Historical Background
Justification stood at the center of the Reformation. Luther's reading of Romans led him to teach that God declares the sinner righteous for Christ's sake, received by faith alone, the righteousness remaining Christ's though reckoned to the believer. The Council of Trent (1547) answered that justification includes the remission of sins and the sanctification and renewal of the inner person, by grace through faith, with the formal cause the righteousness of God making the believer righteous. The 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church recorded a consensus in basic truths while leaving differences of emphasis standing. The New Perspective on Paul, from E. P. Sanders (1977) and James D. G. Dunn, reframed the debate by rereading Paul's polemic as aimed at boundary markers rather than at merit as such.
Scripture References
- Romans 3:21-26
- Romans 4
- Galatians 2:15-21
- Philippians 3:8-9
- James 2:14-26
The Questions
- Is justification a declaration about the sinner, a transformation of the sinner, or inseparably both? Work on this question in the Workshop
- What is the righteousness by which the sinner stands: Christ's, imputed; God's own, infused; or the believer's future vindication anticipated? Work on this question in the Workshop
- What does faith do in justification: receive, trust, obey, or unite? Work on this question in the Workshop
- How do Paul and James speak of faith and works without contradiction? Work on this question in the Workshop
The Positions on This Subject
Classical Calvinism
Justification is God's forensic declaration that the sinner is righteous for the sake of Christ's righteousness imputed to him and received by faith alone; it is distinct from, and never grounded on, the believer's inherent renewal.
Lutheran
Justification by grace through faith for Christ's sake is the article by which the church stands or falls: God declares the sinner righteous on account of Christ alone, and faith is the instrument that receives the promise.
Catholic
Justification is not only the remission of sins but the sanctification and renewal of the inner person: by grace poured into the heart, the believer is made righteous, and this righteousness can increase through works done in grace.
Baptist and Evangelical
Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal of sinners who repent and believe in Christ, not on account of any works of righteousness they have done.
Wesleyan-Arminian
Justification is God's pardon of the believing sinner for Christ's sake, and the new birth is its inseparable companion: in the same moment God forgives and makes the sinner a child of God, witnessed to by the Spirit.
Methods Brought to This Subject
The methods of theological discovery demonstrably worked on this subject, each with the reason it belongs here and the evidence of its use.
Antiochene Exegesis
The Antiochene school held to the historical and literal sense against allegory, and its reading of Paul's letters on justification attends to the argument as Paul made it, in sequence, to his first hearers. That discipline of reading shaped the earliest extended treatments of this subject that survive.
Evidence of use: John Chrysostom's Homilies on Romans (c. 391) work through the letter argument by argument in the historical sense, including the passages on righteousness by faith, and stand among the tradition's standard sources on the subject.
New Perspective on Paul
This reading re-opened the subject's central question by arguing that justification in Paul answers the question of covenant membership across Jew and Gentile, not only the question of the individual conscience. Every current treatment of the subject has to place itself in relation to it.
Evidence of use: James D. G. Dunn's commentary on Romans (1988) and N. T. Wright, Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision (2009), state the reading and apply it to the justification passages; E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), is the work both build on.
Objections
The forensic account is objected to as a legal fiction: God declares righteous those who are not. The Trent account is objected to for resting assurance on an inherent righteousness that remains imperfect. The New Perspective is objected to for muting the individual's standing before God in Paul. Each side charges the other with reading its own century's questions into the first century's texts.
Sources
Primary: Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520); Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, Session VI (1547); Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999).
Secondary: Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification, 4th ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2020); N. T. Wright, Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision (IVP Academic, 2009).