Remember October 31 - Reformation Day

October 31, which we commonly call Halloween, is also Reformation Day. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the cathedral in Wittenburg, Germany. He did this to respond to the sale of indulgences by John Tetzel, authorized by Pope Leo X. Among other outlandish claims, Tetzel said that the indulgences could make a person cleaner than Adam had been before the Fall. Luther not only rejected the practice of selling indulgences but also criticized the exploitation which he saw at the heart of the practice.

Here is a clip from the Luther movie of Tetzel selling indulgences followed by Luther nailing up the Ninety-Five Theses:




Before entering the monastery, Martin Luther was worried by the righteousness of God. He thought of God as a severe judge toward sinners, and he felt the guilt of his own sins. He feared that he would not be ready to face the judgment of God. After being frightened in a thunderstorm he entered a monastery to try to make himself acceptable to God.

While serving as a monk of the Augustinian order, his good works, penance, and seeking to obey the rules of his order to the fullest were unable to settle his own fear of judgment. The more he pondered his condition and studied his own actions, the more sin he found in himself. He consulted the writings of German mystics, but they did not help to settle his anxiety. He saw a God who required a level of holiness which he could not attain, and so instead of feeling love for God, he felt hatred. He wondered how a holy and righteous God could love a sinner like himself.

Eventually Luther's confessor assigned him to study and teach the Bible. For a while he taught the Psalms, which he interpreted Christologically. He found some comfort in the description of the suffering of Christ in Psalm 22. Upon reading Psalm 22:1 ("My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" [see also Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34]) he realized that the holy God is also a loving God, and he realized that justice and love are connected in God, but even this was insufficient.

A breakthrough came, however, as Luther was preparing lectures on Romans, when he read Rom. 1:17 - "The righteous shall live by faith." He realized that a person is justified before God by faith; justification is a gift from God. On his own, man does not have what he needs to obtain forgiveness, but the price was paid by Christ. As Alister McGrath explains, "Luther's insight, which he describes in this autobiographical passage [referring the the 'autobiographical fragment'], is that the God of the Christian gospel is not a harsh judge who rewards individuals according to their merits, but a merciful and gracious God who bestows righteousness upon sinners as a gift" (Aliter McGrath, Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought [Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998], 186–87). For Luther, faith is personal trust in Jesus, not merely intellectual belief in the historicity of Jesus. It involves trusting Jesus. Faith also unites the believer with Christ (Ibid., 187–88).



Luther emphasized that people cannot justify themselves. Being a bad tree, man freely chooses evil. There is nothing in him by which he can please God. Man is in bondage to sin and death but is liberated through Christ. God initiates justification on the basis of an "alien righteousness," meaning not the sinner's own righteousness, but instead on the basis of the righteousness of Christ which is imputed to the believer by faith. Philip Melancthon called this "forensic justification." A person is declared righteous in God’s court. He then becomes righteous through the continuing process of sanctification. Luther did not teach, however, that God is indifferent to sin or that he simply forgives sin because it is not important. Instead, God is holy, and so sin is repugnant. In fact, a believer who has been justified realizes how sinful he is, but God has declared him to be righteous despite his sin. (importance of obedience discussed below)

Luther’s 95 Theses and his teaching spread through Germany. In 1530 at the Diet of Augsburg the German princes presented their case to Charles V with the Augsburg Confession (primarily written by Melanchthon). A few quotes are noteworthy. Section IV states:

"It is also taught among us that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God by our own merits, works, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness, as Paul says in Romans 3:21–26 and 4:5."

Nevertheless, they did not claim that obedience to God is unimportant. Section VI says:

"It is also taught among us that such faith should produce good fruits and good works and that we must do all such good works as God has commanded, but we should do them for God’s sake and not place our trust in them as if thereby merit favor before God. For we receive forgiveness of sin and righteousness through faith in Christ."

Section XX teaches that we receive forgiveness by faith through Christ who is the only mediator between us and the father and that "whoever imagines that he can accomplish this by works, or that he can merit grace, despises Christ and seeks his own way to God, contrary to the Gospel." It also teaches, however, that we should do good works "that we may do God’s will and glorify him" and that "when through faith the Holy Spirit is given, the heart is moved to do good works." Works are a sign of true faith in a believer rather than a prerequisite.

(Quotes from the Augsburg Confession are taken from John Leith, Creeds of the Churches [Louisville: John Knox Press, 1982]).

The Listener's Bible provides a good (and free) presentation by Max McLean of the events of Luther's life leading up to and including the Diet of Worms here.


John Calvin
A post on justification must include John Calvin. As Justo González explains, "While Luther was the daring trailblazer for the movement, Calvin was the careful thinker who bound the various Protestant doctrines into a cohesive whole" (Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity, vol. 2, The Reformation to the Present Day [San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1985], 61).

Calvin explains in Institutes 3.11.2 (LCC 726) that a person “is justified in God’s sight who is both reckoned righteous in God’s judgment and has been accepted on account of his righteousness.” Where there is sin, there is the wrath of God, but “he is justified who is reckoned in the condition not of a sinner, but of a righteous man; and for that reason, he stands firm before God’s judgment seat while all sinners fall.” Calvin explains that the law cannot justify us. Instead, we are justified (declared innocent, not by confirming our own innocence, but by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, “so that we who are not righteous in ourselves may be reckoned as such in Christ” (3.11.3 [LCC 728]). Justifying righteousness also cannot be based on faith plus works. “So long as any particle of works righteousness remains some occasion for boasting remains with us. Now, if faith excludes all boasting [Rom. 3:27], works righteousness can in no way be associated with faith righteousness” (3.11.13 [LCC 743]). The justified sinner looks away from his own works and solely at “God’s mercy and Christ’s perfection” (3.11.16 [LCC 746]. See also 3.11.17–18, 23 [LCC 746–48, 753–54]).

Later in 3.12.7–8 (LCC 761–62) Calvin contrasts the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:10–14. The Pharisee is confident in his own righteousness, but the tax collector is humble recognizing his sinful heart. Calvin says that our hearts cannot receive the mercy of God until they have been emptied of all opinion of self. If we would answer God’s call we must put away arrogance (thinking oneself to have something which will commend him before God) and complacency (drunkenness in one’s vices to the point of disregarding God’s judgment). He then makes an excellent conclusion:

“Such sloth is no less to be shaken off than any confidence in ourselves is to be cast away in order that we may without hindrance hasten to Christ, and empty and hungering, may be filled with his good things. For we will never have enough confidence in him unless we become deeply distrustful of ourselves; we will never lift up our hearts enough in him unless they be previously cast down in us; we will never have consolation enough in him unless we have already experienced desolation in ourselves" (3.12.8 [LCC 762]. Emphasis added).

Calvin also summarizes this attitude ion his “Prefatory Address to King Francis” (LCC 13. Insert original in this edition):

"For what is more consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be freed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame, to be made straight by him? Weak, to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying, that he alone may stand forth gloriously and we glory in him [cf. I Cor. 1:31; II Cor. 10:17]?"

LCC = John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, Library of Christian Classics, vol. 20, gen. eds., John Baillie, John T.McNeill, and Henry P. Van Dusen (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960).


The Doctrine of Justification
Justification is a legal declaration by which a person is declared righteous through his faith in Christ, not because of his merit, but instead based on the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer. It is based on the grace of God. God also declares the believer to be forgiven of all sins, past, present, and future (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], 722–33).

The Westminster Standards provide good explanations of justification. For example, the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) XI:3 says:

Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real and full satisfaction to His Father's justice in their behalf. Yet, in as much as He was given by the Father for them; and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both, freely, not for any thing in them; their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice, and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.

I like how this explanation emphasizes that Christ paid the debt of sin for all who are justified but in a way which satisfied both the grace and the justice of God.

The Westminster Larger Catechism (1648) emphasizes the imputation of Christ’s righteousness apart from any human righteousness:

Q. 70. What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.

Q. 71. How is justification an act of God’s free grace?
A. Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in the behalf of them that are justified; yet in as much as God accepteth the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.

(Note: When searching through Reformed confessions and catechisms I used Reformed Confessions Harmonized, edited by Joel R. Beeke and Sinclair B. Ferguson. This is an excellent resource. It topically arranges the following sources and places them in parallel columns: Belgic Confession [1561], Heidelberg Confession [1563], Second Helvetic Confession [1566], Canons of Dort [1619], Westminster Confession of Faith [1647], Westminster Shorter Catechism [1647], and Westminster Larger Catechism [1648].)

The truth of justification is stated quite strongly in the Bible. Romans 3:20–28 explains how God justifies sinners apart from their own merits but without compromising His own just and holy nature. Romans 5 explains how the righteousness by which we are redeemed is the righteousness of Christ.

In Hebrews 10 we learn that the law was a shadow of what was to come through Christ. The sacrifices under the law could not remove sin and had to be repeated. This was not true, however, of the sacrifice made by Christ:

¹⁰And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. ¹⁴For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Heb. 10:10–14)

Through Christ we have reconciliation with God and redemption from sin:

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:17–21)

Philippians 3:8–9 emphatically states that this is the righteousness of Christ, not our own righteousness:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (See also Isaiah 53:11; Gal. 3; and Eph. 2:8–10).

As González explains, "Justification is not something that we achieve or merit. It is not something that God grants us on the basis of our future achievements. Justification is, first of all, the decree of absolution that God pronounces upon us, declaring us justified in spite of our sinfulness" (Justo L. González, A History of Christian Thought, vol. 3, From the Protestant Reformation to the Twentieth Century [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993], 57). Thomas Oden explains it well. He says that justification does not make a person behaviorally righteous, but it does acquit a person "from guilt and punitive liability." It is not based on improved human performance. Instead, it is a declaration of God on the basis of the sinner being in Christ. He says, "Justification is not the summit but the ground of the Christian life, not the end but the beginning of the journey of evangelical faith" (Thomas Oden, Systematic Theology [San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987–1992], 3:109).

Alister McGrath explains that the doctrine of justification is vital and central to the gospel of Christ:

"The Christian doctrine of justification, which forms the subject of the present study, thus constitutes the real centre of the theological system of the Christian church, encapsulating the direct and normative consequences of the historical revelation of God to mankind in Jesus Christ. There never was, and there never can be, any true Christian church without the doctrine of justification, for the community of faith cannot exist without proclaiming, in word and sacrament, the truth of what God has done for man in Christ" (Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification, 2nd ed. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], 1).

"Who Christ is becomes known in his saving action; who man is becomes known through his being the object of that saving action. The doctrine of justification thus encapsulates the essence of the Christian faith and proclamation, locating the essence of Christianity in the saving action of God towards mankind in Jesus Christ" (Ibid., 2).

A believer’s sins are still present, but they are not reckoned to the believer’s account. His righteousness is found in Christ, not himself. Nevertheless, God does not casually ignore human sin. God's righteousness was vindicated by Christ on the cross when Christ took the sins of the world on himself and then conquered death in the resurrection. Justification is a one-time provision. Sanctification is a continual process by which God transforms a believer and makes him actually righteous. Justification is a legal declaration, while sanctification actually changes the believer’s moral nature (Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Demarest, Integrative Theology [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996], 3:152–53). Justification also eliminates all grounds for boasting of one’s salvation and gives all of the glory to God.

Grudem explains that justification is a one time work which changes a believer’s legal standing and is entirely the result of God’s work. Sanctification is a continuing work which affects a believer’s “internal condition” and is the result of cooperative effort by God and the believer (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 746).

As Anthony Hoekema argues, it is important to keep justification and sanctification distinct. Failing to distinguish them results in making forgiveness of sins “dependent in some sense on the progress one is making in the sanctified life.” He stresses that justification is based on the work of Christ “and not one whit on our own good works” (Anthony A. Hoekema, Saved by Grace [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989], 178).

Justification by faith alone does not encourage unfaithfulness because it transforms a person in such a way that works become a natural result (Lewis and Demarest, Integrative Theology, 3:163–64). As John MacArthur explains, "The very essence of God’s saving work is the transformation of the will, resulting in a love for God. Salvation thus produces the root that will surely produce the fruit" (John F. MacArthur Jr., The Gospel According to Jesus: What Does Jesus Mean When He Says "Follow Me"?, rev. ed. [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], xvi. Emphasis original).

McGrath explains it well. He insists that salvation is a gift for which a person can offer nothing, but it does change the believer. He says, “We come to God empty-handed, having nothing to offer except that which we receive by the grace of God. That gift, however, brings with it our transformation.” To reverse the order and make forgiveness conditional upon moral renewal is to miss the central point of justification and move into moralism (Alister E. McGrath, Justification by Faith: What It Means for Us Today [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988], 140).

In summary, a person so corrupted by sin that he could never earn forgiveness from God (Isaiah 64:6). Instead, a person who has been justified has been justified according to the righteousness of Christ imputed to him. Salvation is based on, and granted by, the grace of God alone, apart from any human works. God still commands the redeemed believer to live a holy life, but these works are a manifestation of the change which God has already made in him. Justification by grace alone does not encourage unfaithfulness because it transforms a person in such a way that works become a natural result.

A few years ago I was speaking to a Mormon philosophy of religion class at Brigham Young University. One student said that evangelicals believe that they are saved by grace alone but follow this with works, while Mormons believe they are saved by grace plus works. He asked, "In the end, is there a difference?" I responded that the difference lies in the basis of forgiveness. Is it based wholly on the grace of God or not? To add an extra requirement to the grace of God is to say that the grace of God is insufficient.


Most people know October 31 only as Halloween. Do not let this distract you from the legacy left to us by such great men of God as Luther and Calvin and the message which they emphasized - A Gospel which gives all of the glory to God and reminds us of our utter dependence on Him and the full sufficiency of the atonement achieved in Christ alone.

The Five Solas - The heart of the Protestant Reformation
Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone
Solus Christus - Christ Alone
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria - The Glory of God Alone


Here are two videos commemorating the Reformation:







I ended my post on sola scriptura with a silly video, and so why not do the same this time :)



You can play this game here.