After a conference address that expounded the doctrine of justification by faith and showed its contemporary importance, the following comments were overheard during a coffee break. Continue reading →
Preaching Sola Fide Better
Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry
When Pastors Do Not Pay Attention
Remarkably, after two decades of controversy over the self-described Federal Vision movement, there are pastors and teachers who do not seem to understand it.1 One can see why one might have been confused in the early days of the discussion, but now, . . . Continue reading →
Justification by Faith Alone: No Christian Life without It
Whenever the doctrines of justification and sanctification are to be considered, the instinctive reaction of a Protestant ought to be to draw a distinction between them. Continue reading →
Simul Iustus et Peccator: The Role of Justification in Pastoral Counseling
As shepherds of Jesus’s flock, pastors wrestle with the wounds and waywardness of the human heart. They counsel the guilty, who are consumed by self-condemnation. They counsel the defensive, who try to deflect God’s heart-piercing word through self-justification and blame-shifting. Continue reading →
Which Covenant Theology?
Covenant theology seems to be all the rage these days. According to E. P. Sanders, the “pattern of religion” known as Second Temple Judaism can be described as “covenantal nomism.” Continue reading →
The New Perspective, Mediation, and Justification
After all these centuries the Reformation’s doctrine of justification is still disputed in some circles, particularly among a relatively small but vocal group associated with the so-called new perspective on Paul. Continue reading →
The Covenant of Works in Moses and Paul
In the controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics there has been no question whether Jesus obeyed God’s law, but only to what effect. Did Jesus obey the law so as to make it possible for us to cooperate with grace toward future justification, or did he obey God’s law for us (pro nobis) to accomplish our justification once for all? The Protestants affirmed the latter and denied the former. Nevertheless, despite the unity among confessional Protestants on justification, questions have persistently arisen among them concerning the nature, intent, and effect of Jesus’s law keeping and its relation to the justification of sinners. Continue reading →
The Moralist’s Catechism
Moralism is the teaching (doctrine) that God approves (accepts or justifies) of us either because we have cooperated with his grace (semi-Pelagianism) or because we have kept the law without his help (Pelagianism). According to moralism, God approves of us because of . . . Continue reading →
The Covenant Before The Covenants
Those not well read in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Reformed theology might be forgiven their ignorance of the covenant of redemption or for concluding that it is an arcane doctrine long abandoned. Continue reading →
Covenant Nomism And The Exile
At first sight, covenantal nomism may seem to be strongly supported by the analogy of a marriage relationship that the Old Testament uses to describe the relationship between the Lord and Israel. Continue reading →
Do This and Live: Christ’s Active Obedience as the Ground of Justification
In the controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics there has been no question whether Jesus obeyed God’s law, but only to what effect. Did Jesus obey the law so as to make it possible for us to cooperate with grace toward future justification, or did he obey God’s law for us (pro nobis) to accomplish our justification once for all? The Protestants affirmed the latter and denied the former. Nevertheless, despite the unity among confessional Protestants on justification, questions have persistently arisen among them concerning the nature, intent, and effect of Jesus’s law keeping and its relation to the justification of sinners. Continue reading →
Where We Are: Justification Under Fire In The Contemporary Scene
Editor’s Note: The following is the complete chapter as it appeared in R. Scott Clark, ed., Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2007), 25–57. In 2021, the publisher returned the publication rights . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: “Participation In The Divine Nature” Refers To Sanctification
IV. First, this image (negatively, kat’ arsin) does not consist in a participation of the divine essence (as if the nature of man was a shadow [aposkiasmation] of the divine and a certain particle of the divine breath, as the Gentiles hold). For . . . Continue reading →
How We Got Here: The Roots Of The Current Controversy Over Justification
Presently there is open disagreement within Reformed and Presbyterian churches over the most basic elements of the doctrine of justification. Some are arguing (implicitly and explicitly) that the doctrine of justification contained in the Reformed confessions and catechisms (i.e., symbols) is either inadequate or incorrect. Continue reading →
Letter and Spirit: Law and Gospel in Reformed Preaching
Preaching begins with Bible reading and interpretation. Before a minister can preach a given text, he must decide what it says. To interpret a passage, the preacher necessarily brings to bear his broader reading of Scripture, a system of doctrine, and the history of interpretation. Continue reading →
Can I Have Assurance?
Joel asks, “Is it possible for a person to want/desire to know Christ as his/her Savior and not be among the elect?” HC 21. What is true faith? True faith is not only a certain knowledge whereby I hold for truth all . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On The Fundamental Articles of Faith
But [the Reformed] all agree in these fundamental articles: the doctrines concerning the sacred Scriptures as inspired, being the only and perfect rule of faith; concerning the unity of God and the Trinity; concerning Christ, the death, concerning the law and its . . . Continue reading →
Re-Publication of the Covenant of Works (1)
As Michael Horton acknowledges in his work on covenant theology, one of the more difficult issues in covenant theology is how to relate the Mosaic Covenant to the earlier Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant. Complicating matters is the old Dispensational doctrine . . . Continue reading →
When Is a Church Not a Church?
I was searching for something the other day and ran across chapter 18 of the Scots Confession (1560) which speaks to the “Notes” (from the Latin, nota or “mark” or “indicator”) of the True Kirk (church). Ordinarily, when I think of the . . . Continue reading →
Faith Formed By Love Or Faith Alone? The Instrument Of Justification
In his discussion of works, Calvin anticipates the great error of many contemporary critics of the Reformation doctrine. They think that as long as they say that salvation is by grace alone they have said all they need to say theologically, but many medieval theologians said exactly that. They taught that grace alone worked to transform and sanctify the life and that all the works of the Christian are the fruit of grace. Such an improved life, however, is still an imperfect life and cannot stand in the judgment. Calvin summarizes the situation succinctly: “If righteousness is revealed in the gospel, surely no mutilated or half righteousness but a full and perfect righteousness is contained there. The law therefore has no place in it” (Institutes 3.11.19). What one needs to stand in the judgment, Calvin declares over and over again, is a perfect righteousness. No matter how much progress one makes in grace during this life, so that one’s life becomes holier, holier, and holier, it will never get to the point where it will be able to stand in the judgment. Continue reading →