By Phil Hopwood
Is the church going too far in teaching that salvation is by faith alone, by grace alone? Is the church teaching that good works are not necessary, and that we don't have to pursue righteousness in our daily lives?
Theologians have struggled for centuries to get a balance between law and gospel, between works and grace.
According to church history professor W.R. Godfrey: "Historically both Lutherans and Reformed have had trouble maintaining the proper balance between law and gospel.
"Imbalance produces either antinomianism [no law] on one hand, or legalism and moralism on the other....
"Roman Catholics in effect charged the Reformation with antinomianism in claiming the doctrine of justification by faith alone would lead to moral laxity." ("Law and Gospel," New Dictionary of Theology, InterVarsity Press, page 379).
Christians have a number of views on the role of works after conversion. On one extreme is easy-believism, cheap grace or antinomianism. Views to the other extreme are salvation by works, legalism, moralism and perfectionism.
Easy-believism says all we need is belief. We don't have to worry about laws or reaching any level of behavior. We are saved by belief, and after that we don't have to put effort into good works or overcoming bad habits.
If we have expressed belief in Christ we don't need to do anything else.
In contrast, salvation by works says we have been forgiven for past sins at conversion. Now our salvation depends on faith and works.
We will be saved only if we qualify for God's kingdom by reaching a high enough standard of righteousness. We must believe the right doctrines, attend the right church and keep the right laws and observances. Our salvation depends not only on our faith but also on works and total obedience.
Is there a path of good works down which we must walk after conversion? If so, is our salvation dependent on how well we do in that walk?
To answer this question, let's explore the doctrines of justification and sanctification. We will focus on a few scriptures that highlight the differences between these two doctrines.
Ephesians 2:4-5 gives an introduction: "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved."
By God's grace, and only by his grace, we have been saved. Without God, we were following our own sinful nature. We were spiritually dead. But because of God's mercy, we have been made alive with Christ.
We are spiritually alive in Christ. Jesus' death paid for our sins. Our sins were put on him, and his righteousness is put on us. He is our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Through faith, acceptance and belief, we are forgiven not only for our past sins, but as long as we remain in Christ, his righteousness is applied to us. We are forgiven--not guilty--and no longer facing eternal death. This is justification.
Justification is also discussed in Romans 3:20-25. "No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
"There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished."
Paul tells us we are "justified freely by his grace" (verse 24). Our sins are forgiven through faith in Christ's blood. We don't earn it through works. We are given a righteousness apart from the law (verse 21).
Paul shows clearly that we are justified by faith, without works. "Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5, New Revised Standard Version).
If Paul hadn't put it so plainly, many of us would have trouble accepting that God reckons us righteous without any good works. It is hard to grasp the enormity of God's grace and love. We think we have to contribute something.
John F. MacArthur, in his book The Gospel According to Jesus (Zondervan), defines justification this way: "Justification may be defined as an act of God whereby he imputes to a believing sinner the full and perfect righteousness of Christ, forgiving the sinner of all unrighteousness, declaring him or her perfectly righteous in God's sight, thus delivering the believer from all condemnation.
"That definition contains several elements: imputed righteousness, forgiveness of sins, a new standing with God, and a reversal of God's wrath. Those all indicate that justification is a legal verdict. It is a forensic reality that takes place in the court of God, not a gradual transformation that takes place within the one who is justified" (page 197).
But does the doctrine of justification by faith--our being in a righteous state through no works of our own--mean we are free to live as we please? This question has confused many, not only in our fellowship, but Christians around the world for centuries.
MacArthur says many people believe "that the work of God in salvation stops with justification. The rest, many believe, is purely the believer's own effort. Sanctification, obedience, surrender and all aspects of discipleship are left up to believers to do or not do as they choose. Thus while touting salvation by grace apart from works, they have actually established a system that is almost wholly dependent on human works for any measure of practical righteousness.
"The salvation [Jesus] promised brings not only justification, but also sanctification, union with him, the indwelling of Holy Spirit, and an eternity of blessing. It is not merely a one-time legal transaction. But a one-time legal transaction is the turning point. It is what moves us into a new relationship with God so that we can walk in the light" (pages 201-202).
Can we live as we like and still be accounted righteous? MacArthur says no; and more importantly, so does the apostle Paul: "The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
"For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:10-14).
Because we are under grace, because of the free forgiveness we have received, because Jesus' righteousness has been applied to us, we are alive before God. Jesus' righteousness never wavers, and as long as we are in him, and he in us, then we are accounted righteous and remain at one with God.
We see in verses 12 and 13 that because we "have been brought from death to life," we are to offer ourselves totally to God. We are to stop drifting along in service to sin. We are to offer our lives to God "as instruments of righteousness." In other words, we let God work in our lives, to set us apart and use us in his service. This is the doctrine of sanctification.
Now that we are saved by faith, or justified, can we live as we please? Romans 6:15-18 says: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
"Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."
Christians are to do good works. These will be God's works, the result of Jesus working with our hearts through the Spirit. However, these works are not done to earn or contribute toward our salvation. We are saved by faith, not works. These are works of faith, not works for salvation.
Just as faith produces salvation, faith also produces works. These are works done because we are saved, not works done in order to be saved.
In relationships between God and man, God always acts first. He first loved us, and we respond to that love (1 John 4:19). He calls us, we hear and respond (John 6:44; Revelation 3:20). Christ died for our sins while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8)--he didn't wait for us to deserve that sacrifice or even ask for it.
In faith, we accept what has been already done. God paid the price for our sins. We don't need to and can't pay that price. All we can do is accept what has been done.
As we accept Christ's death, we also accept his life. In accepting his life, we place ourselves in his hands to be his servants (Romans 6:16-18). He speaks, we listen. He moves, we follow.
Anything we do, we do in return, because of what God has done for us, in us and through us (John 15:5). This is salvation through grace alone, by faith alone, and not by any works of our own (Romans 3:27-28; 4:4-5).
In discussing the doctrine of sanctification, theologian R.E.O. White discusses Romans 6: "To those who wondered whether men counted righteous on the ground of faith might go on sinning with impunity, Paul retorted that the faith expressed in faith-baptism so unites a convert to Christ that he dies with Christ to sin, is buried with Christ to all that belongs to his past life, and rises with Christ to new life in which sin's reign is broken.
"That new self is yielded to the service of righteousness and of God in a surrender that issues in sanctification (Romans 6:1-11, 19-22). Sanctification is not merely the completion of justification; it is justifying faith at work" ("Sanctification," Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Baker Book House, page 970).
Romans 6:19-23 tells us this: "I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
"When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Paul talks of a slavery to righteousness that leads "to holiness" (verse 19). This is what the doctrine of sanctification is all about--being sanctified means to be made holy, to be set apart for God's use, to have behavior that serves him. Paul says that when we are saved and declared righteous, we become slaves to God (verse 22).
When we enter our relationship with God through faith in Christ, we are both justified and born into a new life. We are slaves to righteousness, no longer slaves to sin (verses 19-20).
At the heart of this new life is the process of sanctification in which Jesus lives in us through his Spirit, and leads us in practical righteousness. This contrasts with the imputed righteousness under justification.
The doctrines of justification and sanctification put faith, grace, works and righteousness into perspective. They show how the Christian experience works from conversion on.
When we are forgiven and declared righteous through Christ's sacrifice, is this righteousness our own? The answer is yes and no. It is the righteousness of Christ legally imputed to us. Legally, this righteousness is ours.
We have not brought about this righteousness by ourselves, so it is not our righteousness in that sense. While we are legally righteous before God, we are less than perfectly righteous in our living.
This is where the doctrine of sanctification comes in.
Our Statement of Beliefs defines sanctification this way: "Sanctification is the state of holiness imparted to the believer through the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Though all Christians sin, the Holy Spirit leads them in a life characterized by repentance, obedience and Christian growth--that is, a converted, or changed, life evidenced by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is made possible by God's grace, through faith in Jesus Christ."
A comparison of justification and sanctification is in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: "In justification, God at the beginning of Christian life declares us acquitted.
"In sanctification, God accomplishes his will in us as Christian life proceeds. Sanctification never replaces justification. Justification--the privileged status of acceptance-- is achieved through the cross; sanctification--the ongoing process of conformity to Christ--is achieved by the Spirit.
"But not as a miraculous gift: the New Testament knows nothing of a shortcut to that ideal. Sanctification is not primarily negative in the New Testament, `keeping oneself unspotted,' not mainly self-discipline. It is chiefly the outflow of an overflowing life within the soul, the `fruit' of the Spirit in all manner of Christian graces (Gal. 5:22-23), summed up as `sanctification' (Romans 6:22)."
John Calvin, a leader of the Protestant Reformation, taught that justification and sanctification are inseparable, because both come as a result of Jesus coming to live in us.
Through Christ living in us, we are justified--his righteousness is applied to us. Through Christ living in us, a new life is begun, we are born again (John 3:3). We are sanctified, we are led in a new life of love and good works.
Alister McGrath writes that justification and sanctification are "aspects of our union with Christ. They cannot be separated from that union, nor from one another" (Justification by Faith, Academie Books, Zondervan, page 58).
McGrath continues: "The event of justification (by which God declares the individual to be righteous) is to be distinguished from the process of sanctification (in which the individual is regenerated and renewed though the action of the Holy Spirit).
"Justification is thus an act of God, external to the sinner, and sanctification is the action of God within him. Although justification and sanctification can be distinguished in theory, in practice they are inseparable: whoever is justified is also sanctified" (page 65).
In other words, on receiving Christ into our lives, we are both 1) freely made righteous and 2) led in a new life of overcoming sin and growing in righteousness.
Justification and sanctification will be part of a Christian life. This is why James can say "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). True faith will result in freely accounted righteousness (justification), as well as a new life consisting of good behavior (sanctification). You can't have one without the other.
God wants us to have more than imputed righteousness, more than a legal status. He does not want his people, after being declared judicially righteous, to continue in their old way of life. We are called out of sin.
We have been justified and given a relationship with God through Christ so we can be led in a new life of righteousness. Ephesians 2:10 says: "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
We are to let Jesus instruct us in his ways and empower us to a holy life. First Thessalonians 4:3-5 tells us: "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God."
Paul continues in verse 7: "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life."
Sanctification, and the good works that result, don't take the place of justification by faith. Our behavior falls short of the perfection that God commands. The only way we can be accounted righteous is on the basis of faith. This is why the phrase "justification by faith alone" is often used. It emphasizes that justification is not possible by anything other than faith (Romans 4:4-5).
MacArthur comments about where sanctification properly fits: "Sanctification is a characteristic of all those who are redeemed, not a condition for their receiving salvation. Those whose faith is authentic are certain to become holy, and those who lack true faith can never be holy" (page 212).
Galatians 2:19-21 puts justification and sanctification in their proper perspective: "Through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
"The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
Now that we are freely justified, we are free from having to earn God's approval. We have a living relationship based not on our own works, but completely on the love and grace of God. We have the relationship we need, and we have help to make progress in living for God.
Understanding justification and sanctification is vital to our understanding of our salvation in Christ. Without this understanding it is easy to fall into one of the two ditches we described earlier.
Let's avoid both ditches, and follow the narrow way through Jesus Christ, the only path of salvation.
With this understanding, we should no longer worry about becoming good enough for God. Rather, let us rejoice in the secure salvation that is ours by grace alone, through faith alone.
Let us rejoice in the new life we have in Jesus Christ; the freedom from sin we have through his death--and the growth in practical righteousness we have through his life.
Faith Alone--The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification, R.C. Sproul, Baker Books.
Future Grace, John Piper, Multnomah Books.
Possessed By God--A New Testament Theology of Sanctification and Holiness, David Petersen, Apollos (IVP).
Saved By Grace, Anthony A. Hoekema, Eerdmans.
Rediscovering Holiness, J.I. Packer, Vine Books.
Transforming Grace and The Discipline of Grace, by Jerry Bridges.
The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur.
Justification by Faith, Alister McGrath.
Dec. 17, 1996, Worldwide News, pages 4 and 5
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