Justification Alone Is A Fantasy

Roman Catholics, since the Reformation have stated that the idea of justification by faith alone is a “legal fiction”.   And taken by itself, they are right.  Absolutely right.  The Bible teaches, without apology, that God justifies sinners, simply based on faith – on belief.  “for all have sinned and . . . are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 3:23–24, ESV).  It is no secret that evangelical Christians (Protestants in general) have embraced this truth with confidence and fervor.  Justification (the legal declaration that a person is free from any condemnation or guilt) is given freely to those who embrace faith in Jesus Christ. 

To that assertion, Rome calls it a “fiction”.   It is a fanciful, fantasy.  Why?  Because simply saying that a sinner is just, doesn’t make a sinner really just.  There is no intrinsic (inner) transformation.  The soul of the sinner, they argue, is still sinful – still corrupt – still unclean. On that information alone, Rome is right:  It is merely extrinsic (outside). Just the simple fact of God, divinely declaring a sinner as being righteous does not affect the inner person.

But that is also where they are wrong!

Note again this classic text: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21–26, ESV) [Emphasis is mine]

Clearly a sinner is declared righteous without faith in Jesus.  Now here is where Rome (and Arminians in general) fail in their assumption.  They deny or at least are unaware of the necessary precondition for a sinner to exercise faith.  Notice the following texts:

1. 1 John 5:1 (ESV), “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”  John affirms that a person who believes “has been” (past tense) “born of God”.  He affirms that the precondition to anyone believing is the “New Birth”.

2. John 1:12–13 (ESV), “¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” The result of those who “were born of God” (past tense) is to receive Christ – to believe on his name. 

3. Ephesians 2:1–5 (ESV), “¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins . . . ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved . . ..”  The initial, definitive, act in saving grace is to be “made alive”.   Before God extrinsically declares a sinner justified, he by grace alone, makes that sinner intrinsically new.   

Where Rome errs is not in the judgment that justification does not inwardly make a sinner new.  Rome errs because they fail to understand that before anyone can exercise faith in Christ that must experience the New Birth.  Spiritual dead people cannot believe.  But people who have, by sovereign grace, experienced the New Birth, will believe, and will therefore be justified.  God effects both an intrinsic and extrinsic transformation.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV).