On what basis does God ever declare a person just? For Rome, it's because they are just. For the reformed understanding, the sole grounds. For the justification of a believer in the is the righteousness of Christ. It's Christ's righteousness and His righteousness alone That justifies us.
In fact, the phrase justification by faith. Alone. Is simple shorthand. for justification. Bye.
Christ Oh wow. The words we use matter. And when we describe how we're declared righteous before a holy God, Our words have eternal significance. Hello and welcome to this edition of Renewing Your Mind. We have been exploring the doctrine of justification by faith alone this week, and today, RC Sproll breaks down important terms and definitions.
Which helps us more easily understand and articulate this vital biblical truth. I hope you'll listen to the end of the program to learn how you can receive all 10 messages from this series. The right down. Let's join Dr. Sproul.
We've been looking at the posting of the 95 Theses by Luther. in fifteen seventeen and Consequently, at the Roman Catholic understanding, of justification. And in Luther's theses He brought into question The whole system of justification That was embraced by the Roman Catholic Church. At this point, He still believed essentially in the Roman system, but questions were beginning. to haunt him.
And among them was the question of the treasury of merits. and the treasury of merit was critical to the whole concept of indulgences. We know how the indulgence controversy created a firestorm at the time because the way in which Johann Tetzel was selling the indulgences, but the bigger question is what's this whole thing? Of indulgences about and where did it come from?
Well, again, it developed. Gradually over the history of the Roman Catholic Church it was based on the ultimately on the idea that Christ gave to Peter The keys to the kingdom or the keys of the kingdom. And so The Pope was seen as holding the office of the case. And the keys of the kingdom included authority over. the dispensing and distribution of indulgences.
Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever sins you remit on earth will be remitted in heaven. And so on.
Now the treasury of merit became front and center. In this whole idea of the sale of indulgences. and the treasury of merit, A treasury. that contains an infinite amount Which is at the power of the church to distribute to those who. We're lacking merit.
Now in the first place, the chief deposit to the treasury of merits. was the merit of Christ. But it was not only the merit of Christ that was or is in the treasury because the concept of the treasury of merit still exists in the Roman Communion. But in addition to the merit of Jesus was also the merit. of Mary.
In addition to the merits of Mary. were added the merits of the saints.
Now, there are very few people historically in the Roman view. who die and go directly to heaven. the overwhelming majority of people. Who die die with impurities still on their soul, so they have to go to purgatory, have those impurities purged or cleansed. before they can go To heaven.
Again, purgatory is not hell. They don't go to hell and be punished. Purgatory is not a place of punishment. It's a place of cleansing. And it will ultimately, for all of those in purgatory, their ultimate destiny will indeed be heaven, but only after this purification process takes place.
Now The problem then is that people who are in purgatory don't have sufficient righteousness to get them. directly to heaven.
Now, as I say, there were a handful of people historically who died with no impurities on their soul. With sufficient merit, to get them into heaven directly. But not only did they have sufficient merit, but they themselves to go into heaven. But they had a third kind of merit. that we haven't discussed yet.
We've already looked at the distinction between condine marriage. and congruous merit with respect to the sacrament of penance, But in addition to condine merit, and congruous merit was this third kind of merit which was called supererogatory merit. which is achieved by people Producing works of supererogation. Not irrigation. but arrogation.
supererogatory works. are those works. that are so good.
so meritorious that they're beyond the call of duty. It's an excess or extra merit. Which, if you, for example, perform works of supererogation. More works than you need to get into heaven, those extra merits or excess merit is then deposited into the treasury of merit. And it's from that treasury that the church through the Pope has the power.
to apply Merits to those who are lacking. And so in that whole system of indulgences, what was going on. was that by the giving of alms the purchasing of indulgences, as it were, Withdrawals were made from this treasury. And apply to those who were lacking them in purgatory so that they could. move ahead to heaven.
Now that concludes our basic overview of the Roman Catholic understanding of justification. I'll talk. Still further about it when we look at other contrasts between the Protestant view. But over against this Luther's cry, of course, was Sola Fide. Justification.
is by Faith alone. And we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at Paul's teaching of it in Romans, but just for an introduction to the Protestant view of justification by faith alone. I want to take some time to define the terms. First of all, the word justification itself. The word, the English word, justification.
comes over from the Latin Eusta Facare. Which literally meant to make Just or to make righteous.
Now one of the problems that produced this whole controversy historically was in the early centuries. the Latin fathers We're not reading and developing their doctrine from the Greek, but rather from the Vulgate, from the Latin. Translation of the Bible. and when the Latin translation of the Bible speaks about justification, it uses the Latin eusaficare, which is drawn from the legal structure of the Roman system of law. And again To make righteous means that here's a person who is not righteous.
And the word to justify means that you make them righteous so that they become truly righteous in and of themselves. And so the system of justification had developed was the system of understanding how an unjust person Is made just or righteous.
Now, when we talk about the process of being made, truly righteous, we're talking not about justification. But about sanctification.
So we believe that first there's justification and then what follows from justification is sanctification. were in the ancient Roman view because of the use of that term, Yusufare. Actually, sanctification was preceding justification because God wouldn't pronounce you just until you actually had become just. But the Greek word dikasune does not mean to make righteous, it means to Count. Or reckon.
as righteous. or to treat as righteous. And so the heart of the Reformation view is that while we are still. Unrighteous We are declared to be righteous. by God's applying to us The righteousness of Christ.
through imputation, which I'll also expand on. later. And so When God looks at us, he sees that we are still sinful. But He nevertheless, once we have faith, He counts us. or reckons us.
or declares us To be Righteous.
Now Luther's motto to explain that is one you've maybe already heard. the Latin phrase simulustus et peccatur. And that was how he tried to define. this state of affairs whereby when we are not righteous in ourselves. Nevertheless, in the sight of God we're considered or counted to be righteous.
The phrase symbol yosis et pecatur means symbol. We get the word simultaneous from that. And so the symbol means at the same time. Simoeustus at the same time Just or righteous. Et.
Now what's that? Does that mean that's the past tense? of the verb to eat, right? I ate my dinner. That means simply and.
Remember with Julius Caesar? when he stabbed his final words are supposed to be At two. Brute. That means and you too. Brutus, and so that simply means it.
So Simmel Justus et at the same time just And Pakator. Which means sinner. We talk about little sins. As being picadillos. If we say somebody's pure, we say they're impeccable.
And so that comes from the Latin word for sin.
So Luther is saying at the very same time We are just and sinners.
Now that sounds at the beginning as a contradiction. And what is the law of non-contradiction?
Something cannot be A and non-A at the same time. and in the same sense or in the same relationship.
Now Luther is saying here, we are at the same time A and non-A. Righteous. And center. But not in the same relationship. In and of ourselves.
We remain sinners. But we are righteous By virtue Of the transfer of Christ's righteousness to ourselves. by virtue of the imputation of his righteousness.
Now, we said at the beginning of our study of the Roman view of justification that it starts at baptism. With an infusion of grace. And so a justified person, according to Rome, is justified on the grounds of infused Righteousness. Let them is possessed inherently by the believer. The Protestant view is that we are justified not by an infusion of righteousness, but by an imputation of righteousness.
Now, you know, as I said earlier. At the time of the Reformation, there were all kinds of attempts. to overcome this enormous catastrophic split within Christendom. and the final one at Regensburg, came this close. to healing the breach and solving The Sism And resolving The theological dilemma.
But the sticking point That was never able to be resolved then or now. is the case of imputation. Rome has always rejected the idea that we are justified on the basis of an imputed righteousness. a righteousness that is not our own. a righteousness that Luther called and Alienum Eustitium.
An alien righteousness, a righteousness that is extra nos. Outside or a part of us. A righteousness that is counted. for us. but is not Our own.
If time permits, later on we'll expand that a little bit more. But I'm just trying to give you the basic definition. of justification by faith alone. The second word is the word buy. That's a simple little term.
And I mentioned before. that it has to do with the dative of means. That If you ask Rome, By what means are we justified? They would say the instrumental means by which we are justified. is baptism.
Remember when I said we started this thing, that baptism begins the process of justification? And it is the instrumental cause or the instrument by which a person is justified.
Now let me just take a minute to talk about this instrumental cause idea. One of the oldest questions of philosophy. is the question of motion. And of change. You might remember Heraclitus saying you never step into the Same river twice because by the time you put your second foot in, the river is moved.
And you have changed, if only, by being a few seconds older. But he says whatever is is. is changing. Change is the singular mark of creaturehood and affinitude. And from Aristotle's perspective Change was a kind of motion.
And so he examined that and he asked himself, Are there different ways in which things change? Are different kinds of changes?
Well, he says when he looks for change, he's looking for the cause of a change. And he said it would be simplistic to assume that causes are singular. when in many cases a change is wrought by the application of several different things. and he used the classic illustration. of a piece of art.
a piece of sculpture, a statue that was being made. in order to distinguish among various types of Causes. And he would say the efficient cause. the the main cause that brings the change to place the chief efficient cause for creating a piece of sculpture is the sculptor. He's the guy that's making all the changes.
But there's also the material cause. And the material cost for the statue is the block of wood or the block of marble. out of which The statue is made. And so he defines material causality as the matter out of which something is made or changes. When we talk about The creation of the universe, what would we say is the material cause?
Nothing. I guess there wasn't anything, except no matter, at least. But God is the efficient and sufficient cause of all of creation. He creates the world not out of a previous existing Substance or matter, he creates it ex nihila. All right, but the material cause is that out of which a thing is made.
The efficient cause is the one who makes it.
Alright. the formal cause. is the idea or blueprint that the artist is using. in order to create his subject. He doesn't just go chiseling away at that piece of marble with no idea in mind of how it's going to look when it's finished.
He has to have A form in his mind for it. And then the final cause would be the purpose for which something is made. In this case, maybe it is to just make the garden of the emperor more beautiful. And so Michelangelo creates a statue to Enhance the beauty of the church or something. That's its final cause.
Well, the instrumental cause. Are the instruments? that are used to bring about the change. And in the case of making a statue, the instrumental cause would be The hammer. and the chisel.
Okay. The things that are used by which the change takes place. Easy enough.
So when Rome talks about baptism as the instrumental cause, It is the means or the instrument by which The person has changed. into having this reception or infusion of grace. And the reformers say no. The sole instrumental cause of justification is faith. It's not baptism.
It's not penance. It's faith. which is the instrumental cause. By the way. Though both Protestants and Catholics used the language and terminology of Aristotle's distinctions of causality, they also, both sides, added another specific cause.
which they called the meritorious cause. of justification. And again, we get to the heart of the issue. On what basis does God ever declare a person just? For Rome, it's because they are just.
For the reformed understanding, the sole grounds. For the justification of a believer in is the righteousness of Christ. It's Christ's righteousness and His righteousness alone. That justifies us. In fact, the phrase justification by faith.
Alone. Is simple shorthand. for justification. Bye. Christ.
Allah. All right, so in the Protestant doctrine, you have sola fide. It's by faith alone, not by faith plus works. It's by grace alone, solo grazi, it's by grace, not merit, and it's by Christ alone. not by Christ plus me.
What a great comfort to know that Christ alone is our righteousness before a holy God. Today's lesson, plus nine others in this series, are available to you for a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind. Simply request Dr. R. C.
Sproll's teaching series with your donation when you call us at 800-435-435. 4343 or when you go online to renewingyourmind.org. You'll receive lifetime digital access to the series as well as the study guide in your learning library in the Ligonier app, and we'll also send you a D V D copy of this series. Again, it's titled Justified by Faith Alone.
Well, before we go, I want to let you know that beginning Monday you'll hear a new but familiar voice hosting Renewing Your Mind. Dave Terrio has served Ligonier Ministries for almost 20 years now in various capacities and if you've attended our national conference over the years, you've no doubt seen him on stage handling announcements and you've also heard his voice on RefNet. Dave will be taking over hosting Renewing Your Mind on Monday through Friday. And Dave, it's been a pleasure to work with you over the years here at Ligonier, and I could not be more pleased to introduce you as the Monday through Friday host of Renewing Your Mind. Thanks, Lee.
You've talked about how whoever sits in this seat is just learning alongside the renewing of mind listeners. And I'd completely agree with that.
So, I'm just honored and humbled to be able to set the table for this wonderful teaching that we trust will continue to help me and. countless others around the world to better know God's Word and His Holiness. Thank you, Dave. I'm excited for you. And I'm also pleased to introduce the host of the weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind, Josh Mann.
Josh has been with Ligadier for a couple of years now. And like Dave, he brings a wealth of experience in ministry and media production. And Josh, congratulations to you. I'm pleased to introduce you as the host of the Saturday and Sunday editions of Renewing Your Mind. Thank you, Lee and Dave.
I echo what you just said. I've listened to Renewing Your Mind for years, and I've also benefited so much from the teaching ministry of Dr. Sprawl in particular. You know, he was my introduction to Reformed theology, as I know he was for so many other people. And so it's just a huge joy for me to have this front row seat in learning alongside our listeners from around the world.
So thank you again so much. I'm just delighted to be here. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Dave. May God richly bless both of you as you continue to serve Him faithfully here at Lagonier Ministries.
And to you, our listeners, it has been a great privilege to serve as host during this season. You know, coming to work here in 2013 and sitting across from Dr. Sprohl here in this studio for those. Final years of his life in ministry was a blessing of the Lord for which I'll never be able to express enough gratitude. I also want you to know this, I love this ministry.
Like so many of you, my wife and I are proud ministry partners, and will continue to be, because we believe in the mission that R. C. articulated so many years ago. To proclaim, teach, and defend the holiness of God. in all its fullness.
And I continue to be amazed by the gifted men and women that God, in His providence, has placed here to carry out that mission so faithfully. Please know how much I've appreciated your encouragement to me over the years and for your prayerful support of this ministry. May God richly bless you. And be sure to tune in again next time, here. on Renewing Your Mind.
