What is salvation by faith alone?

(5) The Epistle makes it abundantly plain that the reception of the gospel is by FAITH, and by nothing else. The law cannot bring about this blessing. Nor can any works of man earn it. It comes by God’s grace, its source; by our Lord Jesus Christ as its Mediator on the ground of His redemptive work performed to God’s satisfaction at the cross. It comes as the declaration of God’s righteousness, “that He might be just, and the Justifier of Him, which believes in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Faith and faith alone links the believer to the Lord Jesus, with all the blessings—forgiveness of sins, salvation, justification, eternal life—consequent on so believing. It is a glorious gospel, and worthy of God. To Him be all the praise, world without end.

Justification, then, must be on another principle. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law.” What else could scripture conclude, since all are guilty, and justification is not what we are to God, but what He is to us, set forth in Christ? Do not mix these two things together. Let your salvation be entirely on the principle of faith — what God is to you.

To be justified by faith is what God is to us through Christ. Deeds of the law are on the principle of what we are to God. Amazing grace! we are justified by the one, without the other. And in this the “no difference” doctrine is fully maintained. The same righteousness of God to all, Jews or Gentiles, on the principle of faith, and by means of faith.

All boasting then on man's part is shut out, for it is God's work and God's grace by which man is justified (clearly not by a law of works, there would then be man's boasting), but by the law of faith which simply receives, through grace, the effect of another's work. We may see here that law is used for a regularly acting principle - the law of faith, the law of works. We shall find this again. Hence, as we cannot mingle the two principles of gaining a thing by working and receiving a thing by faith (and, indeed, another thing - God's righteousness, not man's), one of them excludes the other, and we conclude, not only that a man is justified by faith through Christ's blood by grace, but that it is without - wholly apart from, to the exclusion of - works of law. God is justifying sinners by His dealings for them, not man righteous by a law which he has kept. For all are under sin.

Justification is by faith; i.e., on the principle of faith in contrast with the principle of works. Much confusion of mind would be spared if this were remembered; and it is on this contrast that the apostle's whole argument is based. Thus, after depicting the state both of Gentiles and Jews, after proving that both are convicted as sinners, he says, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His [God's] sight" (Rom. 3:20). Again, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (v. 28); and then, after citing the example of Abraham's justification — "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" — he tells us, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:3-5). We have therefore the most complete contrast between the law and the gospel. The law had said, "The man that doeth them shall live in them" (Gal. 3:12); but the gospel proclaims that God is the "justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). It is no more therefore a question of works — of doing on man's part; for God has shown man's complete and utter failure in every position in which he has been placed. The Gentile without law, and the Jew under law, are brought in as sinners; and thus every mouth is stopped, and the whole world is become guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). From this very fact, man is entirely precluded from doing anything either to recover himself, or to save himself. He is already under condemnation, lost, and hence works or doings of any kind are utterly without avail. If therefore he is now to be saved, it must be on the principle of faith; "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). He neither has, nor can he obtain by his utmost efforts, any righteousness before God; and accordingly he is shut up to God's righteousness, which is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17).

The gospel then preached to this awakened sinner of the Gentiles was salvation by faith. The jailor's thought, like many others, was that salvation was by works; what must I do? But Paul and Silas assured him that he could be saved only in the way of faith. They presented the Lord Jesus Christ to him as the object of faith, and His finished work, and God's acceptance of it, as the ground of salvation, and warrant for perfect peace — "thou shalt be saved." This is very simple, and commends itself to the confidence of an anxious enquirer. The gospel really excludes all idea of creature-doing for salvation, because it testifies that Jesus, the Son of God, hath so completely finished the work of our redemption, so thoroughly purged our sins, that He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, the rightful Lord of heaven and earth, and that all who believe on Him have at once an eternal, interest in that blessed work. The Lord Jesus having magnified the law by bearing its curse, put away sin, abolished death, burst the bars of the grave, and triumphed over Satan, hell, and the grave, has entered into heaven itself with His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us; the resurrection and glorification of Christ being God's public testimony of His acceptance of the Saviour's all-sufficient work. What is then to be done for salvation? Nothing; it is done already, and we have the warrant of God's word to receive and enjoy it by faith — "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Faith reads the lessons of redeeming love in the death of the Son of God upon the cross; and those who can say, "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us" have peace; they see that God's love has brought salvation to them, even when sinners, in the cross of His Son, and knowing He is now risen from the dead, they approach God with confidence; they know that He declares them saved by grace, through faith. What, I would ask, can exceed this boundless love? What else could have really met us in our low estate? What could so redound to the glory of God? And who so thoroughly reject the gospel, display self-ignorance, and despise the unsearchable riches of Divine love, as those who talk of doing for salvation? "Where is boasting?" said the apostle. "It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." (Rom. 3:27-28.) Blessed gospel for a sin-convicted, heavy-laden sinner!

"If God gives them no place, sir, had we not better leave them out of consideration? It says in Romans 4, 'If Abraham were justified by works, he has whereof to glory, but not before God. But what says the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' Our works are either 'wicked' (Col. 1:21) or 'dead' (Heb. 9:14), and certainly they cannot save us. Christ's work is finished, by it God has been glorified; and it is due to Christ that the one who forswears his own works, and trusts alone in Him, should partake of the benefits and fruits of that atoning work of His, by which alone can sin be put away."

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” God is no debtor to man: He is a Giver; and any blessing from God to man can never be on the ground of man's works, but only on the ground of God's grace. Judgment is according to works; but salvation, thank God, is according to grace. And this verse 5 is marvelously plain and decisive for eyes that have been opened by the Spirit of God. “Working” is put over against “believing on Him that justifieth the ungodly.” Do I work for justification, or do I receive it freely by God's grace through faith in His Son? It is one or the other. There is no mixture: the two are distinct. But God cannot impute righteousness to my account in virtue of my works. Why?Because they are not perfect in righteousness: they savor all too strongly of unrighteousness. But the virtue of the work of Christ is a different thing: it is perfect, faultless, unadulterated; and on this ground God can freely impute righteousness to the account of “him which believeth in Jesus.”

The concluding verses of the section (8-10) show that salvation is entirely by grace on God's part, pure favor at a time when we deserved wrath and judgment. "Through faith" is the means by which we receive such grace, faith being not in itself a thing of merit, but that which rightly recognizes all merit in the Lord Jesus Christ, having confidence simply in Himself. "And that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Even faith to believe is seen as God's gift for in our natural state faith was far from us. God alone has worked marvelously in changing matters, giving us faith and salvation by grace, and indeed every spiritual blessing.

Verse 9 firmly guards against the human natural thought to add works to grace and faith: "not of works, lest anyone should boast." All occasion for people's self exaltation is utterly taken away. We are reduced to our true place and God is exalted. Believers are seen to be "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (v.10). Precious work of new creation, by power infinitely higher than all human work! Let us delight to think of what it means to be the subjects of God's miraculous work. Yet His work in us is "for good works" (v.10), for good works are the proper result after God's work has brought salvation. Yet God has before prepared even these good works for us to walk in. Therefore, if we believers do good works, we have nothing to boast of, nor do we have any excuse for not doing them.

The contemplation of it leads the Apostle to again emphasize the fact that our salvation is all of grace. He had stated this previously, in verse 5, in a parenthetical way. In verse 8 he enlarges upon this important fact, and adds that it is also through faith. The grace is God's: the faith is ours. Yet even our faith is not of ourselves. Faith is not a natural product of the human heart. The weeds that grow by nature in the heart of man are detailed for us in Romans 3:9-19. Faith is no weed at all, but rather a choice flower which once planted by the heavenly Father can never be rooted up. It is the gift of God.

Verse 9. That salvation is "not of works," results inevitably from the doctrine already stated. Instead of being won by his own effort, salvation is received by the believer as the end of his faith (1 Peter 1:9). But the reason elsewhere given is here also added it is not of works, "lest any man should boast." God, who is seeking the glory of his Christ, will still all human boasting. He does so now with His elect by the power of His saving grace. He will do so in the coming day of judgment, when the haughtiness of man shall bow before the fearful presence of His holiness. It is evident that boasting is excluded where salvation is of grace. Believers are not boasters but worshippers, adoring with a wise and understanding heart the God whom they have learned to know and love, through His manifestation of His own rich grace in Jesus. The doctrine of this verse, and of the entire passage of which it forms a part, may be easily paralleled by the attentive reader of Scripture; for it is the fundamental doctrine of the Gospel. Happy are they who, in a clear perception of the mystery of saving grace, are kept from glorying in anything but the cross of Him through whose sore travail all this great salvation is their own.

Verse 10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained (or prepared) that we should walk in them." Instead of working, we ourselves are wrought of God. Two words occur in the verse, which it is proper to distinguish. First, the saints collectively are styled "the workmanship" (poiema) of God. The force of this expression is to show the completeness, whether of the Church in its unity, or of the believer as a particular member of the body of Christ. A Christian, when considered as a vessel of saving mercy, is not in process of formation, but completely made. But we are said also to have been "created (ktisthentes) in Christ Jesus." We cannot hesitate as to the intention of the Holy Ghost in his selection of such a word. It is, beyond doubt, that the absolute originality of this work of God might be forcibly impressed on our minds. It is not an adaptation of something that previously existed, but a new creation. A believer carries nothing of himself into Christ; he is another and a new man. The old nature having been set aside judicially in the cross of Christ, we receive in Him, and from Him, another nature, a new and altogether different life. Hence the perfect propriety of describing the conversion of a soul to God by an expression which conveys nothing less than the idea of primary and absolute creation. Identity is not destroyed, fin• it is we who are thus said to be new made. On the other hand, it is no longer we, but Christ. Being naturally lost, we are found in Him. If we are really alive to God, our life is by the faith of Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20).