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Happy Reformation Day. Today on Renewing youg Mind, RC Sproul tackles a centuries old question.
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Here we have the explicit statement in Sacred Scripture that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. You would think that that single verse would be the crushing blow to the article that Luther said was the article upon which the Church stands or falls. So how do we reconcile what Paul teaches in Romans with what James teaches here?
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Welcome to this Reformation Day edition of Renewing youg Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham. All week you've been hearing messages from R.C. sproul's Luther and the Reformation series. Well, today you'll hear one message from the last series that Dr. Sproul recorded for us at Ligonier Ministries. It's called Justified by Faith Alone. He recorded it in his office in the presence of a group of Reformation Bible College students. If you'd like access to this entire series and its study guide, we'll unlock them for you in the free Ligonier app when you make a donation in support of Renewing your mind@renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. And to thank you for your donation, we'll also unlock the entire Luther and the Reformation series and study guide, send you that series on dvd, and send you a copy of the hardcover book the Legacy of Luther. Don't delay though. As today is the final day, so does Paul contradict James. How should we respond to that accusation? Here's Dr. Sproul.
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At the time of the Protestant Reformation, obviously the Roman Catholic community did not roll over and play dead at the feet of Luther and the Reformers. They had a response to the assertion that justification is by faith alone, without any reference to works. And they found their source for that in the Scripture itself, principally in the letter from the Apostle James. I'll just take a second to read a portion of chapter two of James. Which portion was cited on more than one occasion later on at the Council of Trent. In the sixth session of Trent, in the Roman Catholic's response to the Protestants, we read in verse 21 of chapter 2 these words, was not Abraham our Father justified by works when he offered Isaac his Son on the altar? Do you see then, that faith was working together with his works? And by works faith was made perfect and the Scripture was fulfilled. That said Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, as he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. And then in verse 25, was not Rahab the Harlot also justified by works when she received the strangers and sent them another way. So here we have the explicit statement in Sacred Scripture that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. You would think that that single verse would be the crushing blow to the article that Luther said was the article upon which the Church stands or falls. So how do we reconcile what Paul teaches in Romans with what James teaches here? Some people think that it's an impossible task, that they're simply irreconcilable. And there's a debate historically as to which epistle appeared in print first, James or Romans. And that question focused on an attempt to understand how this difference could arise in the pristine church. Some argue that Romans appeared before James and James wrote his Epistle to repudiate and to refute what Paul had taught. Others argue no, James appeared before Paul, and Paul was trying to refute James. And so there's a divided house on that question historically about who was trying to refute whom. But classic orthodoxy would say that neither one of them was trying to refute the other, and that the two positions are not contradictory, though on the surface they seem to be, and that is that this issue is so significant that it's worth the philosophy of a second glance. Part of the problem is compounded by the fact that both James and Paul use the same word here for justification, dikaea sune. It would be nice to see that they used different words and obviously had different ideas in mind. Unfortunately for reconciling the two, they both use the same word. The matter becomes even more severe when we see that both of them have the same person that they use as exhibit A to prove their point. Paul labors the point of Abraham's being the father of the faithful and that he was justified by faith and counted righteous before he had done any works, before he had been circumcised, before he had offered Isaac on the altar. So that Paul has Abraham justified in chapter 15 of Genesis, where James doesn't have Abraham justified until chapter 22, which is the chapter that records his offering of his son Isaac on the altar. So, in a sense, the plot thickens. And this is one of the things that made Luther question the canonicity of James when he said at first that James was an epistle of straw, or a right strawy. Epistle was another translation, but which he later repented of that judgment. But because he at one point challenged the canonicity of James, a host of scholars have used that challenge as an attempt to show that Luther didn't believe in the inerrancy of Scripture? Well, he did believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. He said the Scripture never errs. But he was questioning whether Scripture contained the book of James. But that's for another day. But in any case, we can see that in Scripture, though, the same word is used both by James and by Paul here on justification. Dikaisune that that term does have more than one meaning and one verse that you are familiar with, I'm sure, is that when Jesus in the Gospel says that wisdom is justified by her children. Now obviously in that particular statement, the word that is used here does not mean that wisdom is reconciled to a holy God with an imputed righteousness that wisdom gains by having babies. No, simply showing that that which is a claim to be wisdom is shown to be true wisdom by its fruit, which is a principle of wisdom found throughout the wisdom literature of Scripture. And by the way, many New Testament scholars would say that of those books that are considered wisdom literature in the Bible, you not only have the books in the Old Testament of Psalms and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job and so on, but they would include in that list of wisdom books the book of James in the New Testament. Because so many of the literary forms that you find among the wisdom books of the Old Testament are also found in James. Now, in the sense of the way in which Jesus used it, by saying that wisdom is justified by her children, the meaning of the term justified there is to demonstrate or to manifest the truth of something. If I said to you that I could run a mile in less than four minutes, I don't expect you would believe that. You would want to see it, to believe it with an accurate stopwatch in your hand. In fact, the only way I could prove to you my statement is to demonstrate it by running the mile under four minutes. So if I would say to you, I can run a mile under four minutes unless I'm tricked there, you would be wise not to believe my claim. In fact, if I said to you I could run a mile, period, I don't think I would be able to justify that claim either. So there is a sense in which the word to justify is used to prove the truth of a claim. Now, when I used to teach philosophy in the university, when I would teach the history of philosophy, we would come up to various philosophers to study their thinking. It seemed like students had to have a certain kind of mind to do well with philosophy. It was so abstract. And students would struggle, brilliant students, students that were acing other courses were having trouble in philosophy, and I try to give them little hints to help them understand the work of a given philosopher. And I would say what you want to do at the beginning is ask this question. Find out the answer to this question. What problem is this philosopher trying to solve? And why? If you know why Descartes was trying to find a clear and distinct idea, you can follow his reasoning and come to an intelligible conclusion. So I want to apply that same principle to this thorny question that we have of relationship between Paul and James. And to understand James in chapter two, we have to ask the question, what problem is he trying to solve? What question is, is he trying to answer? And I think the answer to my question here begins in verse 14 of chapter 2, where James writes this. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but not have works? Can that faith save him? So the question he's asking is, what good is it to make a profession of faith if you don't have any works? What profit is there in that? So he's dealing with the question of people who make a profession of faith but don't manifest any fruit of it. In our day and age, we have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in America who have made professions of faith, who have never demonstrated the reality of the faith they claim to possess. And so that's the question that James is answering. It's not the same question Paul is asking. Paul is asking, how can an unjust person stand in the presence of a just and holy God? His concern for justification is before God. And that's where he says that we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law. But now James is asking, what about the person who professes faith but has no evidence of it? He says, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but don't give them the things that are needed for the body. What does it profit? What good is that? Thus, also after this illustration, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So now he's going to make a distinction between a dead faith and a faith that is alive. Now, again, when Luther was challenged for his doctrine of justification by faith alone and was asked about this faith, and as I said before, does that mean you can just believe and live however you want to? Paul answers that same question. And his answer is, God forbid. And Luther said, justification is by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. And then he goes on to say that the faith that justifies, Luther said, is a fides viva, a living faith, a faith that is alive. And you know it's alive when it manifests itself in fruit, in the fruit of obedience. Now, if I tell you here in this room today that I have saving faith, do you know for sure, just because I said it, that I have it? Can anybody in here read my heart? Of course not. The only way you can evaluate the truth of my claim is to see if I manifest it in my life. By their fruits you shall know them, we're told. And even then we can fool people with rotten fruit. That's phony fruit. Now, how long does God have to wait before he knows whether my profession of faith is genuine? Can he read my heart? Yes. He doesn't have to wait a week or two weeks or six months or five chapters to see whether the faith that I profess is genuine. And so I think it's critical in answering this problem here that we see that even though both James and Paul appealed to to Abraham to make their case, they appealed to Abraham at different times in his life. Paul makes his point that we're justified by faith apart from the works of the law by pointing to chapter 15, where Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. James makes his case that Abraham is justified by works by pointing to chapter 22. Seven chapters difference, actually between chapter 15 and chapter 22, which is the chapter that tells us about the sacrifice of Isaac on the altar. So when James goes on to say that Abraham is justified by his works, is he talking about Abraham being justified in the sight of God? Or is he saying that Abraham is being justified in the sight of men before whom people make the profession? Again, the question he's answering, if a man says he has faith but has not works, can that faith save him? And the answer he's giving here is a resounding no. The only kind of faith that saves is not a dead faith, but a living faith. And if it is a living faith, it will certainly be made manifest by works. So Abraham is proving, demonstrating, authenticating his claim of faith in chapter 22. And just as we claim to have faith, we have to show forth that faith by our works. I mentioned earlier about antinomianism that claims to have a faith that saves without having works that follow the whole carnal Christian concept that we wrestle with even to this day. Now, I hope that that brief explanation will Help you work through the problem here and understand that the men are answering two different questions using the same word and the same example. And to show that James is speaking of Abraham's being vindicated by his profession of faith with the works that follow. And if that's the way this book is understood, you don't have a contradiction. You have a difficulty of resolution, but you don't really have a contradiction. Now, in the few moments we have left, I want to address one other question. And that is, what is it that produces saving faith in Christ? Where does that faith come from? And this question, probably more than any other, is what defines the very essence of Reformed theology? If there's one phrase that captures the essence of Reformed theology, it is the little phrase regeneration precedes faith. That is the power of faith. The power of believing is a result not of an act of our will done independently, but it is the fruit of God's sovereign act of changing the disposition of our hearts and giving to us the gift of faith. It's our faith. We're the ones who believe, but we don't create that faith. Faith is born out of the work of the immediate supernatural work of God, the Holy Spirit, quickening us from spiritual death and giving to us the gift of faith in our hearts. Now, when we talk about the order of salvation, we talk about the ordo salutis, we're talking not so much about a temporal order of things, but rather a logical order of things. The difference between chronological temporal priority and logical priority is this. When we say that justification is by faith alone, we don't mean by that that a person has faith and then five years later is justified. Now, the second that you have faith, you are counted righteous by God and are covered with the robes of the righteousness of Christ and have all the benefits of justification. There's no time lapse in there. But yet we say that justification is by faith, meaning that faith comes logically before justification. Or we would say faith is by justification alone. We know that justification does not precede faith, but faith precedes justification in terms of its logical order. Now, the vast majority of evangelical Christians, if you ask them the question, which comes first, faith or rebirth? They would say faith comes first, and as a result of believing in Christ, you're reborn. Where Reformed theologians said, no, go back to chapter three of John, where Jesus has the conversation with Nicodemus, where Jesus said, unless a man is born again, he can't even see the kingdom of God, let alone enter it. And when Paul in Ephesians 2 talks about quickening or being made alive. When are we made alive unto faith? And what state are we? At that time, we're still spiritually dead. And so we say that God, the Holy Spirit, changes the disposition or inclination of the heart. So now what the person refused to believe before, he now believes and embraces and loves. One of the greatest sermons ever preached by Jonathan Edwards was A Divine and Supernatural Light, where he talks about this work of the Holy Spirit, who changes our hearts and disposition, so that we not only see the truth of a proposition, but we see the sweetness of it, the loveliness of it, and the beauty of it, and the glory of it. And so the faith that justifies is a faith that has been created in our hearts as a gift by God the Holy Spirit. So that now what we formerly refused to affirm and to follow, now that which was odious to us in our state of spiritual death while we were still in the flesh, we now have the nature of the Spirit. And the whole rest of the Christian life is a war between the flesh, the old man and the Spirit, the new man who gives birth to faith, so that we are regenerated unto faith and unto justification. When Paul gives an abbreviated list of the order of Salvation In Romans 8, he talks about those who were foreknown that he also predestined. Those whom he predestined did he also call on those whom he called he justified, and those whom he justified and glorified. Now, in that sequence, it's clear that all who are in the category of the foreknown are also in the category of the predestined. And all in the category of the predestined are in the category of the justified. Excuse me. All in the category of the called are in the category of the justified. So obviously there Paul is talking about a calling that is not the outer call. We talk about the outside call where we preach the gospel to people. Some respond yes, some respond no. But in Romans 8, Paul is talking about a calling in which all who are called in a certain sense are justified. And calling there in that order precedes justification. And so calling is what we talk about with respect to regeneration, the effectual inward calling of God by which we are brought to a faith that is a living faith through which, and by which we are justified.
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That was R.C. sproul on this Reformation Day edition of Renewing youg Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and from the beginning of his ministry to the end, Dr. Sproul never wavered from the biblical Gospel and the Truth that Believers Are Justified by Faith Alone it is Reformation Day today, and to mark the occasion, today starts a conference we're hosting in Escondido, California. I look forward to seeing many of you there, and it's a good reminder that if you'd like to attend an upcoming conference, youth event, study tour or cruise, or a Renewing youg Mind Live event, we keep a list of all upcoming events@ligonier.org events, so learn more, find a city near you and join us. That's ligonier.org events. You heard messages from two series this week, Luther and the Reformation and today Justified by Faith Alone. We'll unlock both series for you in the free Ligonier app and their study guides when you make a donation in support of the proclamation of the gospel truths that you've heard this week at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. In addition, we'll send you the DVD set of Luther and the Reformation and a hardcover copy of the book Dr. Sproul Co edited, the Legacy of Luther. This offer ends today, so call us with your donation and at 800-435-4343, visit renewingyourmind.org or use the link in the podcast Show Notes. And if you live outside of the US And Canada, an entirely digital version of this offer is available for you@renewingyourmind.org global. Thank you for your support and for responding while there's still time. Recognizing that we have been justified by faith alone. What does the Christian life look like? How do we navigate this earthly life as pilgrims? John Bunyan famously wrote the Allegory the Pilgrim's Progress, and next week Derek Thomas will join us to share insights from this Puritan classic that's beginning Monday here on Renewing youg Mind.
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