Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, Sola Fide, Justification, Faith, Council of Trent,

1. The Early Church for Today
Reformation 501
Sola Fide
Part Two

2. Review

3. “ALONE”!

4. A Modern Distinction

5. “The concept of justification is inextricably linked with that of
righteousness, both semantically and theologically.”
Alister McGrath

6. Martin Luther (1483-1546)

7. Romans 1: 17
“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:
‘The righteous will live by faith.”
Young Luther; Righteousness first, then Faith.
New Luther; By faith we receive righteousness.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)

8. Luther’s Fear
I can’t be good enough.
God is an Angry Judge.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Purgatory
Hell - lose of salvation
Sometimes I hate God!

9. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Luther’s Hope
God is not out to Condemn me,
but to Justify me.
Its not on me.
I am still a Sinner.
By Faith, not by Effort!
Jesus covers for me.

10. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Justification?
It is God who Justifies me.
I am given Christ’s Righteousness. Luther is reluctant to
admit that we become Righteous in Justification.
I can do nothing for my Justification.
Fasting, works, penance, charity...
do not earn me Justification
(Sanctification).

11. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Justification?
I do not Achieve Justification (Righteousness).
I am Given Christ’s Righteousness (Alien), accepting it by Faith.
I am still a sinner (saved by Grace).
With Faith I have Christ’s Righteousness.
Without Faith I forfeit Christ’s Righteousness.

12. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Justification?
“God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.”
We shouldn't’do good works to earn God’s
favor, but to help each other.

13. Sanctification
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
"He dwells in our hearts by such faith and purifies us daily by
His own proper work.”
Sanctification is by God.
By Faith and God’s Grace we can have a
continuous victory over the Flesh.

14. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Sola Fide

15. Council of Trent (1545-1563)

16. Council of Trent (1545-1563)
SESSION VI, CANON I
If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own
works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that
of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be
anathema.

17. Council of Trent (1545-1563)
SESSION VI, CANON IX
If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such
wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order
to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any
way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement
of his own will; let him be anathema.

18. Council of Trent (1545-1563)
“By grace you are saved,”
So now,
By grace, “workout your salvation
with fear and trembling.”
“Justification is not only the remission of
sins, but also the sanctification and
renewal of the interior man.”

19. Council of Trent (1545-1563)
By grace
& cooperation,
you earn greater
Justification.
No!
By faith alone
we are given
Christ’s
Righteousness.

20. The Ancient Church

21. The Ancient Church
“For the first three hundred and fifty years of the history of the
church, her teaching on justification was inchoate and ill-defined...
Alister McGrath
The patristic inexactitude
and naïveté on the question
merely reflects the absence
of a controversy which
would force more precise
definition.”

22. The Ancient Church
The Freedom of the Will was assumed.

23. The Ancient Church
The Freedom of the Will was assumed.
“...then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...”
Joshua 24: 14

24. The Ancient Church
The Freedom of the Will was assumed.
The Human Predicament was not fully explored.
What do we mean when we call Jesus God?
Are there three Gods, or only one?
Persecution and relapsed sinners
How does the Church operate?

25. The Ancient Church
The Freedom of the Will was assumed.
The Human Predicament was not fully explored.
Sanctification was included in the idea of Justification.

26. The Ancient Church
“...If the first centuries of the western theological tradition appear to
be characterized by a ‘works-righteousness’ approach , it must be
emphasized that this was quite innocent of the overtones which
would later be associated with it.”
Alister McGrath

27. The Ancient Church
Did Jesus teach a “Works – Righteousness”?
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with
him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be
gathered before him...
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are
blessed by my Father... For I was hungry and you gave me something
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in...”
Matthew 25

28. “...And we, too, being called by His will in
Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor
by our own wisdom, or understanding, or
godliness, or works which we have wrought in
holiness of heart; but by that faith through
which, from the beginning, Almighty God has
justified all men; to whom be glory for ever
and ever. Amen.”
Clement of Rome (d. 100)
The Ancient Church

29. The Ancient Church
Clement of Rome (d. 100)
“Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace
has been given by God. Let us clothe
ourselves with concord and humility, ever
exercising self-control, standing far off from
all whispering and evil-speaking, being
justified by our works, and not our words.”

30. The Ancient Church
Justin Martyr (100-165)
“And we have been taught, and are
convinced, and do believe, that He accepts
those only who imitate the excellences which
reside in Him, temperance, and justice, and
philanthropy, and as many virtues as are
peculiar to [God]…”

31. The Ancient Church
Justin Martyr (100-165)
“For, impelled by the desire of the eternal
and pure life, we seek the abode that is with
God, the Father and Creator of all, and
hasten to confess our faith, persuaded and
convinced as we are that they who have
proved to God by their works that they
followed Him, and loved to abide with Him
where there is no sin to cause disturbance,
can obtain these things.”

32. The Ancient Church
Tertullian (160-220)
He exhorts “those who are justified by faith
in Christ, and not by the Law, to have peace
with God.”
“We make petition, then, that He supply us
with the substance of His will and the
capacity to do it–so that we may be saved
both in the heaven and on earth”

33. The Ancient Church
"Again, we affirm that a judgment has been
ordained by God according to the merits of
every man”
Tertullian (160-220)

34. The Ancient Church
John Chrysostom (349-407)
“God allowed his Son to suffer as if a condemned
sinner, so that we might be delivered from the
penalty of our sins.
This is God’s righteousness, that we are not
justified by works (for then they would have to
be perfect, which is impossible), but by grace, in
which case all our sin is removed.”

35. The Ancient Church
John Chrysostom (349-407)
“We promise to show you that they who
approach the laver (i.e. baptism) become clean
from all fornication: but the word has shown
more, that they have become not only clean, but
both holy and just, for it does not say only you
were washed, but also you were sanctified and
were justified.”

36. The Ancient Church
“Then in order that not even these should put
confidence in their faith alone, He discourses unto
them also concerning the judgment to be passed
upon wicked actions…
For the garment is life and practice. And yet the
calling was of grace; wherefore then doth He take
a strict account?
Because although to be called and to be cleansed
was of grace, yet, when called and clothed in clean
garments, to continue keeping them so, this is of
the diligence of them that are called.”

37. The Ancient Church
“By dividing the virtues into different types the Apostle has made
each type of virtue into the particular piece of armor for each of the
crucial moments in our lives. Entwining justice with faith and
plaiting them together he constructs
with them the hoplite's breastplate,
protecting the soldier’s body
Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394)
thoroughly and securely with them both.
One piece of armor separated from another
cannot by itself be a protection for the one
who handles it. Faith without the works of
justice is not enough to save one from death,
nor again is the justice of one's life a
guarantee of salvation if it is on its own,
divorced from faith.”

38. The Ancient Church
SUMMARY OF THE EARLY CHRUCH FATHERS
1. There was no mature Dogma.
2. Justification is an Event and a Process.
3. Faith was defined as an “Obedient Faith”.
4. Synergism – Work with God on This.

39. The Ancient Church
The Freedom of the Will was assumed.
The Human Predicament was not fully explored.
Sanctification was included in the idea of Justification.
Justification & the Early Christian Writers
With Pelagius and Augustine things begin to take shape.

40. The Ancient Church
“Father, command what you will, and
grant what you command.”

41. The Ancient Church
“Father, command what you will, and
grant what you command.”
...and we will do it!

43. The Ancient Church
Pelagius’Teachings
1. We are born neutral, without a sin nature.
2. We are born with a functional Free Will.
3. God’s Grace is an Illuminating Grace.
4. Jesus and Adam both serve as Examples.

44. The Ancient Church
Augustine on the Human Predicament
Original Sin
All of humanity are innately sinful due to the
consequence of The Fall. We are born guilty
and worthy of damnation.
Our hope and election is based entirely on
God’s grace and eternal degree.

45. The Ancient Church
Augustine on the Human Predicament
Original Sin
The Human Will
The Will is compromised by sin and must be
liberated by God’s Grace.

46. The Ancient Church
Augustine on the Human Predicament
Original Sin
The Human Will
Justification
Faith itself is a gift from God.
God operates upon man in the act of
justification, & cooperates with him in the
process of justification.

47. The Ancient Church
Augustine on the Human Predicament
Original Sin
The Human Will
Justification
Augustine understands Justification as, “to
make right”, “being made just”.
This is not only a change in status, but in
reality.

48. The Ancient Church
“Justification is Grace Simply and Entirely, Eternal Life is Reward
and Grace.
This question, then, seems to me to be by no means capable of
solution, unless we understand that even those good works of ours,
which are recompensed with eternal life, belong to the grace of God,
because of what is said by the Lord Jesus: ‘Without me ye can do
nothing.’
And the apostle himself, after saying, ‘By grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works,
lest any man should boast;’ saw, of course, the possibility that men
would think from this statement that good works are not necessary to
those who believe, but that faith alone suffices for them...

49. The Ancient Church
“... why does he afterwards, when giving a reason for using such
words, say, ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works’?
...Now he does not here speak of that creation which made us human
beings, but of that in reference to which one said who was already in
full manhood, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God;’ concerning which
also the apostle says, ‘Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new. And all things are of God.’
We are framed, therefore, that is, formed and created, ‘in the good
works which’ we have not ourselves prepared, but ‘God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them.’

50. The Ancient Church
Augustine on the Human Predicament
Original Sin
The Human Will
Justification
Luther on Augustine

51. The Ancient Church
Luther on Augustine
“Augustine has sometimes erred and is not to be
trusted. Although good and holy, he was yet
lacking in the true faith, as well as the other
fathers...But when the door was opened for me
in Paul, so that I understood what justification
by faith is, it was all over with Augustine.”
“It was Augustine's view that the law...if the
Holy Spirit assists, the works of the law do
justify...I reply by saying ‘No’.”

52. The Ancient Church
Luther on Augustine
Confession of Augsburg, Article 20 (1530)
“Augustine, in many volumes, defends grace
and the righteousness of faith, over against the
merits of works."

53. The Ancient Church
Augustine on the Human Predicament
Original Sin
The Human Will
Justification
Luther on Augustine
Augustine on Sola Fide

54. The Ancient Church
1. Augustine differs from the Reformers in that
he understands the word ‘justify’ to mean
‘make righteous’ instead of ‘declare righteous.’
2. Unlike the Reformers, “Augustine believed
that justification was more than merely an
event; it was also a process, and thus he
believed in inherent righteousness rather than
imputed righteousness.”

55. The Ancient Church
3. Augustine did not operate with the
distinction between sanctification and
justification, which is typical in Reformed and
Lutheran thought.
4. (Schreiner holds that) “Augustine would
have endorsed faith alone, for his
predestination theology emphasized that
salvation is the Lord’s work and faith is a gift
from him.”

56. The Ancient Church
Augustine on the Human Predicament
Original Sin
The Human Will
Justification
Luther on Augustine
Augustine on Sola Fide
Legacy

57. The Ancient Church
Legacy
Augustine established the framework for the
Western discussion of Justification.

58. The Modern Church