X. The making of the charge is described by the metaphor of books or records in which the actions of the person who are being judged are written down. Revelation 20:12 ‘And the books were opened.’ By the word ‘books’ is to . . . Continue reading →
Final Judgment
Heidelberg 52: When The Final Judgment Is Good News
…when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus (Rom 2:15–16.). The world gospel means good news. The verbal form of the noun (εὐαγγέλιόν) Paul uses in v. 16 in secular Greek “is always used in a . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 29: No Other Name (2): Do We Need Salvation?
In part 1 we looked at the problem created by Jesus’ declaration and the Apostolic teaching that the is the only way to the Father. In this part we need to consider another problem: salvation itself. In the Modern(ist) world it is . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On Romans 2:13
Now he could not mean to contradict himself in saying, “The doers of the law shall be justified,” as if their justification came through their works, and not through grace; since he declares that a man is justified freely by His grace . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Romans 2:13 In His Institutes
That they indeed quote Paul in the same sense does them very little good: “The doers of the law, not the hearers, are justified” [Rom. 2:13 p.]. I do not intend to evade the question through Ambrose’s solution: that this was said . . . Continue reading →
Charles Hodge On Romans 2:13
VERSE 13. For not the hearers of the law. This verse is connected with the last clause of the preceding, and assigns the reason why the Jews shall be judged or punished according to the law; the mere possession or knowledge of . . . Continue reading →
Romans 2:13—Justified Through Our Faithfulness? (4)
In part 3 we began looking at a document, from 1978, which proposed a two-stage doctrine of justification. It recognized that there is some risk, some difficulty, in speaking of a present justification and a future justification. Nevertheless, the document contends that . . . Continue reading →
Calvin’s Commentary On Romans 2:13
…they gloried in the mere knowledge of it: to obviate this mistake, he declares that the hearing of the law or any knowledge of it is of no such consequence, that any one should on that account lay claim to righteousness, but . . . Continue reading →
Luther’s First Lecture On Romans 2:13 (1515–16)
13. But the doers of the Law will be justified. This passage is interpreted in a twofold way by blessed Augustine in chapter 26 of On the Spirit and the Letter. First in this way:The doers of the Law will be justified means that through . . . Continue reading →
Romans 2:13—Justified Through Our Faithfulness? (3)
In part 2 we considered Romans 2:13 in its own context (Romans 1:18–3:20) and the impulse to distinguish between an initial stage of justification sola gratia, sola fide, on the basis of Christ’s righteousness imputed, and a final stage of justification in . . . Continue reading →
Romans 2:13—Justified Through Our Faithfulness? (2)
In part 1 we began looking at a neglected aspect of the current controversy over justification and sanctification. What has been neglected is a 1978 proposal that, at the judgment, “faithful disciples” will be justified before God through their faithfulness. The current controversy . . . Continue reading →
Romans 2:13—Justified Through Our Faithfulness?
As I mentioned in an earlier post in Romans 2:13 Paul writes, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (ESV).1 The chapter begins with matter of . . . Continue reading →
Olevianus On Romans 2:13
In 1529, one of Luther’s principal opponents, Johannes Eck (1486–1541) published the first edition his Enchiridion Against Luther and Other Enemies of the Church a refutation of the Protestant errors. Under the heading, “De fide et operibus” he proposed thesis that “faith . . . Continue reading →
Berkhof On The Standard Of Final Judgment
The standard by which saints and sinners are judged will evidently be the revealed will of God. This is not the same for all. Some have been privileged above others, and this naturally adds to their responsibility, Matt 11:21–24; Rom. 2:12–16. This . . . Continue reading →
Works And Grace In The Judgment
What this all means is that justification is God’s final judgment. As Wilfried Joest writes, “there is no second decision after justification.” In the language of the Reformation, the “sole and sufficient basis” for our justification before God’s eschatological tribunal is Jesus . . . Continue reading →
Romans 2:13 and the Covenant of Works
It has been suggested in recent years that the true sense of Rom 2:13 is that it intends to say that there are two stages to justification, an initial justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone and an alleged . . . Continue reading →
Caspar Olevianus on "Final Justification" and "Spirit-Wrought Sanctity"
119 Q. Why the next article, “From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead”? A. As a further encouragement to our faith. Christ sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father and exercises His royal power . . . Continue reading →