Justification (White vs Sippo)

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Good afternoon. It's good to be with you. It's my desire that all who are attending this afternoon would have a clear knowledge of both sides of this debate when we leave later on this afternoon.

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To allow for a full understanding of the Protestant position, however, I feel the need to at least give a brief outline of the

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Roman Catholic position so we have a proper contrast between the two. The Protestant, I believe the biblical doctrine of justification, differs from the

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Roman Catholic view in four very important foundational aspects. First of all, we differ on the meaning and the extent of the term justification.

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Secondly, we differ on the meaning of the term impute or imputation. Thirdly, we differ on the instrument by which justification takes place.

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Is it faith alone or faith plus works or activities such as baptism? Finally, and most importantly, we differ on the grounds or basis upon which simple men can be justified.

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I shall deal with these four areas as being the most important aspects of my thinking. Let's begin with some definitions.

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The Council of Trent defined justification as follows. Quote, a translation from that state in which man is born a child of the first Adam, the state of grace and of the adoption of the sons of God, to the second

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Adam, Jesus Christ our Savior. This translation, however, cannot, since the promulgation of the gospel, be effected except through the labor of regeneration or its desire.

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End quote. That is, by baptism, which Trent said, without which no man was ever justified.

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Finally, therefore, the initial means of justification is baptism, according to the

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Roman Catholic position. Now, the Council of Trent then went on to assert that God gives to men predisposing grace so that they may, quote, be disposed through his quickening and helping grace to convert themselves, their own justification, by freely assenting to and cooperating with that grace.

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So that, while God touches the heart of man through the illumination of the Holy Ghost, man himself neither does absolutely nothing while receiving that inspiration, since he can also reject it, nor yet is he able by his own free will and without the grace of God to move himself to justice in his sight.

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End quote. Now, the Catholic position asserts that, quote, faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification.

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We are therefore said to be justified gratuitously because none of those things that precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification.

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End quote. Notice what is being said here. According to Trent, we can say that we are justified by grace, or gratuitously, solely because those things that precede justification, faith and works, are prompted and aided by God's grace.

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The process of justification is based upon God's grace, but it is not completely of God's grace, and it cannot be said that God's grace alone is sufficient without human works to bring about full and complete justification.

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Further, faith alone is explicitly denied as being the sole instrument of justification, where Trent also says, quote, wherefore no one ought to flatter himself with faith alone, thinking that by faith alone he has made an error and will obtain the inheritance.

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End quote. Now, Roman Catholicism teaches that the grace of justification can be gained and lost, gained and lost.

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Trent said, quote, those who through sin have forfeited the received grace of justification can again be justified when, moved by God, they exert themselves to obtain through the sacrament of penance the recovery, by the merits of Christ, of the grace lost.

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Hence, it must be taught that the repentance of a Christian after his fall is very different than that of his baptism, and that it includes not only determination to avoid sins and a hatred of them, but also the sacramental confession of those sins, at least in desire, to be made in its season and satisfied with absolution, as well as satisfaction by fasts, alms, prayers, and other devout exercises of spiritual life, not indeed for the eternal punishment, which is together with the guilt, remitted either by the sacrament or by the desire of the sacrament, but for the temporal punishment which, as the sacred writings teach, is not always wholly remitted as is done in baptism.

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End quote. Therefore, justification in Roman Catholic theology involves an infusion of grace, the grace of justification in the individual.

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This involves a subjective change in the person. Because of the subjective change in the person, he is enabled to the power of grace to do good works.

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These works are, according to the Council of Trent, meritorious in God's sight. We read, quote,

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Hence to those who work well unto the end, and trust in God, eternal life is to be offered, both as a grace mercifully promised to the sons of God through Jesus Christ, and as a reward promised by God himself to be faithfully given to their good works and merits.

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We must believe that nothing further is wanting to those justified to prevent them from being considered to have, by those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the divine law according to the state of this life, and to have truly merited eternal life, to be obtained in its due time, provided it part this life in grace.

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End quote. It must be emphasized that eternal life is merited by the works performed by the person in the state of grace.

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The basis, then, of one's final salvation is not solely the work of Christ. Dr. Ludwig Ott wrote, quote,

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By his good works, the justified man really acquires a claim to the supernatural reward from God.

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End quote. And Matthias Prem has added, Man, for his part, in order to arrive at full sanctification, must cooperate with the grace of the

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Holy Spirit through faith, hope, love of God and neighbor, and prayer, but he must also perform other works.

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It is a universally accepted dogma of the Catholic Church that man, in union with the grace of the

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Holy Spirit, must merit heaven by his good works. These works are meritorious only when they are performed in the state of grace and with a good intention.

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We have shown that according to the Holy Scripture, the Christian can actually merit heaven for himself by his good works.

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End quote. Therefore, we see that justification in the Roman Catholic understanding encompasses the entire concept of forgiveness as well as sanctification, for it involves a subjective, inward change in the individual.

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Justification is not solely a process of imputation, but a process of infusion of grace into the individual according to the

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Roman position. And finally, the grounds of justification, I assert, is not solely the work of Jesus Christ.

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While Christ's passion merits the grace of justification, this grace then produces good works which form part of the basis of the final salvation of the individual.

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Now, in contrast to the Roman Catholic position, allow me to provide the Protestant position taken from the 1689

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Baptist Confession of Faith, which agrees in every way with that of the Westminster Confession of Faith. We read, quote,

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Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing

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Christ's active obedience under the whole law and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness.

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They receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.

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Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness is the alone instrument of justification, yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all the saving graces and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.

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Christ, by his obedience in death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified, and did by the sacrifice of himself and the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf.

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Yet inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them, their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and right grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners."

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And the Westminster Shorter Catechism summed it up well by asking the question, what is justification?

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The answer given? Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.

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Please note the following items. First of all, justification is said to be an act of God as judge wherein he declares the believer righteous.

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Justification, therefore, is a legal, forensic declaration on the part of God concerning the believer.

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Justification is undertaken by God and is not based on anything done in or done by the believer.

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It is an act of sovereign grace. Justification is based solely and completely upon the merits of another, the merits of Jesus Christ.

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Justification involves the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, both his perfect life as well as his perfect, all -sufficient, atoning and finished sacrifice to the believer, upon which basis the believer is called righteous.

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Justification is by grace through faith. Faith is the instrument or means of appropriating justification.

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This faith is a true saving faith. It is not an empty faith, but is the work of God in the believer's heart.

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It is the gift of God to the believer. Justification, while distinct from sanctification, cannot possibly be separated from it.

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God changes man in regeneration and in sanctification. God declares man righteous in justification.

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Any man who is justified will be sanctified. It is impossible to separate justification and sanctification, but it is absolutely necessary to distinguish between them.

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Justification is a once -for -all action, since it is based upon the completed work of Christ.

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It cannot be undone or destroyed by the actions of man. We look back upon our justification, as Paul says in Romans 5.

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Now, I would like to look to God's words, reveal to us which perspective is true. For as Jesus said to the

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Father, thy word is truth. Are we justified only after being baptized?

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And is justification something that can be undone by human evil? Are we required to go through a sacrament of confession involving contrition and confession and doing works of satisfaction?

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Is God working in us so that we ourselves can make satisfaction for our sins? Or did Christ make full and complete satisfaction in our place on Calvary, so that now

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God is working in us to conform us to the image of Christ? Before engaging in the specific scriptural passages that teach justification by faith alone,

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I wish to emphasize something that is absolutely foundational to our debate today. The Bible teaches that salvation is based upon God's grace.

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Grace is not simply an aid that helps men to do things. Grace is free, absolutely free, completely based upon the will and mercy of God, not upon any action of man.

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Now, the Bible tells us that we are justified by grace in Titus 3, verses 5 -7, where we read,

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He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the

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Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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Now, we are also told that we are justified as a gift by his grace in Romans 3 .24, and we'll look at that later.

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But aside from being justified by grace, we are also said to be justified by the blood of Jesus Christ in Romans 5 .9,

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where we read, much more than, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.

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So we see that the Bible speaks of our justification by grace and our justification by the blood of Christ. And further, the

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Bible speaks of our justification by faith, as in Romans 5 .1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. So we are justified by grace, justified by the blood of Christ, justified by faith.

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Now, are these three different things or different aspects of one thing? Clearly, Paul is describing the great truth of justification by God's free grace.

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His grace is unmerited. We cannot earn it. The blood of Christ shed on behalf of his people was unmerited and free.

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We did not earn it. And the faith that justifies, true, saving faith, as I said before, is the gift of God's grace as well.

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So the real issue is this. Is God's grace sufficient to bring about justification or must human merit be added to the grace of God?

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In the past, I have used a very important passage, Genesis 15, verse 6, to help give order and cohesiveness.

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My presentation is Biblical Doctrine of Justification by Faith and with your indulgence, no pun intended,

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I would like to do that again this morning. Genesis 15, verse 6, we believe, and he believed in the

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Lord and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. The first concept to examine is that of faith.

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Abraham believed in God. Now, we assert that a man is justified by this kind of faith, not by any other action.

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This is exactly what Paul said when he faced Peter in Antioch. Remember what had happened. Peter had seriously compromised the gospel of grace by withdrawing from table fellowship with the

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Gentiles. In rebuking him, Paul said, knowing that a man is not justified by works of law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of law, for no flesh shall be justified by works of law,

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Galatians 2 .16. Now, he took our central passage this afternoon, Genesis 15, verse 6, and made the same point in Romans chapter 4, one of the clearest, most obvious arguments for justification by faith.

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Having concluded the first section of the book by saying in the 28th verse of the third chapter, quote, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of law, he went on to cite our passage in verse 3 of chapter 4, and immediately upon citing the justification of Abraham, Paul asserted the following, quote, now to the one who works, the wage is not reckoned as a gift but as what is due, but to the one who does not work but rather believes upon the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.

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Note well what Paul said. Paul contrasts the concepts of working and believing.

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This is a common concept in the New Testament. There is a strong antithesis between belief and work when it comes to being right with God.

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One must either work at doing the deeds of law or one must believe in Christ.

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One simply cannot meld the two together. Paul asserts that those who do not work but in opposition to this believe are the ones who receive righteousness.

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The antithesis between faith and works is found to be central to all of Paul's discussion of how a man is made right with God.

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Not how a person lives a Christian life, but how a man is made right with God. Prior to this,

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Paul had said in Romans chapter 3 verses 21 through 25, but now apart from the law, a righteousness from God has been revealed, being witnessed to by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ to all the ones believing.

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For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood. Men are justified freely and by grace.

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Paul asserts that justification is by grace. Here in Romans, we note it again in Titus 3 .7, is

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Paul contradicting himself by saying that we are justified by grace and faith? No, not at all.

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As we asserted before, there is a perfect concert between grace and faith just as Paul pointed out in Romans 4 .16

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where he said this, and this is very important. For this reason it is by faith that it might be in accordance with grace.

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Faith abandons all efforts at work or merit and realizes man's complete dependence upon God, not just for the provision of a way of salvation but for the entire action of salvation itself.

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The great theologian from New England, Jonathan Edwards said, Hence we may learn a reason why faith is that by which we come to have an interest in this redemption.

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For there is included in the nature of faith a sensible acknowledgement of absolute dependence on God in this affair.

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Faith abases man and exalts God. It gives all the glory of redemption to Him alone.

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It is necessary in order to saving faith that man should be emptied of himself, be sensible that he is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

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And I agree with Dr. Edwards. For salvation to be of grace, it cannot possibly be of works.

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As Paul said in Romans 11 .6, either it is on the basis of works or of grace, it cannot be both.

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Grace by definition excludes the entire concept of human works or merit.

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Grace cannot be merited and cannot co -exist with merit on the part of the one to whom it is given.

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The contrast of faith and works as mutually exclusive concepts is continued in Paul's strong letters to the

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Galatians. He asserts that one simply cannot combine works of law with faith in Christ.

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Note his strong words in Galatians 2 .21. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through law, then

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Christ died needlessly. If one asserts that righteousness is the result of God's grace and human action, human action prompted by God's grace may be so.

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But if one asserts this, then one is nullifying the work of Christ completely. No synergism is possible.

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It is either all of grace or not of grace at all. Finally, when Paul provides a clear antithesis, in Galatians 3 .10

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-11, he writes, For as many as are of works of law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed are all those who do not abide in all the things written in the book of the law to do them.

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But that no one shall be justified before God by law is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

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I believe the impossibility of the Roman position is clearly seen. Faith plus works nullifies grace.

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Grace plus works is dead. Does not the Bible say that Christians are to do good works?

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However, well, of course it does. But the only one who can do good works is the one who has already been justified and is already in peace with God.

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As Paul taught the Ephesians, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which

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God before ordained that we should walk in them. God has foreordained that we should walk in good works.

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He created those good works for us to walk in them, but we are justified before that point in time.

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Salvation is the gift of God, not just the bare plan of God, or even just the bare grace of God that prompts us to move toward God, but all salvation is of God.

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Were this not the case, we would certainly boast. But salvation is not of man or by man, but is of and by God and God alone.

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The purpose of God is clearly presented. We have been created in Christ Jesus, in Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, unto good works, not by good works, not with the help of good works, but that we might perform good works.

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First comes full salvation from God, then as a result the works prompted by the Holy Spirit of God.

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No human merit, even that supposedly produced by human works performed in a state of grace, will ever stand before the judgment bar of God.

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Only the righteousness of Christ, apprehended by faith, will avail. And lest you think my words to be too strong, remember what

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Paul said in summing up his argument in Galatians 5, verse 2. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision,

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Christ will be of no benefit to you. The Judaizers in Galatia were asserting that an act of obedience, circumcision, was absolutely necessary for justification.

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Paul made it crystal clear. It is either Christ alone as the perfect Savior or it is the works of law, no matter what law one might choose.

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Christ will not share his Saviorhood with anyone, and that includes us.

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The next term we need to examine quickly in Genesis 15 .6 is the term translated reckoned or imputed. The usage of this term in the

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Old Testament indicates that to impute something to someone does not involve a subjective change in the person.

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One example of this usage is Leviticus 17 .4. Here, any man who did not bring an animal he had slaughtered to the door of the temple, a tabernacle,

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I'm sorry, as an offering to the Lord, as the Scripture says, quote, blood guiltiness is to be reckoned to that man, end quote.

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Surely this guilt is not infused into the man, but he is legally declared guilty of blood.

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I suggest that this is the proper background for Paul's understanding of the term in Genesis 15 .6 as well.

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To reckon something to someone's account does not involve a subjective change in that person. This is especially clear in a legal context as exactly what we've seen in Romans 3 and 4.

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However, as time is fleeting and I'm hearing bells going off, I shall turn quickly to the next important term, that being the term righteousness.

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Abram believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Christ became sin in our place that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

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What do these terms mean? The Hebrew term tzedakah carries two main thoughts. It is often used what we normally consider as moral righteousness or uprightness.

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The New Testament uses the term in this way as well, for example, in describing Joseph as a righteous man in Matthew 1 .19

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and Luke 1 .6 where Zechariah and Elizabeth are described as just. But the Hebrew tzedakah also carries a forensic or legal concept of being right in the eyes of law.

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That is, of being in the proper relationship to the law. This is often the case when the verb form is used.

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There are a number of examples of this usage from the Old Testament. These include Exodus 23 .7, Proverbs 17 .15,

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but I should use just one example, Deuteronomy 25 .1. Quote, if there is a dispute between men, they go to court and the judges decide their case and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.

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End quote. Note the context. We are in a law court. To justify the righteous obviously means to give a legal, forensic declaration regarding his proper standing before the law.

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This is clearly seen by the term that is paralleled with the act of justifying here and that is to condemn. Neither involves a subjective change in the individual.

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The righteous man was righteous inwardly before the declaration of his righteousness, just as the guilty man was guilty before the proclamation of his guilt and condemnation.

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This is the source of Paul's understanding of justification in the New Testament. Paul's use of the terms demands that this is so.

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The conjunction of the two terms, impute and to justify, in Paul's teachings clearly shows that the

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Protestant understanding of God's declaration of the righteousness of the believer is the biblical one. I shall demonstrate this briefly by two passages from the

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New Testament. First with reference to the imputation, we note again Paul's words in Romans 4. Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom

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God imputes righteousness apart from worse. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered.

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Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Note the parallels that Paul presents.

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The imputation of righteousness and the non -imputation of sin is likened to forgiveness of those sins and to their covering.

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Where is the subjective change? It is nowhere. The imputation of righteousness is a legal transaction based upon the authority of God as judge.

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God can impute righteousness to those who are of faith because of the full, complete, and real satisfaction that has been made on their behalf by Christ.

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My second passage, this one relevant to the forensic or legal character of justification, is Romans 8 .33.

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Here we read, Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns?

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Again, you have the same contrast of justification and condemnation, and we ask the question, who can condemn those who have been justified?

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That is, who has been declared righteous by the eternal judge himself? The answer is no one can do so.

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Unlike my opponent, I am going to begin my part of the discussion with Scripture and not with the words of men.

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I'm going to give you a reading from the second papal encyclical known as the second letter of Peter in the Bible.

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Quote, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours in the righteousness of our

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God and Savior Jesus Christ. His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his glory and excellence.

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By this he has granted to us his precious and very great promises that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion and become partakers in the divine nature.

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For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge, your knowledge with self -control, your self -control with steadfastness, your steadfastness with godliness, your godliness with brotherly affection, and your brotherly affection with charity.

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For if these things are yours and abound, they will keep you from being unproductive or unfruitful in the knowledge of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these things is blind and short -sighted.

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He has forgotten that he was cleansed of his old sins. Therefore, brethren, diligently work to make your calling and election sure.

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For if you do these things, you will never stumble. You will be richly provided for with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of your

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But, beloved, do not ignore this one fact.

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With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some count slowness, but he is forbearing towards you all, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

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But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise.

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The elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and every work that is done on it will be revealed.

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Since all these things are to be destroyed, what sort of person ought you to be? You should abide in holy conduct and godliness, thus hastening the coming of the day of the

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Lord. In preparation for this day, the heavens will be set ablaze, the elements themselves will melt with fire, and according to his promise, we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell.

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Therefore, beloved, as you wait for this, be zealous to be found, to be at peace with him, and without spot or blemish.

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Thus consider the long -suffering patience of our Lord as our salvation. Our beloved brother

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Paul also wrote to you about this, as he has written in all his letters according to the wisdom given to him.

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There are some things in them hard to understand which the ignorant and the unstable distort to their own destruction.

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They do this also with the other scriptures. Beloved, you have been warned beforehand.

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Beware lest you are led astray with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen. End of quote.

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So, St. Peter wrote to his congregation in Rome shortly before his death there as a martyr. He tells them to zealously pursue a life of holy conduct and righteous living, just, he says, as St.

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Paul had written to the Roman community in his famous epistle many years before. The life he describes would be grounded in faith but not in faith alone.

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Faith must be supplemented by many virtues, culminating in supernatural charity. St. Peter tells them to seek these virtues so that at the consummation of the world by fire the righteousness of Christians will be all that God will find when the chaff of the world is burnt away.

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Then God will make a new creation to enthrone this righteousness forevermore. The only reason that God delays this consummation is that he is waiting patiently for all men to seek and achieve this righteousness, which will manifest itself in virtue, steadfastness, and charity.

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The Christian must, therefore, zealously strive to be found at peace with the Lord for such peace does not come easily.

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But the congregation is warned, beware of lawless men who distort St. Paul's teaching and the rest of Scripture to upset the moral order which

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God has ordained as our end. In chapter 1, verse 20, he warns that these people interpret

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Scripture for themselves, forgetting that only men, quote, moved by the Holy Spirit, speak for God, unquote.

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An early statement of the magisterium of the church by the first pope? These false teachers will pretend that sins are not truly cleansed but merely ignored.

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They will extol an unproductive and fruitless so -called faith, devoid of virtue and of charity.

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As St. Peter says in the same epistle, chapter 2, verse 10, they indulge their flesh in depraved lust and despise authority.

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And in verse 19, they promise freedom but are slaves of corruption. Who are these persons about whom

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St. Peter is speaking? They were obviously heretics from the apostolic times who based their errors on false interpretations of St.

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Paul's epistle to the Romans. Isn't it interesting? In the epistle of St. James, also in the

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Bible, there are the same issues being dealt with. In particular, he gives a virtual line -by -line exegesis of Romans chapters 3 and 4 in the relevant areas.

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Quote, If you really fulfill the royal law, which says, according to Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself, then you do well.

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But if you show partiality, that is, if you are a bigot, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

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So speak and act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has no mercy to others.

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Yet mercy triumphs over judgment. What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has no works?

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Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill -clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says,

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Go in peace, be warm, be filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?

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So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say,

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You have faith, and I have works. Well, you show me your faith without works, if you can, and I will show you my faith by my works.

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If you believe that God is one, you do well. But even the demons believe that, and they shudder in terror. Are you willing to know,

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O empty man, that faith without works is barren? Was not Abraham our ancestor justified by works, when he offered his son

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Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was working along with his works, and that faith was made complete by works.

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You see, then, that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the debate is over. The Bible has spoken. Basically, what my opponent is trying to convince you of is that the

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Bible does not mean what it says, but that it means the exact opposite. We might as well sit around arguing about whether St.

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Joseph was the biological father of Christ or not. I would continue with this quotation.

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Was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out on different roads?

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For just as the body without breath, that is pneuma, spirit, the same word in Greek, just as the body without spirit is dead, faith without works is dead.

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Note well, as in St. Peter's encyclical, faith is only the beginning of our justification.

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It must be completed by works of mercy in order for it to be a saving Christian faith. St. James is not saying that works merely demonstrate that one is already saved by some naked faith.

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Works are the very soul and spirit, the life and breath of faith. They are integral to and present within a saving faith, and not merely its external byproduct.

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Who can doubt that St. James was dealing with the same heretics as St. Peter? Now, if we were to look at the contemporary

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Christian scene, ladies and gentlemen, who would most resemble these heretics against which these two scriptural authors were writing?

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Who believes that a man can be saved by faith alone without doing good works? Who misinterprets St. Paul consistently?

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Who has abandoned Christian morality in various ways over history, making concessions to secular morality?

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Who else is it but those who have the label of Protestant, because they protest against the witness and teaching of the historic

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Catholic Church? The aim of my presentation tonight will be to demonstrate that the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone without doing good works is an anti -biblical doctrine which is a variance with the true teachings of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James, and other authors of the Bible. I will show that this false teaching is an invention of men who picked and chose their scriptures to achieve a narrow, predetermined interpretation while ignoring the wider context which contradicted their views.

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Their teaching is not a new era, but an old one, known to the New Testament authors and specifically and deliberately refuted by them.

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This other gospel nullifies the word of God. It is merely a human tradition based on the personal desires of those who apostatize from the historic

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Church. Furthermore, I will show that the witness of the historic Church exemplified by the teachings of the

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Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church has consistently expounded the correct doctrine through history. Finally, I want to make this very clear.

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What we are debating here is not some irrelevant, esoteric, or abstract idea about which men of good will may disagree.

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It is the gospel itself which is at stake, the reality of what it means for a man to be just, righteous, and holy before the one true living

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God. This is not a compromise between the values and judgments of men, but a revelation of the righteousness of God to whom all creation owes worship, submission, and fealty.

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He has revealed his truth in these matters. I say to you who have ears, hear his word.

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Repent of your errors. Turn your minds back to the paths of righteousness and peace available only in Christ Jesus.

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Believe in his gospel and no other. It is typical of Protestants to follow the example of the founding father of their religion,

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Martin Luther, by not looking to the words of our Lord and Savior in the gospels for guidance on these matters.

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Rather, they look to the epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and to the Galatians, primarily, and focus on certain

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Old Testament texts like Genesis 15 -6. It is quite interesting that my opponent in his book on justification by faith makes exactly seven quotations from the gospel, and only two of those quotations are the words of Christ being directed to the disciple.

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All the rest of them are offhand comments about it, and in fact he admits that he was confronted by a neo -Orthodox

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Protestant theologian who accused him of not using the gospels in order to fit his doctrines, but rather he was constructing them on the basis of what

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Luther and Calvin thought that Paul thought. The central doctrine of Protestantism, justification by faith alone, has always focused on men and their reflexive self -interest in personal salvation.

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In opposition to this, the historic Catholic Church has always taught that the key doctrine of Christianity is the incarnation and revelation of God in Jesus of Nazareth.

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Consequently, Protestants have focused more on faith itself than on the object of faith. They have always looked to certain men,

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St. Paul, Luther, Calvin, and the Catholic Bishop St. Augustine, who wrote extensively on the faith matter itself, and they rarely have ever listened to what

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Jesus Christ said. In many ways, what Jesus says is an embarrassment to their positions, because Christ consistently emphasized that eternal life was a reward conditional on the conduct of the believer.

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Jesus taught that it was necessary to forgive others in order to be forgiven ourselves. For example, whenever we say the

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Lord's Prayer, we say, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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Clearly, we are pronouncing a condemnation of ourselves if we fail to do so. In the parable of the wicked servant in Matthew 18, a very important parable for this matter, the wicked servant is forgiven a great debt, millions of dollars by our standards, by his master, but fails to pardon his fellow servant who owes him a few dollars.

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As a consequence of the wicked servant's lack of charity, his master revokes his original forgiveness, and the wicked servant is forced to repay his whole debt on the torture racks.

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Who can doubt that this parable is told to counter the theology of cheap grace among first century proto -Protestants?

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These men who saw their justification as unconditional and irrevocable. As Cardinal Newman noted in his lectures on justification, while he was still an

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Anglican Protestant, the wicked servant prostrated himself before his master without any plea for his own self -worth.

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He had a trusting faith in the master's mercy alone. Yet such a fiduciary Protestant -like faith was no guarantee that he himself would bear the fruits of mercy to his fellow servant.

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Thus Jesus refutes the claim that an imputed righteousness spontaneously yields good works as a fruit.

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In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us not to seek the adulation of men when praying, fasting, or giving alms.

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For if we obtain human praise, we will have already received our reward. Rather, we are told to do our good works in secret.

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Hide in your closet, he says, so that our Heavenly Father alone may reward us for them in the next life. This is the

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Catholic doctrine of merit, that Christians are to be rewarded by God for their works after they have been put in right relationship to him.

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Look to Matthew 25. On Judgment Day, Christ tells us that the only standard on which the saved and the damned will be separated will be their works of charity to their fellow men, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, etc.

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Notice there are no catechism quizzes. There are no Bible drills.

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There are no altar calls. There are no professions of faith. Only the revelation of good or evil deeds.

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In fact, ladies and gentlemen, look to the Scriptures and look in every place where there is a judgment.

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And judgment is never based on faith. It is never based on belief. It is always judged by what you do in the body.

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I will be making other quotes from that later on in the talk. Notice that. When you read these verses of Matthew 25, you will see that among the damned are those who call upon Christ as Lord.

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They say, Lord, when did we fail to do these things? Well, St. Paul tells us that nobody can call Jesus Christ Lord except in the

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Holy Spirit. Obviously, then, these people were believers who showed up on Judgment Day lacking the necessary works of charity to qualify to enter

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Heaven. Can't you hear their voices bleeding? Wait a minute. We've been saved.

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We've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We know we're going to Heaven. And what is it that Jesus replies?

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Depart from me, ye that curse it. I never knew you. For when I was hungry, you gave me no food, etc.

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Whatsoever you do to the least of my siblings, that you do unto me. Ladies and gentlemen, this was not mere temporal punishment.

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Temporary punishment meant to educate and to transform a person into somebody better.

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This is damnation to Hell forever! What do we have to say? Have you not searched the

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Scriptures to refute the theology of merit, to say that good works are not necessary as a part of salvation, and the process of being a justified person is to refute the words of Christ himself?

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Can any man do this and honestly call himself a Christian? Jesus said many other similar things throughout the

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Synoptic Gospels in particular. That we should never judge anyone harshly, lest we ourselves be so judged.

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That we should love our enemies and do good to those that hate us. That we must become perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. And that all those who cry

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Lord, Lord will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of the Father. Jesus never settled for faith alone when counseling people.

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He always urged those who were smug, self -satisfied, or certain of their positions, such as the Pharisees, to metanoia.

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Translated as repentance, penance, whatever. Literally it means to change your minds and act differently.

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He told them to be perfect as their Father was perfect. Matthew 5 .48 He taught that the Father had not stopped working from the moment of creation, and that He, Christ, would not stop working good deeds and healings, even on the

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Sabbath. Thus He shamed the Pharisees, who taught that the doing of good works on the Sabbath day was an offense against God, and an act of human boasting and pride.

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In proclaiming the so -called sovereignty of God, these Pharisees refused to do the work of God, and tried to prevent it from being done by others.

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As Jesus says in John 5 .28 -29, On judgment day, men will come forth from the grave, and quote, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

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Jesus also taught in Luke 17 that after all that we can do in this life, we can only say we are unworthy servants, we have done our duty.

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It is clear that Christians are called by Christ to persevere in a multitude of good works, not to sit on their laurels and say, quote,

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Jesus has done it all already, unquote. In fact, in John 14 .12 Jesus teaches, truly

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I say to you, he who believes in me will do the works I do, and greater works than these will he do.

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Because I go to the Father, and anything you ask in my name, the Father will glorify, will do it so that he may be glorified in the

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Son. Clearly, we are called to do great works in the name of Christ, thus manifesting the power of Christ in glorifying

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God. How can such works not be meritorious since they are themselves the work of Christ?

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I would also emphasize one other point at this point. My opponent makes a big deal out of the so -called completed work of Christ, but anyone familiar with Scripture would know that the work of Christ is not completed.

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Now, he achieved all of his ends that he intended in his first coming, but if you are familiar with the prophecies of the

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Old Testament in particular, Christ was the Messiah who was supposed to bring prosperity, vindication for the just, and punishment for the wicked.

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And one of the main points of Jewish anti -Christian exegesis is that Jesus did not fulfill all of those promises from the

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Old Testament. We Christians are awaiting Christ to return to complete his work by the vindication of the just at the end of the world, the resurrection of the just unto glory, and the resurrection of the evil unto perdition.

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In other words, Christ is still working in the world, through the church, and his work is not yet done.

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Calvary is complete, the atonement is complete, but the application has not yet happened in its fullness.

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And we don't expect it. No Christian expects it until the second coming. Jesus' main opponents in the

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Gospels were the Pharisees, and I think everybody here knows that. Now, who were these Pharisees? They were lay people.

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They interpreted Scripture for themselves in their synagogues. They disdained the priests of the temple and its rituals, and they were satisfied that their personal piety meant that they alone were the elect of God, not just among the peoples of the world, but from within the

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Jewish community itself. Now, what did Jesus say to them? Did he castigate them for pursuing good works and not trusting in faith alone?

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Quite the contrary. Jesus told his disciples, Listen to the Pharisees, for they have the teaching authority of Moses.

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Do as they say, but not as they do. Jesus said to the Pharisees directly,

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You place great burdens on the backs of the people, but you do not lift a finger to help them. In another place, he castigates them because the

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Pharisees had allowed a special donation to the temple which would permit somebody not to have to take care of their parents in their old age.

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He condemns them for this for violating the commandments. This was the Korban rule. It was not their beliefs which

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Jesus condemned, but their works. As he said on another occasion referring to the

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Pharisees and their strict dietary practices, It is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him.

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Jesus had a healthy Hebrew sense of the unity of man. The dichotomy between body and soul was a

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Greek idea. To the Jews, you did not have a soul, you were a soul. And anybody familiar with St.

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Thomas Aquinas knows that that's also what he taught. Separations between heart and mind or thought and deed were

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Hellenistic aberrations. To the Jews, to merely plan to do evil was to nullify or rather to be guilty of the sin, even if you didn't actually attempt it.

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Remember how Jesus said to merely look on a woman with lust was to have committed adultery in your heart with her.

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The false dichotomy between faith and works found in Protestantism is a Hellenistic corruption introduced into Christendom in the late

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Middle Ages through the works primarily of two Islamic Aristotelian philosophers, Averroes and Avicenna, as their works were interpreted through what is known as the

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Via Moderna or more commonly the nominalist schools of philosophy. These people inspired men like Wycliffe, Haas, Radwardine, and others who were early forerunners of the defamation.

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What they did is they introduced fatalism and a variety of other ideas into the

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Christian faith which led to these Protestant distortions. Contrarily, the biblical worldview assumed that the idea of communal election of Israel was a communal election of Israel not as individuals but as a living family.

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It held to a holistic concept of nature in which each entity was seen as part of a larger whole. And St.

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Paul carries this forward in his letter to the Corinthians where he talks about us as being members of a body. Members, not similar types of people who come to meetings but like organs of the body, fingers and toes, eyes and ears working together towards an integrated whole.

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The Pharisees who tried to curry divine favor without a compassionate human heart were condemned by Christ as whited sepulchers, whitewashed and clean on the outside but on the inside full of corruption and dead men's bones.

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Thus did Jesus condemn all vain attempts to impute righteousness or merely cover over sin. He called for an authentic human virtue grounded in faith but perfected in charity.

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In summation, if we are to truly call ourselves Christian, we must interpret St. Paul's teachings in the light of Christ's words and not interpret

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Christ in the light of St. Paul as interpreted by 16th century apostates.

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He taught us, Jesus taught us that our salvation would be conditioned on how we treated other people and that our salvation or damnation would be judged on the basis of the works we wrought in his name and by his grace.

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This is not Pelagianism in which works earn salvation. It is the teaching of Christ in which our works are a part of our salvation.

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If I may quote from Ephesians, For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of your own doings.

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It's a gift of God, not the result of works so that no one may boast. For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which

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God has prepared beforehand that we might live in them. In other words, we are created for the good works.

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Those are our end. And those good works have the final end of glorifying

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God. I dare my opponent to explain how the mere opinions of Luther and Calvin and all these other men could possibly be interpreted in a way contrary to the words of God incarnate.

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Hopefully in the next section I will have the opportunity to analyze and explain what St. Paul is actually talking about in his controversial epistles of Romans and Galatians.

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And I will try and demonstrate also why St. Peter and Paul were compelled under divine inspiration to be critical of certain people's interpretations of St.

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Paul's letters. Thank you very much. Of course, I wasn't talking about mere opinions of men.

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And of course what I believe Calvin and Luther taught was simply what Paul taught. I'm not going to get into labeling people as apostates and things like that.

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It's not one here. We will deal with what the Bible says. That's what I have been dealing with. And I believe that all of Scripture is

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God -breathed. Romans as well as James or Jesus. In fact, I believe Jesus. I believe in the

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Trinity and therefore John is just as inspired as Romans and Galatians. And so I don't believe that we should skip over the clear passages that talk about justification and drive our beliefs from someplace else and force them on the clear passages of Scripture.

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But I did want to finish up the presentation of what the Bible actually teaches. We looked at, of course, what the biblical terms themselves meant and saw that they accord with the

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Protestant belief, not the Roman Catholic one. But there remains one more vital, vital issue.

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What is the basis of justification? How can God declare someone who is unjust, just?

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And how can God declare sinners, saints? The primary, most basic element of difference between the

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Roman Catholic doctrine and the Protestant doctrine is simply this. The righteousness by which we stand before God, according to the

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Protestant, is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not our own. The righteousness of Christ is the actual and real possession of the believer.

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This is the righteousness he pleads before the judgment bar of God. Christ is our substitute.

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Our sins are imputed to him. His righteousness is imputed to us. Christ does not simply merit for us grace so we can then do good works to earn our way to heaven.

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By God's grace, Christ's righteousness is ours and we have eternal life because of Christ's righteousness, not because of our own.

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There are far too many passages that teach this central truth to even begin to address them all through the

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Gospels as well, I might add. But a few representative samples must be presented. Paul taught the

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Corinthians, he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2

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Corinthians 5 .21. Did not Isaiah say long ago, surely our griefs he himself bore, our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

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But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well -being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed.

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By his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.

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Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. Roman Catholicism speaks of our doing works in a state of grace that makes satisfaction or atonement for sin.

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Why? Christ bore all our sins by virtue of the union of the elect with their head.

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Jesus Christ. And that union is solely the result of God's merciful election in eternity past.

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And that's not just Paul, that's Jesus Christ. John chapter 6, verses 35 -45.

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And you may notice Dr. Sipo has this book sitting on his table. It's mine. It's on John chapter 6.

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It's all about it. I guess I do know that John wrote about things like that and that Jesus spoke about it. From the beginning to the end, salvation is of God.

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May we all join Paul when he said that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, derived from law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on what basis?

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On the basis of faith plus works? No. On the basis of faith, Philippians 3 .9.

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This is the only righteousness my friends, that will avail for us. True Christian justification does not result in a life filled with fear at falling from God's grace or in a continual cycle of justification fall.

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Justification fall. Instead, Paul, after presenting Abraham as the example of justification by faith, proclaimed therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

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Not a ceasefire. Not a truce. We have peace. Shalom. True peace with God, through our

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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exult in the hope of the glory of God.

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We have been justified and because of this we have peace with God, through Christ.

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This is not simply a temporary ceasefire. It is true peace based upon the completed and finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.

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Not something that is represented over and over again. Now, with reference to James chapter 2 that was read in your hearing, first let us note the context of James chapter 2.

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My opponent said that James addresses the same issues as Paul. My opponent is in error as James himself clearly shows us.

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First of all, the context. James is addressing believers about living the Christian life. He is not discussing how men enter into a relationship with God which is

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Paul's entire point in the book of Romans and in Galatians as well. Then we must note what James said in the first chapter.

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He said in the exercise of his will, that is God's will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be as it were the first fruits among his creatures.

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This you know, my beloved brother, but let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

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Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls.

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Note some important thoughts in James' words. First he is addressing Christians for he speaks of us as being the first fruits of God.

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Second he believes just as Paul that salvation is the work of God, not man, for he says that we were brought forth, quote, by the word of truth, end quote, just as Paul had said in Thessalonians and 1

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Thessalonians 2 .13 where he said, quote, and for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe.

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Part and parcel of the recognition of the fact that God saved us by his powerful word is the fact that God's work of salvation will result in a changed life.

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I said that. It was ignored, but I said that in my opening presentation. Often we hear Ephesians 2 .8

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-9 quoted as well it should for here Paul totally eliminates any concept of human merit or works of salvation, but immediately after having asserted that salvation is completely the action of God he goes on to say what both of us have said we were created in Christ Jesus unto good works which

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God has ordained that we should walk in them. I asserted that the faith alone by which I stand is faithing faith, supernatural faith that is accompanied by love.

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That is what has always been taught and to say anything else is to grossly misrepresent what I have been saying. We are not created by good works we are not maintained by good works, but we are to walk in good works that God and his sovereignty has prepared for us.

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This is exactly what James is talking about in his epistle. The exhortation to holy living that is found in James and all the way else throughout the

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New Testament and the Old Testament is perfectly in line with Paul's words to Titus as well for right upon the heels of his clear presentation of justification by grace alone in verses 5 -7 of chapter 3.

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Paul went on to say to Titus this is a trustworthy statement and concerning these things I want you to speak constantly so that those who believe in God may be careful to engage in good deeds.

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These things are good and profitable for men. Those who are justified, those who are changed will do good deeds.

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It is natural to their new nature as creations of God. The doing of good deeds however always comes after justification.

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It is never a prerequisite never a means and that is what Roman Catholicism is teaching. Next we approach the second half of James chapter 2 we note that James tells us what kind of faith he is decrying.

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We read in verse 14 what use is it my brethren if a man says he has faith but he has no works can that faith save him?

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The kind of faith that James is attacking is a faith that does not result in works. Yet as we have seen that is not saving faith and that is not what

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I'm talking about. The faith Paul spoke of in Ephesians 2 and in Titus 3 always resulted in good works.

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So James and Paul are not using the word faith in the exact same way. James is talking about an empty faith that does not come forth of the gift of the spirit of God that is effective and powerful in a person's life.

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He is talking about a faith that does not result in good works. For Paul faith is saving faith.

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It is a sovereign gift of God given in regeneration. James on the other hand is talking about a faith that is as he said dead.

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Faith that does not result in works. The fact that Paul and James are going to use the same terms with different meanings will become very important in a moment.

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In verse 17 James states that such a kind of faith is dead being alone we agree that saving faith will not be alone and hence we are not asserting that salvation can come by such dead faith.

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Then in verse 18 we find a vital key to understanding this passage. James speaks of demonstrating one's faith by one's works.

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We are to show our faith by the way we act. So later when James talks about Abraham being justified by his works, he does so in the context of demonstrating his faith before other men.

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The justification of which James speaks then is in a completely different context to Paul's discussion in Romans or Galatians.

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Paul says that no man shall be justified in the sight of God by works. James says the only way a man can be justified in the sight of men is by works.

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We are then given the example of Abraham. He asks if Abraham was not justified by works when he offered Isaac upon the altar.

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Yet we know that Genesis 15 .6 tells us that Abraham was justified in God's sight many years before the offering of Isaac upon the altar, and that by faith without works.

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The justification of which James speaks here is not the same justification which Paul speaks. Here Abraham is being justified with reference to his faith, not his sins.

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The faith he showed to God in Genesis 15 .6 is being shown to be true, real faith. His works, as James said, perfected faith, showing faith, and most importantly sprung from his faith.

01:00:00

Two minutes. In response to some of the things my opponent has said, he indicated that he was going to start with Scripture, not the words of men.

01:00:08

I point out to you I started with the words of the Council of Trent. In the second place, regarding 1 Peter 1 and the exhortation to do good works, most definitely.

01:00:17

We are not saying that we are not exhorted to do good works. But do they add to the righteousness of Jesus Christ is the question today.

01:00:24

1 Corinthians 1 verses 30 -31 says Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He is our sanctification.

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He is our life. And the good works that we do can never be considered to add to the righteousness that is ours in him.

01:00:38

It is his righteousness that we stand with before God, and when we work out our salvation in fear and trembling,

01:00:43

Philippians chapter 2 verse 12, we do that in fear and trembling because we know that it is God who is at work within us both to do and to will according to his good pleasure,

01:00:52

Philippians 2 verse 13. Okay? That is very very important. The issue here is the basis of salvation, and we are talking about true saving faith, not a dead faith that does not result in eternal life and in good works.

01:01:05

Next, my opponent said that eternal life is a reward condition on the actions of the believer, and he said that every place where judgment occurs is on the basis of works.

01:01:14

I don't believe that is the case. As Jesus said in John chapter 5, I say to you everyone who hears my word and believes on him who sent me has eternal life and shall not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.

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How did we pass out of judgment? How did we pass into life? Through faith in Jesus Christ.

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That is how it took place. Jesus said that is how we avoid judgment, and if you notice the revelation when the people stand before the great white throne, my friends, and they're judged according to their works, what happens to every single one of them?

01:01:46

They're cast in the lake of fire because they did not have their name written in the book of life. Thank you.

01:01:52

Ladies and gentlemen, what my opponent has said about the letter of James is quite typical. He is again trying to convince you that the book doesn't really mean what it says.

01:02:02

I would remind my opponent that we are not merely told that faith is going to be accompanied by works, but it's going to be completed by works in James's epistle.

01:02:12

And we are told that a man is not justified by faith alone, but by works. There's clear parallels to the structures in 3

01:02:19

Romans and 4 Romans in that point, and it has been a typical problem. Martin Luther recognized the fact that his doctrines were not compatible with the book of James, and so he attempted to throw the book out of the

01:02:31

Bible. I think that he was far more honest than many of our Protestant brethren since then, who have not been willing to admit that there is a serious contradiction.

01:02:42

Now my opponent would like you to believe, first of all, I would like to point out that he did not really refute very many of my statements.

01:02:50

I mean, I brought up several things and he kind of tap -danced around it and brought up contrary verses. The issue, ladies and gentlemen, is not that there are verses that have a slightly different slant on the question.

01:03:01

He's got to deal with the central problem. The central problem is that we are told you are going to be judged, and if you've done righteousness, you're going to heaven.

01:03:09

If you have done evil, you're going to hell. Now, this is very nice to say that only a saving faith is going to have good works, but we're already told in Matthew 18, that parable about the wicked servant, there is somebody who did have a faith that supposedly earned him forgiveness from his master, but he failed to reflect it.

01:03:29

The point here, ladies and gentlemen, is that when you're talking about faith, alright, whenever the

01:03:36

Bible talks about faith, it's talking about belief and trust, okay, the Hebrew concept of immunah, both of them, and the problem with this is that belief and trust does not mean good works, necessarily.

01:03:49

It's concerned with my own salvation and where I'm going, not necessarily what's going to happen with other people, and this is the primary problem with the

01:03:59

Protestant era. They are so busy talking about saving faith. What does a saving faith mean?

01:04:04

Does it mean that my faith saves you from despair, from drudgery, from starvation?

01:04:10

No, no, no. It saved me. All of this is worried about what happens to me. Jesus was not terribly concerned about that.

01:04:19

He was concerned about what happened to other people. He was focused outwardly, not inwardly.

01:04:25

Now, my opponent also makes the point about substitution, and about how Jesus died as a substitution for us so that we don't have to suffer, etc.,

01:04:35

etc. I would recommend to you a book by the British Evangelical John Stott, The Cross of Christ, an excellent book.

01:04:43

It has two chapters on there dedicated to the concept of substitutionary atonement, and one of the very important points that John Stott makes in there is that if you look at the

01:04:53

Greek in particular, and in the general context of the notion of substitution, Jesus does not die instead of us.

01:05:00

The Greek preposition is anti. He dies, rather, in our behalf.

01:05:06

Hiper. This is like a lawyer going to court for you, okay? The lawyer goes to court and is struggling, trying to help you to be acquitted.

01:05:17

Now, he may have to suffer. He may feel that he's got to go in contempt of court and suffer something for it. But his suffering is not in place of your suffering.

01:05:25

He is suffering in your behalf, not in your stead. And if we're going to get real technical about being suffering in your stead, if Jesus was going to suffer in the stead of the sinner, he'd have to go to hell and be damned forever.

01:05:37

And nobody believes that. Rather, Jesus does something that we cannot do.

01:05:44

He goes on our behalf before the Father, and he makes the atonement. He does something so that we do not have to suffer.

01:05:55

Now, what does he do? He offers himself the divine human hybrid. This goes back to the theology of St.

01:06:01

Anselm. It is God making the offer, but it is also man making the offer. He's the new Adam.

01:06:06

He speaks for all of us. And consequently, what he does is of infinite value. And it means that nobody has to be damned.

01:06:15

Even Jesus does not have to be damned. Poetic language about how he became sin for us is very nice.

01:06:21

Every now and then, I refer to my wife by endearing terms also that are slightly exaggerated, but that doesn't mean that I really believe she's a limpid fool.

01:06:29

Let's get real. This is language. This is not physics. These laws are not rigid.

01:06:35

Language is a little bit flexible. Now, let's talk a little bit about the supposed doctrines taught in the

01:06:41

Letter to the Romans. What my opponent rarely mentions, and in fact what most Protestants do not mention, is that the main thesis that St.

01:06:50

Paul is dealing with in Romans and Galatians, and really I think through most of his epistles, is the question of the

01:06:56

Judaizers. The Judaizers were Jews who thought that in order to be a Christian, you had to be a

01:07:01

Jew. You had to be circumcised. You had to keep the law. Paul comes into this and says, no, it's not necessary.

01:07:08

Jesus is the new Adam. He's not the new Abraham, so that everybody that's descended from him by race is going to have an inroad to heaven.

01:07:17

He's not the new Moses, so that if you follow the rules in his religion, you go to heaven. He's the new

01:07:22

Adam. He has meaning for everybody. Whether you know it or not, you're going to be judged on the basis of him.

01:07:28

He's the new leader of the race. So St. Paul, when he is confronting the problem, he is not looking at this thing merely as a new way of people becoming part of the elected small group that's going to be separated from the mass of tradition.

01:07:44

St. Paul is looking at the new Israel as a way of including people who before by the

01:07:50

Jews had been excluded. Now, in particular on this, I'd like to make a quotation from Romans 2.

01:08:00

In chapter 2 in the letter to the Romans, Paul says, Render unto every man according to his works.

01:08:06

He says that God will render unto every man according to his works.

01:08:11

No, he doesn't say he's going to render unto every man according to his faith. Romans 2, this is verses 6 through 16.

01:08:19

To those who seek glory, honor, and immortality by patiently doing good works, he will give eternal life.

01:08:26

To those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

01:08:32

There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and then the Greek.

01:08:37

But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and then the

01:08:43

Greek. God shows no partiality. He's not a bigot. All who have sinned apart from the Torah, the

01:08:48

Jewish law, will perish apart from the Torah. And all who have sinned under the Torah will be judged by the

01:08:54

Torah. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

01:09:03

When the Gentiles who have not the Torah do by nature what the Torah requires, they are a law unto themselves, even though they do not have the

01:09:12

Torah. They show that what the Torah requires is written on their hearts, while their consciences will also bear witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse them, or even excuse them, when on that day, according to my gospel,

01:09:26

God judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Now, in the famous third chapter, we have this section where this is the classical place where Protestants find their doctrine of justification by faith alone without doing good works.

01:09:43

Now, it's important that you hear that. They're justified by faith alone without doing good works.

01:09:50

Alone and doing are two words that Luther added into the text in his German translation that are not present in the

01:09:56

Greek, and no reputable translation since then has dared to put them in. The closest one is the

01:10:02

New English version from the American Bible Society, which is so colloquial it's not even funny.

01:10:09

Let me give you a quotation then from the third chapter of Romans.

01:10:15

But now a righteousness of God has been manifested apart from Torah, although the Torah and the

01:10:21

Nevi 'im, the prophets, bear witness to it. A righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all believers.

01:10:28

For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

01:10:37

What he says then, he goes down and says that we therefore say that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

01:10:47

That is, apart from Torah. You can be justified before God as a

01:10:54

Gentile without having to be a Jew. That's all it means. He's not talking about law in general.

01:11:00

He just said in the previous chapter that when you obey the law in your heart, that's the fulfillment of the law.

01:11:06

Go back to Romans 14. In Romans 14 .8 he says, Love is the fulfillment of the law.

01:11:15

Another part of Romans that Protestants ignore. Now how do

01:11:20

I know that my interpretation of Romans 3 .28, that a man is justified by faith apart from being

01:11:26

Jewish, essentially. How do I know that's right? Read verse 29. Verse 29 tells you if this isn't true, then this, the opposite is this.

01:11:37

And what it says is, if I can give you the complete phrase, a man is justified by faith apart from works of Torah or God would be the

01:11:47

God of Jews only and not of Greeks or if you will, of Gentiles. Clearly what

01:11:53

Saint Paul is talking about with his notion of faith is that our faith in Christ is sufficient to ennoble the works of the

01:12:03

Gentiles so that they are like unto the works of the Jews under the law. The good works that are supposed to be done that God had demanded that they do.

01:12:11

It gives us a unity between Jew and Gentile that brings us together.

01:12:16

It doesn't separate us and create a distinction between those who work and those who believe. It is meant to draw us together into one community.

01:12:26

The importance of understanding what Saint Paul is really talking about is, as he says in Galatians 5, 6 that our saving faith is a faith working through love.

01:12:38

Love is within the faith. It is a part of the faith. It is inseparable. Protestants love to talk about justification apart from sanctification, but they admit you can't separate them.

01:12:48

So why talk about them separated? Let's admit that there's no biblical warrant for it. That they are all together.

01:12:54

That to truly believe and have a saving faith is, in all honesty, to have a faith that works through love.

01:13:02

Now, how do you get that faith? By the gift of God. But how does God give it to you? Does he sit over you and force you by some magical power of his to conform to that?

01:13:12

No. Does he sit under you so that your will is in command over him like the Pelagians teach? No. He works within you.

01:13:19

And that was the point that Saint Augustine made. That was the point that Luther ignored from Augustine among the others.

01:13:26

My final point on this as far as Saint Paul is concerned is that he had a very

01:13:32

Catholic understanding of faith. He knew that a saving faith engendered good works as a necessary part.

01:13:38

If you say that a man is justified by faith alone, you must have at least one human being in all of history who is saved without good works.

01:13:45

It must be. Because otherwise you're being logically contradictory. It is impossible to say that a man is justified by faith alone if there is not somebody who is saved without works.

01:13:56

And I defy my opponent to demonstrate to me a single individual person who proves that justification is by faith alone without any good works whatsoever.

01:14:06

Thank you. Let me begin on the process of answering various things that have been said. First of all, my opponent cited

01:14:13

Matthew chapter 7, the judgment of the people who called him Lord, Lord, and said these were believers, of course.

01:14:20

This makes the Bible contradictory because Jesus said he knows his sheep and they know him. And then he goes on to say to them in Matthew 7,

01:14:27

I never knew you. So obviously these were false professors. They were not true believers. That's very straightforward. Then Dr.

01:14:34

Stippo mentioned the so -called completed work of Christ. I would point your attention to Hebrews chapter 10.

01:14:41

I was hoping to hear more pages rustling out there when I'd give you references. But Hebrews chapter 10,

01:14:47

I simply give you the word of God. And by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

01:14:55

And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sin.

01:15:01

But he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

01:15:09

For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

01:15:17

And so again, I point out that in reference to the forgiveness of sins, in reference to the atonement of Jesus Christ, his work is finished.

01:15:24

It is done substitutionarily. It is done huper in our behalf. And I'll get into that a little bit more in just a moment.

01:15:32

Thirdly, Dr. Stippo in dealing with James 2 did not deal with any of the context I gave in James, any of the uses of the terms that were used there in James' discussion.

01:15:40

He simply said that I was wrong and I guess you're just going to have to look at the context yourself and decide who actually dealt with it.

01:15:47

He did add that Luther attempted to throw James out. That of course is a common myth. Unfortunately it's untrue.

01:15:53

What Luther actually said was that the epistle of James in comparison with Romans was an epistle of straw. Be that as it may.

01:16:00

Then he brought up the issue of the evil servant. And again, it seems very obvious to me, anyone who is familiar with the

01:16:06

Protestant perspective would recognize that we would understand this evil servant to be a perfect example of a person who claims faith but does not live a life that is consistent with faith.

01:16:18

And of course we believe that supernatural faith, faith that is the gift of God that brings about salvation will bring about a changed life.

01:16:24

Therefore, obviously the evil servant was not one who had the true gift of faith from God. In regards to the substitutionary atonement of Christ, an example was given of a lawyer going in our place.

01:16:38

I'm certainly glad the scriptures don't teach that. I'm certainly glad that the scriptures very clearly teach the fact that Jesus Christ as one in whom we are united as our head, has suffered in our place not as a lawyer might suffer in doing paperwork, but as my perfect savior, as the one who took my punishment.

01:16:56

As Paul said in Galatians 3 .13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us who pair in our place.

01:17:06

For it is written curse is everyone who hangs on a tree, in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the

01:17:11

Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of spirit and faith. That is a wonderful thing to know, that Jesus Christ died in my place, not as a lawyer does paperwork but as my personal savior.

01:17:21

And then it was seemingly said that what is said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 where he made him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him is simply exaggerated language like I might speak to my wife and use exaggerated language.

01:17:38

My friends, it isn't. Accept what God's word says. Don't accept this kind of denial of the clear teaching of scripture.

01:17:47

It's not a good thing to do. Next in Romans chapter 2, we had a quotation here. I find it always fascinating that Romans chapter 2 has gone to if you'll read

01:17:55

Romans 1, 2, and 3 together as a unit, Paul's logical argument is very clear. Romans 1, he's dealing with the non -Jews.

01:18:02

Romans 2, he starts dealing with the Jews who have the law, who would boast in their moral behavior.

01:18:07

And verse 13, he does say, for not the hearers of the law are justified before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. And what is

01:18:12

Paul talking about? Is he actually saying that there is a way of justification outside of the complete work of Jesus Christ?

01:18:19

Is there a way of salvation outside of him by simply doing law you can be justified? No. Go on and read the rest of what he says.

01:18:26

If you read the rest of what he says, he will go on in chapter 3, beginning in verse 9, saying, what then? Are we better than they?

01:18:31

Not at all. We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.

01:18:39

There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless.

01:18:45

There is none who does good. There is not even one. So he goes on to say in verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

01:19:04

I just heard something that amazed me, something about the Gentiles' works of law being ennobled, sort of like the

01:19:10

Jews' works of law, and yet by the works of the law shall no flesh ever be justified. Never.

01:19:16

The works of the law, the law Paul explains in Galatians, was never intended to bring about justification.

01:19:22

It was intended to point us unto the Savior. The law is our schoolmaster, he says in Galatians 3 .24,

01:19:28

to direct us unto Christ. It is a gross error, Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, to think that the law was ever meant to justify us.

01:19:37

A gross error indeed. Then in looking at chapter 3 of Romans, Dr. Sipho skipped verses 24 through 27 in looking at this passage.

01:19:46

Skip down to verse 28, but it's interesting because verse 24 says, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom

01:19:55

God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. He goes on to talk about being the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

01:20:05

Paul goes on in Romans 4 .4 through 5 to totally obliterate the concept of adding works to grace when he says, now to the one who works his reward is not reckoned as grace or as a favor, but simply what is due to him.

01:20:18

But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.

01:20:25

One minute. It's exactly what Paul said in Romans 11 .6. If it is on the basis of grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

01:20:34

The term itself can not allow the admixture of human works with it as the basis of salvation.

01:20:42

That's not Luther, that's not Calvin, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's Paul. That's simply what the scriptures teach very, very clearly.

01:20:49

It would be a grave danger to be taken away from that. Finally, one last thing. Dr. Sipo asked if we talk about sanctification and justification as two separate things, and yet we admit they cannot be separated, why talk about them separately at all?

01:21:02

Well, I believe in the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit share one being of God. Yet we talk about the

01:21:08

Father, and we also talk about the Son, and we don't confuse the two of them. So it seems in theology we are forced to do that, and if the scripture tells us to do it, which it does, then we must do so.

01:21:18

One of the things that my opponent keeps confusing you with, he keeps going back and forth and back and forth on this, is as if I am saying that works done before justification are the cause of justification.

01:21:30

That's not so. You've already clearly said it. In fact, you've read it in the Dictates of the Council of Trent that nothing done before justification merits justification.

01:21:41

The problem is that my opponent believes in double justification. If you will, in an initial act of justification, which is purely forensic, and that's the typical

01:21:50

Protestant view, and then he has the second stage which he will call sanctification. Now, the

01:21:56

Roman Catholic Church does not accept this distinction between the two things. The initial point of justification is the beginning of your new life in Christ, and everything present in the beginning is present afterwards.

01:22:10

There are no two stages, there are no two steps. The forensic idea was an invention of Luther, which he held as the only thing he needed.

01:22:18

It was later on, under the tutelage of Melanchthon, and in particular of Calvin, where they realized that Luther was a little bit unbalanced, and he was not telling the whole truth with regard to the text, that they had to admit that sanctification was a reality.

01:22:32

Now, the reality of sanctification is that it makes us righteous, and Mr. White, I know, is going to admit that we are made righteous by sanctification, by the working of grace.

01:22:41

But for some reason, he thinks that the initial act of justification, the beginning of our life with God, what

01:22:47

St. Paul calls in the seventh chapter of Romans, being made a new creation, that that is merely imputed forensically.

01:22:55

Now, why does he introduce this unnecessary distinction? In the

01:23:00

Scriptures, we are told, in fact, in 1 Corinthians, let me get this right, 1

01:23:07

Corinthians 6 -11, we are told the following things. Such, and he talks about people who were sinners and that, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the

01:23:24

Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of God. Alright, you were washed, baptized, you were sanctified, made holy, and you were justified, right, by Jesus Christ.

01:23:36

This is what we call synonymous parallelism in the Scripture. Synonymous parallelism means that I'm talking about three different ways of looking at the exact same thing.

01:23:47

Baptism, sanctification, and justification are the same thing. There isn't any distinction.

01:23:54

Now, can we talk notionally about some distinctions? I went through St. Paul's writings, and I came up with 15 different models which

01:24:03

Paul uses for the relationship, the saving relationship between God and man in Christ.

01:24:09

The one model which is most commonly used is the one of adoptive sonship.

01:24:15

That's the one which the Council of Trent appropriates as the meaning of justification.

01:24:21

Mr. White already read it, but I'm going to read it to you. Chapter 4 of the Decree on Justification, Session 6 of the

01:24:27

Council of Trent. In these words, a description of the justification of the sinner is given as being a translation from that state in which man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace, and of the adoption of the sons,

01:24:41

Romans 8 .13, of God, to the second Adam, Jesus Christ our Savior. This translation, after the promulgation of the

01:24:48

Gospel, cannot be effected except through the labor of regeneration or a desire for it.

01:24:56

Why does the Catholic Church say that the primary metaphor is not going to court and being justified like you're being acquitted in court?

01:25:06

The reason is because when Jesus was on earth, he didn't use that metaphor. Not as extensively, at least.

01:25:12

Once in a while he'll talk about it, but he primarily talks about our Father who art in heaven.

01:25:18

And St. Paul carries that on in both Galatians and Romans. He talks about adoptive sonship.

01:25:24

That is the dominant theme in the Bible. Covenants between God and man, family covenants between God and man, and the dominant covenant in the

01:25:33

Christian understanding of the Bible is the sonship of Christ and the adopted sonship, the brotherhood of all

01:25:39

Christians together. That's the primary metaphor for how we become the people of God, by becoming adopted sons.

01:25:47

And I would remind you ladies and gentlemen, my opponent keeps talking about the subjective change in the person.

01:25:53

Catholics do not believe in a subjective change in the person. That's a lie. We believe in an objective change.

01:25:59

We believe that the same Savior who said, let there be light, and there was light.

01:26:05

The one who said Lazarus come forth, and he came forth. That same God when he says, you are justified, you are my son today

01:26:14

I have begotten you. When he says that in context for us, he means it. God cannot lie.

01:26:22

First of all, because he's honest, but secondly, because when he says something, it becomes sold.

01:26:29

There is no choice. There is no pretending. Imputation is a fancy way of saying, let's pretend.

01:26:35

Let's have God say something that's not true. And we'll pretend that it's true, at least at first.

01:26:41

Then later on, he'll kind of make it true slowly. Okay? I don't believe in that. I believe that when

01:26:46

God says something, he has the power to make it happen now. To make us righteous. To inherently make us righteous.

01:26:54

And the point of difference between Mr. White and myself on this issue and between Protestantism and the church on this issue is primarily that we do not allow some in -between step in which somebody isn't really righteous yet.

01:27:07

They're just pretending, but they're definitely going to be sooner or later. The beginning of God's work in us has all the elements in it that go to the end.

01:27:15

That was his intention. And it is very important to realize this. We are not saying that we are doing good works prior to justification to earn it.

01:27:27

And in fact, we're not really saying that we're doing good works after justification to earn it. Like we're buying salvation on time.

01:27:34

And we're making payments later. That isn't the point. The point is that when you are a justified man in the grace of God, there are things that you must do.

01:27:43

Things that you must respond to. If you fail to do these things and say they're unnecessary to be done, which is what the

01:27:49

Protestants will tell you. They will tell you that they're unnecessary. You don't have to do anything in particular.