One of my college classmates said, in my hearing, “Well, I have thought through the doctrine of justification by faith.” It is the conviction of the writer that one cause for so much of our present loose theological thinking and for the diminution of the vitality and power of present Christianity is that too few of us have thought out just what this cardinal doctrine of the Reformation is. We have not the courage of our convictions, the transforming force in our lives, the faith that mocks the flames, which the Reformers had, because we have not felt the graciousness and blessedness of their doctrine of justification by faith.
We have gotten in the habit of using this term as a phrase to conjure with, a shibboleth, a form of words instead of taking the time to grasp its real meaning. And of all terms, this one, when used as a phrase only, is the one most capable of misinterpretation. This false interpretation can come either from loose thinking (or lack of thinking), or from the studied effort to deceive. The English words, “justification by faith,” can be easily used to mean the direct opposite of the Reformation doctrine of justification. This is because of the indefiniteness of that preposition “by.” A speaker or writer can use that “by” as meaning, “by the power of,” “by the virtue of,” “by the grace of,” as easily as another can use it to mean, “by means of” or “by the instrumentality of.” Even historians of the Reformation, in discussing Luther's heart acceptance of the doctrine of justification by faith, show a woeful misapprehension of the meaning of the term.
Many today are using the term, “justification by faith,” to express their belief that we are justified on the ground of faith. That is, that faith itself, and our own faith, is accepted by God as the ethical basis or meritorious ground on which he declares us righteous. Faith, then, is a substitute for obedience. Faith is taken to mean religious heroism—it is the seed of the new life which God is pleased to accept in place of the perfect life which formerly he demanded. Faith is made the basis of our judgment. According to this interpretation, the apostle of modernism says that God deals with a man, not on the basis of what he has done, or even what he is, but on the basis of the thing the man has set his heart upon, the direction of his life, the ideal which masters him. In accord with this interpretation, the eyes of men are turned in on themselves toward the examination of their own faith—be sure that you have faith in God like Jesus had. Scrutinize, perfect your faith, develop your faith, for your faith as the sum of your hopes and ideals and vital principle and life direction, is to be the ground of your justification. This form of reasoning makes the basis and ground of our justification to inhere in us—it is our faith (as the sum of our hopes, etc.), which is accepted by God as the equivalent of righteousness. We save ourselves if only we can get the right kind of faith, the right amount of it; Jesus' rebuke of this attitude with the words, that if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can remove mountains, is forgotten. Furthermore, this meaning, read into the apostolic doctrine of justification by faith, is the opposite of what that term was used by the Reformers to mean.
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