The Real Meaning of Justification By Faith - William C. Robinson

The real meaning of justification by faith, as that term was used by the Protestants in the Reformation, and the real meaning of that doctrine as expounded in Scripture, and expressed in Protestant Confessions, can be made clear by noticing the real biblical attitude of faith, the ethical basis of justification, and the graciousness of the entire process.

Faith is the instrumental cause—the means, the instrument, the human condition—of justification. But faith is not the efficient cause—for that is the righteousness of God; it is not the material cause—for that is the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ; it is not the formal cause—for that is the righteousness of another.

The biblical attitude of faith, negatively, is a denial that man by his works or anything in himself contributes to his justification. Justification is “to him that worketh not”; that is, to him who does not want to work, does not intend to work, who acknowledges that he and his works are sinful and unrighteous. Faith, as Paul uses it, is the algebraic formula for not working — negatively, it is equivalent to saying that man contributes nothing to his justification. The attitude of justifying faith is seeking to be found in Him, not having one's own righteousness which is of the law. It is a recognition that we are saved, not of ourselves and not of our works, for by the works of the law shall no flesh, be justified—in himself every man stands guilty before God. And every atom of human sufficiency and pride and boasting is excluded. “Merit lives from man to man, but not, O God, from man to thee.”

Positively, the attitude of justifying faith is magnifying God, it is God-centered. Dr. Geerhardus Vos, whose careful thought the writer has freely used in this discussion, defines the attitude of faith as the unlimited willingness to let God do all the saving, a recognition of divine monergism. The attitude of faith is not looking at itself as though it were a new virtue substituted for the old, but it is looking to the object of faith. Justifying faith is faith towards or into Jesus Christ. It is resting on him as the limpet clings to the rock. It is being found in him. Faith denies all hope and trust in the man himself, or in the substance of the faith in itself, and rests men on the unchanging grace and character of God. Faith is the attitude of giving all the glory to God. Again, as to the ethical basis of justification — the ground on account of which God declares a man righteous— Protestant justification by faith offers not itself. Our Westminster Confession of Faith for three hundred years has been denying this “modernist” idea that God imputes faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to men as their righteousness. If we take the time to investigate justification according to the Aristotelian causes, it will save us many upsets. According to this analysis, faith is the instrumental cause—the means, the instrument, the human condition—of justification. But faith is not the efficient cause—for that is the righteousness of God; it is not the material cause—for that is the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ; it is not the formal cause—for that is the righteousness of another (in distinction from one's own righteousness); it is not the final cause—which is the salvation of souls and the glory of God. Faith is taking Jesus Christ with the naked hand of the heart. Faith is the human condition, the receiving, but that which it receives is the meritorious ground of justification. And this ground or basis is the righteousness of God which is built up of the material furnished by the entire humiliation of Christ—his satisfaction of the precepts and penalties of the law of God, by his human life, obedience, suffering and death. Protestant faith is receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness; and Protestant justification by faith is God, on the occasion of man's act of faith, imputing to that man Christ's obedience and satisfaction as his righteousness, and so receiving the believer as righteous in his sight. The saving virtue is not faith as a new virtue, but the virtues and sufferings of Christ, our Substitute. Modernistic justification rests on what the believer is or aspires to be; Protestant justification rests on what Christ is and what he has done for the believer.