I just want to start off by saying that this is Very serious. And it's only in an age of unbelief in general. that people begin to say that doctrine is not important. People who believe nothing. are willing to negotiate everything when it comes to theology.
But this theology defines the Church's understanding of the Gospel itself.
Some people suggest that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is a minor theological issue, something that we can simply agree to disagree on. But as you just heard from RC Sproll, nothing could be further from the truth. Welcome to the Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind. This week, we begin Dr. Sprohl's series, Justified by Faith Alone, and we'll see that this doctrine gets to the very heart of our salvation.
how we're made right with a holy God. If you'd like to receive the entire Ten Part series, you can request it with your donation at renewingyourmind.org. But right now. Let's join Dr. Sproll.
Today, we're going to start a series on the doctrine of. Justification by faith alone.
Now we're going to look at it from a historical as well as a theological and biblical perspective. along the way. Recently, I heard a somewhat noted church historian. remark that the Reformation is over. that the battle that was so vicious In the sixteenth century, in the rise of Protestantism, Has so cooled off since that time that no longer is there any need for.
ongoing debate. On a doctrine such as justification by faith alone. We know. For example, that in the 16th century, with the Protestant Reformation, The church experienced the deepest fracture. In her entire History and that the battle became so acrimonious That after the split occurred between Rome and Protestantism.
the retaliation between both sides became bloody at times. only time I can think of of a monarch in England having the nickname Bloody. was Bloody Mary when she tried to restore Catholicism. to England and engaged in radical persecution against those who fled from her persecutions to other nations. But we know that people were tortured, they were beaten, and they were killed.
because the issue seemed to be To those contemporaries involved in the dispute of the sixteenth century. to be of the utmost magnitude. indeed a doctrinal controversy, that had to do with eternal consequences. how the Church has always had to deal. with controversy.
and with division. and with debates about theology.
some more serious than others. But we go back to the fourth century, And we think of the significant controversy with Arius, who denied the deity of Christ, and that led to. the Council of Nicaea and subsequently the Nicene Creed. Then we move to the fifth century and the church's struggle with Eutyches and whose monophysite heresy was.
So destructive, along with nestories, and it led to the Council of Chalcedon, where we got the The most complete definition of the church's understanding of the person of Jesus. formulated at that time. But those controversies, as profound as they were back in the fourth and fifth century, almost pale into insignificance when we think of what happened in the sixteenth century with the Protestant Reformation.
Now As we will see as we go along. Luther considered the issue of justification. to be so significant. and so important that he was willing. that the church be rent asunder.
For the sake of the salvation of those people who were not hearing. the gospel. You recall if you go to Switzerland today and go to the old town of Geneva. And the Reformation Park, there's this massive wall across the side of the amphitheater there, and with the statues of men like Calvin and Beza and Luther and Zwingli and Knox and other people that were prominently involved in the 16th century Reformation. But chiseled into the stone of the Reformation wall are the Latin words post tenebras lux.
After Darkness Light. Luther was convinced that The Gospel itself. had fallen into darkness, and obscurity in the late Middle Ages, During a period of unprecedented corruption, in the church. and the Reformation, from his perspective, was the recapturing and recovering of nothing less than the gospel itself. It was the gospel that had been hidden.
Under the machinations of the liturgies of the Church of the Middle Ages. And this is what Luther was concerned. to repair. to bring the gospel into the forefront.
so that the light of the gospel could shine anew. in the life of the church. At one point, for example, as a secondary matter of debate with the church. Over the question of whether or not the Bible should be allowed to be read. by people apart from the interpretation of the church.
The church said, if you let people read the Bible in their own language, for example. and read it for themselves. This will open a floodgate of iniquity. And many, many, many churches will rise up, each claiming. To have the Bible as their authoritative support.
And of course, since that warning was issued to Luther. almost five hundred years ago. There have been over 2,000. Protestant denominations spring up in the world, each claiming. to be the true biblical church.
as it were.
So Luther was aware. that that could happen. But he said that the gospel is so plain. in Scripture. that a child can understand it.
And to keep that message of the gospel away from people. was inexcusable. And so he Simply demanded that the Bible be made available for everyone so that they can hear and understand and learn. The Gospel. And so he replied to the church, if a floodgate of iniquity be opened.
So be it. I mean, you have to ask the question of the psychology of Luther, his mentality, how he was able to stand against the whole world. Of his day insisting on this particular doctrine. of justification by faith alone. He made the famous statement that the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
is the article upon which the church stands or falls. In the article that is so important that he said that if we lose it, We lose Christianity. He said, justification by faith alone. is the prince. The Lord.
the authority. For all else that comes to us out of sacred Scripture. Again, going back to the motto: it's the article upon which the church stands or falls. What did he mean by that? He meant that if you don't have the doctrine of justification by faith alone, You don't have the gospel.
And if you don't have the gospel, The church has no reason to exist. The church itself ceases to be a church and falls into apostasy. But beyond the general ecclesiastical application, there, Luther by extension, would be saying that the doctrine of justification by faith alone. is the article upon which you use Stand or Fall. The article upon which I stand or fall.
Again, why? Because it is the article that answers the question, what must I do? to be saved. How? A person.
Gains salvation. The biggest problem that the human race has is this. God is holy. He's righteous. He's just.
And we're not. And so, the question of justification boils down to this: how can I, as an unjust person, Have A right relationship with my Creator. A lot of people don't. Worry too much about that. They assume that God's kind of a celestial bellhop that's.
ready to answer every one of our requests and that he has such a Infinite mercy that he can just unilaterally forgive everybody of their sins. And he doesn't need Any process to take place in order to justify the ungodly. He's God. He can do what he wants to do.
So, why can't he just wave his hands and say, You're all redeemed, you're all forgiven, you're all saved?
Well, He won't do that. Because he can't do that. And he can't do that. Because he's God. Because he's righteous.
And the only way he could Redeem people away from some process of justification. would be for him to negotiate. His own righteousness And so As Paul says in Romans. God provides a way of justification through Christ so that God may be both Just and the justifier. God finds or has a way, He doesn't have to find it.
He eternally knows this way. of justification by which he can maintain his own righteousness. and yet redeem those of us Who have no righteousness? of our own. And so the debate here, again.
centers on the question of how a person is saved. And that is not. an irrelevant doctrine. by any means. Calvin added his evaluation to Luther's by saying that justification Is the hinge?
on which everything turns. I've heard that metaphor used many, many times. coming from the pen of John Calvin. And I think about it. And I think when he speaks about hinges, he must have had in mind the idea of some kind of a door.
because we usually associate hinges with doors. Doors swing in and out because they are not affixed solidly to the frame, but they are on a hinge that allows them to turn. in and out. And I can't help but jump from that to the many times our Lord himself use the metaphor of the door to speak of salvation. I am the door, he said.
through which men must enter. In order to come Into The kingdom of God. And I think that was what was in Calvin's mind because when he talks about something being the hinge upon which everything turns. Calvin understood that the phrase, justification by faith alone, is simple shorthand. for justification.
By Christ alone. And that was the issue at hand. Early Packer used a different metaphor. He in his introductory preface to the English translation of Athanasius' work, on the incarnation Packer used the metaphor Atlas. where Atlas had was carrying the globe or the world on his shoulders.
He said that justification by faith alone. is the atlas of the Christian faith. If Atlas shrugs. and that doctrine falls from his shoulders. All is lost.
All other. Truths of the Christian Faith. Perish. with it.
Now, some might look at these statements by Calvin and Packer and Luther and say, ah. This is hyperbole. They're exaggerating the importance. And there are those in our own day who, as I said, are saying that the Reformation is over. I've heard otherwise quite knowledgeable scholars.
say a reformation was simply a misunderstanding. I heard another theologian say, it was a tempest in a teapot. In other words, no Big deal. People got all exercised about this doctrine, got carried away with it, and mostly based upon miscommunication and misunderstanding, completely ignoring. The multiple discussions and debates and attempts that took place in the sixteenth century.
to heal this rift. And to heal this breaking apart is leading finally to Regensburg, which we'll talk about later. but every effort at that time. Failed. because the differences were not imagined.
They were real. And they remain real. even to this day. as we will see.
Now one last thing before I actually go into some of the historical background of this. is that just this week Reading Facebook And reading people's comments on social media. I heard a red at least three times. Statements by people. who are saying that we are not saved by believing in doctrine.
We're not saved by believing specifically in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. This particular critique, which I've read frequently in recent months, has been charged and leveled against those who espouse what we call Reformed theology. And I just want to say, by way of introduction, in my life. and teaching of over a period of fifty years. I have not one time ever heard a Reformed theologian or a reformed person.
ever say That You're saved by the doctrine by believing the doctrine of justification by faith alone. In fact, if there's anything that would refute the idea that you can be saved by believing in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. would be the doctrine of the justification by faith alone. Because the doctrine of justification by faith alone precludes the idea that you could be saved by believing other and Christ alone. It's not the doctrine it saves, it's the Christ who saves.
And what the church is trying to explain in terms of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. is to explain how Christ saves him. His People. And what we're saying is that justification is by putting our trust in Christ and in Christ alone. not in our theology textbooks, not in our creeds, as important as they may be.
Not in our confessions, but in our actual faith, whose object is Christ, not the doctrine about Christ. You see the difference, I hope.
Now I often wondered myself, I know for sure that No one is saved just because they affirm the doctrine of justification by faith alone. The devil knows that's true. But the other side of the coin is not so easy. What happens if you deny? The doctrine of justification by faith alone.
Now that's a different matter. Because now you're denying that you're saved by Christ and by Christ alone. And that denial May be enough to damn you. That was believed by the Roman Catholic Church, as we will see, as well as the Protestants. Both of them believed that the doctrine of salvation was crucial for our everlasting redemption, and what we believed about Christ was critical for.
ever. But They also believed that the false teaching of it was worth damnation. as we will see when we look at the Council of Trent and also at Paul's letter. to the Galatians. But by way of beginning, our Reconnaissance here over this doctrine of justification by faith alone.
I just want to start off by saying. that this was not a tempest in a teapot. This is Very serious. And it's only in an age of unbelief in general. that people begin to say that doctrine is not important.
people who believe nothing. are willing to negotiate everything. when it comes. to theology. But this theology defines the church's understanding.
of the gospel itself.
So I think we can all see how important this doctrine is. It gets to the heart of our salvation, doesn't it? And may we all be Christians who uphold this biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. Thank you for being with us today for Renewing Your Mind. We've been listening to Dr.
R. C. Sproll's series Justified by Faith Alone. And if you'd like to receive lifetime digital access to this ten-part series, along with the DBD and the Digital Study Guide, You can request it with your donation today. Simply call us at 800-435-4343 or reach out to us online at renewingyourmind.org.
Here's what R. C. said about this series. In this series, we had worked our time together with the students at Reformation Bible College, and it was kind of reminiscent of. How we used to do things back on our campus in western Pennsylvania in the mountains there.
where we would have GabFests with students sitting around and on the floor and all over the place and discussing major theological questions of that time. And of course, this issue of justification is of critical importance and. I don't think uh it's possible for us to visit this matter. too frequently. You have said that without the doctrine of justification by faith alone, there is no gospel.
That's a strong declaration.
Well, I don't think it's uh it's too strong of a declaration in terms of The issues that we've encountered over 2,000 years of church history. When I say without justification by faith alone, we don't have the true gospel. I'm not saying anything any differently from what that was declared in the 16th century Reformation. Where Luther said that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article. upon which the church stands or falls.
And Calvin used a different metaphor. He said that it's the hinge. on which everything turns. And because The doctrine of justification by faith alone is so Integrally related to the gospel itself. We distinguish between the objective content of the gospel.
and the subjective appropriation of that content. And when we talk about what the essence of the gospel is, In terms of its objective contact, we're talking about The biblical declaration of the person. and the work of Christ. Which has been accomplished for us. But then, when we ask the question, how?
Are the benefits appropriated to the individual believer. Then we have the element of faith and faith alone where the Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Galatians. Said that he was shocked that the church had so quickly removed themselves from the true gospel to another gospel, and he said. There is no other gospel. And what he was talking about was when the church had removed itself from a confidence in believing in justification by faith alone.
And he said, If anybody teaches any other gospel than that which we have received from Christ and from the apostles, He he talked in strong terms. He said, Let him be Anatema, let him be anathema. He says, If anybody teaches, even an angel from heaven. would teach any other gospel than the biblical gospel then The curse of God falls upon him. That's strong language.
I don't think the Apostle Paul ever uses stronger language than he does when he addresses That issue of justification by faith alone. One of the students that set in on your lectures told me how much he appreciated you providing a historical context. For the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And he said that. I felt like Dr.
Spohl put me right there with Luther as he took his courageous stand on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Was that your intent?
Well, yeah, I think it's very important to have the historical background when I teach in the seminary on the doctrine of justification. I always use as the backdrop of the sixteenth century crisis. That was provoked by the teaching of Luther. And I said, if you really want to understand. The biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone and the Reformation recovery of that doctrine in the 16th century, I think it's important to understand it against the backdrop.
of the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Communion about justification so that you can see the clear difference between what happened in the Middle Ages when the gospel went into obscurity and into darkness and the motto of the Reformation being post tenebrus lux out of the darkness light. That is, the light of the gospel was recovered with Luther and the magisterial reformers at that time. But to get it clear in your mind, you have to see it in contrast. to the Roman doctrine. And when people see what the Roman doctrine is, and what the reaction of the reformers was against that distortion.
then they have a a much clearer understanding. There's so much fuzziness and confusion today. in our time about what the doctrine of justification by faith alone means and what the gospel means. The doctrine of justification by faith alone is often associated with Martin Luther. a man who was desperate to find peace with a holy God.
I hope you'll join us as we discover how the gospel brought sweet relief to a German monk. who was nearly driven mad by his guilt. That's tomorrow, here. on Renewing Your Mind.
