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 →
Salvation
Turretin: There Is No Future Justification By Grace And Works
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 →
Thomas Cartwright Contra Rome On Romans 2:13
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 →
Leon Morris On Romans 2:13
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 →
Cranfield On Why “Works Of The Law” Means More Than Mosaic Ceremonies
We turn now at last to Romans. The first occurrence of ἔργα νόμου is in 3:20: διότι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, διὰ γὰρ νόμου ἐπίγνωσις ἁμαρτίας. Dunn explains ἔργα νόμου here as meaning quite specifically those observances . . . Continue reading →
Turretin Contra Two-Stage Justification
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 →
Why We Remember The Reformation (Part 3)
“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 →
Resources On The Controversy Over “Final Salvation Through Works”
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 →
Did Ursinus Teach Final Salvation Through Faith And 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 . . . Continue reading →
Background On The Current Salvation Controversy
In 1980, Daniel P. Fuller published Gospel and Law: Contrast or Continuum seeking to lay siege to both the Dispensational tradition in which he had been raised and covenant theology as he understood it. This work provoked strong responses from some within . . . Continue reading →
Salvation Sola Gratia, Sola Fide: On Distinguishing Is, With, And Through
It is ironic that, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the Reformed-ish wing of evangelicalism is having a controversy over salvation. It has been proposed by a leading evangelical pastor that we are initially justified by grace alone, through . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Salvation By Grace Alone Through Faith Alone.
8. For by grace are ye saved. This is an inference from the former statements. Having treated of election and of effectual calling, he arrives at this general conclusion, that they had obtained salvation by faith alone. First, he asserts, that the . . . Continue reading →
Ephesians 2:9: Good Works Are From Salvation Not Unto Salvation
2:9 οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων (ouk ex ergōn), “not from works.” There are two important elements to v. 9. The first is the another abrupt statement: “not from works” (also Rom 9:12 and Titus 3:5; cf. Rom 11:6). This shows the fundamental Pauline . . . Continue reading →
Why We Remember The Reformation
Ephesians 2:8 Presents Salvation As Completed Not Initiated
2:8 Τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι διὰ πίστεως (Tē gar chariti este sesōsmenoi dia pisteōs), “for by grace you are saved through faith.” Paul resumes the line previewed in v. 5 with the addition of explanatory γάρ (gar), “[F]or by grace you . . . Continue reading →
Believers Are Saved And Sealed
In the early days of the Federal Vision one of the errors the confessional Presbyterian and Reformed (hereafter P&R) churches were facing was the claim that, at the judgment believers will stand before God partly on the basis of Christ’s righteousness imputed . . . Continue reading →
J. G. Vos On Good Works And Salvation In Westminster Larger Catechism 32
6. What condition is attached to the covenant of grace? The condition attached to the covenant of grace is faith in Jesus Christ. 13. Why Should a Christian want to obey the law of God as an evidence of the truth of . . . Continue reading →
Berkhof On Salvation And Good Works
3. THE NECESSITY OF GOOD WORKS. There can be no doubt about the necessity of good works properly understood. They cannot be regarded as necessary to merit salvation, nor as a means to retain a hold on salvation, nor even as the . . . Continue reading →
Things The Reformed May Not Say About Salvation
We reject the error of those who teach: That there are various kinds of election of God unto eternal life: the one general and indefinite, the other particular and definite; and that the latter in turn is either incomplete, revocable, non-decisive, and . . . Continue reading →
Jesus Has Won
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses . . . Continue reading →