Sermon Tone Analysis

Preliminary Considerations

What is Justification?

ANSWER:

Justification is an act of God’ s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, (Rom.

3:24–25, Rom.

4:6–8) and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, (2 Cor.

5:19,21) only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, (Rom.

5:17–19) and received by faith alone.

(Gal.

2:16, Phil.

3:9)

James Buchanan wrote:

Justification is a legal or forensic term, and is used in Scripture to denote the acceptance of any one as righteous in the sight of God.

[James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, 226]

John Fesko writes:

It is his obedience, his indefectible righteousness, that secures the eschatological declaration of righteousness before the throne of God.

[John Fesko, Justification: Understanding The Classic Reformed Doctrine]

Justification involves forgiveness of sins, Imputation of righteousness, and it is by faith alone.

McGrath says that an astonishing diversity of views on justification were in circulation at the time the Reformation was starting.

Two views most closely approximating the soteriology eventually defined by Rome is that of the via antiqua, or “old way.”

This is Thomas Aquinas’ ordo salutis:

God freely bestows grace on the individual.

The individual is empowered to cooperate with God’s grace.

This cooperation is meritorious, and combined with and made possible by grace, is rewarded with eternal life.

The via moderna, or “new way,” represented by William of Ockham and Gabriel Biel inserted a step at the beginning of the process stating that cooperation was possible apart from grace.

For Aquinas, the grace necessary in the process of justification was understood to be a quality created within or imparted to the individual.

Peter Lombard thought that the gift that effects salvation is no acquired quality that an individual might then deem his own; it is the active presence of the Holy Spirit himself.

Ockham, on the other hand, only affirmed that this is ordinarily the case, but that grace is not always necessary for one to cooperate with God grace.

The one aspect of justification that was agreed on by Medieval Theologians was that a person, in being justified was not just declared righteous, but that they actually to a degree, became righteous.

Medieval theologians then did not distinguish between justification and sanctification.

They also held to a form of progressive justification.

The Reformed Ordo Salutis:

Election

Atonement

Gospel Call

Gospel Call

Inward Call

Inward Call

Regeneration

Conversion (faith & repentance)

Justification

Adoption

Sanctification

Perseverance

Glorification

The justification of the ungodly includes both pardon and acceptance.

Consequently, the justification of a sinner must not only deliver him from the penalty due to disobedience, but provide for him an equivalent to personal obedience.

Whoever justifies the ungodly must lay a ground both for his delivery from hell and his entrance into heaven.

The Meaning of Justification: δικαιόω

δικαιόω is in the semantic domain of guide, discipline, follow and the sub-domain of obey, disobey.

(1) It means to conform to righteous, just commands.

BDAG says, to take up a legal cause, show justice, do justice, take up a cause (); (2) render a favorable verdict, vindicate(; ); (3) to cause someone to be released from personal or institutional claims that are no longer to be considered pertinent or valid, make free/pure (; ); (4) to demonstrate to be morally right, prove to be right.

This word appears 39x in the GNT.

In 33 of those 39 times, it is translated justify in the ESV.

The remaining occurences are translated; freed, just, free, acquitted, vindicated.

There are two kinds of righteousness

Legal righteousness which by way of the covenant of works.

This is perfect personal conformity to the law.

Gratuitous or evangelical righteousness of that of the covenant of grace (the new covenant).

The “righteousness of God” is the active and passive obedience of incarnate God.

It is Christ’s vicarious suffering of the penalty and vicarious obedience of the precept of the law which man has transgressed.

It is Christ’s atoning for man’s sin and acquiring a title for him to eternal life.

It is “gratuitous” righteousness, because it is something given to man outright, without any compensation or equivalent being required from him in return

We have observed that in order that a person may be pronounced just, there must be a reason or ground for the verdict.

Justification cannot be groundless and without a reason.

The “righteousness of God” is the ground or basis upon which a believing sinner is pronounced to be righteous.

Because Christ has suffered the penalty for him, he is pronounced righteous before the law in respect to its penalty and is p 796 entitled to release from punishment.

Because Christ has perfectly obeyed the law for him, he is pronounced righteous before the law in respect to its precept and is entitled to the reward promised to perfect obedience.

To pardon a believer and accept him as if he had rendered the sinless obedience which entitles to eternal reward is to impute “the righteousness of God” to him.

The Council of Trent

An important aspect of the response of Roman Catholicism to the Protestant doctrine of justification, is that the RCC wanted to refute the Protestants but in a way that distanced itself from Pelagianism.

Catholics claim to affirm that we are justified by faith and that no works preceding that justification merit the grace itself of justification.

However, we find Trent’s rejection of imputation in several places.

“Whence , man, through Jesus Christ, in whom he is engrafted, receives, in the said justification, together with the remission of sins, all these gifts infused at once, faith, hope, and charity.”

The key to understanding this statement is in the word, infused.

Council of Trent, Canon 11:

“If any one says, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the righteousness of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favor of God: let him be anathema.”

The real issue is what is the role of the individual in receiving the Holy Spirit.

The individual must cooperate with the grace of God that pours forth the Holy Spirit.

This places the individual in an active role of their own justification.

Trent argued that the believer’s justification was something that would be declared only of one who was actually and inherently righteous.

Therefore, the believer’s justification was pronounced, not immediately upon a profession of faith in Christ, but at the conclusion of the believer’s life, when he would be inherently righteous.

Believers, through the observance of the commandments of God and of the Church, faith co-operating with good works, increase in righteousness which they have received through the grace of Christ and are still further justified.

“And for this cause, life eternal is to be proposed to those working well unto the end, and hoping in God, both as a grace mercifully promised to the sons of God through Jesus Christ, and as a reward which is according to the promise of God himself, to be faithfully rendered to their good works and merits.”

Eternal life is dependent on good works mixed with faith and as a result is becomes a thing of merit rather than the result of sola gratia.

The RCC insists upon a realistic-ontological understanding of justification while confessional Protestants insist upon a legal-forensic one.

There are at least five areas of doctrine that must be dealt with in the RCC and the confessional protestant church (CPC) can progress toward reconciliation: Imputation, Justification, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, and the Nature of the Church.

Imputation

The debate does not boil down to just those texts that require sound exegesis.

It also involves treatment of man in his original state.

Medieval RCC theologians held that Adam required a donum superadditum, a superadded grace even in his original state.

This is supposedly what Adam lost in the fall.

And if Adam needed this in his original state, Christians need it today.

This is what is restored in conversion according to the Catholics.

Hence, we see the impact of Augustine’s inability, and later, Calvin’s doctrine of total depravity.

Justification: Confusing the Declarative and Transformative

This is to confuse justification with sanctification.

At the radix of the Roman Catholic understanding of justification is not simply the teaching of the early church, but ultimately, and once again, its conception of man’s original created state.

In Aquinas’ understanding of the donum superadditum, the lower powers of man, the powers of the intellect, were subject to reason.

When man fell he lost the donum superadditum, or his inherent righteousness, but his lower powers, governed by reason, were not affected.

This is the rejection of Augustine’s view of total inability and Calvin’s view of total depravity.