Understanding Justification: The Heart of the Reformation

Today we’re going to start a new series of messages, and this series is going to follow the so called ‘solas’ of the Protestant Reformation. At the church where I’m the minister of preaching and teaching, we have on our bulletin every Sunday morning a list of the five solas of the Protestant Reformation, and they include: Sola Fide, which means justification by faith alone; Sola Gratia, salvation is by grace alone; Solus Christus, that our salvation is through Christ alone; Sola Scriptura, that the sole authority that binds the conscience of the Christian is the Bible alone; and then finally Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone belongs the glory. [00:00:12]

What I mean by that is, “What was the essence, the substance, the stuff where what we call in philosophy, “The material cause of the Protestant Reformation.” What was the chief issue that provoked such massive consequences as this split that occurred in the sixteenth century? And when historians of theology and of church history look back to the sixteen century, they’ll often use distinctions originally set forth by the philosopher Aristotle when he distinguished between different types of causes, and they will distinguish between what’s called the “formal cause” and the “material cause.” [00:02:30]

But what is called the “material cause,” again the substantive issue was that was the core point of dispute, was the doctrine of justification and the Protestant view is expressed in the shorthand of the Latin Sola Fide. And just as Sola is similar to solo; if you take flying lessons and the first time you fly ‘solo’ that means that you fly the plane by yourself, that you fly it alone, and if you stand up in church on Sunday morning in the choir and sing a solo, that means no one else is singing with you, you’re there all by your lonesome singing the song. [00:03:51]

Well, the same word is behind the word sola, which means alone, and we’ve heard the motto of the United States Marine Corp: Semper Fidelis, which means always faithful; and if we’re not familiar with that we’re familiar with the hymn that we sing during the Christmas season, Adeste Fidelis, which means: O, Come All Ye Faithful. We have a word in the English language where we speak of fiduciary responsibilities, responsibilities that require good faith and so on. So, here what we’re talking about is the Latin word for faith and the phrase Sola Fide means by faith alone. [00:04:50]

Now, to understand Sola Fide in its historical context, we have to understand something about the theological dispute based on the Roman Catholic understanding of justification. Now, this is not going to be a course that delves deeply into church history; we’re planning to do a large overview of Reformation Church History where I will go into much more detail about the historical episodes that intersected to bring about this serious dispute in the sixteenth century about the notion of justification. [00:06:06]

But first a word about justification itself and its relevance to the sixteenth century, to the first century and to the twenty-first century. At the heart of this dispute was not a tangential debate over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or in a needless controversy over pedantic points of theology and of doctrine that professors disagreed about. But this issue touched the very heart of the Christian faith because the question of justification is designed to answer the deeper question, “How can an unjust person possibly survive the judgment of a just and holy God?” [00:06:48]

Now, in our day, I find that people really don’t care that much about the doctrine of justification; it has been reduced pretty much to a non-issue. Just as the differences among churches historically over the substance and the meaning of the gospel itself, that those differences have now been minimized as being no significant matter. Because we’re living in a time in the first place of relativism that says “truth is relative” or pluralism that says there’re are many different approaches to truth and views of truth and doctrinal issues should never divide us because what really counts are personal relationships, not doctrine. [00:07:57]

And basically, what he was saying is that those people who reject the gospel of Christ stay in their sins and remain unjustified. And we think back to the Old Testament to David’s rhetorical question, “If the Lord would mark iniquities, who would stand?” It’s rhetorical because the question is obvious that the answer is, “No one.” And what Alistair was trying to awaken twenty-first century Americans to with his message was: that promise, that divine promise from the lips of God, that all men will be brought into His judgment and will be judged according to the righteousness of Christ, and those who are found wanting will be sent into the abyss of hell, is a doctrine that the church doesn’t believe any more. [00:10:41]

You see if you’re going to understand the upheaval that came about in the sixteenth century, you have to understand that the church in the sixteenth century believed in the last judgment. The church in the sixteenth century believed in the wrath of God; the church in the sixteenth century believed in the justice of God and the church in the sixteenth century believed in hell. That’s why, center stage, was the question, “How can I be saved?” [00:12:10]

But what the Christian faith is about in the first instance is not the restoration of human relationships, although it cares very much about human relationships. In the first instances, it has to do with the repair of our relationship to God. And so, at the center is the question, “How can a sinner escape the judgment of God? How can a sinner possibly be accepted by God, in God’s judgment?” [00:13:28]

Well, they teach that faith is a prerequisite. Faith does three things for justification: faith is – what they call the initium, that is the initiation or the beginning of justification. They also say the faith is the fundamentum or the foundation of justification, and they also say that faith is the radix or the root of justification. So, you see that faith is of critical importance according to the Roman Catholic Church in three ways with respect to justification. [00:16:26]

Secondly, the Roman Catholic Church has always taught that grace is necessary, a necessary prerequisite for justification and without the grace of God that is infused into the soul sacramentally, which we’ll look at more closely in a moment; without that grace we’d be left back in the hopeless condition of Pelagianism, of having to try to earn our way into heaven simply on the ground and basis of our own righteousness and our own merit and Rome rejects that. [00:17:53]

The Reformers said, “No, the instrumental cause of our justification is not baptism, it is not penance, it is faith in Christ.” That is the tool or the instrument that links us to Christ and all that He has done for us by which we are made just in the sight of God. [00:22:51]