Alone

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Continuing in my short yet in-depth study of the doctrine of “justification”, Dr. R.C. Sproul states that for the Reformation, the declaration of justice follows the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the regenerated  sinner. Of course there is a necessity of grace, faith and the obedience of Christ involved. But, for biblical Reformation theology, justification is based only on the righteousness of Christ, which is an alien righteousness, a righteousness that is not inherently ours because it consists only of Jesus’ good works. We do “good works” because we have been saved, not in order to get saved. James 2:18, 26 says, someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. God’s people naturally do God’s work gratefully from their regenerated heart, but those works doing not save anyone; Jesus Christ does.

In Sola Fide (faith alone), the real dividing line is the one word - alone. Justification is not only by faith, it is by faith alone. Justification is not only by grace, it is by grace alone. Justification is not only by the work of Jesus Christ, it is by the work of Christ alone. Justification is by faith alone. We must be clear on that word – “alone”, for without it we do not have the gospel. If we add even one work of ours as part of the basis for justification, we have missed the gospel. The Apostle Paul stresses that we are not justified by our works. The only way to preserve that teaching is to insist that the only meritorious basis for our justification is the obedience of Christ imputed to us. Once we make our justification dependent on an inherent righteousness that combines Christ’s merit and our merit, we have lost the gospel of grace. We cannot earn our way to heaven.  

Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal  by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

The teaching that none of our “good works” are part of the basis for justification is so clear. Indeed, justification is not by any works wrought by us in righteousness. Faith – and only faith – is the instrumental means of justification. In order words, it is through faith alone that we lay hold of or appropriate the sole basis for our justification, namely, Christ’s righteousness. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - alone.

Blessed in Christ