Ignorance of the difference between the law and the gospel promotes also, in a great degree, the strength and influence of a self-righteous temper. When a man is driven to acts of obedience by the dread of God’s wrath revealed in the . . . Continue reading →
Five Solas
Boston: Remember, You Are Clothed With Borrowed Feathers
2. I shall drop a few words to the saints. (1.) “Remember—that at that time,” namely, when you were in your natural state, “ye were without Christ—having no hope, and without God in the world.” Call to mind the state you were . . . Continue reading →
Machen: Justification Sola Fide Is The Central Doctrine Of The Christian Faith
The Pauline doctrine of justification by faith alone, which we have just treated at considerable length, is, as we have seen, the very foundation of Christian liberty. It makes our standing with God dependent not at upon what we have done, but . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: Justification Is The Greatest Question In The World
Two things are generally to be considered, the occasion of this [Galatians] epistle and the scope. The occasion that moved Paul to write this epistle was because certain false apostles slandered him both in respect of his calling as also in respect . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: The Law Promises Salvation On The Basis And Through Obedience. The Gospel Promises Salvation On The Basis Of Christ’s Obedience And Through Faith Alone
Synod Of Dort: Salvation Is Through Faith Alone
For this was the sovereign counsel and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Sola Scriptura And Missions
In Matthew 28 our Lord gave to his visible church the great commission to go announce the gospel, to make disciples of all the nations, to plant churches, and to make use of the means that he himself had established. Dr Lloyd . . . Continue reading →
Christian Corrects Ignorance Concerning The Role Of Good Works In Salvation
Olevianus: Salvation Is Through Faith Alone Because Christ Is A Complete Savior
157 Q. Now that we have discussed the various articles and parts of articles of the confession of our Christian faith, I would like to hear from you whether we shall be fully saved through such true faith in Christ? A. There . . . Continue reading →
Piper’s Rejection Of The Gratitude Ethic Is A Rejection Of The Reformation
The magisterial Protestant Churches, i.e., the Lutherans and the Reformed, agreed that salvation (justification, sanctification, and glorification) is by divine favor alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), in Christ alone. These convictions were essential to the Reformation but those convictions . . . Continue reading →
The Reformed Brotherhood: Overcoming Confirmation Bias On Piper And Final Salvation Through Works
Does John Piper teach a two-stage doctrine of salvation wherein the initial stage is said to be justification by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ but in which final salvation . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: There Is Only One Justification And That By Faith Alone
I answer, not only in the beginning of our conversion, but also in the continuance and final accomplishment thereof. For here Paul desires in the day of judgment to stand before God only by the justice of faith without his own justice . . . Continue reading →
Boston: Sanctification Through Faith Alone Is A Gospel Mystery
The gospel method of sanctification, as well as of justification, lies so far out of the ken of natural reason, that if all the rationalists in the world, philosophers and divines, had consulted together…” Thomas Boston, Preface to The Marrow of Modern . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 149: Q & A On How Pray, When To Drop The H Bomb, What Did OT Believers Know, And Why Final Justification Through Good Works Is Bad News
Now sanitized for your listening safety, the Heidelcast is back with episode 149 in which we take questions from Lancaster, PA, Houston, TX, Cork, Ireland, and Belfast, UK. The Heidelcast is a global podcast. As always we had some good and challenging . . . Continue reading →
Did Ursinus Teach Final Salvation Through Works?
Zacharias Ursinus (1534–83) was the principal author of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). He was responsible for perhaps as much as 70% of the catechism, though the two source documents that he created, from which much of the catechism was formed, drew from many sources (including Luther), so the source criticism of the catechism is challenging. For more on the background of the catechism see Lyle Bierma et al ed., An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology (2005) and J. I. Good, Good, The Heidelberg Catechism in Its Newest Light ( Philadelphia, PA: Publication and Sunday School Board of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1914). Continue reading →
The Reasons Christians Do Good Works
The Heidelberg Catechism is in three parts: Law, Gospel, and Sanctification or Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude. This is not an artificial interpretation of the Catechism nor is it an artificial arrangement of the Christian faith. Question 2 outlines the Catechism for us: Continue reading →
Saved Through Good Works?
In Reformed theology the noun salvation is typically used in two ways. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for justification. When used this way it does not include sanctification since, according to the Reformed confession, justification is a declarative act of God whereby he credits (imputes) to sinners the perfect, active and suffering righteousness of Christ so that it is as if those sinners to whom Christ’s righteousness has been so imputed are considered to have themselves accomplished personally all the Christ did for them as their substitute. Further, we say that this benefit is received through faith alone (sola fide) defined as trusting, resting in, and receiving Christ and his righteousness. We confess that both the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and faith as the receiving instrument are nothing but God’s free gifts. Hence we attribute all of this to God’s favor (grace) alone. The slogan for this is sola gratia, by grace alone. Continue reading →
New Resource Page On The Reformation Solas
The Reformation was, at its core, the recovery of the biblical doctrine that Scripture is the only final authority (sola Scriptura) for the Christian faith and the Christian life, that salvation is by divine favor alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola . . . Continue reading →
The Most Heavenly Thought Of The Most Heavenly Man Does Not Deserve Heaven
The most holy and heavenly man that ever breathed, durst not adventure the salvation of his soul upon the most heavenly thought that ever he conceived. Our impressions of this will help to keep your hearts right in point of righteousness; so . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: The Doctrine Of A Two-Stage Justification Is A “Popish Device”
“That popish device of a second justification is a satanical delusion for the Word of God does acknowledge no more but one justification at all, and that absolute and complete of itself. There is but one justice, but one satisfaction of God . . . Continue reading →