At the Reformed Reader
fides formata caritate
Is Faith a Virtue?
David asks, I know that we would say that faith is an instrument whereby we receive Christ’s imputed righteousness, but is there some biblical or theological reason why we would not want to say that faith is also a virtue? Can’t faith . . . Continue reading →
Easy Obeyism
Darryl makes a very good point at the OLTS.
Godfrey: Salvation Sola Fide Vs Salvation By Faith Formed By Love
The medieval church consistently taught that faith, in its essence, was simply or implicitly a mental category or habit to which the believer must assent, fides informis. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Hence if anyone wishes to reduce these words to the form of . . . Continue reading →
The Gospel According To Jesus, Grace, Salvation, And Sanctification
Since the 1970s and 80s the Dispensational-evangelical world has been involved in a running controversy over “the Lordship of Christ.” On one side are those Dispensationalists allied with Lewis Sperry Chafer, Charlies Ryrie, and Zane Hodges, who assert that so long as . . . Continue reading →
Piper’s New Book Is Edwardsian
The major—and expected—exception is Jonathan Edwards, whose view of faith no doubt stands behind Piper’s approach to this issue. Edwards believed that love is at the heart of faith: “That even faith, or a steadfastly believing the truth, arises from a principle . . . Continue reading →
Ursinus: True Faith, In The Act Of Justification, Is Not Formed By Affections Or Love
Ursinus Was Not Edwards
Justifying faith is properly that which is defined in the catechism; according to which definition, the general nature of saving faith consists in knowledge and an assured confidence; for there can be no faith in a doctrine that is wholly unknown. It . . . Continue reading →
A. A. Hodge: Contra Rome: The Protestants Say That Love Is The Fruit Of Faith
What are the different opinions as to the relation between faith and love? 1st. The Romanists, in order to maintain their doctrine that faith alone is not saving, distinguish between a formed, or perfect, and an unformed faith. They acknowledge that faith . . . Continue reading →
“Edwards Injects Into Faith” In The Act Of Justification The Virtues Of The Christian Life
Edwards is very clear that faith does not justify a believer as a virtue or as forming any part of the righteousness which is the basis or ground of God’s judicial verdict. In this, he clearly stands with the Reformed tradition over . . . Continue reading →
Godfrey: Edwards Rejected The Reformed Definition Of Faith In The Act Of Justification
In one area, however, the treatise is problematic, namely his understanding of the nature of justifying faith. Gerstner acknowledged that Edwards did express the doctrine of justifying faith somewhat differently from his Calvinistic forbears, “…there can be little doubt that Calvinistic theologians . . . Continue reading →