Justification by Faith Only - Glenn Conjurske

Justification by Faith Only

Introduction: The Caution of Conservatism
The caution of conservatism is always wise, and conservative men are always the best reformers. Those who lack the wisdom, and therefore the caution, of conservatism are apt to react too far, and reform too much. They are rarely satisfied till they have thrown out the baby with the bath water. They see a deep-seated error, and think only of removing themselves as far from it as they can, but in so doing they proceed to an equal error on the opposite side, passing by the truth, which lies midway between the two errors.

Martin Luther’s Reactionary Theology
Martin Luther was just such a warm-blooded man as was in peculiar danger here. He saw the deep-seated legal theology of the papacy, and reacted so strongly against it that he threw out the baby with the bath water, and entrenched himself in a theology which was as antinomian as the papal had been legal. The baby which was thus thrown out with the dirty bath water was that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Not that Luther meant to throw this out, but he spoke of justification by faith in so extreme and unguarded a manner as to practically accomplish it. “The doctor’s [Luther’s] wife said to him one day: ‘Doctor, how is it, that under popery we prayed so frequently and so fervently, and that now our prayers are so cold and unfrequent?”’ We do not admire Luther’s answer. “The doctor replied: ‘Popery is the devil’s worship, and the devil incessantly urges on his servants to practise that worship.’” Perhaps he does, but does not God urge his servants to practice the true worship? Does not Scripture urge them even to “Pray without ceasing”? Luther’s answer is lame. We suppose the truth of the matter is that antinomian theology always tends to apathy and carelessness in religion. It always tends to destroy practical piety. Only let men believe that nothing depends upon their piety, and their piety will soon decline.

The Doctrine of Justification by Faith Only
Now Luther was the father of Protestantism. He set the tone and direction of Protestant theology. He fixed its terminology. All Protestants in Luther’s day were called Lutherans. They were thus labelled by way of reproach, but the label was accurate, for they all followed in Luther’s wake, and all adhered, in general, to the theology of Luther.

Now what concerns us in the present article is Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith only. The Bible plainly teaches justification by faith, but it never mentions justification by faith only, so as to imply the exclusion of everything else. The plain fact is, the expression “faith only” is used only once in the Bible with any reference to justification, and in that one instance we are plainly told that justification is “not by faith only.” “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” (James 2:24). We suppose this plain statement of the book of James was the real and only reason that Luther could not brook this epistle, but ejected it from the canon of Scripture as “an epistle of straw,” and affirmed that “it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it.”

Luther’s Rejection of the Epistle of James
In citing his reasons for believing James no apostolic work, he says, “First: Flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture, it ascribes righteousness to works, and says that Abraham was justified by works, in that he offered his son Isaac, though St. Paul, on the contrary, teaches, in Romans iv, that Abraham was justified without works, by faith alone, before he offered his son, and proves it by Moses in Genesis xv. Now although this Epistle might be helped and a gloss be found for this work-righteousness, it cannot be defended against applying to works the saying of Moses in Genesis xv, which speaks only of Abraham’s faith, and not of his works, as St. Paul shows in Romans iv. This fault, therefore, leads to the conclusion that it is not the work of any apostle.”

Thus wrote Luther in 1522, in the first edition of his German New Testament. The portion in which he called James an epistle of straw was omitted in subsequent editions, as were some other depreciatory remarks upon the epistle of James, but the doctrine which moved him to pass so unjust and derogatory a sentence upon the work of the Holy Ghost was yet maintained. That doctrine was “justification by faith only.” This doctrine was the cornerstone of Luther’s theology. This it was which he called “the article by which the church stands or falls.”

Luther’s Immoderate Reaction
We believe in justification by faith, as the Bible plainly teaches it, but Luther’s doctrine is not the doctrine of the Bible, but an immoderate reaction against the legal theology of Rome—a reaction which passed by the Bible doctrine of a repenting, living, working faith, and entrenched itself in the doctrine of faith alone, without the repentance, righteousness, or holiness upon which the Bible conditions our salvation. “There is but one single point,” says Luther, “in all theology—genuine faith and confidence in Jesus Christ. This article comprehends all the rest.”

Thus “all the rest” of Scripture is practically made a dead letter, and in this point Luther has a great following to this day. Nor is it Scripture alone which Luther’s “faith only” sets aside, but Scriptural holiness also. To Melancthon he said, “Sin, sin mightily, but have all the more confidence in Christ; rejoice more vehemently in Christ, who is the conqueror of sin, of death, and of the world. While we are in this world, we can do no other than sin, we must sin. … “I am now full of the doctrine of the remission of sins. I grant nothing to the law, nor to all the devils. He who can believe in his heart this doctrine, is saved.”

The Scriptural Response to Luther’s Doctrine
But in fact, no man is saved by believing any doctrine whatsoever, much less any such doctrine as this. John writes “that ye sin not.” Where does the Bible say anything like “Sin, sin mightily, but have all the more confidence in Christ”? If this be not the direct reverse of the language of Holy Scripture, then what I have been reading these thirty-five years is not the Bible at all. What is this but to say, “Let us continue in sin, that grace may abound”?—a thing which the Bible roundly condemns.

The Consequences of the Doctrine of Faith Only
But observe, all of this slighting of Scripture and of Scriptural holiness is the legitimate offspring of Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith only. We know that for five centuries this doctrine has been the sacred cow of Protestantism. We know that, especially in this day, to hint that it may not be true is to lay our poor neck on the chopping block, while we hand the broad-axe to all the defenders of antinomian orthodoxy. But we rest our cause, and our neck too, upon the Bible, and those who will take off our head must chop off half the Book with the same stroke. Nor will it be the Old Testament only which they must eliminate, but much of the New Testament also, including the epistles of Paul. Indeed, if they would but interpret my writings with the same wanton dexterity with which they interpret those of Paul, they would have no more controversy with me than they have with him. But me they take at face value. Paul they wrest.

Luther’s Doctrine and Its Unscrupulous Terminology
To return to Luther, it is a plain and demonstrable fact that he couched his doctrine of justification in language which was unscriptural. The Bible speaks of justification by faith, but never in one instance does it mention justification by faith only. The nearest it comes to this is far indeed, for it affirms that our justification is “not by faith only.” Now I have long observed that when a man is obliged to state his doctrine in terms which are not Scriptural, this is an almost certain indication that the doctrine so stated is no more Scriptural than the terms are. I do not now refer to such doctrinal terms as “Trinity,” which we all know is not in the Bible, but which does not set aside the terminology of the Bible. I refer rather to altering the terminology of Scripture itself, by adding to it, taking from it, or substituting something else in its place, so that the actual terminology of Scripture is impugned as inadequate or misleading.

The Problem with Luther’s Use of the Word “Only”
Now this is precisely what Luther’s “faith only” does. “Only” is Luther’s word, not God’s, and Luther added it not only to his theology, but to his Bible also. Where the Bible speaks of justification by faith, Luther must compel it to say “faith only.” In Romans 3:28, an exactly literal translation of the Greek reads thus: We reckon therefore a man to be justified by faith without [the] works of [the] law. The common English version slightly alters the grammatical structure of the sentence, without altering its sense, thus: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

The Impact of “Only” on Doctrine and Translation
Luther, however, revamps the structure of the verse, saying, in his 1522 New Testament: “So halten wyr@ nu, da@ der mens< gere<tfertiget werde, on zu thun der wer> de@ gese}@, alleyn dur< den glawben.” This, rendered as literally as possible into English, only altering his infinitive to a gerund, is, “So hold we it now that the man is justified without doing the work of the law, only through faith.”

The insertion of this word “only” caused great offense. Luther defended it with his usual scorn, and his usual intemperate obstinacy, saying, “If your papist will make himself a thorough pest about the word sola, ‘alone,’ tell him directly, Dr. Martin Luther will have it so, and he says, A papist and an ass are one thing. Sic volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas. [So I will, so I command: let my will stand for a reason.]”

The Need for a Scriptural Return
But concerning the doctrine of this text, the works which Paul excludes are “the works of the law,” while the introduction of the word “only” naturally excludes the works of repentance and faith also—neither of which have anything to do with the law—and thus turns Paul directly against himself, who preached everywhere he went, from the beginning to the end of his career, to the Jews and to the Gentiles, “that they should repent, and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” (Acts 26:20). The works of repentance and faith certainly embrace obedience and righteousness, though not the perfect righteousness which the law requires.

The Need for Proper Doctrine in the Church
Now the plain fact is, any doctrine of faith only, which allows salvation to consist with such works of the flesh, makes void the doctrine of Paul as much as ever it does the law of Moses. The doctrine is no more Scriptural than the terminology. And yet both the terminology and the doctrine of Martin Luther have so far prevailed among Protestants that the whole movement has struggled, like a bull in a net, for five centuries, trying to reconcile the plain doctrines of the Bible with Luther’s extreme doctrine and unscriptural terminology of salvation by faith only.