JUSTIFICATION PROVEN TO BE SUBJECTIVE BY IT BEING A BREAK FROM THE PAST SINFUL EXPERIENCE AND THE ENTRANCE OF A NEW SINFREE EXPERIENCE

By Nyron Medina For Thusia SDA

Justification is the article upon which the church stands or falls.

“During the Reformation Martin Luther said this is “the article with and by which the church stands, without which it falls” (articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae).” Quoted from R. C. Sproul, Grace Unknown, pg. 59.

It is important therefore to know what Justification means as an important teaching of the Gospel. To have a wrong understanding of Justification is to:

a. Take away glory from God and give it to man. Rom. 4:1-3,20.

c. Because one finds himself outside of the real Gospel, the only thing that saves. (Rom. 1:16,17; Rom. 4:4,5); Rom. 3:20,28; (Rom. 9:31,32; Rom. 10:1-3); Rom. 4:14-16; Gal. 2:21.

Mrs. White tells us that by the early 1700s Justification by Faith had almost been lost sight of.

“The great doctrine of justification by faith, so clearly taught by Luther, had been almost wholly lost sight of; and the Romish principle of trusting to good works for salvation, had taken its place. Whitefield and the Wesleys, who were members of the established church, were sincere seekers for the favor of God, and this they had been taught was to be secured by a virtuous life and an observance of the ordinances of religion.” Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pg. 253.

Protestant and Evangelical religions of today present a false Justification doctrine. They present Justification as deliverance from condemnation, or as “the point of acquittal”, or the “break with condemnation”, with no character or moral change at all.

“The Bible uses the term “justify” to identify and focus on God’s act in declaring sinners to be acquitted of the punishment due their sin. Justification has relation to the law of God. Failure to obey God’s law brings condemnation. The penalty which results from a failure to keep the law of God must be satisfied in order for God to acquit (justify) a sinner. Sin is lawlessness. The penalty of sin is death. Breaking God’s law always brings the penalty of death. For the verdict of death to be overturned one must be justified . . . Salvation is the outcome of those who have been declared acquitted from the penalty due their sins. To be justified by God is to be declared free to enter Heaven. To be justified does not mean to be not guilty. It means to be declared not liable for the penalty of one’s guilt! . . . God, as the judge, has declared sinners to be justified or acquitted from the punishment due their sin.” Robert M. Zins, Romanism, pg. 164.

“The term “justification” centers around God’s declaration to acquit man despite man’s sinfulness . . . God declares us to be free of the punishment due our sins. He justifies us. Justification describes our acquitted status before God. Though guilty, we are declared to be acquitted. To be justified is to be accepted without penalty due our person. When this term is used in relation to standing before God, it is always with a view of being declared acquitted in contrast to being declared condemned. Justification is a matter of acquittal in the eyes of God. We all stand condemned because of sin. The only remedy is to be justified. This acquittal, for the Christian, is based entirely on what Christ has already done.” Ibid, pg. 165.

“We affirm justification to be the declared acquittal by God of a sinner based upon the ground of Christ’s righteousness alone. This acquittal is once and final for the Christian at the moment of saving faith . . . The term “justify” does not mean to infuse with grace or to make someone righteous when used of standing before God in anticipation of acceptance . . . To justify the wicked is not to make them just! It is to declare them to be acquitted.” Ibid, pg. 166,173.

However, the Reformation taught a Justification that was a “break with sinfulness and the introduction of holiness in the heart”, or its original teaching was that Justification is the “point of change”. We can call Justification by any of the following terms:

i. The break with the past.

ii. The point of change.

iii. The point of renewal or transformation.

iv. The entrance of new life.

v. The bringing in of a new state.

Of course, no doubt, Luther taught a subjective Justification, a work of God in man.

“Natural motion is our motion, but the movement of justification is the work of God in us, to which our propositions refer.” Martin Luther’s 1536 Disputation on Justification; quoted in Erwin R. Grace, The Scriptural Doctrine of Justification, pg. 13-14.

“The phrase [of the righteousness of Christ being outside of us] is grammatical. To be out side of us means not to be out of our powers. Righteousness is our possession, to be sure, since it was given to us out of mercy. Nevertheless, it is foreign to us, because we have not merited it.” Ibid, pg. 14.

But Luther also taught Justification to be the “point of change” or the “break with the past” and the “entrance of new life.” This is proof of the transformative nature of Justification by Faith.

“Wherefore the proper office of the law is to show unto us our sins, to make us guilty, to humble us, to kill us, and to bring us down to hell, and finally to take from us all help, all succour, all comfort: but yet altogether to this end, that we may be justified, exalted, quickened to life, carried up into heaven and obtain all good things. Therefore it doth not only kill, but it killeth that we may live.” Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul'’ Epistle to the Galatians, (1535), pg. 333.

“Secondly, the Holy Ghost is sent by the Word into the hearts of the believers, as here it is said, ‘God sent the spirit of his Son, etc.’ This sending is without any visible appearance; to wit, when by the hearing of the spoken Word, we receive an inward fervency and light, whereby we are changed and become new creatures; whereby also we receive a new judgment, new feelings and motions. This change and this new judgment is no work of reason, or of the power of man, but is the gift and the operations of the Holy Ghost, which cometh with the Word preached, which purifieth our hearts by faith, and bringeth forth in us spiritual motions . . . And although it appear not before the world, that we be renewed in mind and have the Holy Ghost, yet notwithstanding our judgment, our speech, and our confession do declare sufficiently, that the Holy Ghost with his gifts is in us.” Ibid, Pg. 360-361.

“Wherefore the changing of garments and other outward things, is not a new creature (as the monks dream), but it is the renewing of the mind by the Holy Ghost; after the which followeth a change of the members and senses of the whole body. For when the heart hath conceived a new light, a new judgment and new motions through the Gospel, it cometh to pass that the outward senses are also renewed . . . These change consist not in words, but are also effectual, and bring a new spirit, a new will, new senses, and new operations of the flesh, so that the eyes, ears, mouth, and tongue do not only see, hear and speak otherwise than they did before, but the mind also approveth, [loveth] and followeth another thing than it did before . . . But now, in the light of the Gospel, it assureth us that we are counted righteous by faith only in Christ . . . But he speaketh of the new creature, which is neither circumcision nor un-circumcision, but the new man created unto the images of God in righteousness and true holiness which inwardly is righteous in the spirit, and outwardly is holy and clean in the flesh. The monks have a righteousness and holiness, but it is hypocritical and wicked, because they hope not to be justified by only faith in Christ, but by the keeping of their rule . . . But blessed be that rule whereof Paul speaketh in this place; by the which we live in the faith of Christ and are made new creatures; that is to say, righteous and holy indeed by the Holy Ghost, without any coloring or counterfeiting.” Ibid, pg. 564,565.

“Baptism, then, signifies two things –death and resurrection, that is, full and complete justification. When the minister immerses the child in the water it signifies death, and when he draws it forth again it signifies life. Thus Paul expounds it in Rom. 6:4: “We are buried therefore with Christ by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” This death and resurrection we call the new creation, regeneration, and spiritual birth.” Martin Luther, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, (1520)”, Three Treatises, pg. 190.

Even Luther’s helper Melanchthon, before he went too far off from subjective Justification, taught Justification to be the “point of renewal or transformation” or the “break with the past” and the “entrance of new life”.

“Regarding faith we maintain. . . . that because of Christ by faith itself we are truly accounted righteous or acceptable before God. And “to be justified” means to make unrighteous men righteous or to regenerate them, as well as to be pronounced or accounted righteous. For Scripture speaks both ways. Therefore we want to show first that faith alone makes a righteous man out of an unrighteous one, that is that it receives the forgiveness of sins.” Philipp Melanchthon, The Apology to the Augusburg Confession (1531), pg. 117, Quoted in Good News Unlimited, pg. 13.

“Therefore we are justified by faith alone, justification being understood as making an unrighteous man righteous or effecting his regeneration.” Ibid, pg. 13.