Category: Justification By Faith Alone

Dr. NT Wright is an eminent British theologian and historian, widely renowned for his work on the resurrection of Jesus. Wright has completed a massive volume titled The Resurrection of The Son of God in which he defends the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. While Dr. Wright may convoke the applause of evangelicals for this work, there is another area of scholarship that many of us do not find very appealing. Wright has been a critic of the classical Protestant view of justification, suggesting that we have misunderstood…

Where does the Bible say that we are justified by faith alone? Is it not true that the only time this doctrine is presented is in the second chapter of James, and it is preceded by a negation? Further, when Paul says that it is our faith that justifies us, is it not true that he is referring to a lifetime of obedient faith as opposed to a particular moment in time? Accordingly, justification would be wrought by a lifetime of obedient faith. In The God Who Justifies by Doctor…

In Romans 3:28, Paul said, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” This means that we are saved the moment that we put our trust in Jesus for our salvation. We recognize that he died on the cross for our sins, in our place, and because of that, we stand before God as though we had never sinned. That is Paul’s conception of justification and how the cross applies to our lives. Dissidents of Paul’s doctrine of justification will labor the…

People are generally familiar and comfortable with a doctrine of salvation that says that we will receive the wages that are due to us. If we do good works, somebody will reward us for what we have done. It does not make sense that somebody would grant something to us as a free gift, an unmerited favor. Men want to work for things, they want to take credit for what they have done. Therefore, men want to have a role in their salvation. They want to be co-redeemers with God.…

Some Christians believe in works-salvation, but pretend they don’t. This means that they will use the same vernacular and parlance that preachers of the gospel will use, but they are relaying a different and compromising meaning. Their presentation of the gospel will contain subtle nuances that are to the detriment of the power of the cross. When salvific efficacy is shifted from the power of God to the power of man, then the cross is stripped of all power. If we are saving ourselves, then Jesus would not have needed…

When we say that Jesus died for our sins, what is it that we mean? As that is recited throughout the world, something like a mantra, people hear it and just commit to rote memory. It has no meaning. Jesus died… for our sins? Even among professing Christians, many are just unable to articulate what it means that Jesus died for their sins. So what does ‘Jesus died for our sins’ mean? The writers of the Bible explained the death of Jesus in substitutionary and penal parlance. When Jesus died,…

Jesus was being crucified between two thieves. For a brief time, both of these gentlemen were mocking him along with everyone else (Matthew 27:44). But then, one of these thieves repented and recognized his sin. He even recognized Jesus for who he was. God worked in this mans’ heart as he cried out, “Jesus, when you come into your kingdom, remember me!” But Jesus denied his request. Instead, he said, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43). Today, the thief on the…

The person of Christ is often smeared by the non-believer (whether intentionally or not) to put salvation by works in his mouth. Some will suggest that while Paul taught that salvation comes by faith alone apart from the works of the Law, he departed from the teachings of Jesus. Paul said that “To the one who does not work, but believe in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5). This would be in contrast with Jesus, so the argument goes. Jesus maintained salvation by…

There are two distinct models of justification among Christians that will be examined in this essay. Their defenders may find themselves reacting to the other in frustration to the other, or even lodging accusations of heresy. The difference that I am describing is the difference between justification by faith alone and an ongoing justification. Those who believe that justification is ongoing think that somebody is initiated into the body of Christ by taking certain rites, whether having faith or being water baptized, and becoming progressively right with God throughout the…

Often when a good Protestant wants to expound upon soteriology, they will appeal to the letters of Paul. Paul explain his model of salvation within his letters, in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, et cetera. Most commonly, we will appeal to these to prove the doctrine of faith alone. Salvation comes by putting your trust in Jesus Christ, believing in his death and resurrection unto your salvation. This model of salvation comes to the exclusion of works and water baptism (even though works and baptism come later). In contrast, those who deny…

Now I am not denying that many Jews believed that they were saved by their works. People believe heretical things all of the time. There are contemporary heretics who say that one is saved by works rather than faith alone. So there were certainly sects of Judaism, or perhaps even mainstream orthodoxy, who maintained that one is saved by the works of the Law. With that being the case, the message of Paul must have been quite radical. But the message of Paul was not an adjustment of the message…

Does Romans 2 teach salvation by works? To preface this question a little, one of the fundamental dividing lines or measuring sticks of a true Christian denomination is their stance on faith and works. If they teach that salvation comes by works in any capacity, then they are not a true Christian church and have distorted the gospel that saves. Any church that teaches that salvation comes by works or faith plus works is apostate. They are putting their trust in themselves and not in Christ. Salvation is either by…

The book of Romans is the masterpiece of the apostle Paul. He exposits Genesis 15:6 and applies it to the modern Christian, seemingly shattering the distinction between the old and the new covenant. The way that a person is justified before God is by faith, to the exclusion of all works. His teaching is inescapable. However, every group that wants to add works into the plan of salvation will rejoin that Paul is excluding works of the Jewish Law, the Torah. But he is allowing for salvation by works. Is…

Those who want to take water baptism as a sacrament (a line on a checklist that one must fulfill as a precondition to salvation) will equivocate between the baptism of water, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A baptism in water symbolizes the Living Water (John 4:14) of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. So when a person is “born again,” that is not a matter of water baptism, as some will allege, but rather, it is to literally be made anew by the power of God (2nd Corinthians…

Does salvation come by faith? Why is this an issue? Well, present in the majority of the world religions is the idea that if one is a good person, they will merit eternal life with God, and those who are evil must go to Hell. This is the view of most people, a sort of surface understanding of God’s justice. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ did their work for them. Jesus Christ died on the cross, bearing the penalty for the sins of the world (Romans 3:26, 1 John…

When I pose the question ‘is baptism necessary for salvation?’ it should be noted that I am speaking of water baptism, not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It should also be noted that while my answer to this question is, ‘No, water baptism is not necessary for salvation,’ I would hastily add that Christians need to be baptized. It should come right after salvation. It would be unthinkable for a member of early Christian church to refuse to submit to baptism, or to delay it as we do today.…