In the effectual calling of God it happens that we are now present before God and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, yet we are not yet justified or said to be justified before the sentence of God the Judge about us has been carried from His tribunal. And this new benefit of God is from a certain new grace, that God pronounces us righteous in that righteousness of Christ, apprehended by faith. For from grace is that alien righteousness, even made ours in a certain sure manner, namely, by faith He accepts as our own and on account of it justifies us, that is, He pronounces us righteous. For the rule of divine righteousness would demand otherwise that we are not considered righteous except in our own inherent righteousness, as they say. And for that reason, the apostle unites grace to faith in Romans 4:16, ‘The inheritance is from faith, that it may be by grace’

Robert Rollock | Commentary on Ephesians, trans. Casey Carmichael, Classic Reformed Theology Series vol. 5 (Reformation Heritage Books, 2021), 182.

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Post authored by:

• Casey Carmichael

  

  Casey Carmichael holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Geneva. He is the author of A Continental View: Johannes Cocceius’s Federal Theology of the Sabbath (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019). He is also the coeditor of the Classic Reformed Theology series, published by Reformation Heritage Books. He has translated various works from the Reformed tradition, including J. H. Heidegger’s Concise Marrow of Christian Theology and John Calvin’s Necessity of Reforming the Church.

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