The Doctrine of Justification

This is one that you CANT mess up, and this is one that separates the true converts from the false. The doctrine of Justification or Sola Fide means God declares the sinner righteous and IMPUTES his righteousness on the sinner. This is by faith alone.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Eph 2:8-10 (NIV)
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

When people cause confusion with this doctrine (NT Wright, Robert Gundry and others) it merely shows them to be departing Biblical soteriology. Yesterday a Catholic was at church and I had a brief chat with her, and she seemed to think that Catholic Theology and Christian theology were one and the same. I strongly urged her to do research on the Catholic movement and their view on Justification, but she refused and kept on insisting she was not interested. I then cautioned her in love about her eternal destiny and those that deny Justification by faith alone. I did not get time to work my way through the 10 Commandments as she was not interested, but its so sad when people are not interested at all in theology, but only care about relationships, a friendly environment, and a social gathering and they place that above Biblical theology and good teaching. Her last words affirmed that she believed in a works based gospel pointing to the book of James which is a book that gives weight to the Lordship Salvation doctrine which sadly is denied by most evangelicals. But her suggesting works was required for salvation, showed she was not saved.

But what also troubled me is that no one had spoken to this woman in love and warned her about her eternal fate. The church does not seem to care about these doctrines, or at least never explains them, so people remain in the dark. This is yet one reason why I can’t join this church.

For more details on this doctrine check out these books.

Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness?

The God Who Justifies