GOD’S BIBLE SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

Justification by faith alone

Nicholas Long

BIST 340 Romans and Galatians

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 Justification by Faith Alone

Since the fall of mankind, man has continually sought to know how to be right with God

once more, which was confusing and hard to understand. Romans covers the idea of what it

means to be a Christ follower and explains what our past means and God's reasoning.

The book of Romans in the new testament is themed “the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1).

The book of Romans is given to the church of Rome to help their belief along the lines of what it

means to be a Christian. Paul covers a variety of topics within this book, but the topic we will be

looking at today will be justification by faith alone. To better understand the topic of the essay,

we must establish the context Paul begins this book with.

Romans 1:18-3:20 is called “mankind's dilemma” 11 which begins with Paul displaying

the natural condition of all people born after Adam, the first created human, which shows the

natural rejection of God in their own heart, and the condemnation that lies on every man's head.

We get this idea from Romans 1:18-32 where it says “For the wrath of God is revealed from

heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in

unrighteousness,”, keyword being suppress, which then means that they know the truth yet

continue to disregard it and abide in sin. Then Paul shows how God judges people. God judges

mankind according to their deeds, according to the truth that they know, and with complete

impartially. We can see this clearly in Romans 2:1-16, where God continually displays what kind

of judgement he gives to all people. The next area that we see is Paul explaining that lineage
1 Dr. Allan P. Brown, What it Cost God to save us, God's Bible School and College, 2021.

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does not protect anyone from God’s righteous wrath. We find this in Romans 3:1-20, which says

“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and

Greeks are all under sin;”

All people have done wrong and have broken the law in the eyes of God. Then how do become

justified in the eyes of God? In this paper I will answer the question “What does Justification

look like'' under three different wesley-arminian viewpoints.

The first will be Dr. Brown, the second will be Rhalston, and the third will be John

Wesley.

What differences are there on the definition of justification between the three?

Dr. Brown defines justification as

a gracious and judicial act of God by which he grants full pardon of all guilt and

complete release from the penalty of sins committed, and acceptance as righteous, to all

who by faith receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.”

He also recognizes that there are seven components in justification, which is faith in

Jesus Christ, judicial declaration, penalty, pardon, what Christ did for us, status, standing,

position, and that there aren't any changes in the nature of the person. 2

Ralston defines justification as

2 Ibid

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 The Greek word rendered justification in the New Testament, is dikaiwsiv, which

means a judicial decision, or sentence of acquittal. The verb is dikazw, which means to

judge, to render sentence, pronounce just, etc. According to the etymology of the word,

to justify, in the Bible acceptation, is to acquit it by a judicial sentence or decision. 3

Wesley stressed the difference between the two, “justification as 'what God does for us';

sanctification as 'what he works in us'” 4

Wesleyan-Armenian viewpoint on Justification

In the scenario where all men are under condemnation, it looks grim. The question

anyone would be asking is “Is there any hope for us?” and the answer is yes, we can have a

relationship with God and we can be justified in his sight thanks to the infinite sacrifice Jesus has

done for use by dying on the cross. 25 By dying and rising again, He provided the means to accept

the free gift of salvation from God which allows to have a relationship with Him once more and

no longer be under condemnation. But what does it mean to be justified? How does justification

work, and is everyone able to participate in this free gift? 6

we must ask ourselves what are the requirements of receiving the free gift of grace? This is

answered in Romans 4:4-5 where Paul says:

3 Ralston, justification by faith, pg. 400

4 Wesley, Justification by faith, wesley sermon.
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6   Brown, Justification by faith experienced,

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 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith

is credited as righteousness,

The answer is simple, it says “believes in Him…”. To be justified we must believe in the

name of Jesus, the name that cleanses all sin (Eph 1:7). Notice how it directly talks about the

ungodly and not the Godly. Paul is making a clear distinction between those who need salvation

and those who do not. However this refers back to the idea that all men need saving, and that all

men are under condemnation from God. It is not the Godly that need saving, but the ungodly.

This implies that you cannot receive justification until you admit your sin and recognize yourself

to be a sinner. As Dr. Brown says in his paper,

To obtain a pardon and to beg for mercy in a court, one must first plead

guilty. And the man who pleads "guilty" can hope only for mercy.  God does not take

people to heaven because they deserve it, but because of His forgiving Grace.

Since God is a just God, there has to be a great atoning work for a pardon that cancels

debt on all our transgressions. We owe a great debt to God and must give to Him what is due, but

out of his great love sent His Son, Jesus Christ, Who is the second person in the trinity and equal

with the Father, to die for our sins. It’s only when we realize our fault and see how much of a

sinner we are, we are able to execute true repentance and have genuine faith. As Dr. Brown says

in his paper, “Faith is the condition of justification, not the cause of justification” This means

that though we may have faith in God, it's not faith that saves us, but the work of Christ on the

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cross that atones us, and saves us from our sins. It's the great work that cancels our debt and

allows us to continue to walk in the light while having fellowship with God. Brown says in his

paper 6 “in addition to having one's sin forgiven, one also has the assurance that they are

forgotten.  Not only covered, but canceled. 

 When God forgives, He blots out the record.”So we see that faith is connected

justification, but what is faith exactly? 6 Faith is made of three components, which we could also

call them pillars. Faith is to believe what God says, obeys what God commands, and trusts in and

rests on God’s promises. The first two are made from Hebrews 11:6 and the last 11:1. This all

comes back to the premise in Hebrews 11:6 where it says “And without faith it is impossible to

please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those

who seek Him.” notice how it says “impossible”, again this refers back to the idea that we are

totally dependent on God’s grace. As Dr Brown says, “‘the law of faith’ - the Old Testament

Law did not direct men to seek justification as a reward for their works. It summoned men to

faith.”

Now this comes down to one concise point, the basis of Justification comes from faith in

Jesus Christ, which is the key to righteousness in the eyes of God. If we take a moment to look at

the old testament and see Abraham, we see that Genesis 15:6 says “Then he believed in the

LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”we must believe in the name of Jesus and

only then can we be justified and have our past transgressions blotted out. Ralston sums up this

idea quite nicely, 7

By faith as a condition of justification, we are not to understand that it is

absolutely, and in every sense, the cause of justification. Far from it. The love, or grace,

7 Ralston, Justification by Faith, pg 431

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 of God, is the original moving cause. The efficient cause is the Holy Spirit, “who takes of

the things of Jesus, and shows them unto us.” The meritorious cause is the death of

Christ. The instrumental cause, on God’s part, is the word of God; but the conditional

cause, on our part, is faith.

How justification relates and differs from sanctification

Through our faith, we can be justified and have peace with an infinite loving God, that

allows us to have our debts cancelled and walk in the light like he desires. However, this does

not mean that we have a change of nature, because we’re still lacking one key component that

allows us to live a holy life, which is sanctification. You cannot have justification without

sanctification, so how do these two relate and contrast? As Ralston says again in his book,

“Justification changes our relation to law — it removes condemnation, but does not change our

nature, or make us holy.” 8 sanctification regenerates us and allows us to be made alive and walk

with Christ. As Dr Brown has said in his class lectures, it is the starter motor in which we are

made alive spiritually. 9 as John wesley has said in his sermons showing the differences between

the two, says that, “The one implies what God does for us through his Son;

the other what he works in us by his Spirit.”

While yet both agreeing in many ways, Dr. Brown and Wesley seem to disagree on how

sanctification and justification relate, as Dr. Brown illustrates in his class lectures that both are

different sides of a dollar bill, and you cannot have one without the other. He illustrates that its

8 ibid
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9 John Wesley, justification by faith, Wesley Sermons

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vitally important to be both justified and sanctified to be a christian. John Wesley explains what

he believes sanctification is by saying, “This is sanctification; which is indeed in some degree the

immediate fruit of justification, but nevertheless is a distinct gift of God, and of a totally different

nature.” Dr Brown argues that when one is justified, they are also sanctified simultaneously,

while Wesley seems to claim that sanctification is a fruit of being justified with God.

Views on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness

Any Orthodox christian will agree with that idea that we can be justified by Christ’s

atonement through faith in Jesus, that's not the controversy. What is a more debated topic is how

the justification is brought to the believer. This idea seems to be more controversial when the

question of Christ’s imputed righteousness comes into play.What's counted for our righteousness

and what’s imputed to Christ are more often than nought misunderstood or misinterpreted. This

first idea is believed among calvinists.

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Who can come to the throne? Psalm 24 answers this question by saying “Who may

ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands

and a pure heart…” but without righteousness, none of us are able to. This is why scripture says

that he became sin, so that we might become righteous in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) The main

idea that is presented in these verses is that he became sin so that we may be innocent before the

throne dressed in righteousness.

In this idea of righteousness, they believe that our sin is imputed to Christ, and though he

was sinless, he took on the blame for us, so we might be dressed in Christ’s righteousness.

Because of verses such as 1 Corinthians 1:30, they come to the conclusion that God sees Christ,

10 Ralston, 406.

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he sees sins of all humanity, and the wrath he poured out, and for the saints, or the justified, they

are seen in Christ's righteousness.

This however seems to be contradictory with Scripture as we see in 1 Peter 2:22 where he

says “who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;” this is where wesleyan-

arminians belief comes in. You see, the idea of Christ being a sinner consistently mismatches

scripture, and makes it to be that God can sin. 11 The word for “sin” in 1 Corinthians 5:21 can

also be translated from the word “hamartia” to also mean “sin-bearer” or”sin-offering”

This means that Christ was the sin offering for man's sins, this does mean he had sinned

personally on his own account. 12 This also means that His personal righteousness was also man's

personal righteousness. Verses like Jeremiah 23:6 talks about how his death atones for our sins

and be righteous in His sight. What makes us righteous is faith just like Romans 4:22 talks about

Abraham.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, we see that there is a lot to say about justification, and we only hit the top

of the iceberg. There's nothing more significant than the conversion of a sinner, so it's important

that we take verses in their context and use them the way the original authors intended.

Justification is a great gift from a loving God, that allows us to exercise faith in him which

justifies and sanctifies us through his holy blood.

11 Brown, being made in the righteousness of God

12 Ibid

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 Bibliography

Brown, Allan P. “Being Made the Righteousness of God in Christ.” Romans and Galatians
Class. Reading presented at the Romans and Galatians Class, 2021.

Brown, Allan P. “what it cost God to save us” Romans and Galatians Class. Reading
presented at the Romans and Galatians Class, 2021.

Brown, Allan P. “Justification by faith experienced” Romans and Galatians Class.

Reading presented at the Romans and Galatians Class, 2021.

Ralston, Thomas N. Elements of Divinity. Nashville, TN: Wesleyan Heritage Publications,

2002.

Wesley, John. The Works of John Wesley. Edited by Albert C Outler. Vol. 1. Nashville,
TN: Abingdon Press, 1984.

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