Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) is America’s most famous theologian and perhaps its most famous philosopher too. He is an important and influential figure and worth seeking to understand for those reasons alone. We should think about Edwards for other reasons, however, He is . . . Continue reading →
I stumbled upon this passage whilst looking for something else. It is an excellent summary of what was widely held and taught from the first half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. There are more than a few Reformed, evangelical, and Lutheran folk who continue to repeat this narrative and it is one which I have been trying to overturn. Why? Because it is simply untrue. Continue reading →
Good works proceed from saving faith; faith that does not bear fruit is not saving faith (see James 2:19). James 2:24 is talking about works as fruit and evidence of saving faith, not meritorious works that save us. In fact, James reminds . . . Continue reading →
It’s not uncommon to hear some people appeal to James 2:24 in order to argue that God saves people by faith plus works. In particular, some argue against the doctrine of justification by faith alone by appealing to this verse. They tend . . . Continue reading →
A man breaks down the windows of his house. The house stands. He breaks down the roof or the walls. The house yet stands, though deformed. He pulls up the foundation— the house itself falls and ceases to be a house. Now . . . Continue reading →
According to J. H. Alsted (1588–1638), “the article justification is said to be the article of the standing or falling of the church.” It was said to be such by the confessionally Reformed and Lutheran alike. The language was probably borrowed from . . . Continue reading →
To be justified in the sight of God, to be Justified by faith or by works. A man is said to be justified in the sight of God when in the judgment of God he is deemed righteous, and is accepted on . . . Continue reading →
“If a sinner, being justified, has all things at once that are necessary for salvation? And if personal holiness, and progress in holy obedience, is not necessary to a justified persons’s possession of glory, in case of his continuing in life after . . . Continue reading →
If one maintains that a right to eternal life is acquired by his good works, and that this right is granted by way of justification by works, all would nevertheless be attributed to man, and therefore he that has performed these good . . . Continue reading →
In the first place, that the righteousness by which we are justified before God is not of works, is not only asserted, but proved. The apostle’s first argument on this point is derived from the consideration, that the law demands a perfect . . . Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
“Arminius’ views clearly belong to the category of those of Karg and Piscator: he not only attributes no soteriological purpose to Christ’s active obedience, he also restricts the purpose of the nominally passive aspects of Christ’s obedience in life and ministry to . . . Continue reading →
Francis Turretin distinguished between justification and vindication. Continue reading →
“[A]n untruth, namely, that we are justified only by the passion of Christ. But if this were so, we should be justified without fulfilling the law. For (as I have said) we owe to God a double debt: one by creation, namely, . . . Continue reading →
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 →
18. Is justification an act that takes place once and for all, or an act that can be repeated? a) The Roman Catholic church makes a distinction between a first and a second justification. The first consists in the infusion of habitual . . . Continue reading →
In his 1521 translation of the Greek New Testament into German, the so-called September Testament, which he completed in about 11 weeks (seminary students take note, that is two weeks shy of one semester) Luther’s most controversial decision may have been to . . . Continue reading →
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 →
“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 →