Justification

Ortlund: In fact, we can criticize contemporary protestants to the extent that we fall away from [the necessity of good works for salvation]. Sometimes that is underemphasized in protestant traditions, and it is something that we want to go back to our own traditions and recover.

Justified by Faith and Works?, Michael Horton, Gavin Ortlund, and Jordan B. Cooper

That opening quote really sums up my frustration with protestant teaching on the subject of faith and works. But there are a few more comments of note in this discussion to consider.

Romans 3: 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

James 2: 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

There is no agreed-to doctrine or definition of the term “justification” in the Church, and given what we see here between Paul and James, the word can be used in more than one way (as we know that the Scriptures offer no contradictions). So, inherently, this doctrine is subject to confusion and debate.

Horton: I think the context makes all the difference. It’s not words alone that mean things; it’s what we mean by the words we use in certain contexts. Paul is talking about how we actually inherit everlasting life. James is saying that faith that cannot save is mere intellectual assent.

Words do have meaning, but the meaning is best understood within the context in which the words are used. If a word can only have one meaning, why is it that in our dictionary, each word comes with more than one definition?

Cooper: The context of James is obviously different that the context of Paul in Romans or Galatians. James is not writing about soteriology. James is essentially New Testament wisdom literature, and there is no explicit mention of the cross in James. James is dealing with behavior in the Church; that’s evident throughout the entire book.

James is dealing with hypocrites within the church.

Ortlund: When James is interpreted accurately in light of the context he is addressing and his definition of the terms justification and faith or believe, that is fully consistent with all of our historic protestant confessions and traditions. We absolutely affirm the necessity of good works as the fruit of salvation, and growth in Christ as a transformative process.

The Reformed use the term justification in the sense that Paul uses it; this doesn’t mean that James is using it the same way.

Cooper: We have to recognize that the apostles when they are writing the New Testament don’t have a comprehensive systematic theology in front of them. Not that it isn’t a comprehensive system. But they don’t have an agreed-upon definition of terms the way that we do.

Actually, we don’t have agreed-upon definitions, as this entire discussion of faith, works, justification, and sanctification prove out.

As for the Church, is justification a process, one that can be increased through time by our meritorious cooperation, or is it a one-time event, followed by a transformative process (call it sanctification)? Different traditions hold to one or the other, but, early on in the Church no such definitive answer was offered (perhaps because the question was never raised? I don’t know.).

Cooper (paraphrased): Chrysostom doesn’t seem to use the term justification in a consistent manner, neither does Luther. … So we have to get beyond the technicalities of the term and get at what was that writer at that time getting at in terms of broader concepts.

Conclusion

Ortlund: The work of God in my soul is good. I Thank God for His Holy Spirit, I want to grow more like Jesus every day. Protestants do not deny the process of transformation.

This comes down to it for me. Parsing it all out only complicates things, and, in my opinion, unnecessarily (in addition to leading people astray). All of it is a process: faith, works, justification, salvation – it’s all of one piece, leading us to one place: life.

Matthew 7: 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

We enter a narrow gate, but there is still a difficult way ahead of us. Depart from that narrow way at any point – let alone, avoid the narrow gate altogether – and life is not in view.

If we avoid the narrow gate or depart from the narrow way, does it matter if the gate is justification and the way is sanctification? Call these whatever you wish, but the way that leads to life includes all of it – the gate and the way.

Epilogue

Horton: Part of it is that Augustine didn’t know Greek.

By the time Augustine began his work, there was already three hundred years of working out doctrines and developing theology within the Church, and much of this, if not the vast majority, in Greek.

His lack of knowledge of Greek had to mean something.