Justification By Faith Alone (Part 10)

Jonathan Edwards

SECTION 4
Answering Objections (Cont’d)

PAUL CONFIRMS JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE

The apostle Paul, in Romans 4, confirms the doctrine of justification by faith alone. When sin is rightfully confessed to God, there is always faith in that act. Confessing sin joined with despair, as did Judas, is not the confession for which the promise is made. In Acts 2:38, “Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Being “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” for the remission of sins means “faith in Christ” for the remission of sins. Repentance for the remission of sins was typified of old by the priest’s confessing the sins of the people by laying his hands on the scapegoat in Leviticus 16:21. In doing so, the priest acknowledges that remission of sin is possible only through repentance and confession. Remission is reliant on Christ, the Great Sacrifice. There are many other confirmations in Scripture, but perhaps these few are sufficient to make the point.

All of the aforementioned description is the essence of justifying faith with regard to being delivered by the Mediator from sin. The essence and nature of justifying faith is to embrace Christ as a Savior from sin and its punishment. Embracing Christ as a Savior for sin and punishment requires that we have a sense of our sinfulness, a hatred of our sins, abhorrence so great that we reject them, and a sense of deserving punishment. On the other hand, embracing Christ as a Savior from sin only implies that we reject sin.

If we fly to the light to be delivered from darkness, it means only that we reject darkness. The more we reject sin, the more we embrace Christ. Yet, embracing Christ as a Savior from the punishment of sin (rather than from sin alone) acknowledges a sense of our own sinfulness. We cannot heartily embrace Christ as a Savior from punishment unless we have a sense of our own guilt and as a consequence, how much we deserve punishment. Without that sense, we will not know that we have any need of a Savior and will not embrace God’s offer.

And further, when we embrace Christ as a Savior from punishment, we do so with conviction of conscience that we are as deserving of punishment as the devils and the damned. And we heartily submit in heart and soul to the knowledge of God will be just in His punishment. If our hearts rise against the judgment or punishment of God, when He offers us His Son as a Savior from the punishment, we cannot receive Him in our hearts in that character. But if we submit to the righteousness of so dreadful a punishment of sin, we acknowledge a hatred of sin.

Scripture makes reference to the attributes of saving faith as being a sense of our sinfulness, utter unworthiness, and being deserving of punishment.

Matthew 15:26-28, “But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered, and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith.”

Luke 7:6-9, “The centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof. Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee; but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed: for I also am a man set under authority … When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

Luke 7:37-38, “And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”

Luke 7:50, “He said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”

MAKING DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN REPENTANCE AND FAITH

“Repentance” and “faith” are not synonymous. In justifying faith, “repentance” refers only to being delivered from evil by the Savior — sorrow for sin, and forsaking it. On the other hand, “faith” is trusting in God’s sufficiency and truth. But faith (a duty under the first covenant) and repentance (a duty of natural religion) are intertwined in justifying faith. Together and by their nature, they are evangelical duties. Some object to linking “repentance” and “faith,” because Scripture sometimes mentions them as being entirely distinct from each other, as in Mark 1:15, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

But there is no need to interpret them as two distinct conditons of salvation. Indeed, the words modify and clarify each other. Used together, we more clearly understand how we must repent: for example, by believing the gospel. We understand how we must believe the gospel: for example, by repenting. Matthew 21:32, “And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterwards, that ye might believe him.” Or 2 Timothy 2:15, “If peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” In Acts 19:4, the apostle uses these words in a passage referring to John the Baptist, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe,” etc. The words “…that they should believe” (faith) explain how John preached repentance.

Another Scripture where faith and repentance are mentioned together is Acts 20:21, “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ.” In this passage, faith and repentance might seem problematic; they are not only distinct from each other, but have distinc objects.

THE SIXTH OBJECTION: Opponents to justification by faith alone hold that the justifying faith of which the apostle Paul speaks already includes repentance.

TO THIS I ANSWER:

Faith and repentance, by their general nature, are distinct things. Repentance for the remission of sins refers to deliverance from evil. In this case, God is the Object, because He is the Being who is offended by sin and who may deliver from evil. But when repentance is used in conjunction with faith, the Object is Christ.

Repentance is indeed the special condition of remission of sins. This seems very evident in Scripture, particularly in Mark 1:4, “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins.”

Luke 3:3, “And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins.”

Luke 24:47, “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.”

Acts 5:31, “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”

Acts 2:38, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.”

Acts 3:19, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”

Similar references are made in Leviticus 26:40-42; Job 33:27, 28; Psalms 32:5; Proverbs 28:13; Jeremiah 3:13; 1 John 1:9; and other places.

The reason is plain. It is not necessary to know the exact aspect of faith that makes it a condition for the remission of sins. It is not necessary to know whether or not faith, as it rejects evil and cleaving to Christ as the Procurer of that good. Faith, with respect to good, is accepting. With respect to evil, it is rejecting. But even the act of rejecting evil is itself an act of acceptance. It is accepting freedom or separation from that evil. And this freedom or separation is the benefit bestowed in remission. It is the same with respect to all the benefits that Christ has purchased.

Trusting in God through Christ for a particular benefit that we need is the special condition of obtaining that benefit. When we need protection from enemies, we have faith in Christ for protection from enemies. This is faith specific to a circumstance. When we need a particular mercy, we pray for it specifically (which is the expression of faith) as the way to obtain that mercy.

There can now be no argument that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is valid. By its very nature, repentance tends to contradict justification by works. For nothing so much renounces our own worthiness and excellence as repentance. The very nature of it is to acknowledge our own utter sinfulness and unworthiness, to renounce our own goodness and all confidence in self and so to trust in the favor of the Mediator, and ascribe all the glory of forgiveness to Him.

THE SEVENTH OBJECTION: The last objection I will mention is that paragraph in the 2nd chapter of James, where people are said expressly to be justified by works: James 2:21, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works?” Verse 24, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” Verse 25, “Was not Rahab the harlot justified by works.”

TO THIS I ANSWER:

1. I would take notice of the great unfairness of the religious clergy who oppose us when they edit this passage to use it against us. All will admit that in the proposition of Saint James, “By works a man is justified, and not by faith only,” one of the terms, either “faith” or “justify,” cannot be interpreted to be precisely the same term used by Paul. We, as well as our opponents, assume that it was not James’ intention to contradict Saint Paul in that doctrine of justification by faith alone, in which we had instructed the Churches. But if we interpret both James’ and Paul’s use of “faith” and “justify” to mean the same, then one assertion is a precise, direct, and full contradiction of the other. One affirms and the other denies the very same thing. All the controversy from this text comes to this: which of these two terms must be reinterpreted in Paul’s work?
   
   Opponents say that it is the word “truth,” because they suppose that the apostle Paul uses the word to mean faith by which alone we are justified. They assume a compliance with and practice of Christianity in general, including all saving Christian virtue and obedience. But when the apostle James uses the word “faith,” opponents suppose it to mean a confirmation of the truth of gospel doctrines, distinct from good works and all saving grace. We, on the other hand, understand the word “justify” to mean something different from the apostle Paul. So both our opponents and we find difficulty in interpreting Paul’s meaning. Yet, while they freely reinterpret the use of the word “faith,” they find fault with our understanding of the word “justify.” They have no reason to question our interpretation, and not their own. Their finding fault is only their opinion. At this rate a man may maintain anything, as long as it is not too contrary to Scripture, and elude the clearest text in the Bible!
   
   If the meaning of one of the words must be varied to make the apostle James’s doctrine consistent with the apostle Paul’s, if that is all that stands in the way of their agreeing with either scheme, and if varying the meaning of “justify” is as fair as varying “faith,” then the text lies as fair for one scheme as the other. They can no more fairly object to our scheme than theirs. And if so, what becomes of this great objection to this passage in James?
2. If it is not difficult to vary the meaning of one of the two words to make them suit either scheme, then certainly it is logical to reinterpret in relationship with its context within Scripture, and to rely on its meaning to be as close as possible to other common uses of it. Therefore we are able to understand the word “justify” in the passage of James to be different from its use in Saint Paul. As I have already demonstrated, no one doctrine in the whole Bible is more fully asserted, explained, and urged than the doctrine of justification by faith alone, without any of our own righteousness.
3. There is a very fair interpretation of the passage of Saint James that is consistent with this doctrine of justification. I have shown that other scriptures abundantly teach this doctrine very clearly, so that no reinterpretation is necessary. They speak of the evidence of works as justifying. A man may be said to be justified by that which clears him, vindicates him, or makes the goodness of his cause manifest. When a person has a cause tried in a civil court, and is justified or cleared, he is justified or cleared by the goodness of both his cause and the evidence of it. He is cleared by what proves his cause to be good, but not by that which makes his cause good. That which renders his cause good is grounds for his justification. But evidence justifies only to the extent that his cause is good in fact. Evidence does not have any influlence to render his cause good or not.
   
   It is by works that our cause appears to be good. Rather, it is by faith that our cause not only appears good, but also becomes good, because through it we are united to Christ. The word “justify” sometimes signifies faith that makes our cause appear good. Sometimes it signifies faith that makes our cause good as we are united to Christ. Both meanings are acceptable in common speech. And it is certain that the word is sometimes used in both, senses in Scripture, such as when speaking of our being justified before God, we will be justified by our works.
   
   (To be continued …)