Believers Are Saved And Sealed

In the early days of the Federal Vision one of the errors the confessional Presbyterian and Reformed (hereafter P&R) churches were facing was the claim that, at the judgment believers will stand before God partly on the basis of Christ’s righteousness imputed and received through faith and partly on the basis of Spirit-wrought sanctity. To this teaching, in 2004, the United Reformed Churches in North America responded with three points of doctrinal affirmation:

  1. “that the Scriptures and confessions teach the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, based upon the active and passive obedience of Christ alone.”
  2. “that the Scriptures and confessions teach that faith is the sole instrument of our justification apart from all works.”and determined to
  3. “remind & encourage individuals and churches that, if there are office-bearers suspected of deviating from or obscuring the doctrine of salvation as summarized in our confessions, they are obligated to follow the procedure prescribed in Church Order Art. 29, 52, 55, 61, and 62 for addressing theological error.”

The controversy continued however, and Synod again replied in 2007 with Nine Points of “Pastoral Advice.” The 9th point said:

Synod rejects the error of those who teach that there is a separate and final justification grounded partly upon righteousness or sanctity inherent in the Christian (HC 52; BC 37).

Synod said this because the clear teaching of God’s Word is that there is but one justification and it is “apart from the works of the law.” This is precisely what God’s holy, immutable Word says in Romans 3:28: “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (ESV). Just before that Paul had been equally clear:

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:22-24a; ESV)

This was Paul’s case to the church at Rome and to everyone who would listen. Genesis 15:6 is clear. Abraham was justified by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide).

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due (Rom 4:3–4; ESV).

Paul repeated himself again in 5:1–2:

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 (ESV).

It is being proposed (again), however, that there are two stages to salvation, initial and final. It is being proposed that believers are initially justified by grace alone, through faith alone but only finally saved through faith and works. Under such a proposal, however, our justification becomes merely provisional. In any two-stage scheme, justification in this life cannot be final.

On the contrary, the Scriptures teach and the Reformed churches confess that believers are definitively, finally, once-for-all justified before God. They will not be re-tried. They cannot be re-tried. To suggest such a thing is to insult the perfect righteousness of our Savior and to deny the once-for-all declaration of God. Christ did not become incarnate for his people, obey on their behalf, die, nor was he raised that we might be only provisionally justified only to be retried at the last day partly on the basis of Spirit-wrought sanctity or our good works issuing from the justification wrought for us and sanctification gradually and gracious wrought in us. Has God changed his mind? Is he mutable? Not at all. Even to think such a thing is near to blasphemy. This is the confession of the Reformed churches. In Belgic Confession art. 22 we confess with heart and mouth:

For it must necessarily follow that either all that is required for our salvation is not in Christ or, if all is in him, then he who has Christ by faith has his salvation entirely. Therefore, to say that Christ is not enough but that something else is needed as well is a most enormous blasphemy against God—for it then would follow that Jesus Christ is only half a Savior. And therefore we justly say with Paul that we are justified “by faith alone” or by faith “apart from works.”

Please note that under the heading of justification we address the topic of salvation. In the current discussion it is being argued that we are justified sola gratia, sola fide but that we “take possession” of final (as distinct from initial) salvation “through works.” This is not hyperbole. This is not my summary. This is their language. One claim is that this is the historic language of Reformed theologians (namely Turretin and Witisius). I answered this claim two years ago. The mainstream of the Reformed tradition did not teach either a two-stage justification or a two-stage salvation. They did teach a distinction between the “right” to eternal life, which is given to us in justification and “taking possession” of eternal life but they did not make taking possession contingent upon our good works nor did they make our good works co-instrumental with faith. They made them co-incidental. The revisionists do not distinguish between is and through. It is the case that, by grace alone, believers produce good works. It is not the case that those good works become either the ground or instrument of either our justification or or salvation. Again, I addressed this last year.

We do not do good works in order to be justified. It is the doctrine of the Roman communion, rejected in the Reformation 500 years ago, that we are sanctified in order that we may be eventually justified. It is the Protestant doctrine that we are justified and saved that we might be sanctified. We do good works because we have been justified and because we have been saved. These are the reasons we do good works. We are neither justified nor saved through our faithfulness. Against the Remonstrants, the Synod of Dort asserted the same doctrine. This is basic Reformed theology.

It is true that salvation is a broader category than justification but it is also true that they may not be separated so as to say that justification is sola gratia, sola fide but salvation is partly through works. Good works are important and they do play an essential role in our salvation. The difficulty is that some are no longer satisfied with that role: fruit and evidence of salvation. The Council of Trent, session 6 (1547) also rejected the Protestant doctrine:

24. If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema.

Rome well understood the doctrine of the Protestants. So did the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, when they received and adopted the Belgic Confession (1561) in which we confess:

We believe that this true faith, produced in man by the hearing of God’s Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates him and makes him a “new man,” causing him to live the “new life” and freeing him from the slavery of sin.

Therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith, quite to the contrary, so works within them that apart from it they will never do a thing out of love for God but only out of love for themselves and fear of being condemned. So then, it is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being, seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith but of what Scripture calls “faith working through love,” which leads a man to do by himself the works that God has commanded in his Word.

These works, proceeding from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable to God, since they are all sanctified by his grace. Yet they do not count toward our justification—for by faith in Christ we are justified, even before we do good works. Otherwise they could not be good, any more than the fruit of a tree could be good if the tree is not good in the first place.

So then, we do good works, but nor for merit—for what would we merit? Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do, and not he to us, since it is he who “works in us both to will and do according to his good pleasure”—thus keeping in mind what is written: “When you have done all that is commanded you, then you shall say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have done what it was our duty to do.’ ”

Yet we do not wish to deny that God rewards good works—but it is by his grace that he crowns his gifts. Moreover, although we do good works we do not base our salvation on them; for we cannot do any work that is not defiled by our flesh and also worthy of punishment. And even if we could point to one, memory of a single sin is enough for God to reject that work.

So we would always be in doubt, tossed back and forth without any certainty, and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly if they did not rest on the merit of the suffering and death of our Savior.

Once again, I call your attention to the fact that the Reformed churches do not confess merely that we are justified sola gratia, sola fide. We also confess that the elect are saved by God’s free favor alone, through the sole instrument of faith.

Nevertheless, some contemporary evangelical and Reformed theologians have rejected the doctrine of the Reformed churches. We might forgive the evangelicals since they have only a tangential relationship to the Reformation—they are the children of the Second Great Awakening more than the children of Luther and Calvin—but it is harder to understand Reformed pastors and theologians who dismiss the clear confession of the Reformed churches as reducing sanctification to a “second blessing.” After all, have they not stood before presbyteries and classes to subscribe their names beneath the Reformed confessions?

Any suggestion that we are justified now on one basis and through one instrument but only finally saved through another necessarily makes Jesus but “half a Savior” (Belgic 22 quoted above). Two years later, the Reformed Church in the Palatinate confessed the very same doctrine:

30. Do those also believe in the only Savior Jesus, who seek their salvation and welfare of saints, of themselves, or anywhere else?

No, although they make their boast of Him, yet in deeds they deny the only Savior Jesus, for either Jesus is not a complete Savior, or they who by true faith receive this Savior, must have in Him all that is necessary to their salvation.

Again, please note that the churches were not addressing only justification here. The question is not merely whether Jesus’ righteousness received through faith alone is sufficient for justification but whether it is sufficient for salvation. Either Jesus is a “complete Savior” or he is not. If we say that we are finally (as distinct from initially) saved partly through good works, then we have made Jesus but half a Savior.

The truth is that there is no such thing as a two-stage justification. There is no such thing as a two-stage salvation. At the Jerusalem synod the Apostle Peter (who had been chastened by Paul on this. See Galatians chapter 2) declared that the churches should place no extra burden on the Gentles: “but through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be saved” (ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ πιστεύομεν σωθῆναι; Acts 15:11). Peter did not say, “we believe and do good works. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (πίστευσον ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον Ἰησοῦν καὶ σωθήσῃ). It does not say “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and do good works and you will be saved.” The sole instrument of salvation is faith. This is because we are saved now by grace alone. Ephesians 2:5 says, “by grace you have been saved” (χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι). It does not say, “by grace and good works you will be saved.” Paul explicitly connects grace alone and faith alone in v. 8: “By grace you have been saved through faith” (χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι διὰ πίστεως·). We have been saved. There are not two stages of salvation. Our salvation is not provisional. Works are not the instrument.

We know this not only on the basis of these verses but because Scripture says that we have already “been sealed.” A seal says that something is complete. Your diploma has a seal on it. It says that the course of studies is complete. It says that a document is true and genuine. In 2 Corinthians 1:22 God’s Word promises “he has sealed us and given to us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts” (ὁ καὶ σφραγισάμενος ἡμᾶς καὶ δοὺς τὸν ἀρραβῶνα τοῦ πνεύματος ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν). Abraham’s circumcision (Rom 4:11) was a “seal” of his righteousness through faith alone. That which is provisional is not sealed. At my school we send out provisional transcripts. They are not sealed because the course of study has not been completed. Those who believe, however, by grace alone, have what has been promised and their baptism is a seal of that promise. To believers baptism does not say, “Christ has made it possible for you to be saved finally if you do your part.” No, it says, “It is finished.”

Believer, you have been saved. You have been sealed with the Spirit. Nothing and no one can change that. No one can snatch you out of Jesus’ hand (John 10:28). We persevere by grace because we are preserved by grace. The last day is not a test for us. It is a glorious inheritance.

Again one thinks of Machen’s dying words (via telegram) to Mr Murray. “So thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.”

Amen.

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16 comments

  1. This idea that we have to help Christ with our works echoes what the Mormon’s believe about Christ’s role in their salvation. As you say, if this were the case, He would be but half a savior!

  2. I thank God for you, Dr. Clark, because of your dedication to standing up and defending the Reformed faith. It seems like Satan never tires of attacking the article of the standing or falling of the Church, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. Today in Canada we are celebrating Thanksgiving. I am most thankful for the solas of the Reformation and for men like you that the Lord has raised up to teach and defend them.

  3. I would challenge the justification ‘two-stagers’ to be consistent, and accuse Paul of his unseemly and arrogantly presumptive Romans 8:31-39.
    But, as Paul & the Spirit declares, “It is God (not God +me) Who justifies.” ‘Has He said, and will He not do it? Has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numb. 23:19)

  4. The hardest thing for any believer is the idea, the fact, that he or she can do nothing, has done nothing to earn his/her salvation. We want to, would like to take some credit for this wonderful co-inheritance that we have received through grace alone. It is simply to good to be believed, but this is the one instance when it can be believed, in fact, it must be believed.

  5. I was thinking about Calvin’s distinction between co-incident or circumstantial factors in salvation, and those that are instrumental. I wondered if this relates to the QIRE and QIRC. It seems to me that regeneration is a momentous event in a person’s life that will be accompanied by strong emotions and even psychological phenomena. I think there is a danger of mistaking these circumstances for the Spirit’s act of regeneration, which is the actual, instrumental cause. We make the same kind of mistake when we look to good works, which are circumstances of a justified life, and make them coinstrumental in justification and salvation. It also seems to me that such “mistakes” are fatal to our accetance with God because they shift the the focus of our trust from Christ alone to something in ourselves. What an alarming thought!

  6. Scott,

    Might you direct me where I might find an English translation of article Five of the Regensburg Council of 1541?

    Thank you!

  7. Do FV proponents make the wording of their theology a bit difficult and confusing to distinguish from reformed theology on purpose, or is it the just the result of simpletons like me not knowing the specific language good enough?

    • They do it on purpose. This from someone who had multiple direct interactions with Southern FV types between 2004-2009. They redefine words and concepts without establishing such redefinitions prior to the conversation. They obfuscate and blur distinctions and then, afterwards, accuse their accusers of misunderstanding them. They try to make people like you (and me) believe we are the “simpletons” for not grasping their convoluted logic. It is all a masterful misuse of language in a most insidious manner.

  8. They are equivocators. They will say one thing and then add to it, or they will say,”but,” and completely deny what they said in the first place. I think this an attempt to snow us under and make us feel confused and stupid compared to them, to make us think they are super smart, so we should accept their “superior” insights. They will not even shy away from telling you the Reformers got justification all wrong, but they will set the record straight, because you know, they are so much wiser, and you really ought to listen and learn from them, if you really want to know what it is all about!

  9. I don’t think Herman Witsius agrees with Dr. Clark.
    “XXIV. The foundation of this justification can be nothing but inherent holiness and righteousness. For, as it is a declaration concerning man, as he is in himself: by the regenerating and sanctifying grace of God, so it ought to have for its foundation, that which is found in man himself: He that doth righteousness is righteous, says John, 1 John iii. 7. And Peter says, Acts x. 34, 35 “of a truth, I perceive, that in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with God.” And Luke in the name of God, gives testimony to the parents of John the Baptist, that “they were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless,” Luke i. 6. But yet inherent righteousness is not the foundation of this justification, from its own worthiness, or because it is a holiness exactly commensurate with the rule of the law, but because it is the work of the Holy Spirit in the elect, which God cannot but acknowledge and delight in his own, and because the failings with which it is always stained in this world are forgiven in Christ’ sake.
    XXV. In this sense we think the apostle James speaks of justification in that much controverted passage, James ii. 21, 24. where he declares, that “Abraham was not justified by faith only, but also by works,” and insists upon it, that every man ought to be justified in this manner. For the scope of the apostle is to shew, that it is not sufficient for a Christian to boast of the remission of his sins, which indeed is obtained by faith only, but then it must be a living faith on Christ; but that besides he ought to labor after holiness, that being justified by faith only, that is, acquitted from the sins he had been guilty of, on account of Christ’s satisfaction, apprehended by faith, he may likewise be justified by works, that is declared to be truly regenerated, believing and holy; behaving as becomes those who are regenerated, believing and holy. Thus our father Abraham behaved, who having been before now justified by faith only, that is, obtained the remission of his sins, was afterwards also justified by his works. For, when he offered up his son to God, then God said to him, “now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me,” Gen. xxii. 12. And James insists upon it, that this last justification is so necessary to believers, that, if it be wanting, the first ought to be accounted only vain and imaginary.
    XXVI. These things are evident from scripture: but lest any after the manner of the world should ridicule this, I inform the more unskillful, that this is no invention of mine, but that most celebrated divines have, before me, spoken of such a “justification according to inherent righteousness and of works.” Bucerus in altero Colloquio Ratisbonensi, p. 313. Says, “we think that this begun righteousness is really a true and living righteousness, and a noble excellent gift of God; and that the new life in Christ consists in this righteousness, and that all the saints are also righteous by this righteousness, both before God and before men, ‘and that on account thereof the saints are also justified by a justification of works,’ that is are approved, commended and rewarded by God.” Calvin teaches much the same, Instit. Lib. iii. c 17. viii. Which concludes with these words, “The good works done by believers are counted righteous, or which is the same, are imputed for righteousness.” — The Economy of The Covenants Between God and Man Vol.1 pg. 400-401

  10. Our good works are justifying in the sense that they validate our profession of faith, in this life, but to claim that our righteousness is inherently acceptable to God is an outrageous denial that Christ alone is our righteousness. Your quotations are out of context and misapplied.

  11. Alex, have you read Dr. Clark’s essay, On The Necessity and Efficacy of Good Works? In it he makes it very clear that when the Reformers discuss justification by works, they are emphasizing the role of good works in our sanctification where good works are a validation of our profession of faith, so in that sense it can be said that we are justified by our works. Surely you do not think that your good works are coinstrumental in your right standing before God for salvation? Even your quotation from Witsius makes it clear that what he has in view is that good works justify or validate our profession of faith, because if the Holy Spirit is truly in us through regeneration, He will be performing His work of gradually conforming us to the image of Christ to be fully realized in our resurrection to glory. Our good works are coincidental or circumstances to our salvation and provide evidence of the Holy Spirit working in us but the cause or instrument of salvation is God alone. We are elected by the Father, redeemed by the blood and righteousness of the Son, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We are His workmanship. Our good works justify our claim that God is working on us. According to Witsius: XXIV “But yet inherent righteousness is not the foundation of this justification, from its own worthiness, or because it is a holiness exactly commensurate with the rule of the law, but because it is the work of the Holy Spirit in the elect.”
    XXV “it is not sufficient for a Christian to boast of the remission of sins, which indeed is obtained by faith only, but then it must be a living faith on Christ; but that besides he ought to labor after holiness, that being justified by faith ONLY….he may likewise be justified by works, that is declared to be truly regenerate….behaving as those who are regenerated.”

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