-
Appendix on The Justification Controversy
- Fordham University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Appendix zyx on The zyxw Jwt&ation Controversy zy Calvin zyxwvu on Justification The following statement and explanation of the doctrine of justification by faith alone is taken from the € i d edition zyxw (I 559) of Calvin’s Institutes zyxwvut of the Christian Religion, Book 1 1 1 ,Chapter XI, reprinted with permission from Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, tr. Ford LewisBattles(copyright @ 1960,W. L. Jenkins. Vols. XX and XXI of The Library of Christian Classics. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, I 960), 1,725-754. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH: FIRST THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD AND OF THE MATTER I . Place and meanivtg of the doctrine of “justification” I beheve I have already explained above, with sufficient care, how for men cursed under the law there remains, in faith, one sole means of recovering salvation. I believe I have also explained what faith itself is, and those benefits of God which it confers upon man,andthe fruits it brings forthin him. Let us sum these up. Christ was given zyxw to us by God’s generosity, to be grasped and possessed by us in faith. By partaking of him, we principally receive a double grace: A REFORMATION DEBATE zyxwvu narneIy, that being reconciled to God through Christ’s blamelessness , we may have in heaven instead of a Judge a gracious Father; and secondly, that sanctified by Christ’s spirit we may cultivate blamelessness andpurity of life. Of regeneration, indeed, the second of these gifts, I have said what seemed sufficient. The theme of justification was therefore more lightly touched upon becauseit was moreto the point to understand first how little devoid o E good works is the faith,through which alone we obtain free righteousness by the mercy of God; and what is the nature of the good works of the saints, with which part of this question is concerned. Therefore we must now discuss these matters thoroughly, And zyxwv we must so discuss them as to bear in mind that this is the main hinge on which religion turns, so that we devote the greater attention andcare to it. For unless you first of all grasp what your relationship to God is, and the nature of his judgment concerning you, you have neither a foundation on which to establish your salvation nor one on which to build piety toward God. But the need to know this wilI better appear from the knowledge itself. zyxw 2 . zyxwvutsrqpo The concept zyxwvut of zyxwvutsr justificution But that we may not stumble on the verythreshold-and this would happen if we should enter upon a discussion of a thing unknown-first letus explain what these expressions mean: that man is justified inGod’s sight, andthat he is justified by faith or works. He is said to be justified in God’s sight who is both reckoned righteous in God’s judgment and has been accepted on account of his righteousness. Indeed, as iniquity is abominable to God, so no sinnercan find favor in his eyes in so far as he is asinner and so long asheis reckoned as such. Accordingly, whereverthere is sin, there also the wrath and vengeance of God show themselves. Now he is justified who is reckoned in the condition not of a sinner, but of a rightous man; and for that reason, he stands firm before God’s judgment seat while all sinners fall. lf an innocent 90 [18.232.88.17] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:06 GMT) CALVIN ON JUSTIFICATION zyxwv accusedperson be summoned before thejudgment seat of a fair judge, where he will be judged according to his innocence, he issaidtobe “justified” before thejudge.Thus, justified before God is the man who, freed from the company of sinners, has God to witness and affirm his righteousness. In the same way, therefore, he inwhose life that purity and holiness will be found which deserves a testimony of righteousness before God’s throne willbesaid to be justified by works, or else he who, by the wholenessof his works, can meet and satisfy God’s judgment. On the contrary, justified by faith is he who, zyxw excluded from the righteousness of works, grasps the righteousness of Christthrough faith,and clothed in it, appears in God’ssight not as a sinner but as a righteous man. Therefore, we explain justification simply as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favor as righteous men. And we say that it consists in the remission of...