Ligonier Ministries: The teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul

We are dealing now with a group of people who, apart from this doctrine, are genuinely orthodox. They have no doubt whatever that justification is by faith alone. And when they speak of justification, they mean the remission of sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the incarnate second person of the Godhead, who was born of the Virgin Mary, fulfilled the law on our behalf, was delivered up for our offenses, and rose again bodily for our justification.  Keep Reading

In the diagram presented at the beginning of this essay, you will notice that, after the liberal formula, the other four formulae all begin not with works, but with faith. That shows that they are all at least possibly Christian, whereas liberalism, on the very surface of it, cannot be. One cannot conceivably believe that salvation is by his own efforts and be a believer in Jesus Christ. All of these other views, the right one and the three other deviations, have this in common: they begin where they ought to begin, not with works, but with faith. From here on out we are dealing with people who have a right to be considered tentatively, at least, as Christian. I must phrase myself very carefully here. I consider that three of these remaining four ways are not soundly Christian, but are fatally deviant from it. By saying they may be tentatively considered as Christian, I mean this: at least they start out right. They do profess faith in Jesus Christ, as a Christian (if he is to bear that name) must do. Whether they are consistent in their affirmation or not remains to be seen. By contrast, liberalism is fatally wrong from the very beginning because it begins not with Christ’s salvation, but with man’s own achievement.  Keep Reading

Liberalism believes justification is earned by works. The liberal believes that by acting virtuously while abstaining from sin, he may make himself acceptable to God, that is, be justified or be considered by God a just or righteous person. For him, justification means being made just by his own efforts. His is a do-it-yourself religion. Its golden text is, ‘‘Do this and thou shalt live.” The liberal believes that he can earn his own salvation by his own efforts. The gospel or good news for a liberal is the discovery of his own potentialities, and he is perfectly confident that he can make it on his own without any help from anybody, including God. He does not need Jesus Christ as a Savior. He needs no Savior because he is quite able to cope, thank you. He may or may not think that you are okay, but he has no doubt that you may be okay and that he is okay. Give him the light and he will find his own way. This is the gospel of self-esteem. Keep Reading

Martin Luther called justification the doctrine by which ‘‘the church either stands or falls.” Calvin declared it the “hinge of the Reformation.” The Roman Catholic Church, at the Council of Trent (1546–63), where it dealt with the Protestant Reformation, recognized justification as the central doctrine at issue. This doctrine is the core of the gospel; it is indispensable. The Reformed church of the sixteenth century was purified by reaffirming clearly this doctrine, while Roman Catholicism was destroyed by denying it. There is a difference of opinion as to its precise meaning, but there is no difference of opinion at all concerning its indispensability to evangelism.  Keep Reading