Reformation season is drawing to a close for 2017. Quite naturally, there has been a great deal of emphasis on justification by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide). What might have been a time of remembrance and celebration has . . . Continue reading →
In the American criminal justice system, for many charges, after one has been arrested and booked (photographed for a “mug shot,” fingerprinted, and paperwork completed) one goes to jail to await a preliminary hearing and after that a trial of the charge. . . . Continue reading →
If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to . . . Continue reading →
As early as the late 4th century, challenged by a variety of claims of religious authority, many of whom claimed to have an unwritten secret tradition or revelation, Basil the Great (c.330–79), one of the Cappadocian Fathers, rather than standing on the . . . Continue reading →
…Then “the books” (that is, the consciences) will be opened, and the dead will be judged according to the things they did in the world, whether good or evil. Indeed, all people will give account of all the idle words they have . . . Continue reading →
52. What comfort is it to you, that Christ “shall come to judge the living and the dead”? That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with uplifted head, I look for the very same one, who before offered Himself for me to . . . Continue reading →
The Bible is a story book. When I say “story” you might think of stories that are not true, tall tales like Paul Bunyan or the classical myths. The stories of Scripture are exciting and thrilling and, unlike myths, they are true. . . . Continue reading →
Q. 83. Does it give any delight to our conscience that Christ will one day be the judge of the world? A. Indeed singular delight. For we know assuredly that he will come only for our salvation. Q. 84. We should not . . . Continue reading →
Hence arises a wonderful consolation: that we perceive judgment to be in the hands of him who has already destined us to share with him the honor of judging [cf. Matt. 19:28]! Far indeed is he from mounting his judgment seat to . . . Continue reading →
170 Q. You are not saying, then, that good works are useless? A. They do not serve to make us right with God, either wholly or in part, but they do serve this purpose: after we have been freely and graciously justified . . . Continue reading →
It has often been a great temptation to set God’s sovereign, life-giving, grace against the divinely ordained means that he uses to bring about new life. It has been an equally great temptation so to identify that grace with those means as . . . Continue reading →
Vers. 13. (For not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified.) Reas. 3. Especially intended against the Jews, who according to the rule of Righteousness, cannot be accounted for Righteous before . . . Continue reading →
II. However, we must premise here that God, the just Judge (dikaiokritēn), cannot pronounce anyone just and give him a right to life except on the ground of some perfect righteousness which has a necessary connection with life; but that righteousness is . . . Continue reading →
Verse. 13 For * ‖ not the hearers of the Law are just with God: but the doers of the Law ‖ shall be justified. RHEM. 5. [ 13. Not the hearers] This same sentence agreeable also to Christs words (Mat, 7. . . . Continue reading →
13. For ties this in with the preceding and explains it. Those who hear the law reminds us of the circumstances of the day. People did not normally read for themselves (the scribe was a member of a skilled profession). They heard . . . Continue reading →
VIII. Although our justification will be fully declared on the last day (our good works also being brought forward as the sign and proof its truth, Mt. 25:34–40), still falsely would anyone maintain from this a twofold gospel justification—one from faith in . . . Continue reading →
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“God’s verdict of not guilty and his imputing of his own righteousness to us at the beginning of the Christian life is by faith alone… that’s how we get started. James is answering the question ‘does the ongoing and final reckoning of . . . Continue reading →
For the last several years several writers identified with the broader Reformed movement have proposed that Christians are saved initially by grace alone, through faith alone but finally through faith and works. There are two claims here: 1) salvation is in two . . . Continue reading →