The Second Helvetic Confession Chapter 15
Of the True Justification of the Faithful
What Is Justification? According
to the apostle in his treatment of justification, to justify means to remit
sins, to absolve from guilt and punishment, to receive into favor, and to
pronounce a man just. For in his epistle to the Romans the apostle says: It is
God who justifies; who is to condemn? (Rom. 8:33). To justify and to condemn are
opposed. And in The Acts of the Apostles the apostle states: Through Christ
forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone that believes is
freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses
(Acts 13:38 f.). For in the Law and also in the Prophets we read: If there is a
dispute between men, and they come into court . . . the judges decide between
them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty (Deut. 25:1). And in Is.
5: Woe to those . . . who acquit the guilty for a bribe.
<Justification
is to be declared just. However, it
is not in the same sense that a governor can pardon a crime without respect to
the law broken to necessitate the pardon. Believers
are just because God has judged righteously and declared them justified.
This is what Bullinger has stated here and it seems most clear.
Nonetheless, we find few who can articulate a clear definition and this
doctrine is one of the chief differences in denominations.
Perhaps if we considered a couple of words in their
forensic or secular context we might get a better grasp of the Biblical use of
these terms. Righteous means
complete compliance with prevailing laws. We
see it most often in the USA when an officer of the law uses deadly force in the
line of duty. A shooting review
team looks at all the evidence and if it was a Alegal@
shooting declares it a righteous shooting and the officer just in his actions.
Move this definition to Justification in the Biblical sense
and we have a righteous God (in complete accord with His own revealed laws)
declare the person just. Knowing
from the Bible the complete inability of man to judge righteously and that the
evidence leads to condemnation not being declared just, and the only answer is
that it is through the righteous and just work of Jesus Christ as our substitute
alone we are justified. The Bible
also being extremely clear that this sinless-ness of Christ is only imputed by
faith, and that faith a gift of God.
In this sense it is an official or legal act of God as
judge, but also has an organic sense of union with the Savior too. It
must have elements of both because sin is defined as the transgression of
God’s law, legalistic phraseology. Yet
with the believer he is both in Christ and Christ in him, or the introduction of
the organic union. To be
systematic, God in grace gives the faith needed for the person to see Christ and
then after the receipt of the gift declares the believer justified, in Christ. Justification then can be seen as being bonded to
regeneration in a way that cannot be broken. >
We Are Justified on Account of
Christ. Now it is most certain that all of us are by nature sinners and
godless, and before God's judgment‑seat are convicted of godlessness and
are guilty of death, but that, solely by the grace of Christ and not from any
merit of ours or consideration for us, we are justified, that is, absolved from
sin and death by God the Judge. For what is clearer than what Paul said: Since
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his
grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:23 f.).
<We might also consider the wording of Eph.
2:8 here, AWe
are saved by grace, through faith, and that the gift of God.@
The atonement makes the substitution of Christ, the sinless for the sinful a
necessity. Romans 5:6-9 explains
this very well and needs no commentary.>
Imputed Righteousness. For
Christ took upon himself and bore the sins of the world, and satisfied divine
justice. Therefore, solely on account of Christ's sufferings and resurrection
God is propitious with respect to our sins and does not impute them to us, but
imputes Christ's righteousness to us as our own (II Cor. 5:19 ff.; Rom. 4:25),
so that now we are not only cleansed and purged from sins or are holy, but also,
granted the righteousness of Christ, and so absolved from sin, death and
condemnation, are at last righteous and heirs of eternal life. Properly
speaking, therefore, God alone justifies us, and justifies only on account of
Christ, not imputing sins to us but imputing his righteousness to us.
<One of the most consistent
threads in the Bible is that of imputation.
Sins are imputed as well as justification. David says blessed is the man to whom God does not impute his
sins. Righteous as explained before
means keeping the law perfectly. No
human being other than Christ has ever done this. Yet John the Baptist and a select few others were called
righteous according to the Holy Writ. What
is going on here? Were they
perfect, righteous? Absolutely not
for the sin nature was still present and evil followed wherever they went
because they were in the flesh and in the flesh is the will. By faith they believed God even as Abraham did and thereby
were given the covering of the righteousness of Christ as their own.
God stands outside time, and all is a completed action.
Therefore from the beginning of time as man knows it, God has spoken in
the past tense, the righteousness of Christ already being present from the
beginning. God has proposed thus it is, not will be, it is!
All that remains is the revelation in time/history that which was created
for the benefit of man. Thus in the
creation, Christ existed and is present in all the pages of the Old Testament.
Righteousness then is imputed in Christ alone and that by faith alone
that is the gift of God. The
concept is not then something born in the New Testament, but has existed from
the beginning and the doctrine of imputation a consistent thread from Eden to
the New Jerusalem.>
We Are Justified by Faith Alone.
But because we receive this justification, not through any works, but through
faith in the mercy of God and in Christ, we therefore teach and believe with the
apostle that sinful man is justified by faith alone in Christ, not by the law or
any works. For the apostle says: We hold that a man is justified by faith apart
from works of law (Rom. 3:28). Also: If Abraham was justified by works, he has
something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. . . . And to
one who does not work but believes in him who justified the ungodly, his faith
is reckoned as righteousness (Rom. 4:2 ff.; Gen. 15:6). And again: By grace you
have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of
God ‑ not because of works, lest any man should boast, etc. (Eph. 2:8 f.).
Therefore, because faith receives Christ our righteousness and attributes
everything to the grace of God in Christ, on that account justification is
attributed to faith, chiefly because of Christ and not therefore because it is
our work. For it is the gift of God.
<Perhaps one of the most misunderstood and applied
doctrines in the church is that of justification by faith alone.
Works and faith are not two parallel lines, nor two paths to Christ.
One flows from the other of necessity.
That is the righteous (Just or justified) as written in the Bible will
live by faith. Paul says that God
created good works for the believers to walk in before the foundation of the
world. Thus good works will flow
from faith and it is written by James that if you show him your faith without
works he will show you his faith by works.
The confusion comes from the fact that in the flesh even the believer is
not perfect and thus Arighteous@
men may for a season not do that which they should.
Paul addressed this very issue by saying that the thing which he hated,
that he did, and that which he should he left undone.
Man is subject to temptation and his own evil will, whether he is
justified or not. Some men are
better able to exercise the faith given by God and resist the wiles of the devil
and outwardly never show a dark moment, consistently doing good things that are
consistent with their new birth in Christ.
Some however seem to take longer to reach this level of earthly
perfection and continue to remain in their sins. The Westminster Assembly explained this by saying that God
often leaves even the very elect to wallow in their sins for two reasons: First,
to punish converts for past sins and second, as an instructor to believers the
deadly ways of sin. Works then
should, and eventually will flow from all whom God gives the gift of faith to
and imputes the righteousness of Christ and thereby calls them justified.
However the path is not the same for all believers concerning the doing
of the Word. Faith followed by
works can be seen as the normal sequence. Both
will be present in the mature believer, but the season of God for each believer
to reach maturity is not of necessity the same. >
We Receive Christ By Faith.
Moreover, the Lord abundantly shows that we receive Christ by faith, in John, ch.
6, where he puts eating for believing, and believing for eating. For as we
receive food by eating, so we participate in Christ by believing. Therefore, we
do not share in the benefit of justification partly because of the grace of God
or Christ, and partly because of ourselves, our love, works or merit, but we
attribute it wholly to the grace of God in Christ through faith. For our love
and our works could not please God if performed by unrighteous men. Therefore,
it is necessary for us to be righteous before we may love and do good works. We
are made truly righteous, as we have said, by faith in Christ purely by the
grace of God, who does not impute to us our sins, but the righteousness of
Christ, or rather, he imputes faith in Christ to us for righteousness. Moreover,
the apostle very clearly derives love from faith when he says: The aim of our
command is love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere
faith (I Tim. 1:5).
<This is worded very well and was not improved upon by
later confessions. It would seem
all but the most spiritually blind could see this truth and that it is the
doctrine of the Bible. Alas such is
not so and men still wrangle over the mystery of faith versus works.
While all admit you cannot earn salvation, they are inconsistent then in
demanding works to prove salvation. Faith
is given, regeneration occurs and God declares justification, works will follow
in God’s time. While these are
more or less simultaneous events, for clearness of understanding, presenting
them in a sequence or numbered order may be necessary. Without justification by
faith alone, the Scriptures are corrupted in that it is written, without faith
you cannot please God. Therefore before grace, through which comes the gift of
faith, no works are good and pleasing to God. >
James Compared with Paul.
Wherefore, in this matter we are not speaking of a fictitious, empty, lazy and
dead faith, but of a living, quickening faith. It is and is called a living
faith because it apprehends Christ who is life and makes alive, and shows that
it is alive by living works. And so James does not contradict anything in this
doctrine of ours. For he speaks of an empty, dead faith of which some boasted
but who did not have Christ living in them by faith (James 2:14 ff.). James said
that works justify, yet without contradicting the apostle (otherwise he would
have to be rejected) but showing that Abraham proved his living and justifying
faith by works. This all the pious do, but they trust in Christ alone and not in
their own works. For again the apostle said: It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in
the Son of God,[1] who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not reject the
grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no
purpose, etc. (Gal. 2:20 f.).
<As noted above and in this
paragraph, James does not deny justification by faith alone.
James does say works will be a part of the person who has faith in
Christ. James does not separate the
two and argue the order in the sequence of salvation; he says my works will show
you my faith. The Bible three times
uses the phrase the just shall live by faith.
That is the justified will live a life that shows they have this faith.
While in the election God did not brand man on the forehead so all know
the elect present, God did so impart a faith that changes the heart of man to
such a degree it is called a new birth. It
is no different than Christ saying that those who do not testify of Him before
men He will not testify about them before the Father. If we remember the election is prior to all this and must
stand, we can understand that works will so closely follow faith that the two
seem to be the same event. The
elect cannot deny Christ (not testify of Christ to man) or be ashamed of Christ.
Yet before we get out the red wagon and begin hauling believers to the
gates of hell for destruction remember that Peter denied Christ three times in
one evening. Look at the awesome sins of David, of Solomon, or Samuel in
allowing his sons to ruin the sacrifices to God with their selfish acts.
Believers can fail for a season. Adversity
is a necessity to keep the ego and will of the creature in check in the flesh.
The war of the spirit of man against the Spirit of God is real and
present in all, even the Apostle Paul. Thus
we are commanded to examine ourselves, to pray constantly for all things, and
most of all in discipline to have mercy for our own sake. The goal is set before us in faith and by faith alone we can
obtain that goal. But it is a
battle; it is a race requiring effort and struggle according to Paul.
In Christ we can do all things and that includes reaching a high level of
controlling all things that are of the will of the created and sin.
Perfection awaits the completion of the age and the coming of the Lord in
Glory. Thus justification by faith alone stands firm. However do not deny that
the just will live by faith (visible works). >
1. The Latin
reads: "by the faith of the Son of God."
