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Christianity Today, June, 2009 |

Not an Academic Question

Pastors tell how the justification debate has changed their ministry.

Trevin Wax and Ted Olsen | posted 6/26/2009 09:55AM

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The G

Posted: June 29, 2009 10:02 PM

JoJo is technically incorrect concerning justification. Justification is "Just if I'd paid the penalty" and not "just if I'd never sinned." God does take away the fact we sinned. Jesus paid the penalty for us on our behalf and so God is able to declare to sinners, "Penalty paid in full! Go free!" The work of grace is transferred to us by faith. Justification makes right or righteous not because it now appears we have never sinned, but that the JUSTICE of a holy God is SATISFIED because the penalty for our sin has been paid in full. Nothing changes the fact that we sinned. The punishment Jesus took in our place is the price that is imputed (IMPUTATION) to our spiritucal account so that we do not have to pay for our sins. We were guilty. That does not change. But the holiness of God is satisfied because our debt to Him for sin is paid. I recommend all read Jack Cottrell's latest book on Grace. Do yourselves a favour. It is excellent. Cottrell is superior to Wright.

RC	Posted: June 28, 2009 8:53 PM

Part of me can't help but think that this "debate" is a publisher-funded cock-fight. I don't get the impression that Wright was thrilled about having to defend himself against yet another Reformed evangelical who has inferred heresy on topics that he has not yet published on. Any pastor who actually takes the time to engage with Tom Wright's writings will come away with a better understanding of the categories that Paul used to describe these things. If that doesn't happen to square with classic Reformed theology then, yes, maybe we need to do some recalibration work (gasp!). But don't paint Wright as heterodox. He has done more to defend the historic Christian faith in scholarly and church circles than anyone else has in recent history and he deserves more respect among American evangelicals regardless of whether or not we happen to agree with all of his conclusions.

Jojo Bive - UFCC

Posted: June 28, 2009 1:28 PM

Justification is a legal act by which God declares a believer to have never sinned in His life on the basis of Christ's substitutionary death. A pardon is different in a sense that the one forgiven still has a record of what he was first of all forgiven of. Thus, an inmate who was pardoned is called an EX-CON. The forensic application of justification goes far beyond the commission of sin. It pressuposes that the believer has never sinned at all. For this reason, the one who believed in Christ is called a New Creation. There is no record of previous wrongs. Where Justification stops, sanctification begins. Justification is a one-act declaration that extends throughout the sanctification period. Sanctification ends on the day of glorification where our earthly bodies will be replaced with heavenly bodies for good.

Pablo Vermillion

Posted: June 28, 2009 3:52 AM

I feel that both are right in certain ways. Justification and Sanctification are both one time acts that occur when we are saved (regenerated by the New Birth). Yet, they, like salvation and Lordship have continued implications. Without truly receiving Jesus Christ as both LORD and SAVIOR we are neither justified, saved, nor sanctified. There are many who pray a prayer but make no exchange of ownership in their lives. Without this exchange of ownership from myself on the throne of my life to Jesus Christ being my master, then I am not saved nor justified. The real question is, "Have I really given my life to Jesus Christ?" This is after all what it means to believe in Him and CONFESS him as our Lord. The sad truth is that we have many people who attend our churches who have never really been saved because they have never really exchanged their own control of their lives for HIS Lordship. This is not just an educationally issue but also a practical and experiential issue.

LAH	Posted: June 27, 2009 10:10 PM


Pray that you cannot loose your salvation, but live like you can. Live the way the Lord lived with the same attitude."What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, love mercy & walk humbly with your God. Pure undefiled religeon in His sight is visiting the orphans & widows in thier distress & to keep ones self unspotted from the world." Loose your religeon & love God on His terms.

Sandy Brownlee

Posted: June 27, 2009 4:47 PM

I tend to think that when we pit justification against holy living we're playing in the shallows of what God has for us. I agree with Mr. Dunbar - we're no longer "sinners" at the core of our identity, we're new creations who are continually being transformed. In Christ - and Christ alone - we're built for holy living. Perhaps we all play in the shallows when it comes to understanding who we really are. When we realize it's "not I, but Christ" - and begin to live as if it is so - holiness becomes not something we do, but part of who we are. If we were schooled in what it really means to be inhabited by the living God, this whole debate might not be an issue.

K in New York

Posted: June 27, 2009 7:52 AM

The doctrine of "Once Saved Always Saved" implies that Scripture teaches that there is a time when we loose our free will. Eternal security is Biblical, and it is no longer the sin issue that separates us from God. OSAS, however is "indulgences" in Evangelical clothing. We are taught repeatedly to stay away from sin, not because it will 'unsave' us, but because it makes the things of God grow strangely dim, and creates appetites that send strong delusions. We can loose our salvation if it is our choice. Our choice matters to God. That is why we have a free will, and that is why He allows us to choose in the first place. If choice is not important, then why are even the angels allowed to choose? It is not His will that any should perish, so is He incapable? He cares about free will! If turning away at the end means you never were saved, where is the security in that? I might not be saved now, and that is not security. Salvation is a gift, but sin can change your mind.

Rob Dunbar

Posted: June 26, 2009 7:45 PM

Accompanying justification is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. My problem with justification as taught by the Reformers is that it left us "sinners" in nature, merely declared just. The idea becomes that we aren't really transformed here and now; we're saved by grace, but still sinners. The New Testament says something different: We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are given a new nature, we are transformed. Paul, after all, never wrote to "the sinners in Rome/Philippi/Thessalonica," etc. He wrote to "the saints." Derek Leman is right: Justification is entering school, not graduating.

Steve Skeete

Posted: June 26, 2009 6:47 PM

Which is more scandalous? The multitudes of Christians who think they need to earn their salvation by being good? Or the throng of Christians who think that holy living doesn't matter so long as they have prayed the sinner's prayer? I have been thought by a well-known apologist never to fall for the above two question scenario since there is always another question that one could add to the equation. So permit me to add another question. What about those Christians who, while thinking that they need to earn their salvation by being good, actually believe (and behave) as though holy living matters? The issue of justification by faith to me ought not to be complicated. The N.T makes it clear, at least to me, that having been "saved by grace through faith" we are required to "walk in the spirit " in order to not satisfy the lust of the flesh. I want someone to tell me what is so hard to understand about those two ideas.

Ian in Japan

Posted: June 26, 2009 5:05 PM


"New Creation" theology comes to mind as well. We are new creations in Christ. "New" means you have a fresh start, a clean start. The Blood of Christ is sufficient to provide this state every minute of every waking day. We are sanctified by God and set on new paths of righteousness and holiness. It's a matter of living AS new creations and walking along those new paths. A whole new way of being.

t	Posted: June 26, 2009 3:57 PM

We must seriously consider rebirth in order to understand justification but we must understand it through the idea of birth through the Father into the arms of Christ. When I was little we sang a song that "put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee... etc." It is a picture of being comforted as a new babe to which we must turn and, with Jesus' help we stay pure having him as our father, friend and mentor. Jesus gave us that "new life" as a gift when he died on the cross. This is what justification means: We are made right with God by blood and birth and it happens when God renews/regenerates us and makes us young again in innocence by grace. This is good news and has very little to do with the flavor of the debates or the theology which stifles and chokes the young-at-heart. As for sinning, we are no longer capable of sinning if we are so close to Jesus and are being guided and shepherded like in Ps23, on paths of righteousness for his name's sake.God takes charge and we follow

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