Only by faith - 18 August 2009 |
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Paraphrase of Edwards, Justification by Faith Alone, pp. 151ff.
Having considered what justification is, let’s think now about what it means to say that justification is only by faith. Then we’ll think about what it means to say that justification is not by our own goodness.
The problem with understanding the meaning of ‘justification by faith’ is that it’s hard to pin down what ‘by’ means.
Some have tried to clarify matters ‘by saying that faith is the condition of justification’ (p. 152). Though this is true in one sense, it doesn’t get us very far, because the word ‘condition’ is itself ambiguous. It can mean subtly different things in different contexts, and these differences can cause great confusion.
For example, in one sense, ‘Christ alone performs the condition of our justification’ (p. 151). So how can our faith be a further ‘condition’ of justification?
More confusingly still, if we take ‘condition of justification’ to mean ’something indispensable, without which we shall not be justified, and with which we shall be justified’, then lots of other things could legitimately be called ‘conditions of justification’ as well. The Bible says that ‘love to God’, ‘love to our brethren’, ‘forgiving men their trespasses’ (p. 152), and many other things besides, are also conditions of justification in this sense. Clearly the phrase ‘condition of justification’ is inadequate to describe the ‘particular influence that faith has’ (p. 153) in justification.
Others have tried to clarify the relationship between faith and justification by calling faith ‘the instrument of our justification’ (p. 153). Unfortunately, this explanation has been misrepresented and ridiculed by others, who have wrongly understood it to mean that faith is the instrument God uses to justify us, rather than the instrument we use to receive justification.
On the other hand, perhaps some confusion is understandable. For those who describe faith as the instrument by which we receive justification also identify faith as the act of receiving justification. That doesn’t work. It’s a bit like confusing your journey to work (the act) with the car you drive in (the instrument).
In any case, even those who describe faith as an ‘instrument’ speak of it, strictly speaking, as ‘the instrument by which we receive Christ’ rather than ‘the instrument by which we receive justification’ (p. 153). But we’re in danger of getting ahead of ourselves.
So then, what does ‘by’ mean in the phrase ‘justified by faith’? Let’s take a step back for a moment. God has sent ‘a Mediator’, Christ, who ‘has purchased justification’ (p. 153). Surely the most obvious thing to say is this: Faith is the thing that makes it right in God’s sight that some people (i.e. believers; those with faith) rather than others (i.e. unbelievers, those without faith) should have justification assigned to them. Faith is the ‘qualification’ (p. 153) that makes it appropriate in God’s sight that ‘we should be justified’ (p. 154).
God doesn’t do anything randomly. Everything in the way that God has set up the world fits together perfectly in line with his wisdom. And God in his wisdom says that faith and justification ‘match’. They fit together, so to speak, such that it is right (i.e. ‘proper’, ‘meet’, ‘fit’, p. 154) for those who have faith to be justified.
This distinguishes faith from all the other things which can rightly be described as conditions of justification (love for God, love for other believers, and so on). For though all these things are ‘inseparably connected with justification’ (p. 154), only faith qualifies us for justification in this special and unique sense.
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Books, Justification by Faith Alone, Minister's Blog