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Liberty University
Justification by Faith
As Presented in the Book of Romans
Presented to
Mr. Martin Sheldon
for
BIBL 425 – Romans
by
Susan C. Richardson
#22172804
May 9, 2010
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Justification by Faith
As Presented in the Book of Romans
In the book of Romans we see an issue that has arisen within the church at Rome that has
put two groups of believers, those of Jewish and those of Gentile backgrounds, in conflict with
each other. This conflict has the potential to destroy the effective witness of the church and is a
great discouragement to both groups of believers. Through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the
Apostle Paul is able to mediate this conflict and by doing so clearly answer a question raised
thousands of years earlier. In Job 25: 4, Job asks, “How then can man be justified with God? or
how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” This question is ancient but timeless and just as
pertinent to mankind today. Paul answers this question very clearly and in great detail but to
understand Paul’s answer, we as 21st Century professors of salvation must have a basic
knowledge of what it means to be justified. In understanding justification we will see that it is
inseparably linked to faith, but not just any faith. We will also see that the act of justification by
faith has profound effects on the justified.
The Jewish Christian, like the apostle himself, came from a background that held religious
law in reverence. Breaking from the idea that conforming to the law was necessary for God’s
continued blessing was a difficult concept for the Jewish Christian. This is evidenced by the
conflict in the Roman church. C. E. B. Cranfield takes the view that the Jew was relying on his
legalities for his salvation. “Far from being safe because he knows the law, the Jew will stand
under the judgment of the law. It is the law, in which he reposes his confidence, which is the
power which condemns him and turns him over to the wrath of God. His knowledge of the law
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takes away from him all excuse for his sin. The law cannot save him from his doom.” (Cranfield
1975)
In a more expansive view, Robert L. Dabney, a Presbyterian Theologian during the era of the
American Civil War considered it not just ceremonial works that Paul was referring to as
unacceptable to God, but also the moral law that is applicable to both Jew and Gentile.
“And it is no adequate answer to say he means only to exclude ceremonial works. For besides that, it is improbable the Apostle would ever have thought it worth his while to argue against a justification by ceremonial works alone, inasmuch as we have no proof any Jew of that day held such a theory; we know that the Hebrew mind was not accustomed to make the distinction between ceremonial and moral, positive and natural precepts. Moreover, the law whose works are excluded is, evidently from the context, the law whose works might prompt boasting, the law which was over Jew and Gentile alike, the law which was the term of the Covenant of works, and from whose curse Christ delivers us.” (Dabney 1878)
According to Stifler, “Adam did not bring sin into the world by setting a bad example; his one
act wrought a constitutional change of unholiness within his heart. That act resulted in an innate
corrupting principle that transmitted itself just as natural features did.” (Stifler 1960) In either
case, whether reliance on religious law or moral conduct, we can be assured that due to man’s
sinful condition no one can stand before a holy God. We also must assent that God Himself
must provide for the helpless transgressor a way of justification as he did in providing Himself a
lamb as a substitute for Isaac in Genesis 22:13. Throughout God’s word, justification is
mandated by mans condition and God’s holiness but what is the actual meaning of the word
justification?
James R. Edwards in, Romans , New International Biblical Commentary explains Paul’s
definition of justification in this way:
In Romans, it is undeniable that Paul’s favorite term for redemption is the heavily theological word, “justification” (dikaiosune). It is well agreed that justification for Paul is a legal or forensic term referring to the imputed righteousness the believer receives at
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the moment of faith. Paul has discussed justification in great detail in 3:21–5:11, climaxing his treatise with a discussion of a few of its marvelous blessings (5:1-11). Paul’s thorough treatment of justification has been completed in chapters long before he arrives at the Rom 10:9-10 argument. (J. Edwards 1992)
In this cited passage of Mr. Edward’s work we find that the word Paul uses is a legal term where
God declares the ungodly to be righteous, meaning not guilty, before the Holy Judge. Thomas
Schreiner in his book, Romans tells us, “Judges in Israel were to justify the righteous and to
condemn the wicked. The meaning here is obviously forensic, for judges did not make people
righteous or guilty but declared them to be such (Schreiner 2008).
In the same vein Moo tells us concerning righteousness, “The gospel brings salvation to
people because it reveals God’s promised way of putting people into right relationship with
himself (Moo 2008). He also states that like justification, righteousness is also a forensic act. “…
it does not mean that people are “made right” in a moral sense but that they are “declared to be
right” in a judicial sense (Moo 2008).
But how can Paul say we can be justified when David says in Psalm 143:1-2 “Hear my
prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy
righteousness. And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living
be justified.”? Edwards also states that Paul gives us a detailed discussion of this topic
throughout the book of Romans. Part of that discussion is Paul’s answer to this dilemma in
Romans 3:23-26:
23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
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James Edwards recognizes special significance in this text: “In all Scripture there is probably no
verse which captures the essence of Christianity better than this.… Everything in verse 23 was
due to humanity; everything in verse 24 depends on God. (J. Edwards 1992)”. To summarize the
answer to David’s question in Psalm 143, we must be justified by grace through redemption.
Romans 3:23-26 also shows us that the words justified, redemption, propitiation, and
righteousness, are closely related. The words redemption and propitiation both deal with how
God justifies His people. Redemption comes from the Greek apolytrosis. This word pictured the
money that was used to secure the freedom of a common slave. The root idea is a “price paid for
release” (Moo 2008). This so aptly describes the payment that was made to secure the release of
the sinner from the bondage of his sin. Perfect holiness is God’s standard which only the “Holy
One of Israel” could meet in His flesh. The judgment was made and the sentence read. The soul
that sins must die (Eze.18:20). Christ paid the price of death the Father required for the
redemption of sinful man.
The word propitiation that is used in this passage is unfamiliar to many. Strong’s
Concordance defines propitiation as an “atoning victim” linked closely to the Old Testament
Jewish sacrificial system and can also mean the “Mercy Seat” of the Ark of the Covenant.
(Strong n.d.). Christ’s death as the “atoning victim” was the answer to David’s problem, “in thy
sight shall no man living be justified. (Psalm 143:2)”
Matthew Henry describes Christ’s work in this way,
“Jesus Christ is the great propitiation, or propitiatory sacrifice, typified by the hilasterion, or mercy-seat, under the law. He is our throne of grace, in and through whom atonement is made for sin, and our persons and performances are accepted of God, 1John 2:2. He is all in all in our reconciliation, not only the maker, but the matter of it - our priest, our sacrifice, our altar, our all. God was in Christ as in his mercy-seat, reconciling the world unto himself (Henry 1961).
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Moo concurs with Matthew Henry and says the Greek word hilasterion translated in the King
James Version as propitiation means to “placate” someone’s wrath. He gives the example of
“propitiating” a wife’s wrath by taking her out to dinner. Moo feels that this does not do justice
to Paul’s intent. Twenty-one of the twenty-seven times this word occurs in the Septuagint it
refers to the mercy seat, the place where the atoning blood was applied (Moo 2008).
Paul continues his argument for Christ’s atoning substitution for the unrighteous sinner in
Romans 5:8-12,
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
Here we see the word reconciled. This term is also closely related to justification but is not
synonymous. John MacArthur explains reconciliation in this way,” It is used in the Bible to
speak of a man's relationship to God in terms of the restoration of the right relationship between
a man and God. Reconciliation, then, is God being reconciled back to man, or man, if you will,
being reconciled back to God -- either way (MacArthur 2010).” Not only does Paul recognize
our condition as sinners but also places us as enemies of God in need of reconciliation. John
Newton the author of the song Amazing Grace also wrote, “We hear much in the present day of
the dignity of human nature. And it is allowed that man was an excellent creature as he came out
of the hands of God; but if we consider this question with a view to fallen man, as depraved by
sin, how can we but join with the Psalmist in wonder that the great God should make any
account of him?” (Newton 1999) This account that God gives to sinful man is the account of His
own Son through whom we receive the atonement (Rom. 5:11).
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Paul’s statement “being now justified by his blood” in Roman’s 5:10 makes no mention of
any action on the recipients’ part. If this atonement for justification is not received by works
then how does man acquire it? Paul has much to say on this subject in chapter 4. In Romans 4:3
Paul states: “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him
for righteousness.” The author of this work has found, in their opinion, no better summary of
Paul’s discussion on justification than that given by Hodge,
The proofs that Paul offers are a series of biblical passages that he uses to show that his thesis about justification by faith is consistent with God’s will revealed in the Scriptures of Israel.
The lead text in Paul’s argument is Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom 4:3). Paul had previously developed a similar argument with an even more extensive recourse to biblical texts in Galatians 3:6-29. In the context of his letter to the Romans, Paul wants to argue that because Abraham believed God’s promise that he would have a son (Isaac) despite his advanced age and that of Sarah, and that he would thus become the father of many nations, “it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” The verb “reckoned “carries a business connotation, and the passive voice suggests that the bookkeeper is God (the divine passive). The point that Paul wants to make is that the heavenly books are being kept on the basis of faith like that of Abraham and not the works of the Law. That means that the right relationship with God made possible through Jesus’ death and resurrection (justification) is a gift rather than merely just payment for good works performed. To cap off his argument, Paul invokes the authority of David and the Psalms, with the quotation of Psalm 32:1 to the effect that those who have been freed from the domination of Sin deserve to be declared “happy” or ‘fortunate’.” (Hodge 1886)
Douglas Moo explains and applies the example of Abraham and his faith in God’s promises
when he says,
“Paul makes clear a point that has been implicit throughout: what the Bible records about Abraham, especially in Genesis 15:6, are valuable for Christians, because as God credited Abraham’s faith for righteousness, so he does for us as well. We also believe in a God who gives life to the dead. Our God has raised Jesus from the grave to become our Savior and Lord. Our faith, like Abraham’s, must be a faith that looks beyond contrary evidence to rest secure in the promise of God.” (Moo 2008)
Abraham’s belief: It seems so little, yet means so much to God.
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This brings us to another spiritual dilemma. How can a person, who is by nature an enemy of
God, ever believe? According to Romans 3:10-12 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no,
not one: 11.There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12.They are all
gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no,
not one.” Man does not even seek God nor even understand his own condition. J. I. Packer puts it
bluntly,
“For human nature is radically twisted into an instinctive yet deliberate and ineradicable habit of God-defying or God-denying self-service, so that God’s requirement of perfect love to himself and others is permanently beyond our reach, and falling short of God’s standard marks our lives every day. What is due to us, then, from God is condemnation and rejection (Packer, J.I.; Ryle,J.C. 2002).”
Fortunately, Paul makes sure we are not left to wonder about our apparently hopeless state but
assures us of God’s provision in verses 21-23 of chapter 3. ‘But now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for
there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” As Paul
continues in chapter 4 we see that he call to mind the examples of both Abraham and David in
verses 5-7. “5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his
faith is counted for righteousness. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man,
unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7. Saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”
In 1872 John Wesley wrote this exposition of Romans 4:5-8:
Faith, therefore, is the "necessary" condition of justification; yea, and the "only necessary" condition thereof. This is the Second point carefully to be observed; that, the very moment God giveth faith (for "it is the gift of God") to the "ungodly" that "worketh not," that "faith is counted to him for righteousness." He hath no righteousness at all, antecedent to this, not so much as negative righteousness, or innocence. But "faith is imputed to him for righteousness," the very moment that he believeth. Not that God (as
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was observed before) thinketh him to be what he is not. But as "he made Christ to be sin for us," that is, treated him as a sinner, punishing him for our sins; so he counteth us righteous, from the time we believe in him: That is, he doth not punish us for our sins; yea, treats us as though we are guiltless and righteous (Wesley 1872) (Wesley 1872).”
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. (Rom.4:5) What a profound statement in light of man’s total inability to
receive God’s righteousness on his own accord.
A.W.Pink gives us a wonderful analogy of how a wicked, rebellious enemy of God leaves the
state of damning unbelief to receive reconciliation with the Father.
Saving faith, then is the opposite of damning unbelief. Both issue from the heart: unbelief, from a heart that is alienated from God, which is in a state of rebellion against Him; saving faith, from a heart which is reconciled to Him and so has ceased to fight against Him. Thus, an essential element or ingredient in saving faith is a yielding to the authority of God, a submitting of myself to His rule. It is very much more than my understanding assenting and my will consenting to the fact that Christ is a Savior for sinners, and that He stands ready to receive all who trust in Him. To be received by Christ, I must not only come to Him renouncing all my own righteousness (Romans 10:3), as an empty-handed beggar (Matt. 19:21), but I must also forsake my self-will and rebellion against Him (Psalm 2:11, 12; Pro.28:13). Should an insurrectionist and seditionist come to an earthly king seeking his sovereign favor and pardon, then, obviously, the very law of his coming to him for forgiveness, requires that he should come on his knees, laying aside his hostility. So it is with a sinner who really comes savingly to Christ for pardon; it is against the law of faith to do otherwise……. Saving faith is a believing on Christ with the heart:
"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom.10:9, 10) (Pink 2009).
We have seen that through the faith that comes by the gospel of Christ, which is the power of
God unto salvation (Rom.1:16), we are justified. Yet if I am to agree with Pink then there is
much more to my faith “than my understanding assenting and my will consenting to the fact that
Christ is a Savior for sinners” (Pink 2009). James also uses the faith of Abraham in a way many
have construed as the basis for works salvation. In James 2:19-24 we read:
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not
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Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
After all we have read in the book of Romans, we have to ask, “What is James talking about?”
How is it that a man appears to be justified by both works and faith? How can faith be a dead
corpse as Strong’s defines the word “dead” in this passage? (Strong n.d.)” The book of Galatians
is compared by many to the book of Romans, with its discussion of justification by faith and it is
said that Galatians could be called “Romans in shorthand” (Willmington 1981). In Galatians
2:20 Paul testifies to how his faith is made alive in Christ. “I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Is this not the same
life all believers are called to live?
Paul tells us what James is talking about when he tells how the believer is to live in Romans
12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”. The word “bodies” here refers to the
whole person and stresses that the consecration to God involves the whole person (Schreiner
2008, Cranfield 1975). One cannot consign dedication to God to the spirit and neglect the body.
Genuine commitment to God embraces every area of the life, and includes the body in all
particularity and concreteness (Schreiner 2008). In a later section, Schreiner states that the word
“living” denotes the spiritual state of believers. They are now “alive to God in Christ Jesus”
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(Rom.6:11, 13; 8:13) It is precisely those who are alive in Christ who are called to give their
lives to him in sacrifice (Schreiner 2008).
In 1666 John Bunyan the author of Pilgrims Progress wrote a telling answer to the question
“How is it that a man appears to be justified by both works and faith?”
I wish the reader to understand that as often as we mention faith alone in this question, we are not thinking of a dead faith, which worketh not by love, but holding faith to be the only cause of justification. It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone: just as it is the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun is not alone, because it is constantly conjoined with light. Wherefore we do not separate the whole grace of regeneration from faith, but claim the power and faculty of justifying entirely for faith as we ought. I was all this while ignorant of Jesus Christ, and going about to establish my own righteousness, and [would have] perished therein, had not God in mercy showed me more of my state by nature…(Bunyan 1978)
Just as the heat and light are different forms of energy produced by the sun so are faith and
works products of a relationship with the Son of God. Ephesians 2:8-10 integrates faith with
works when we read, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.”
Piper points out that though we were once ungodly; we are now justified and able to begin a
life of godly works.
“The point of the word ungodly in Romans 4:5 is this, faith believes in Him who justifies the ungodly. When faith is born in the soul we are still ungodly. Faith will begin to overcome our ungodliness. But in the beginning of the Christian life-where justification happens we are all ungodly. Godly works do not begin to have a role in our lives till we are justified. We are declared righteousness, whose word comes from dikaioo meaning declare righteous not make morally righteous. We see this especially in Romans 3:4 where God is justified (dikaiothes) in his words, that is, declared righteous, not made righteous) by faith alone while we are still ungodly. And that is the only way any of us can have hope that God is on our side so that we can now make headway in the right direction against ungodliness. He is for us.” (Piper 1993)
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Works are then the outward manifestation of the inward condition. A faith without works is a
body without life, a sun without heat or light (Bunyan 1978). Is it not logical that he who has
been appropriated the power of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ should have His life
living within? Jonathan Edwards tells us what Christ intended. “By Christ's purchasing
redemption, two things are intended: his satisfaction and his merit; the one pays our debt, and so
satisfies; the other procures our title, and so merits. The satisfaction of Christ is to free us from
misery; the merit of Christ is to purchase happiness for us (J. Edwards 1998).” This logical
service could not be more logical because of the happiness it produces.
If we have no desire to be free from misery and appropriate our purchased happiness can we
say that we have truly come to that “saving faith” addressed by Pink when he talks about the
hater of God renouncing his own righteousness to receive the righteousness of God (Pink
2009)?” This is the plea of Paul for his people the Jew. Are you justified by faith in the finished
work of Christ as the atonement for your sins? Is your faith the faith of trust, of commitment to
Christ (Murray 1959)? “The basis and spring of sanctification are union with Christ, more
especially union with him in the virtue of his death and the power of his resurrection. Believers
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit (Murray 1959).” Oliver B. Greene notes on Romans
8:1-2, “You will notice that this passage is positive. The statement is not ‘IF we walk after the
flesh.’ Believers ‘walk NOT’ after the flesh---and the reason they walk not after the flesh is
because the Lord is the Shepherd of the Christian, and the Shepherd leads into paths of right
living.” (Greene 1965)
The book of Romans relates to us the graciousness of God. Even in the domestic difficulties of
the Roman Christians the Holy Spirit is leading Paul to expound the mysteries of salvation-
history and its implications to sinful mankind. Through this discourse humanity sees its
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helplessness and hopelessness before a just and holy judge yet finds the One who is willing to
suffer death to sprinkle the heavenly mercy seat with His own blood. In Romans we are lead
through the process of redemption and justification that is a free gift of God. We are convinced
through Paul’s teachings that there is nothing a sinner can do to merit the favor of God except
have faith in Christ’s atoning work. Is it not wonderful to say with the old Bible teacher, “Even
when we were enemies of God—wicked, lost, hopeless, and without strength, dead in trespasses
and sins—Christ died for the ungodly! Even though sin brought us under the condemnation of a
holy God, through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ we can become sons of
God, accepted by Him. Through justification, our hearts can be made pure, filled with peace, joy
unspeakable and full of glory.” (Greene 1965)
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