save believers with saving faith and regeneration, etc.

Sadly, however, the doctrines of Arminianism and Neonomianism combined to bring down the doctrine of justification once again. Arminianism taught a man-centered religion which in essence turned salvation into the work of man instead of the work of God. Instead of being a monergistic (a sole act of God in salvation) focused religion Arminianism turned justification into an act of synergism where God works together with man to bring about salvation. The Neonomianism of Richard Baxter helped to undermine justification by teaching that through the death of Christ a new and easier law was instituted, a law which sinners could obey thus becoming justified. As Packer concludes, “after more than a century of clear gospel light, Arminianism brought darkness back to the minds of conformists and Baxterianism did the same for nonconformists” (160).