Imperishable Inheritance

In the 16th cen­tury there were a few coura­geous believ­ers that stood up against the Catholic Church and their many abuses. The ‘five solas’ were the call­ing cry for all those who wanted to return to Bib­li­cal truth. One of those solas was sola fide which is Latin for ‘faith alone.’ This was the doc­trine of jus­ti­fi­ca­tion by faith alone that those reform­ers received per­se­cu­tion for, and the Catholic church hated them because they opposed their doctrine.

The Catholic Church taught that jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, which is the doc­trine of how a holy God can accept a worth­less sin­ner, was a process and not a one time event. The church taught that faith and the ongo­ing process of receiv­ing the penances (bap­tism, Eucharist, etc) were nec­es­sary for one’s sal­va­tion. In other words, the gift of right­eous­ness from the atone­ment was infused over time and not imputed as the reform­ers taught. Grace was given to the masses through the penances and those alone. It was an abuse of the high­est magnitude.

A Ger­man monk started to read the Scrip­tures and started ask­ing ques­tions about the church’s doc­trine. Hor­ri­fied by indul­gences sold by the Catholic church, it prompted him to act on what he believed the Scrip­tures taught. This was Mar­tin Luther, and he says in his 95 The­ses which started the Protes­tant Ref­or­ma­tion (#37): ‘Every true Chris­t­ian, whether liv­ing or dead, has part in all the bless­ings of Christ and the Church; and this is granted him by God, even with­out let­ters of par­don.’ This lowly Ger­man monk started a rev­o­lu­tion based on the sal­va­tion of sin­ners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. He then trans­lated the New Tes­ta­ment into Ger­man, and it was proven again that the Scrip­tures when read and stud­ied changes lives most assuredly.

It should be no sur­prise that the Gospel is still under attack today. Not just by those who are Catholic but also by those who claim a dif­fer­ent lin­eage. It’s almost ironic that that what Mar­tin Luther opposed (the use of works in jus­ti­fi­ca­tion) is still being taught today. The doc­trine known as bap­tismal regen­er­a­tion, or that one must be bap­tized in order to be jus­ti­fied and rec­on­ciled to God is of a sim­i­lar vain. It is an attack on the Gospel and cross of Christ. As Bib­li­cal Chris­tians, we must stand up for the work accom­plished once-for-all on the cross (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27, 9:12; 1 Pet 3:18). It is a beau­ti­ful thing that’s worth dying for, but it’s also what gives us life: ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abun­dantly’ (John 10:10b).

“Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the right­eous will live by his faith.’ (Hab 2:4)

Exe­ge­sis of Per­ti­nent Texts

I believe that there numer­ous texts that attest to the truth that sin­ners are jus­ti­fied by faith alone. The Bible teaches both processes of jus­ti­fi­ca­tion and also sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion which is the grow­ing in holi­ness of the Chris­tians until he joins the Lord for­ever and the process is com­plete. The two are sep­a­rate but both impor­tant. The Catholic church included sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion in the process of jus­ti­fi­ca­tion,¹) and those hold­ing to the doc­trine of bap­tismal regen­er­a­tion, or any­thing else that takes away from faith as the only instru­ment for jus­ti­fi­ca­tion do the same.

Foot­notes

1. An exam­ple of the Catholic con­fu­sion over jus­ti­fi­ca­tion and sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion is preva­lent in their cat­e­chism:
   “The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is con­ver­sion, effect­ing jus­ti­fi­ca­tion in accor­dance with Jesus’ procla­ma­tion at the begin­ning of the Gospel: ‘Repent, for the king­dom of heaven is at hand.’ Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accept­ing for­give­ness and right­eous­ness from on high. “Jus­ti­fi­ca­tion is not only the remis­sion of sins, but also the sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion and renewal of the inte­rior man.” (Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edi­tion, Part III, Arti­cle I, Chap­ter III.I [Back]