Why is justification by faith such an important doctrine?

Justification by faith is the doctrinal pillar of biblical Christianity. When we place our faith and trust in the fact that Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins, we are justified, meaning that God's justice has been satisfied through the substitutionary death of His Son Jesus Christ, and we have been brought into a correct relationship with God. When Paul spoke of the redemption that came by Christ Jesus, he was saying that Christ paid the penalty for our sin by removing our guilt.

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).

Justification and Forgiveness. — Teaching about justification is now commenced. For nothing short of that establishes a soul in the enjoyment of peace with God (v. 1), yet nothing less does God desire and provide for every one who believes on Him. Hence it may be remarked that it is justification, and not forgiveness of sins, on which the apostle here dilates. Forgiveness is assumed as known and enjoyed, and is only mentioned twice in the whole epistle (Rom. 4:7; 11:27). How Paul could preach that we learn in the Acts, and in connection with it he there introduced the subject of justification (Acts 13:38-39), which, when known, as he shows us in Rom. 8:33, ministers to the soul the consciousness of perfect quietness under every charge that the accuser, whoever he may be, can bring against the believer, so that in holy boldness he stands before God's throne. Now on this truth, as distinct from that of forgiveness, there was need to dwell. To forgive an offender tells of mercy and goodness on the part of him who does it. To justify a person implies righteousness on the part of the justifier. But to justify, or reckon righteous, an ungodly person may seem to human thought inconsistent with the first principles of righteousness. Accordingly justification is treated of methodically, and fully; first in connection with the Justifier (3:21-31), then in connection with those justified (4); after which blessings are enumerated which are consequent upon it, and in which those justified by faith have part (v. 1-11).

Peace is viewed in more ways than one in Scripture. The peace of God here has nothing to do with the purging of conscience. It is a question of keeping heart and mind. Where conscience is yet burdened, there is but one way of finding peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Sins were there, and how was the moral nature and majesty of God to be vindicated about sin? Far from God, in all our ways at war with God, how could we have peace with Him? The only door, through which we, poor enemies, pass out of such a condition into peace with God, is by believing the testimony He has given of His Son. But this is "peace with God," not "the peace of God." If I endeavour to get comfort for my conscience by spreading out my need before God, there is never full rest of conscience. The only means entitled to give rest to the sin-stricken is faith in God's assurance that sins are blotted out by the blood, and sin has been perfectly judged in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. "By him all that believe are justified." If one's own state mingles for a single moment with this, it is a delusion on such a ground to reckon upon peace with God. But if I believe on Christ and what He has done, I can boldly say that Christ deserved that even my sins should be forgiven. Therefore I can add, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." The value is not in the faith, but in our Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot get the blessing without believing, but it is an answer to the worth of Christ in God's sight.

Let us then seek to learn what these normal consequences are. The first practical result of justification by faith mentioned by the apostle is "peace with God." If God is the justifier, if He sets a believing sinner before His face in an abiding, unchangeable righteousness, then all controversy about sins between God and that soul is ended forever. By justifying him, God Himself has ended it. He has put the believing sinner before His face in righteousness, and no more charges up his sins against him. He no more presses upon him the need of answering to God for his sins, so far as bearing their penalty is concerned. This is peace — peace with God. The force of the expression is peace as respects God. Through the instrumentality of our Lord Jesus Christ there is for the believer — the spiritual child of Abraham — peace as regards God. On the ground of the sacrifice of Christ God is for him, not against him. On account of the work of the Cross, he being now a believer, God has ended His controversy with him, What a blessed result of justification this is! God for us! God no longer maintaining His controversy with us! And this blessed result, let us remember, is true for "all them that believe."

By our Lord Jesus Christ the believer is led into all the blessed results that flow from the accomplishment of righteousness, and the putting forth of the power of God to deliver us from the consequences of our sins, and give us righteousness in His presence in Christ. Peace with God results from being justified by faith. We no longer dread the judgment to which we were righteously exposed on account of our offences; that judgment having been meted out to our blessed Substitute on the cross, who was delivered to bear it. We not only know that we have been forgiven, but we know that we have got a righteous standing in the presence of God, and that He has acted consistently with His nature and character in giving us this standing. We were sinners surely, and our sins have been forgiven us, every one of them according to the omniscience of God; but not only is this true, but He has dealt with them in unsparing judgment, and we know it so that our consciences are set at rest in His presence, we are perfectly assured that they can never come up against us again. They are all gone in the death of Christ, and though He has been raised again, it has been for our justification, there has been no resurrection of our sins. Therefore it is all peace between us and God, and our Lord Jesus Christ delights to lead us into the calm that has resulted from the fact that the storm of divine wrath against sin has spent itself upon His devoted head, and the place which He now occupies can never be visited by a single disturbing element.

But it is well to note that the apostle speaks of justification with a triple connection. In Rom. 5:1, it is justified by or out of faith. There is no other principle on which it could be without compromise. We look out of ourselves to Christ, and rest only on Him raised from among the dead, Who was delivered for our offences and raised for our justification. Therefore we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is of faith, not of works of law; and these were the two competing principles. If any works could justify a man, it must have been the works of God's law. Works of man's device could have no value with God. Works of law would have been all well, if man could do them. The truth is that man, being now a sinner, could not possibly face them, save in the blind and mad presumption of flesh. "All sinned, and do come short of the glory of God," which becomes the measure, now that Eden is lost by sin. All his works are necessarily vitiated by his fallen condition, even if he had not been as he is, powerless through sin. Works of law therefore are wholly unavailing, save to detect and manifest the ruin of a sinner. If he is to be justified, it must be through Another by grace; and therefore it can only be by faith (ἐκ π.), not by law works. That the apostle in Rom. 5:1-2, asserts, with its blessed results for our souls toward God, past, present, and future.

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!

In Acts 13:38-39, the apostle applies the passage to the assembled Jews: "Be it known to you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things." This was the great emphatic point; first the Man that has brought in by His work that blessing, the forgiveness of sins, the boon of divine mercy to the needy sinner when awakened. "By him all that believe are justified from all things," — a precise and full expression though in the simplest elements of the gospel. It is not only the forgiveness of sins, but "justified," which, of course, includes it? but goes farther. "By him all that believe." Therefore there is the grace that imparts this rich blessing to the feeblest faith, for it is not a question of depth or power but of reality. God is real, and by His grace He gives unlimited blessing to those that are simple and true. This is proved by faith, which honours Him in spite of appearances. It is for "all that believe," says Paul, though all the virtue be "by him." The whole value of redemption stands in Christ, and turns on His work — "By him all that believe." Yet it is inseparable from the believer. Although faith may have in itself no such quality as could be a meritorious ground for the blessing, nevertheless "without faith it is impossible to please God." Grace and righteousness are not at issue but in harmony through the cross of Christ. How else could man righteously be blessed, being a sinner before God? Faith takes him out of himself, and brings in all the blessing that comes through another, even through Christ our Lord. "By him all that believe are justified from all things." Everything here is, as it should be, in fulness — "justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."

Every one understands that forgiveness of sins is the immediate portion of the believer in Christ. But great as is this blessing, it is but a small part of the provisions of grace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). The very next verse speaks of two additional blessings: "access by faith into this grace in which we stand," i.e., into the full favour of God in Christ; and "rejoicing in hope of the glory of God," i.e., the full fruition and consummation of our present blessings. But these gifts of God's grace through Christ belong to us here, as justified men; and in the same way we can turn to other passages which speak of perfect and everlasting reconciliation. (See Col. 1:21-22). But there is something beyond all this; as indeed we partly saw when treating of "deliverance."