Justification By Faith

by W. BUNTING, Edinburgh | Category: The Reformation | Feb 1964

Martin Luther declared that the doctrine of "Justification by Faith" was the central article of the Faith. The Reformers took their stand on the statement "sola fide", - salvation is by faith alone. The doctrine of Justification by faith was the great distinguishing doctrine of the Reformation.

Luther was twenty years of age before he saw a Latin Bible and he read it with great delight. He later entered a monastery and during a period when he was in some distress his attention was drawn by an elderly monk to the scripture, "The just shall live by faith". In 1508, when visiting Rome as a pilgrim, the light dawned on him as he climbed up the stairs of Pilate on his knees, the passage "The just shall live by faith" kept repeating in his inner ear. He later declared that this particular passage "was to me the gate of Paradise".

The Church of Rome declares that justification is received by the means of "the sacrament of baptism without which no one was ever justified". Rome also teaches that man even in his fallen state has a certain ability to obey God's will, and can merit to some degree God's favour. Man retains a certain power whereby he can prepare himself to receive divine grace and merit grace by which redemption can take place. He is then in a position of meriting increase of grace and eternal life. All this is contrary to the simple and clear teaching of the Scriptures.

The letter to the Romans deals, in the main, in the earlier chapters with the doctrine of the gospel, and a few scriptures from one chapter of that letter will show clearly what the truth is and how important is the great doctrine of Justification by Faith

"There is none righteous, no, not one

There is none that understandeth,

There is none that seeketh after God

They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable

There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one" (Romans 3.1O-12).

"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3.24).

"We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law" (Romans 3.28).

The all-important question at the time of the Reformation was - Are sinners saved by giving money to the Church and to the poor, by observing fasts and sacraments, by repeating prayers, and by enduring bodily austerities? The Roman Catholic Church answered "Yes". The Scriptures, upon which the Reformers relied, said, "No; souls are saved through faith in the death of Christ, without regard to works like these".

The doctrine of the Church of Rome has not changed, but the teaching of the Word of God is clear and plain - "Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5.1, R.V.M.).

The following lines from Cowper's "Truth" are apposite -

"Oh, how unlike the complex works of man,

Heaven's easy, artless, unencumbered plan

No meretricious graces to beguile,

No clustering ornaments to clog the pile,

>From ostentation, as from weakness, free,

It stands like the cerulean arch we see,

Majestic in its own simplicity

Inscribed above the portal, from afar

Conspicuous, as the brightness of a star,

Legible only by the light they give,

Stand the soul quickening words - Believe and live."