What Is Written 4-Apr-99: Justification by Faith Alone

Recently a minister in a local denomination told me that several years ago he was persuaded to move from legalism to grace. This was said in the context of our discussion about religious matters such as baptism. Most people in Protestant churches feel the same way that this man felt. Most believe that salvation is solely and simply by faith alone. Most Protestant preachers teach that anything in addition to or subsequent to faith amounts to legalism. Legalism is their term to describe obedience. I believe it can be safely stated that most Protestant churches believe and teach that salvation is a result of faith alone. That is, all one needs to do in order to be saved is to have faith in Christ. Most Protestant preachers teach that justification is by faith alone. But did you know that the doctrine of justification by faith alone goes back to a German Catholic priest named Martin Luther? Luther was one of the most influential of the religious reformers in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone was the result of his overreaction to the Catholicism in which he was raised. Ordained a priest in 1507, he became an instructor at the University of Wittenberg. Luther’s favorite book was Paul’s letter to the Romans. Soon he began to struggle with reconciling justification by faith with the Roman Catholic practice of indulgences, a Catholic remission of the penalties of sin. An indulgence was a payment made by the sinner so that his sins could and would be forgiven. Luther rebelled against the Catholic idea of earning salvation by means of a payment, since the Bible taught justification by faith. Also, as a man, he was frustrated by his attempts to be good enough to be saved. He realized he always fell far short of God’s holiness. Given to a diligent searching of the scriptures, he realized he would never be able to be good enough to earn his salvation, but instead he must depend upon God’s grace. From the book of Romans, and to a lesser extent the book of Galatians, he came to the conclusion that men are justified by faith and that no works of any kind are involved in one’s salvation. Luther’s concerns were real, but he just went too far in correcting the abuses. Romans and Galatians do teach that works of the law do not justify us — but neither book eliminates the need for obedience. Luther was unable to balance, in his mind, the obedience of man with the grace of God. So he decided that man was saved solely by his faith. That is, Luther concluded that sinners were saved by faith alone, without anything else being required. Luther’s Catechism says, “We are justified and saved by faith alone, without works...Our own works have nothing to do with our justification.”

Luther’s influence has been so great over the years that nearly every denomination that has formed since his time has followed his teaching of justification by faith alone. Just a few years after Luther began his work in the early 1500s, John Calvin began his work in France and Switzerland. Like Luther, Calvin wished to reform the abuses of Catholicism. Like Luther, he had no intention of starting a church, but also like Luther, he did. His work resulted in the Presbyterian church in 1534. Calvin taught what Luther did in reference to the means of being justified. Both taught that a sinner is saved by faith alone. The Larger Catechism of the Presbyterian Church says this about the means by which one is saved: “Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins . . . and received by faith alone.” In 1536, King Henry VIII formed the Church of England, known today as the Anglican Church or, in America, the Episcopalian Church. The Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer says this about faith and salvation: “Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort.” Are you with me on this? The one common thread running through each of these denominations was (and is) the doctrine of Luther that says a sinner is justified before God by faith alone. Then, in the early 1600s, the Baptist denomination was formed. Like those before it, this denomination espoused the same doctrine of justification by faith alone. The Hiscox Standard Baptist Manual says this: “We believe the Scriptures teach that the great gospel blessing which secures to such as believes in him is justification; that justification includes the pardon of sin, and the promise of eternal life on principles of righteousness; that it is bestowed...solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood.” Same song, a different chorus! In the 1700’s the Methodists broke away from the Church of England to form their own denomination, but they brought the doctrine of Luther with them. The Discipline of the Methodist Church has this to say about justification by faith alone: “Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.” Well, it might be a doctrine that seems to offer comfort, but does the Bible teach it? Does the Bible teach that sinners are saved or justified solely by faith? Does the Bible teach that sinners are justified by faith alone, without any further acts of obedience?

I believe the best place to begin is in the book of Romans, the book that Martin Luther concluded taught the doctrine of justification by faith alone. I want to note, with you, three passages from this book. Rom. 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then Rom. 3:24 says, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” And finally, Rom. 5:9 says, “Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Now, did you notice that these three verses all discussed justification? One said we are justified by faith, the next said we are justified by grace, and the third said we are justified by blood. But not one said we are justified by blood alone, or grace alone, or faith alone. There is a world of difference between saying one is justified by faith and in saying one is justified by faith alone. The Bible teaches that the sinner is justified by faith — but it nowhere says that the sinner is saved by faith alone. Consider what Jas. 2:24 says: “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” The Bible says that we are justified — or saved — by faith. But it also says that we are not justified by faith alone (or faith only). It says plainly that we are saved (or justified) by works. Well, you might be wondering, since the Bible teaches that we are justified by faith and the blood of Christ and God’s grace and by works, then why did Luther teach we are justified by faith alone? Even though he was a brilliant man, Luther made a great error. He misunderstood what the apostle Paul meant when he taught (also in the book of Romans) how we are not justified by the works of the Law in Rom. 3:28. This verse gives people today considerable problems as well. Rom. 3:28 says, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” In this verse Paul was concluding his discussion of sin. He pointed out in the first three chapters of Romans that all men and all women are guilty of sin. He said in Rom. 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Furthermore, he points out that the Law of Moses (and any law by its nature) was unable to bring about salvation, because for anyone to be justified solely by Law, they would have to be absolutely perfect in their obedience so they could earn their salvation. The reason men and women were not redeemed by the Law of Moses was because no one (except Jesus) kept the law perfectly. Luther understood that perfect lawkeeping was not possible, but he overreacted and taught that men and women were under no obligation to do anything in order to be saved. When Luther concluded that man was not justified by the works of the Law he failed to grasp that men were still under obligation to obey God. In his mind, Luther could not conceive that man must be obedient to God but that this obedience did not mean that man was earning his salvation. So, because of his misunderstanding of how we are saved by grace and obedience, Luther rejected the book of James as inspired and called it a “straw epistle” that did not even belong in the Bible. Because he could not reconcile Paul’s statement, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” with James’s statement, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only,” he did the only thing he believed that he could do — he tore James from the Bible. Think about it, when Jas. 2:24 contradicted Luther’s belief, instead of changing his belief, he rejected the writings of James, the brother of Jesus.

If Martin Luther and any other “faith alone” preacher would just read further into the book of Romans, it would become apparent how that salvation without the deeds of the law and salvation by works can and do go hand in hand. Rom. 4:1 says, “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?” Paul asks, what about Abraham? How was he justified? Verse 2: “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” If we are to understand the message of Romans, we must first understand the word works. It does not mean obedience. Let me say that again — and listen to me very carefully. When Paul says if Abraham was justified by works, you cannot substitute obedience for works. The verse cannot read if Abraham was justified by obedience, he has something to boast about, but not before God. That is a perversion of the text. If one can scripturally substitute obedience for works, then in verse 5 that says but to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, we can substitute does not work for disobedience. Therefore, verse 5 could be read this way: “But to him who disobeys god but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” This is ludicrous. This would be a perversion of the divine word of God. In this context, works means perfect keeping of the law. Abraham did not keep perfectly the will of God. As a matter of divine record, I know of an occasion when Abraham lied. He bore false testimony. But he certainly obeyed God when called to do so. Jas. 2:21–23 says this about this man Abraham:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.

Abraham did not keep the law of God perfectly, but he obeyed God. And it was his faith plus his obedience that resulted in his justification. If God does not intend for us to obey him, then he has a lot of meaningless verses in the Bible. For example, why was the one-talent man cast into torment in Matt. 25:30? Do you understand my question? If God does not demand obedience — if one is justified before God by means of faith alone — then why was the unprofitable servant punished? I’ll tell you why he was punished — it was because he failed to work for the Lord. He believed in his master. As a matter of fact, when the Lord returned from his journey and called his servants to give an account, the one-talent man was punished because he had not worked for his Lord. He is told in verse 27, “So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.” Here was a man who was lost even though he had faith.

Now, if the doctrine of justification by faith alone is true, then Jesus wasted a lot of time and scripture telling us about this man. Also, if this doctrine is true, then Jesus wasted more time giving us the useless warning about judgment in Matt. 25:40-46. I’m sure you remember that in this preview of judgment. Jesus admonished. “Then he will also say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” What was the reason these on the left hand were condemned into eternal torment? Was it because they did not have faith? No! The reason these were condemned, according to the next three verses, was because they had not worked: “For I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Do not let those who have the same misunderstanding as Luther convince you that obedience to God is unimportant. God’s grace is abundant, his mercy is awesome, but this does not eliminate our need to obey his will. Neither does our faith mean that we have nothing more to do. God has always commanded and expected man to obey him. In Gen. 1:28 we read, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” God gave Adam orders to be obeyed in this verse. He told Adam that he was expected to work. This was before Adam sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. Did Adam have the liberty just to disregard this command to subdue the earth? Certainly not! God expected obedience. And in the area of salvation we must understand that forgiveness of sins restores our fellowship with God, but neither our faith nor our forgiveness cancels our responsibility to work! There are things that must be done before we can be forgiven and there are things that must be done after we receive the remission of sins. Jesus said in Mk. 16:16, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” There is no way anyone should misunderstand this simple statement of Jesus. Before one can be saved, he must not only have faith (believe on Christ) but he must also do something. That is, one must be baptized. Furthermore, after salvation one is expected to be even more diligent in works. Eph. 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

The problem with many who believe and teach salvation by faith alone is this: They fail to understand that faith and works are not mutually exclusive. Not only do they have a complete misunderstanding of the kind of works Paul discusses in Rom. 3 and 4, but they seem unable to comprehend that grace and obedience are compatible. Do you recall the incident that I related earlier about my conversation with the minister who said that he moved from legalism to grace? He exemplifies the problem perfectly. He cannot fathom that the grace of God and the works of man can go together. He, like Luther, believes that one must be removed to make way for the other. But that is a false and dangerous position to assume. The Bible tells us that rather than being mutually exclusive, grace and works are inseparably linked. Tit. 2:11-12 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” Don’t you see it? God’s grace appeared (there was nothing we could do to merit it) but then we are told (by this grace) that works are demanded. We are to deny ungodliness. We are to live soberly, righteously, and godly. These are works! Verse 14 goes on to conclude by telling us that it was Christ “who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.” The Bible tells over and over of the need to obey the will of God. As a matter of fact, the book of Romans is a book that actually helps us to understand faith and obedience. It begins with and ends with obedience of the faith. The beginning in Rom. 1:5 says, “Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith.” And the end in Rom. 16:26 says, “But now has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith.” And you can be assured that if the book begins and ends with obedient faith then obedient faith is taught in between. The book says wrath and indignation are coming upon those who “do not obey the truth," according to Rom. 2:8. The book tells us that the Christians in Rome were freed from sin because “they obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you,” according to Rom. 6:17–18. Also, Paul wrote that one of his greatest accomplishments was to bring about “the obedience of the Gentiles” in Rom. 15:18. This is not intended to imply that faith is unimportant, so please do not go away believing that I have minimized the need of being saved by faith. I haven’t, because faith is essential to salvation. Heb. 11:6 says, “but without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.” Faith is essential, but it does not stand alone. The sinner must have faith, but he must also come to God. Our justification is not by faith alone. We are justified by His grace and by the blood of Jesus. I believe this is something with which nearly everyone will agree. So if we can agree that it takes faith plus blood plus grace, what is the problem with accepting the rest of what the Bible says about salvation? Jas. 2:24 says, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” God has provided lost mankind with his grace. Jesus provided the world with his atoning blood. Man is to respond to these unmerited acts with obedience.

Is faith essential to salvation? You’d better believe that it is. But that is not the end of the story. If faith was all that was necessary then the Bible would be no longer than Jn. 3:16. But James has made the point that there is more to being saved than Jn. 3:16. James begins by posing a question that every denominational preacher ought to be compelled to answer. Jas. 2:14 asks, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” Read his answer. He concludes that it is impossible to be saved by a faith that will not work. Verse 17 says, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Faith minus works is dead. That is, a man or a woman who says he or she has faith but does not do the works ordained of God has dead faith. Oh, I can hear the moans now. I can just imagine that some are saying I believe in salvation by works without faith but you believe in salvation by faith. Well, if you said this you are not alone, because this is what some were saying about James. Verse 18 continues, “But someone will say, you have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Now, don’t miss what James is saying He is telling us that our faith is seen and recognized by our works. He is telling us that if we say we have faith but are not obeying God then we really have dead faith — that is, we don’t believe what we say that we believe. As a matter of fact, those with faith alone (without works of obedience) are similar to those in verse 19: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe; and tremble!” Demons believe, but this does not translate into their justification. Verse 20 goes on to conclude, “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” The books of James and Romans perfectly complement each other. Both are discussing justification by faith. Romans destroys the notion that justification can be achieved by works alone and James destroys the doctrine that justification is by faith alone. The conclusion is that justification is by faith plus obeying the works ordained by God. This is something that is seen throughout the Bible. In Jn. 12:42 we read, “Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Here were some people who believed in Christ, but they did not confess that belief. Also, the reason they were unwilling to confess their belief in Christ was because they “loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Now, my question is this: Is one saved who believes in Christ but will not profess that belief because he loves the praise of men more than the praise of God? The Bible says no, and I agree. But those who teach faith alone salvation says yes! What do you believe? Also, the Bible says in Jn. 8:31, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.” Let me ask another question based upon this verse. What did it take to be a disciple of Jesus? If you said “belief,” then you were only half right Belief is essential but it is not the only thing necessary. It takes belief and abiding in the word of Christ.

The conclusion is obvious. The Bible teaches that no one has been, can be, or will be justified by faith alone. It takes faith plus obedience to the words of scripture to be saved.