4 Dec 2022
(A) Introduction
In the last sharing on the Reformation debate, I did indicate that the doctrine of Justification by faith is currently under threat. As we will be studying the book of Galatians, this subject is prominently discussed by Apostle Paul. Hence this may be an appropriate time to address this subject in more detail. We know that in order to decide whether a currency is genuine, we need to be able to recognise the genuine currency without doubt. The same applies to this subject.
For the Reformers the doctrine of justification by faith alone meant justification by Christ and His righteousness alone. Sola fide declares that the ground of our justification is solely the righteousness of Christ. It is a righteousness that is outside of us, apart from us; it captures the idea and communicates that faith, not the sacraments, is the instrumental cause of justification. Faith is the instrument by which we are linked to Christ and receive the grace of justification.
Rome speaks of justification by the sacraments; through the sacraments the grace of justification is received – and the two sacraments highlighted are the sacrament of baptism and the sacrament of penance.
Though faith is not identical to knowledge, it is not devoid of knowledge. Saving faith does not occur in an intellectual vacuum. It is not ignorance or superstition masquerading as faith. Christian faith does involve and requires a personal, relational, subjective response. Faith must have content or an object; I must have some intellectual understanding of what or whom I am believing – I cannot have God in my heart if He is not in my head, to put it simply. A faith relationship requires both a subject and an object – it involves the one who believes and and that which is believed.
To be saved we may not require an exhaustive or comprehensive knowledge of God, but we must have some right knowledge about God. If we believe God is an impersonal cosmic force, that wrong knowledge about God will not justify us.The task of proclaiming the gospel includes more than an imparting of information, but not less. It demands a constant clarification of the content of the gospel (and here Paul’s exposition of what the true gospel is in Galatians is a ‘battle’ against error, distortions and heresies of the true gospel).
Telling a blind person to believe he can see when he cannot see makes as much sense as telling a person to fly when he cannot fly. Saving faith involves assent to what is true, not what is false. Justifying faith is a living response to Christ and involves both mind and soul – it is both cognitive and affective (i.e. involving understanding of the mind and emotion).
In understanding, the relationship between God and the human being is the primary one. When this is not right, other dimensions of life are adversely affected as well. There are two major aspects to the human problem of sin; firstly, sin is a broken relationship with God and secondly, the human has failed to fulfil divine expectations, whether by transgressing limitations which God’s law has set up or by failing to what is positively commanded there. The very nature of the person is spoiled as a result of deviation from the law besides the result of the state of guilt and incurring the liability to punishment. What follows is an inclination towards evil, and a propensity for sin.
The individual’s legal status before God must be changed from guilty to not guilty. This is a matter of one’s being declared just or righteous in God’s sight, of being viewed as fully meeting the divine requirements – the theological term here is justification. One is justified by being brought into a legal union with Christ. More than just remission of guilt, the intimacy in one’s relationship with God, which has been lost, needs to be reinstated – and that is rectified by adoption – God, in His grace, mercy, and love adopts us as His children. Salvation both reestablishes our relationship with God and transforms the radically corrupt nature of our hearts.
The basic change in the direction of one’s life from an inclination toward sin to a positive desire to live righteously is termed regeneration or, literally new birth. An actual alteration of one’s character is involved, merely the beginning of the spiritual life – there is also a progressive alteration of the individual’s spiritual condition; one actually becomes holier and this progressive subjective change is referred to as sanctification. Sanctification finally comes to completion in the life beyond death, when the spiritual nature of the believer will be perfected – this is termed glorification.
How can God ever deem a sinner just? God can do this if that person is justified by his own works or by Christ’s works. To be justified by works requires that there can be found a purity and holiness in that person which merits an attestation of righteousness at the throne of God, or if by the perfection of his works he can answer and satisfy the divine justice. God will only declare just those whom He regards as just – and here no man, except Jesus, qualifies. To justify therefore is nothing else than to acquit from the charge of guilt, as if innocence were proved. Hence, when God justifies us through the intercession of Christ, He does not acquit us on a proof of our own righteousness, but by an imputation of righteousness, so that though not righteous in ourselves, we are deemed righteous in Christ.
We will elaborate further the process that leads to saving faith, regeneration, and adoption. In sharing the gospel, we need to communicate this clearly; although the Holy Spirit is the One who effects regeneration and salvation, we must be found responsible in communicating the gospel clearly, in dependence on Him, and not just use human persuasion and reasoning to elicit a response from the hearer. The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts the hearer of sin and the need to repent; He is the One who bestows faith to enable those, who are so settled in their sins, to hearken to the gospel of truth.
(B) Living in God
We have looked at justification by faith alone in Christ alone. What does this entail?
The object of faith is not merely “God,” John Calvin argues, but the triune God. Yet this is still not the bull’s-eye at which saving faith aims. The triune God is revealed in Christ. This, however, is still not definite enough: not only Christ as the facilitator of union with God or one among many intercessors or as the supreme example to follow in order to become united with God, but as the saving God incarnate as He is clothed in His gospel.
Notice that the triune God is revealed in Christ: to know Christ is to know the triune God (in the glorious harmony of the Trinity); Christ is not just the facilitator of union with God; Christ is not just the intercessor or supreme example to follow in order to become united with God – He is the saving God incarnate – in Him, God became man, with the glorious gospel of salvation!
God made man according to His image and likeness; yet the goal of our creation is greater, namely, to live in God, being united to Him as much as is possible for a creature. How can this goal be achieved if God is transcending in His majesty and holiness, and we are just sinful finite creatures? This is only possible because of Christ. It was necessary for the Son of God to become for us “Immanuel, that is, God with us”, and in such a way that His divinity and our human nature might by mutual connection grow together: the affinity sufficiently firm for us to hope that God might dwell with us. The Son of God fashioned for Himself a body from our body, flesh from our flesh, bone from our bones, that He might be one of us – behold the glorious INCARNATION!
A saving union with God occurs only through union with Christ, who is God with us and also us with God. To be in Christ is to live in God, not just before Him, because Christ is the divine Lord and human servant of the covenant. Christ, in love and grace, took our nature upon Himself to impart to us what was His, and to become both Son of God and Son of man in common with us. United with Him, we now enter into that wondrous relationship that He enjoys with the Father and with the Spirit – i.e. we now can live in God and with God – what a tremendous privilege and salvation God has given to us in Christ! This is the true message of Christmas!
As Adam fell not only for himself, but for his posterity, Christ did not rise for Himself alone, for He came that He might restore everything that had been ruined in Adam!!!
(C) Living in Love
All problems are spiritual in the final analysis: these problems have in them a dimension that has to do with one’s relationship with God, and we cannot get the hulman part of the problem right until the relationship with God has been put right as well (Romans 8:32).
In our world today, the pervasive problem is loneliness. It is a sense that in this world with all its problems, with all its influences, with all its bustling and business, we feel that we are on our own and we feel lost and lonely. Many do not know where to turn to; there is no one to help and many do not know where they are going or heading. To this loneliness and lostness, there is no answer save to know the love of God personally directed to us.
But how does a person come to know this love?. Paul tells us, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Take people to the foot of the cross and tell them of Jesus Christ crucified and what His death means, and at once the solution to loneliness begins to appear.
Yes, God loves us and He did this for us; He cares for us; He wants us to be His children; He adopts us into His family by virtue of what Christ has done for us. He will be with us and love us forever – now we are no longer lost and lonely – we are found!
The eternal Son has united Himself to us forever by His incarnation. In our flesh, He has undone Adam’s treason and fulfilled all righteousness; He has borne our guilt and was raised the victor over sin and death. Yet as wonderful as as it is that God has become one with us, we receive the benefits only by being united to Him – this takes place when we are regenerated by faith (through the ministry of the Holy Spirit) and we then share with Him what He has received from the Father – He had to become ours and dwell within us – God dwells in us and we in Him. This is encapsulated in the famous verse: “For God so loved the world, that He gives His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
United to Christ by faith, we receive the imputation of Christ’s righteousness for justification and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness for sanctification. Sanctification is a matter of getting used to both our justification and our broader union with Christ in all of its dimensions – judicial and organic. This union is not the goal but the source of the Christian life. We are not just following Christ but living in Christ and by His Spirit, He is living in us. Justification ls the cause and sanctification is the effect.
Yet the point of being recipients of God’s grace is to be active distributors of His love to others. We receive from God and give to others. Grace not only gives; it also activates our giving – not to God but to our neighbours. This is the way throughout our life. We are always passive receivers of salvation, but we are active in our living out of that daily conversion – dying to ourselves and living to God in Christ. Scripture calls us repeatedly to put to death our indwelling sin, to press on, to grow up, to train ourselves, to bear the fruit of the Spirit in our relationships with others, and to strive with all of our might to say no to sin and yes to righteousness. All of this we can do, though imperfectly, because we are already united to Christ and are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.