What is Justification by Faith?
Justification by faith has always been a key article of faith since the Reformation.
However, it is rarely remembered that the Reformers were not totally united on“justification.”
Martin Luther and Melanchthon applied their Augustinianism differently in how they understood justification. An alternative to the Augsburg Confession was the Tetrapolitan confession which was decidedly more interested in preserving faith and works together. Martin Bucer believed in a double justification, the first by faith, the second by works. Richard Hooker linked justification more closely with regeneration than others did and Ulrich Zwingli connected justification with election in an original way.
So what is the biblical view of justification by faith? Or more properly, what is Paul’s view of justification by faith?
On the one hand, “justification by faith” was part of a common tradition in Jewish Christianity to which Paul and the other apostles subscribed (see Gal 2:15; 1 Cor 15:11). On the other hand, Paul’s teaching on this area was contested by Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentiles be circumcised and be forced to obey the law as part of their salvation and as a basis for fellowship (see Acts 15:1-5; Gal 2:1-14). For Paul, justification by faith was his primary argument for God’s acceptance of Gentiles as Gentiles, without having to first convert to Judaism and take on law observances. Viewed sociologically, Paul was dissolving the differences between a “God-fearer” (i.e. a Gentile sympathizer to Jewish ways) and a “proselyte” (i.e. a Gentiles convert to Judaism) by insisting on the sufficiency of faith. Paul was arguing that God accepts as righteous those who have faith/trust/ loyalty rather than those who possess or perform the law. The upshot is that one does not have to become a Jew in order to become a Christian or that kinship is established by faith rather than by ethnicity.
Viewed theologically, Paul was asserting that the law was not a means to justification because: (a) The law could only point out sin but never set people free from sin (see Rom 3:20; Gal 2:21; 3:21) and (b) Justification by works of law would mean that God has limited his grace to only one people (Rom 3:30).
By way of summary, Pauline teaching on justification by faith has several discernible characteristics, here are the four key ones:
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