Justification is by Grace through Faith in Christ Alone (Part I)

by Lee Edward Enochs,

A Sinner Saved by Grace Alone

"Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:24-26).

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1)."For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:28-29)."Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified" (Galatians 2:16)."Being justified freely by his grace . . . being now justified by His blood . . . being now justified by faith"—Romans 3:24; 5:9; 5:1."The Evangelical doctrine of justification is the article by which the Church stands or falls" (Martin Luther).“Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares, on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the law are satisfied with respect to the sinner”(L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 513)."Now, what is the meaning of justification? Divines will puzzle you, if you ask them. I must try the best I can to make justification plain and simple, even to the comprehension of a child. There is not such a thing as justification to be had on earth for mortal men, except in one way.

Justification, you know, is a forensic term: it is employed always in a legal sense. A prisoner is brought to the bar of justice to be tried. There is only one way whereby that prisoner can be justified, that is, he must be found not guilty. And if he is found not guilty, then he is justified, that is, he is proved to be a just man.If you find that man guilty, you cannot justify him. The Queen may pardon him, but she cannot justify him. The deed is not a justifiable one, if he were guilty concerning it, and he cannot be justified on account of it. He may be pardoned, but not royalty itself can ever wash that man's character. He is as much a real criminal when he is pardoned as before. There is no means among men of justifying a man of an accusation which is laid against him, except by his being proved not guilty. Now, the wonder of wonders is, that we are proved guilty, and yet we are justified: the verdict has been brought in against us—guilty—and yet notwithstanding, we are justified. Can any earthly tribunal do that? No, it remained for the ransom of Christ to effect that which is an impossibility to any tribunal upon earth. We are all guilty. Read the 23rd verse, immediately preceding the text: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” There the verdict of guilty is brought in, and yet we are immediately afterwards said to be justified freely by his grace."C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)"Justification Made Plain"IntroductionIt has been almost twenty long years since my doctor friend Bruce Thomas first shared the good news of Jesus Christ with me on the campus of the University of Michigan. I want to state clearly that I believe in the "Sola's of the Protestant Reformation which are,SOLA SCRIPTURA (Scripture Alone)The inerrant Scripture is the sole source of written divine revelation,which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.SOLA GRATIA (Grace Alone)In salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by His grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.SOLA FIDE (Faith Alone)Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice.We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.SOLUS CHRISTUS (Christ Alone)Salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.SOLI DEO GLORIA (Glory Of God Alone)Salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God's glory and that we must glorify Him always.

We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.Since the time I recieved Christ back in 1986, I have seen many people and theological movements come and go, but I have never seen so many people fall away from the true Christian faith like now.I have seen Christian friends of mine completely depart from the Evangelical faith into false religions such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy and it greatly pains me, because on a careful study of these religious systems views of salvation, I have found that they are diametrically opposed to the Bible's teaching on salvation.I am writing this because I have seen so many of my friends abandon the Evangelical Christian faith for Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and cults that teach a person is justified before God through a combination of their own works and human effort and the grace of God.The Biblical doctrine of salvation is known as soteriology and a crucial issue in the Bible that all people should study carefully and with the utmost seriousness for it concerns where we will spend eternity. According to the Bible, we will either spend eternity with God or eternity separated from God in the lake of fire. Our eternal salvation is contigent upon whether or not we have truly been justified by God's grace through our faith in Jesus Christ alone.A. W. Pink (1889-1952), wrote in his work, "The Instrument of Justification";"God has not selected faith to be the instrument of justification because there is some peculiar virtue in faith, but rather because there is no merit in it: faith is self-emptying—“Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace” (Rom 4:16). A gift is seen to be a gift when nothing is required or accepted of the recipient, but simply that he receive it. Whatever other properties faith may possess, it is simply as receiving Christ that it justifies. Were we said to be justified by repentance, by love, or by any other spiritual grace, it would convey the idea of something good in us being the consideration on which the blessing was bestowed; but justification by faith (correctly understood) conveys no such idea.“For how does true faith justify unless by uniting us to Christ, so that being made one with him, we may be admitted to a participation in his righteousness?” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III, xvii, 11). Justifying faith is a looking away from self, a renouncing of my own righteousness, a laying hold of Christ. Justifying faith consists, first, of a knowledge and belief of the truth revealed in Scripture thereon; second, in an abandonment of all pretense, claim or confidence in our own righteousness; third, in a trust in and reliance upon the righteousness of Christ, laying hold of the blessing which He purchased for us. It is the heart's approval and a p probation of the method of justification proposed in the Gospel: by Christ alone, proceeding from the pure grace of God, and excluding all human merits. “In the Lord have I righteousness and strength” (Isa 45:24).None will experimentally appreciate the righteousness of Christ until they have been experimentally stripped by the Spirit. Not until the Lord puts us in the fire and burns off our filthy rags, and makes us stand before Him, trembling from head to foot as we view the sword of His justice suspended over our heads, will any truly value “the best robe.”

Not until the condemning sentence of the law has been applied by the Spirit to the conscience does the guilty soul cry, “Lost, lost!” (Rom 7:9, 10). Not until there is a personal apprehension of the requirements of God's Law, a feeling sense of our total inability to perform its righteous demands, and an honest realization that God would be just in banishing us from His presence forever, is the necessity for a precious Christ perceived by the soul."This human effort plus the grace of God idea of justification is contrary to the express teachings of the Bible and is known as synergism (Greek: synergia; 'working together') as opposed to the Biblical conception of justification also known as monergism (Greek: Mono; one) which conveys that men and women and boys and s of all ages can be saved through the grace of God apart from human effort.I love my Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Mormon and Jehovah's Witness friends, but I must now stand for the Biblical Gospel of the Grace of God that teaches that we are justified by grace alone through our faith alone in Jesus Christ alone based on the authority of the Bible alone.I have seen that all the religions of the world except for Biblical and Evangelical Christianity teach that a person must earn their salvation by human effort doing good works.Throughout the annals of Church History, the all important Biblical truth of the Gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone has been attacked and undermined by false teachers who desire to put true Christians under a yoke of via different man made systems of works based righteousness.These false teachers seek to prevent unbelievers from hearing the good news of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ and say that God requires that a person must perform good works in order to be saved.Yet, it is clear from the explicit teaching of the Bible that men and women, boys and s can be forgiven from their sins and be justified before God (declared righteous) exclusively on the basis of God's grace alone through our faith in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone.This paper has been written in a simple form for the believer in Christ and the non believer alike, in order to stand for the Gospel of Grace alone.Today, contrary to the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and other false religions, I will set forth the historic Evangelical and Protestant doctrine that salvation is all of grace.I will argue that a person is saved before God on the basis of God's grace alone through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. I will argue here that God demands absolute righteousness from us as the requirement for obtaining our eternal salvation. Because of our inherent and incessant sinfulness we need a perfect, alien righteousness, completely outside of ourselves in order to be justifed and declared righteous in the sight of Almighty God. This perfect alien righteousness is found completely outside of ourselves in the absolute perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This perfect righteousness is imputed to our account exclusively through God's sovereign grace through our faith in Jesus Christ and His perfect work of atonement upon the cross of Calvary alone.Theologian Charles Hodge wrote,"The nature of justification is determined by its ground. This indeed is an anticipation of another part of the subject, but it is in point here. If the Bible teaches that the ground of justification, the reason why God remits to us the penalty of the Law and accepts us as righteous in his sight, is something out of ourselves, something done for us and not what we do or experience, then it of necessity follows that justification is not subjective. It does not consist in the infusion of righteousness or in making the person justified personally holy. If the “formal cause” of our justification be our goodness, then we are justified for what we are. The Bible, however, teaches that no man living can be justified for what he is. He is condemned for what he is and for what he does. He is justified for what Christ has done for him."Martin Luther also wrote,"There is no such thing as merit; but all who are justified are justified for nothing (gratis), and this is credited to no onebut to the grace of God . . .For Christ alone it is proper to help and save others with His merits and works."The Apostle Paul wrote," For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10)." (God) saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).According to the Bible, salvation is all of grace.

There is nothing a person has to do to earn God's favor or merit his or her salvation. Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead to give eternal life to all who would sincerely repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus alone.Good works do not save a person but are the proof that that person has been saved by grace. Meaning this, that a person does not have to perform good works in order to earn their salvation, yet once a person is saved by God's grace alone, he or she will naturally bear good fruit as demonstrated by their good works before God.Good works do not save a person from the wrath of God, but are the natural by-product of true saving faith. If a person does not have good works flowing from their faith in Jesus Christ, they had better examine themselves in order to see if they are truly born again.

The Apostle Paul wrote;"Examine yourselves, prove yourselves, do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you unless you have failed the test" (2 Corinthians 13:5).The Apostle Peter wrote:"Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble" (2 Peter 1:10).As I have quoted above in Ephesians 2:8-10 the Apostle Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and that good works will naturally follow true conversion.If Christians are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, why then do we still sin?Evangelicals believe that we are justified by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and that good works and fruits of repentance are the natural by-product of true saving faith. Yet because we still have a fallen human body effected by Adam's sin, we still have a propensity to sin and do sin all the time (Romans 7:13-25 and 1 John 1:6-9).

We do not believe that our justiifcation or being declared righteous before God eradicates sin entirely from our lives, hence we will struggle with various sins until we receive our glorified bodies upon our death or via the rapture.According to the teachings of the Bible we are justified once and for all by the propitiation of Christ's righteousness upon our behalf, so our legal standing before God has been decalred righteous yet, we still in these mortal bodies are not free from sin. This notion of being justified yet still sinful is what the great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther entitled in Latin: "Simul Iustus Et Peccator" or "Simultaneously Sinful and Righteous."Because of the imputation of Adam's sin to our account we are born in sin and acting sinfuly in the only thing we can do in our initial fallen state. Upon being justified before God, our sins are forgiven, the wrath of God is appeased and we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Thus as Christians we now have the ability to resist temptation and obey God. In our glorifed state in the future we will have only not to sin since we would have received our glorfied bodies.In justification we are saved by God from God and His sovereign wrath and declared in a foresnic or legal standing, "righteous" before God.While our justification is a once and for all instantaneous salvation event wherein the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us once and for all, sanctifcation (being set apart by God) is an ongoing process wherein God moment by moment conforms us into the image of Christ. The process of sanctification is a lifetime process where we are being conformed to Christ's image, but our justification is a once and for all instantaneous event were we are declared righteous before God.Many opponents of the Evangelical Doctrine of Justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone falsely charge us Evangelicals with "Antinomianism" the heretical doctrine that Christians who are saved under grace do not have to adhere to any moral standards and can live anyway they want.Evangelicalism has definitely never taught that Christians who have been justifed by grace through faith in Christ alone can go out and sin as often as they want, those who live in such a sinful state should examine whether or not they have been saved by grace in the first place because the Bible is clear that those who practice sinful acts will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 John 3:1-10).

Justification does not cause a person to be free from sin entirely, the true believer will always have an ongoing struggle with sin, but, the frequency of the sin should decrease as we are conformed more and more into the very image of Jesus Christ our glorious Lord.Likewise, Evangelicals believe that in God's justification of a sinner, a believer in Christ is eternally secure and cannot lose his or her salvation if they have been saved by grace (John 10:28-30, Romans 8:38-39, Philippians 1:6 and Jude 24). Biblical Evangelicalism teaches that a true believer in Christ is justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone based on the authority of the Bible alone and that all true Christians will endure in their faith until the end and cannot lose their standing before God and their eternal salvation.On the other hand, those individuals who say they are Christians but practice sin should be warned to reconsider if they have truly been justified, for true Christians according to the Bible, will not live in a lifestyle of unbroken and unrepentant sin.Martin Luther wrote in his sermon the "Methods and Fruits of Justification,"Again, nothing is necessary in order to accomplish good works but justification; and he that hath attained it performs good works."