Salvation by Faith
Jan Paulsen
Sermon presented at the 1988 Annual Council, Nairobi, Kenya (East Africa), by
Jan Paulsen, then president of the Trans-European Division; now General
Conference vice-president.
Believing and Trusting
|
How God Makes Us Right With
Him |
|
A man is not justified by
observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have to put our
faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by
observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
(Gal 2:16) |
When studying the subject of salvation, we constantly encounter the terms justification and sanctification. Whatever
happens during these two transactions, it is said to come about by faith. Faith is the
means, the instrument. In respect to this topic the message is clear: without
faith nothing can happen! So this first study will examine the questions What
is faith? And what does it mean "to believe"?
From the outset we need to avoid the trap of dividing the
subject before us into what God
does and what I
do, what God has done and what I myself bring for it all to
happen.
Paul presents the whole salvation experience as one that
"starts from faith and ends in faith" (Rom 1:17,
It is in the New Testament that we meet the full force of
that which is called faith, and it is invariably rooted in one particular event
in history: the death/resurrection/ascension of Jesus Christ. Faith in the
Christian sense has no other focus, and when this event is not kept central, faith
dies! Thus it is critically important to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12:2).
So what is faith? In the words of Ellen G. White,
"faith includes not only belief but trust." Does she mean that faith
has both an objective
and a subjective
side? I think so.
The
Objective Dimension
Faith is, first of
all, something objective.
That is, it has to do with information and data that lie outside my person and
my experience. Faith looks out and finds its specific object in the Christ of
history, and is prepared to make certain confessions-certain declarations. It confesses that God
raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heaven. It
affirms that Jesus is Lord.
Such confession arises from a body of information: I know what God has done in
Christ, and therefore I can make confession! Such knowledge is primary and
fundamental. For, says Paul, were I not able to confess the Lordship of Jesus
Christ, I could not possibly find salvation: "Now if we died with Christ,
we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was
raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over
him" (Rom 6:8, 9). We believe because we know! This knowledge, then, is essential for salvation.
It is the structural aspect of faith. This means that faith is specific, not
just a religious feeling or a pious attitude. Its specific point of reference
is Jesus Christ on the cross. On this structure hangs the whole saving
experience.
The
Subjective Dimension
But this informed,
objective aspect of faith becomes subjective
when, looking at Jesus Christ, we move to place our trust in Him.
This means that as far as our spiritual life is concerned,
we are prepared to let go of all other structures of security, pronounce them
invalid, and turn to Christ alone. At this stage our good works, our successes,
and our score sheets do not matter. Only one thing does: belief in Jesus
Christ.
On the surface, we can all accept this. We can all affirm
that we are saved by faith. But do we not become uneasy with the statement that
we are saved by faith alone?
And why? Because of contemporary caricatures of that position and its
advocates.
Let us make one point clear: If faith is perceived to be simply
an internal and private thing of the mind, and if we think that it is only at
that level we relate to Christ, with no concern or interest in practical
godliness and victory over sin, then such a faith clearly is not biblical, nor
was it ever the position of our church. "By faith alone" does not
mean that.
But if the expression "by faith alone" means that
apart from trust in Jesus Christ, God has no other basis of salvation to offer,
then surely this is biblical, and the position we've always held as a church.
Indeed, this is where we stand today. We must not be so intimidated by
caricatures that we are afraid to be clear. Paul leaves behind traditional
Judaism, with its emphasis on good works and fine performance, and proclaims
salvation based on "faith quite apart from success in keeping the
law" (Rom 3:28,
It is at this point that we see faith as not just the
recognition and knowledge of an event outside of ourselves, namely, God's
accomplishment in Christ on the cross. We see it also as the subjective act of
turning to Christ in trust and submission, declaring the filthiness of our own
garments. With the high priest Joshua, we come to Him who says, "See, I
have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you" (Zech 3:4).
The change in posture is radical: it involves a turning away
from self, and a focusing on Christ. We abandon our achievement scorecards and
confess that at the end of day only Christ's achievement matters.
It is important that due recognition be given to this
subjective aspect of faith. For faith is not just the collection of the right
theological information or historical data; nor, for that matter, is it the
establishment of a convincing display of doctrines. These are all part of faith
but by no means the sum of it.
Says Mrs. White: "It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must
believe in Him.
The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal
Saviour; which appropriates His merits to ourselves" (Gospel Workers, p. 261,
emphasis in original). And again: "The faith that is unto salvation is not
a casual faith, it is not the mere consent of the intellect, it is belief
rooted in the heart, that embraces Christ as a personal Saviour. . . . This
faith leads its possessor to place all the affections of the soul upon
Christ" (Selected
Messages, Book 1, p. 391).
Faith
and Obedience
Faith involves obedience-obedience to a
Person (Jesus Christ) and to the message that comes from Him. Thus Paul can
say: "All over the world they are telling the story of your faith"
(Rom 1:8,
Faith's obedience is not different from the obedience of the
law. The fallacy of Judaism, however (and legalism in general), was that it
used the law to establish its own righteousness. The Jews tried by keeping the
law to project their own worthiness (their own righteousness). And their
performance became a means of boasting and self-centeredness. The basic
attitude was fundamentally wrong! For the attitude of faith is the very
opposite of boasting! Faith does not take credit for its obedience, for it has
nothing in itself to boast about. As Paul says: "Who makes you different
from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did
receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" (1 Cor 4:7). Faith
does not even boast about itself, for it is only the means by which we receive
the grace of God. In the words of Ellen White, "faith is not our Saviour.
It earns nothing" (The
Desire of Ages, p. 175).
The Obedience
of Faith
Faith is not simply
looking at a distant, historical Jesus. Rather, it is responding to His
invitation to "follow me." That is how I become a disciple. It is by
accepting the obligation to live a life of discipleship that faith becomes
obedience. Surely this is what Mrs. White meant when she wrote that the faith
that leads to salvation "is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth. .
. . The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a
personal Saviour" (ibid., p. 347). "To have faith means to find and
accept the gospel treasure, with all the obligations which it imposes" (Christ's Object Lessons,
p. 112).
There is a ring of completeness and fulfillment in what Paul
writes to his young friend Timothy shortly before the older man's death:
"I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard
what I have entrusted to him for that day" (2 Tim 1:12). It is only the
one who has unreservedly obeyed the call to discipleship and accepted all the
obligations that that implies who can make such a confession.
True discipleship, then, is concerned with following the
Lord: with being faithful to Him as a person, faithful to His commands,
faithful to His truth and to His way of life. Here what matters is to do the
Lord's bidding. The person of faith does not at the end of the day "add up
the scores." Faith as obedience expresses itself in surrender, in looking
to Jesus Christ, and in living according to His wishes. As such, it is
obedience to a call. It means to live a life of obedience to a Christ who is
alive! In his 1522 introduction to his Commentary
on Romans, Luther wrote: "Faith is a divine work within us. It
changes us and makes us to be born anew of God (John 1); it kills the old Adam
and makes altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and power, and
it brings with it the Holy Ghost. Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty
thing, this faith." Faith has only one way of expressing itself: in
obedience!
Faith
and Hope
Faith points to the
future. "The righteous will
live by faith" (Gal 3:11; Rom 1:17). "If we died with Christ, we
believe that we will
also live with him" (Rom 6:8). While in one sense salvation is a real
thing for believers now
(1 Cor 1:18; 2 Cor 2:15), men and women of faith live for the future, looking for the
ultimate fulfillment. Following the pattern of Abraham, who hoping against hope
believed, they live in anticipation, waiting with patience (Rom 4:18; 8:25).
This beautiful element of hope is eloquently expressed in Hebrews 11:1:
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not
see."
Such hope partakes of the attitude that evoked these ringing
words from the pen of Paul: "One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:13, 14).
Forgetting means constantly looking to Jesus Christ and being renewed again and
again. It means abandoning attempts to justify ourselves, and relying on God in
Christ Jesus. Faith's function is to receive Jesus Christ. It is a waste of
time and effort to look elsewhere, for there is no other solution for the sin
that haunts us. Faith does not save, faith does not justify, but it is the instrument for receiving
what the Lord offers.
Finally, let us remember Paul's words in Romans 10:17:
"Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through
the word of Christ." The answer to a frail faith lies neither in works of
duty nor in self-condemnation for our many shortcomings, but in feeding on the
Word of God.
Acquitted
|
The Glorious Commencement
of Our Walk With God |
|
We who are Jews by birth and not
'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but
by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that
we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law. (Gal
2:15, 16) |
In this passage Paul presents justification by faith as the good news that God
accepts sinful men and women into fellowship with Himself. They are no longer
strangers or aliens. And not because of their pious deeds, impressive
credentials, or natural goodness, but simply because they have looked to Jesus
Christ and have trustfully committed themselves to Him. They have answered yes
to His invitation to discipleship.
In the matter of salvation there are two basic indisputable
facts: (1) God is just, and (2) we are not. When we put these two factors
together, we see our dilemma. Paul writes: "There is none righteous, no,
not one" (Rom 3:10, KJV). And because we are unrighteous, we are strangers
to God, alienated from His presence, under the just sentence of death. And so
the urgent question is that of Bildad the Shuhite: "How then can a man be
righteous before God?" (Job 25:4). How can we be clean? Justified we must be if we are to live,
for in our natural state we stand guilty and condemned.
Paul tells us how God does it-how He sets us free: through faith (see Rom
3:28). It is a free gift, and reflects God's graciousness to creatures who
cannot save themselves. This, says Scripture, is God's way of doing it. We are
"justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus" (verse 24).
This message was completely foreign to traditional Judaism.
The righteousness of Judaism was the "righteousness of the law"; if
you keep it successfully, you will live. It's hard work. It's a struggle.
You'll have to flog yourself, but it's the only way. You must obey all that the
law says, and if you do this meticulously and flawlessly, you'll make the
grade, and God will accept you and reckon you worthy. Because of your
impressive scorecard God will declare you innocent.
This was the mind-set of traditional Judaism. And Paul
certainly had this erroneous concept in view when he spoke of some who
"did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to
establish their own" (Rom 10:3). Such self-centered striving is certainly
doomed to failure.
Traditional Judaism's view of justification and Paul's
understanding of it have one thing in common: both understand justification to
be a legal matter-forensic.
For both it is a statement of acquittal-a
declaration by God that one is innocent.
But there are two significant differences between Paul and
traditional Judaism on this issue. The first we have already covered, namely,
that justification is a free gift. The second is that whereas justification, in
Judaism, is an entirely eschatological reality, for Paul it is also a present
experience. It begins to work already now-a
concept that should come easy for Seventh-day Adventists, given our knowledge
of the ongoing, present judgment in heaven. Paul says: "Since we have been
justified through faith, we have
peace with God." "We have
gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." "Since we have now been justified by his
blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" (Rom
5:1, 2, 9).
So this gift of justification, or acquittal, is not only
legal "cover" for the future;
it has impact on life as we experience it here
and now.
False
Alternatives
In this matter of
justification we are sometimes confronted with options that some find
troublesome:
When God justifies and declares us righteous, does that say
something about the ethical/moral qualities that God sees in us? Does it imply
that we are basically good and decent? Or is justification simply a description
of what God is going to do for us, in spite of what He sees in us, simply
because we have chosen to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ? Is the justification of
the sinner simply a legal acquittal, or does it effect actual changes within?
Could it be that these are really false alternatives?-that it is neither entirely
one nor the other? Could it be both?
The word that the New Testament uses (dikaiosune) and that we meet
in English as "righteousness," "justification,"
"acquittal," and its verbal form diakaioo
can be used also in an ethical sense to mean "uprightness." But by
and large it is used in a legal sense, as it is when dealing with the basis or
condition for salvation. It does not describe the quality of the individual,
but it describes the relationship of the individual to God.
This legal meaning is what we find particularly expressed in
passages such as Romans 4:3 ("Abraham believed God, and it was credited to
him as righteousness") or Romans 4:5 ("To the man who does not work
but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as
righteousness"). (Cf. Rom 2:13; Gal 3:6).
Ellen G. White made this telling observation: "The
great work that is wrought for the sinner who is spotted and stained by evil is
the work of justification. By Him who speaketh truth he is declared righteous. The Lord
imputes unto the believer the righteousness of Christ and pronounces him righteous
before the universe. He transfers his sins to Jesus, the sinner's
representative" (Selected
Messages, Book 1, p. 392; italics supplied).
This is something that God is ready to do. And justification
has to do with our relationship and our legal standing before God. Somehow,
wonderfully, we who are rightly guilty and deserve to die are being saved by
God who chooses to declare us not
guilty! In the words of Ellen White: "When God pardons the
sinner, remits the punishment he deserves, and treats him as though he had not sinned, He
receives him into divine favor, and justifies him through the merits of
Christ's righteousness" (ibid., p. 389; italics supplied).
However, we are not to think that God has gone soft on sin.
It is not sin that God justifies! The involvement of God in Jesus Christ on the
cross is sufficient answer to that. Christ died in my place and satisfied the
unchangeable requirements of the law of the universe of God. Justification
deals with people who are being brought into a right relationship with God-with those who "hunger
and thirst after righteousness"; with those who know that they are guilty
and who cry out for help; with those who know that they are strangers and
aliens and who long to be united with God; with those who are crying out to God
in the name of Jesus Christ for a verdict in their favor.
Is It
a Legal Fiction?
Is justification
merely a legal acquittal, without any thought for simultaneous changes within?
I believe we make an infortunate mistake when we define
justification so narrowly as to make it mean only a legal declaration of
acquittal. I would suggest that passages of Scripture such as Romans 5:1-5 and
Galatians 2:15-21 give a much more dynamic definition of the concept. When a
man is justified, he receives at the same time both the imputed righteousness
of Christ and the Holy Spirit into his heart. The gracious gift by which
salvation is a reality contains both.
Justification is by faith, without works (Rom 3:28). The gift of the Holy
Spirit is similarly by faith, without the works of the law (Gal 3:2, 5). In
Romans 5:1-5 these two are so linked that one cannot be present without the
other.
Therefore, notwithstanding the theoretical priority we may
give to justification, it constitutes one united experience with that of the
renewal brought by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Restoring the relationship
between God and man, which sin destroyed, is more than just an objective legal declaration.
It is dynamic, and
affects the complete life of the total person. In the judicial declaration of
acquittal the creative power of God does something to a person. A miracle takes
place. As the believer is acquitted, the creative powers of the Almighty are
released in the life, changes occur, and a new creature emerges.
John Stott reminds us: "Justification is not a legal
fiction in which a man's status is changed, while his character remains
untouched. Verse 17: We are 'justified in
Christ.' That is, our justification takes place when we are united
to Christ by faith. And someone who is united to Christ is never the same
again. Instead, he is changed. It is not just his standing before God which
changed; it is he himself-radically,
permanently changed" (Only
One Way, p. 65).
To imagine such a person going back again to live his former
life in sin is, in Paul's thinking, a contradiction in terms. It's nonsense.
Paul opens Galatians 5 with the words "It is for freedom that Christ has
set us free [that's acquittal]. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be
burdened again by a yoke of slavery." In verse 16 he describes the new
life in the Spirit into which the justified person enters.
A New
Creation
This new life is one
in which the creative power of God, released in justification, causes a new
creation to emerge. In talking about this newness, he uses such terms as death and resurrection, as he does in
Romans 6, with the strong ethical imperative Live
therefore a new life! The same point is made in Galatians 2:19, 20:
I now live a new
life! "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old
has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5:17).
Having met the arguments of the critics, Paul now gives in
Galatians 2:21 his final forceful argument: The Christian message is the gospel
of God's grace in Jesus Christ. Its focus is the cross. If it were possible to
be right with God through discipline, lawkeeping, or education, then the cross
was ultimately unnecessary and the Christian faith is vain. But the message of
the Christian faith is clear: Salvation comes to us as a free gift. Its price
was the death of God's dear Son. Let us not deny God His right to be gracious!
Growing in Christ
The
Intimate Connection Between
Justification and
Sanctification
The Reformer John
Calvin, though he rejected the Roman Catholic confusion of justification and
sanctification,[1] nevertheless took the position that they were
"constantly conjoined." He used the illustration of the light and
heat from the sun: Although one can clearly distinguish between them, one
cannot separate them! Nor can justification and the renewal process be
separated. Calvin wrote: "There is no dispute as to whether or not Christ
sanctifies all whom He justifies. It were to rend the gospel, and divide Christ
Himself, to attempt to separate the righteousness which we receive by faith
from repentance."[2] In this view the other Reformers concur.[3]
That justification is a dynamic experience, involving
renewal, and therefore inseparably linked to sanctification, seems to be the
position of Ellen White: "Forgiveness has a broader meaning than many
suppose. . . . God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets
us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow
of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the true conception of
forgiveness when he prayed, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God'" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing,
p. 114, emphasis in original).
If we understand "forgiveness" in this context as
a synonym of justification, then it becomes evident that Ellen White saw the
restoration of a right relationship with God (justification) as more than
merely a legal arrangement. For her, it was a dynamic, life-changing, living
experience. This means that sanctification, though not identical to
justification, is firmly embedded in that experience. One cannot be justified
without simultaneously beginning the new
life. A birth takes place, with all the elements that belong to
living: desires, decisions, goals, purposes. Nevertheless, a complete lifetime
stretches out before the babe in Christ, and with it, unending opportunities
for growth.
And as this growth in Christ proceeds, it is continually
covered by the justification experience. This means we never grow outside of
Christ. Throughout the process, we are covered by the merits of Christ's
righteousness.
The Old Testament word qadesh
has basically two meanings: First, it means "to belong to God"-in reference to men,
things, days, laws, etc. Israel was holy because God had separated her from the
surrounding nations as a special people to Him. The sacrifices were holy; and
so were the sanctuary, the Sabbath, and the Ten Commandments.
Second, the word had also a moral/ethical meaning:
"Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy" (Lev 11:44).
This means that those who are to stand in God's presence were to have
"clean hands and a pure heart" (Ps 24:4).
In the New Testament, hagios
carries the basic meaning of Old Testament qadesh,
though here the moral/ethical meaning is far more prominent. But here also we
find the idea of a people being holy because they belong to God (1 Peter 2:9;
Rom 9-11).
Emphasis
on Holy Living
Paul placed strong
emphasis on the concept of a holy people. God's saints are to be "holy in
his sight, without blemish and free from accusation," continuing in
"faith, established and firm" (Col 1:22, 23; cf. Eph 5:27). This
theme of a new life unto God he pursues vigorously in Romans 6. Here he makes
the point that the genuineness of our faith proves itself in obedience to God
and in presenting our members as "slaves to righteousness."
Previously held in "slavery to impurity and to ever- increasing wickedness,"
we are now in "slavery to righteousness leading to holiness"
(verses18, 19). "Now that you have been set free from sin and have become
slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life" (verse 22).
In fact, throughout Romans 6 the apostle emphasizes this new
obedience. His argument: "You belong to God. Then live as unto God! You
have been born a new creature. Then live the life of a new creation." In
Paul's approach, the indicative
of justification is always followed by the imperative
of the life of faith that emerges from it. Herein lies the ethical character of
righteousness.
To be born, then, is not a goal in itself. Rather, we
receive the opportunity to live. We are acquitted in order to live a life of
freedom and purity for God and with God, now and eternally.
With this newness in Christ there comes a tremendous sense
of freedom.
Freedom from guilt. But there is also a freedom with respect to sin itself; not
in the sense that sin-or
the defeats that accompany it-is
gone, but a freedom from the compulsion
to sin. We are free from the attractiveness of sin. The way of sin no longer
brings that prurient fulfillment it once did. Wrote Ellen White: "When we
are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we shall have no relish for sin;
for Christ will be working with us. We may make mistakes, but we will hate the
sin that caused the sufferings of the Son of God" (Selected Messages, Book 1,
p. 360).
This is what it means to live "according to the
Spirit" (Rom 8:4). This is the state of the person who has given himself
wholly to Jesus Christ.
So Why
the Continuing Struggle?
This powerful
assurance notwithstanding, there is still an ongoing struggle with sin and
waywardness. Why? Does it suggest that my relationship with God is not what I
thought it was? that I am in fact lost, a spiritual failure?
In our zeal for the Lord, we sometimes draw hasty
conclusions that produce needless anxiety and threaten Christian experience. We
may draw encouragement from these statements by Ellen G. White: "The
nearer we come to Jesus, and the more clearly we discern the purity of His
character, the more clearly shall we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and
the less shall we feel like exalting ourselves" (The Acts of the Apostles, p.
561).
And again: "There can be no self-exaltation, no
boastful claim to freedom from sin, on the part of those who walk in the shadow
of Calvary's cross. . . . Those who live nearest to Jesus discern
most clearly the frailty and sinfulness of humanity, and their only hope is in
the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour" (The Great Controversy, p. 471).
The most important question in life is How do I stand with
God? And of the answer, many sincere and serious Christians are not sure. We
look at our own lives and feel that it is not a pretty sight! We see a string
of failures and shortcomings, and as a consequence our whole style of Christian
living becomes cramped, weighted down with a feeling of guilt, overwhelmed by a
sense of hopelessness and discouragement.
It would be well to read again, thoughtfully, Philippians
3:12-14, where the Inspired Word tells us to learn to forget that which is
behind and reach for that which is ahead-to
press on toward the goal in Christ Jesus. And we should remember that these
words come immediately after Paul has said that the only righteousness worth
having is that which comes from faith in Christ Jesus.
The
Divine Requirement
So what does God
expect of His people?
Rather than the complete eradication of our sinful nature,
what God offers is the power of the risen Lord, through the ever-present
ministry of the Holy Spirit, to counteract the bent of our sinful nature. Here
is a statement that speaks directly to this point: "The Christian will
feel the promptings of sin, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; but the
Spirit striveth against the flesh, keeping up a constant warfare. Here is where
Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and
faith exclaims, 'Thanks be to God, . . . [He gives] us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor 15:57)" (The Sanctified Life, pp 92, 93).
Righteousness by faith means to look continually and exclusively to the risen
Lord. Look away, and hope is gone. The righteousness that Christ offers is not
the beginning of some kind of self-righteousness, self-worthiness, or
self-congratulation, but rather the permanent end to such attitudes. The one
who is justified in Christ lives continually in Him. Herein lies our assurance,
our rest, our fulfillment, security, and victory.
_____________
[1].
At the Council of
[2]. John Calvin, "Acts of the Council of
[3]. For an example of Luther's position, see the
introduction to his Commentary
on Romans (1522). A sample of Melanchthon's views may be seen in
his Apology of the Augsburg
Confession 4, 72, 1531.
Unless otherwise noted,
scriptures quoted are from NIV, the Holy
Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978,
International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
Scriptures quoted from
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario