Good News for Seventh-Day Adventists

The Shaking of Adventism
Geoffrey J. Paxton

The Heart of the Reformation

One of the truly amazing aspects of the sixteenth-century Reformation was the unity of the Reformers on the article of justification by faith alone. They disagreed on many things, but on this point they were unanimous. In his great classic, The Doctrine of Justification, James Buchanan writes, "Few things in the history of the Church are more remarkable than the entire unanimity of the Reformers on the subject of a sinner's justification before God."1 Buchanan goes on to say that this remarkable fact can be ascribed "to a copious effusion of the Holy Spirit, awakening everywhere deep convictions of sin, and enlightening men's minds in the knowledge of Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour."2 James Orr likewise refuses to regard it as accidental that at various centers the minds of men simultaneously awoke to a clear apprehension of the great doctrine of justification.3 Here, then, lies the first great trait of the Reformation —unanimity on the doctrine of justification by faith alone — a unanimity which, as much as anything else in the Reformation, bears testimony "to a copious effusion of the Holy Spirit."

We have seen that the Reformers were united on the doctrine of justification. But what was the nature of this unity? The answer is clear: the Reformers were united on the meaning of justification and on its place in the life and teaching of the church.

The Place of Justification

We shall first look at the place of justification in the thinking of the Reformers. One could hardly state this more effectively than did John Bugenhagen, the friend of William Tyndale: "We have only one doctrine: Christ is our righteousness."4 Unqualified centrality! Centrality in all doctrine and life! That was the place of the doctrine of justification in the Reformation.

Luther saw justification in the whole Bible. It is "the proposition of primary importance."5 Indeed, said Luther, "Christ wants us to concentrate our attention on this chief doctrine, our justification before God, in order that we may believe in Him."6 It is "the cardinal doctrine,"7 "the true and chief article of Christian doctrine."8 Many more citations could be given from Martin Luther to show that justification was his theological Katherine von Bora.9

Calvin took the same position. For him, justification "is the first and keenest subject of controversy"10 Some have been puzzled by the fact that, in his great Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin dealt with regeneration before justification. But the purpose of this is to highlight justification: .... . if we rightly acknowledge this truth [regeneration], it will be all the clearer how man is justified by faith alone and by nothing further than forgiveness."11 After commencing with the preoccupation of Rome (regeneration), Calvin proceeded to spell out with ruthless clarity the preoccupation of the Reformation (justification). For him, this article was the foundation of all true piety and doctrine.

Here, then, is the second great characteristic of the Reformation: the overwhelming centrality of justification before God by faith alone.

The Meaning of Justification

Now let us look at the third significant characteristic of the Reformation. What did the Reformers mean by justification?

When we examine Luther on this aspect, we must read his "Lectures on Galatians" and not his lectures on Romans." In the "Romans" Luther was still the evangelical Catholic; in the "Galatians" he was the Protestant Reformer.12 In his lectures on Galatians"13 Luther declared:

    But the doctrine of Justification is this, that we are pronounced righteous and are saved solely by faith in Christ, and without works..., it immediately follows that we are pronounced righteous neither through monasticism nor through vows nor through masses nor through any other works. ...
Justification means to be pronounced righteous. Further, Luther said:
    The article of justification, which is our only protection, not only against all the powers and plottings of men but also against the gates of hell, is this: by faith alone (sola fide) in Christ, without works, are we declared just (pronuntiari iustos) and saved.14
When Luther says "by faith alone...in Christ," he does not, of course, mean Christ in us. The righteousness which is the basis of our acceptance with God lies outside the believer. Justifying righteousness is a righteousness which is foreign to the believer, an alien righteousness. Luther is explicit:
    [A Christian] is righteous and holy by an alien or foreign holiness—I call it this for the sake of instruction—that is, he is righteous by the mercy and grace of God. This mercy and grace is not something human; it is not some sort of disposition or quality in the heart. It is a divine blessing, given us through the true knowledge of the Gospel, when we know or believe that our sin has been forgiven through the grace and merit of Christ. ... Is not this righteousness an alien righteousness? It consists completely in the indulgence of another and is a pure gift of God, who shows mercy and favor for Christ's sake. ... Therefore a Christian is not formally righteous; he is not righteous according to substance or quality — I use these words for instruction's sake. He is righteous according to his relation to something: namely, only in respect to divine grace and the free forgiveness of sins, which comes to those who acknowledge their sin and believe that God is gracious and forgiving for Christ's sake, who was delivered for our sins (Rom. 4:25) and is believed in by us.15
For Luther, justification means to be pronounced righteous on the grounds of a righteousness which is outside the believer in Jesus Christ.

Calvin was likeminded on the meaning of justification. Justification is the divine pronouncement that the believing sinner is just because of the merits of Jesus Christ.16 Once again, the two significant points are (1) to pronounce righteous (2) on the grounds of the merits of Christ.

Both these aspects were contrary to the teaching of the Church of Rome. Later, in the Council of Trent, she was to spell out her opposing view of justification—that it does not mean to merely pronounce righteous but to actually make righteous: .... . the alone formal cause is the justice of God, not that whereby He himself is just, but that whereby He maketh us just... "17 This making just of Rome means making the believer to be just in himself. Whereas the Reformers held that Jesus Christ alone is the justifying righteousness of the believer, Rome taught that the believer is given a righteous heart and that it is this which makes him acceptable to God:
    ... so if they [Christians] were not born again in Christ, they never would be justified; seeing that in that new birth, there is bestowed upon them, through the merit of his passion, the grace whereby they are made just.18
Here lies the whole conflict of the Reformation. Whereas Rome taught that justification means to make the believer just by the work of inner renewal in his heart, the Reformers taught that justification is the declaration by God that the believer is just on the grounds of the righteousness of Christ alone, which is outside the believer.

We wish to make one further point before we leave the Reformation meaning of justification. For the Reformers, justification has two sides—a negative side and a positive side. The negative side is the acquittal of the believing sinner on the grounds of the dying of Jesus Christ. Therefore, justification was sometimes spoken of simply as forgiveness.19 So it is that justification is having the curse removed from us because of the death of Jesus, who bore the curse on our behalf.20 Justification, however, is not only that God sees us in the light of Jesus' death for our sins. It also has a positive aspect. Justification is unto life. God credits Jesus' perfect fulfillment of the law to the believer. He not only stands forgiven, but he stands clothed with the law-keeping righteousness of Jesus Christ at God's right hand. In Christ, the believer has met the requirement of the law In Christ, he possesses by faith a perfect law-keeping life.21

Grace Alone

The meaning of justification in the Reformers will help us to grasp what they meant by justification by grace alone. What the Reformers meant by God's grace was that it is His sheer mercy and goodness revealed in sending His Son into Palestine to live and to die in order that we might have a perfect righteousness before God. Thus, the grace of God always refers to God and never to what is in the believer's heart. Calvin put it beautifully: grace is "God of his mere gratuitous goodness... [being] pleased to embrace the sinner."22 It is "unmerited kindness ,"23 "the mercy and free love of the heavenly Father towards us."24

Paul Tillich correctly observed that the Reformers' (particularly Luther's) idea of grace was the real breakthrough in the sixteenth century Tillich tells us that for Luther, grace means to be accepted in spite of being unacceptable. Luther explains grace in his famous "Preface to the Epistle to the Romans":25 "The difference between 'grace' and 'gift' is this: Grace, in the proper sense of the term, denotes God's favor and good will towards us, which He cherishes in Himself. .."

Of course, the Council of Trent saw things quite differently. For Trent, grace is something that is bestowed upon Christians which makes them just.26 Grace is something which is voluntarily received.27 On this point Canon 11 of the Council of Trent is clear and forthright:

If any one says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice [righteousness] of Christ or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and remains in them, or also that the grace by which we are justified is only the good will of God, let him be anathema.28

As we have seen, Luther and Calvin understood saving grace as being God's action in Jesus Christ for the believing sinner. The idea that grace is the assistance God gives the believer in keeping the law was shunned by the Reformers as being the Roman Catholic teaching which only detracts from the glory of Christ and disturbs consciences. No, saving grace is God's saving action in Jesus Christ. Christ is the righteousness by which we are justified, and Christ is the expression of the grace of the Father.

Christ Alone

Luther and Calvin did not simply stress Christ alone over against the Roman Catholic emphasis on works-righteousness. The Reformers also stressed Christ alone over against all—be they Roman Catholics or Protestants29 — who would point to the inside of the believer as the place where justifying righteousness dwells. Christ alone means literally Christ alone, and not the believer. And for that matter, it does not even mean any other member of the Trinity!

We must explain ourselves. For Luther and Calvin, Christ alone meant Jesus Christ the God-man alone, and not the life of the believer —even if it be admitted that such a life is caused by grace. No, justifying righteousness is to be found only in the one unique God-man.

But we must state this still another way For the Reformers, Christ alone meant Jesus Christ the God-man, and not Christ's indwelling the believer by the Holy Spirit. Some sought to subtly modify the Reformation stress on justification. They were happy with all such nice-sounding phrases as "justification by Christ alone" and "Jesus Christ is the grace of God," so long as they could make them refer not only to the God-man at the right hand of the Father, but to the indwelling of Christ by the Holy Spirit in the believer. However, to make this shift from the God-man to the indwelling Christ is to abandon the Reformation doctrine of justification rather than to honor and perpetuate it.

To begin with, this shift makes the believer the place of justification, whereas for the Reformers the place of justification was Jesus Christ in Palestine and at the right hand of the Father. Next, this shift from the risen Christ at God's side to the indwelling of Christ by the Spirit confuses Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit. It attributes to the Spirit what in actual fact belongs to Christ alone. The Reformers knew that Christ can only be said to indwell the believer by the Holy Spirit. The God-man, Jesus, is in heaven. But there is still a further point: To make justifying righteousness consist in the indwelling Christ is to have an unfinished work as the basis of acceptance with God, rather than the finished work of the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth. It is not difficult to see how an unfinished basis of acceptance would detract from the glory of the perfection—requiring God and unsettle tender consciences! Dr. Buchanan says:
    Whereas, if we are justified on the grounds of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we are called to rest on a work, which, so far from being finished and accepted, is not even begun in the case of any unrenewed sinner; and which, when it is begun in the case of a believer, is incipient only... marred and defiled by remaining sin.., and never perfected in this life.30
The champions of the Reformation were clear. Justification by Christ alone means to be declared just on the grounds of the doing and dying of Jesus Christ alone. Luther declares:
    Therefore a man can with confidence boast in Christ and say: "Mine are Christ's living, doing, and speaking, his suffering and dying, mine as much as if I had lived, done, spoken, suffered, and died as he did."31
This is faith in the substitutionary Christ and the imputed Christ, and not the indwelling Christ. Calvin, the giant of Geneva, is like-minded:
    For if righteousness consists in the observance of the law, who will deny that Christ merited favor for us when, by taking that burden upon himself, he reconciled us to God as if we had kept the law.32
The "as if" is the inevitable result of believing in the gospel of salvation by substitution and imputation. Justification is by Christ alone, apart from the believer, and is not to be confused with the renewing work of the Holy Spirit.33

Faith Alone

It should now be evident that anyone who invests faith with any merit and worth in itself simply does not understand the Reformer's view of justification. For Luther and Calvin, faith alone (sola fide) was an expression, not a qualification, of grace alone and Christ alone.34 Christ, who effected satisfaction by His life and His death, also effects the appropriation of that satisfaction. The former (satisfaction) He effected by His life and death in Palestine, and the latter (appropriation) He effects by His dispensing of the Spirit from heaven.

Faith is only the instrument and the enshrinement in the salvation process. Calvin called it an "empty vessel." Faith has no intrinsic power. It does not save because of any worthy capacity in the one who exercises it. Said Calvin:
    The power of justifying, attached to faith, consists not in the worthiness of the act. Our justification depends solely on the mercy of God and the merit of Christ, which when faith apprehends it is said to justify.35

    For unless we come empty with the mouth of our soul open to implore the grace of Christ, we cannot receive Christ.... For faith, although intrinsically it is of no dignity or value, justifies us by an appreciation of Christ, just as a vessel full of money constitutes a man rich.    36
In calling faith "instrumental" or an "empty vessel," the Reformers wished to clearly distinguish between faith itself and the merits of Christ, which faith apprehends and holds. Faith and its object must be clearly distinguished at all times if God is to receive the glory due to His name and if the conscience of the believer is to be protected.

Righteousness by Faith

Along with Paul, the Reformers also spoke of the "righteousness of [or by] faith" in contradistinction to the righteousness which accompanies and follows faith. The righteousness of faith is the righteousness which faith apprehends—namely, the doing and dying of the God-man, Jesus Christ. It is the righteousness which is the object of faith, and not any quality in, with, or after faith.

As mentioned above, when faith is understood as an "instrument" or an "empty vessel," it does not confuse the righteousness of Christ with anything in faith. Thus, the Reformers spoke of the "righteousness of faith" to protect it from being confused with anything with or after faith.

The Reformers acknowledged that faith in the righteousness of Christ in heaven is never present without regeneration and renewal, and that good works follow as a consequence of faith. But the righteousness of faith is not, in whole or in part, that renewal which is present with faith. Neither is it that renewal which follows faith. The righteousness of faith is never to be confused with sanctification. It is not sanctification, nor does it include sanctification.

This clear distinction between the righteousness of faith and sanctification was the massive breakthrough made by Martin Luther. The medieval church had mingled the two types of righteousness. But when this synthesis was rent asunder in the mind of Luther, the Protestant Reformation was born. Luther called the righteousness of faith (i.e., the righteousness of Christ) a passive righteousness because we have it while we do nothing for it. He called the other righteousness (i.e., that which is the result of faith) an active righteousness because it is the diligent good works of the believer performed through the operation of the Holy Spirit. The passive righteousness is perfect, for it is Christ's righteousness; the active righteousness is imperfect, for it is the work of sinful men. The former righteousness is by faith alone; the latter righteousness is by good works engendered by faith. The former is justification; the latter is sanctification.37

Chemnitz offers another way of making the contrast. He speaks of (1) the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to the believer, and (2) the righteousness of the law:
    For the righteousness of the Law is that a man does the things that are written in the Law; but the righteousness of faith is by believing to appropriate to oneself what Christ has done for us. Therefore the works by which the regenerate do those things which are written in the Law, either before or after their renewal, belong to the righteousness of the Law, though some in one way, others in another....

    ... the obedience of Christ is imputed to us for righteousness. That glory cannot be taken away from Christ and transferred to either our renewal or our obedience without blasphemy.38

    But the righteousness of faith is to believe that Christ the Mediator has satisfied the Law for us for righteousness to everyone who believes (Rom. 10:4)39
Likewise, the Formula of Concord is explicit. The Spirit works the righteousness of the law in us, but that is not our righteousness before God. It should not be "considered or set up as a part or cause of our righteousness [before God], or otherwise under any pretext, title, or name whatever."40

Sometimes curses are given with greater clarity than are blessings. The Formula of Concord is not easy to misunderstand when it says: "We must criticize, expose and reject... [that] righteousness by faith before God consists of two pieces or parts, namely, the gracious forgiveness of sins and, as a second element, renewal or sanctification."41

In concluding our remarks on the righteousness of (or by) faith, it should be said that the clear distinction between the "righteousness of faith" and sanctification is the teaching of all the Reformers. To reject this distinction is to lapse back into the synthesis of medieval Catholicism and to repudiate the unanimous teaching of the fathers of the Reformation.

Perfectionism

The distinction between the two types of righteousness will make the final emphasis of the Reformation easier to understand. The Reformers contended that the believer is righteous in this life only by faith. In saying this, they were not denying either the necessity or the reality of sanctification in all true believers. Rather, they were asserting that in this life sanctification is never good enough to stand in the judgment. The believer must look only to the righteousness of faith (the righteousness of the God-man) for his acceptance with God.

The inadequacy of sanctificational renewal was an integral part of Reformation teaching. Its corollary was the Reformers' steadfast gaze at the righteousness of faith—namely, the doing and dying of the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth. Though the believer fights against sin and seeks to be a faithful law-keeper, sin nevertheless remains until his dying day Luther put it forcefully:
    Paul, good man that he was, longed to be without sin, but to it he was chained. I too, in common with many others, long to stand outside it, but this cannot be. We belch forth the vapours of sin; we fall into it, rise up again, buffet and torment ourselves night and day; but, since we are confined in this flesh, since we have to bear about with us everywhere this stinking sack, we cannot rid ourselves completely of it, or even knock it senseless. We make vigorous attempts to do so, but the old Adam retains his power until he is deposited in the grave. The Kingdom of God is a foreign country, so foreign that even the saints must pray: "Almighty God, I acknowledge my sin unto thee. Reckon not unto me my guiltiness, O Lord." There is no sinless Christian. If thou chancest upon such a man, he is no Christian, but an anti-Christ. Sin stands in the midst of the Kingdom of Christ, and wherever the Kingdom is, there is sin; for Christ has set sin in the House of David.42
We must beware of being holier than Paul and Luther and a host of other saints down through the ages! It was Rome who put herself in just such a position. In the Council of Trent she asserted:
    If any one denies, that, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which is conferred in baptism, the guilt of original sin is remitted, or says that the whole of that which has the true and proper nature of sin is not taken away.., let him be anathema.43
Perfectionism in this life is a major aspect of the gospel of the Church of Rome, just as the sinfulness of all good works is a major assertion of the Reformers. All who insist on perfection in the believer in this life, in whatever shape or form, reiterate the teaching of Rome and not that of the Reformers.

Calvin was no less dogmatic than Luther on the reality of sin in the justified. In the Geneva Confession are these words:
    Remission of Sins Always Necessary for the Faithful

    Finally, we acknowledge that this regeneration is so effected in us that, until we slough off this mortal body, there remains always in us much imperfection and infirmity, so that we always remain poor and wretched sinners in the presence of God. And, however much we ought day by day to increase and grow in God's righteousness, there will never be plentitude or perfection while we live here. Thus we always have need of the mercy of God to obtain the remission of our faults and offences. And so we ought always to look for righteousness in Jesus Christ and not at all in ourselves, and in Him be confident and assured, putting no faith in our works.44
Lest it be thought that the sinfulness of the believer is something the Reformers failed to see in relation to the sovereign Lordship of Christ, as if they were denying His power to deliver them from it, we need to turn to Luther's "Lectures on Galatians." Here he shows that remaining sin is used positively by God in the salvation of the believer:
    Thus there is great comfort for the faithful in this teaching of Paul's, because they know that they have partly flesh and partly Spirit, but in such a way that the Spirit rules and the flesh is subordinate, that righteousness is supreme and sin is a servant. Otherwise someone who is not aware of this will be completely overwhelmed by a spirit of sadness and will despair. But for someone who knows this doctrine and uses it properly even evil will have to cooperate for good. For when his flesh impels him to sin, he is aroused and incited to seek forgiveness of sins through Christ and to embrace the righteousness of faith, which he would otherwise not have regarded as so important or yearned for with such intensity And soit is very beneficial if we sometimes become aware of the evil of our nature and our flesh, because in this way we are aroused and stirred up to have faith and to call upon Christ. Through such an opportunity a Christian becomes a skillful artisan and a wonderful creator, who can make joy out of sadness, comfort out of terror, righteousness out of sin, and life out of death, when he restrains his flesh for this purpose, brings it into submission, and subjects it to the Spirit. Those who become aware of the desires of their flesh should not immediately despair of their salvation on that account. It is all right for them to be aware of it, provided that they do not assent to it; it is all right for anger or sexual desire to be aroused in them, provided that they do not capitulate to it; it is all right for sin to stir them up, provided that they do not gratify it. In fact, the godlier one is, the more aware he is of this conflict. This is the source of the complaint of the saints in the Psalms and throughout Scripture. The hermits, monks, sophists, and all the work-righteous know nothing whatever about this conflict.45

We must not think that Luther and Calvin thought lightly of the demands of the law in the life of the Christian. Both Reformers said that the believer keeps the law but that he does not do so to perfection. The practical implications of this perspective were that justification on the grounds of the doing and dying of Christ was kept central in the preaching and teaching of the Reformation, and the hope of eternal blessedness was based firmly on justification and not sanctification.

——————————————————————

1. James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, p. 165.
2. Ibid., p. 166.
3. James Orr, The Progress of Dogma, p. 244.
4. Quoted in J. E Mozley, William Tyndale, p. 54.
5. Martin Luther, "Lectures on Genesis" (1535), Luther's Works, 4:400.
6. Martin Luther, "Sermons on the Gospel of St. John" (1530), Luther's Works, 23:109.
7. Ibid., p. 207.
8. Martin Luther, "Preface to the Acts of the Apostles," Luther's Works, 35:363.
9. See Martin Luther, "Lectures on Galatians, 1535," Luther's Works, 26:3, 176. Concerning the place of justification, Luther said, "Amisso articulo Justification is, simul amissa est tota doctrina Christiana." The Smalcald Articles (1536) state: "On this article rests all that we teach and practice against the pope, the devil and the world" (pt. 2, art. 1, in Theodore G. Tappert, ed. and trans., The Book of Concord, p. 292). For the "chief-article" nature of justification, see Martin Luther, D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesammtausgabe, 38:115. See also Tappert, Book of Concord, p. 292; Luther, Luther's Works, 12:27; 21:59; 22:145; 26:9; 54:340. For the intimate connection between justification and all doctrine, see idem, D. Martin Luthers Werke, 46:20f. An example of the foundational nature of this doctrine in Luther's thought is given by Dr. T. F. Torrance in "Eschatology," "Scottish Journal of Theology" Occasional Papers, no.2, p. 41, with reference to the relation of imputatio to Luther's eschatological perspective. The believer possesses a real righteousness and one that is not yet realized.
10. John Calvin, "Calvin: Theological Treatises," in Library of Christian Classics, 22:234, Calvin writing to Sadoleto. Cf. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Ford Lewis Battles, bk. 3, chap. 11, sec. 1; bk. 3, chap. 15, sec. 7.
11. Calvin, Institutes, tr. Battles, bk. 3, chap. 3, sec. 1.
12. Luther's "Lectures on Romans" must not be confused with his later and famous "Preface to the Epistle to the Romans." His lectures on Romans were given in 1515-1516. Luther's so-called "tower experience" probably occurred in the fall of 1518. It was this cataclysmic event that gave him his great insight into the gospel of justification by faith alone. Thus, his "Lectures on Romans" is a reflection of Luther as a young evangelical Catholic rather than of the Protestant Reformer. Luther's "Lectures on Galatians" was first published in 1535 and represents the clearest expression of his views on justification.
13. Luther, "Lectures on Galatians, 1535,"  Luther's Works, 26-27. See also idem, D. Martin Luthers Werke, 40 1:355, 33.
14. Ewald M. Plass, comp., What Luther Says, 2:701.
15. Ibid., pp. 710-11.
16. Calvin, Institutes, tr. Battles, bk. 3, chap. 11, secs. 5-12.
17. The Council of Trent, sess. 6, Jan. 13, 1547, chap. 7 (causes of justification); quoted in John H. Leith, ed., Creeds of the Churches, p. 412. Emphasis supplied.
18. Council of Trent, sess. 6, chap. 3; quoted in Leith, Creeds of the Churches, p. 409. Emphases supplied.
19. See Calvin, Institutes, tr. Battles, bk. 3, chap. 11, secs. 2, 11. This side of justification was stressed particularly to ward off the notion that justification also includes regeneration.
20. Ibid., bk. 3, chap. 11, secs. 3-4, 11.
21. Ibid., bk. 3, chap. 17, sec. 8; bk. 2, chap. 17, sec. 5.
22. Calvin, Institutes, tr. Henry Beveridge, bk. 3, chap. 11, sec. 16.
23. Ibid., bk. 3, chap. 13, sec. 1.
24. Ibid., bk. 3, chap. 14, sec. 17.
25. The reader should again be reminded that this "Preface" is not the same work as Luther's "Lectures on Romans."
26. See Council of Trent, sess. 6, chap. 3; quoted in Leith, Creeds of the Churches, p. 409.
27. See Council of Trent, sess. 6, chap. 7; quoted in Leith, Creeds of the Churches, pp. 411-12.
28. Council of Trent, sess. 6, can. 11; quoted in Leith, Creeds of the Churches, p. 421. Emphasis in original.
29. E.g., Osiander. See Tappert, Book of Concord, pp. 539f. Cf. "In opposition to the teaching of the Reformers, which holds justification to be a declaratory act, a pronouncing righteous, Osiander demands a positive, real justification instead of a negative one. He regards justification as an actus physicus, by which man is in reality made righteous, i.e. the righteousness of Christ is imparted to him. Accordingly he looks at justification and sanctification as being identical" (Henry Eyster Jacobs, ed., The Lutheran Cyclopedia, art. "Osiander, Andrew").
30. Buchanan, Doctrine of Justification, p. 402.
31. Luther, Luther's Works, 31:297.
32. Calvin, Institutes, tr. Battles, bk. 2, chap. 17, sec. 5.
33. The Formula of Concord says: ..... without any merit or worthiness on our part, and without any preceding, present, or subsequent works, by sheer grace, solely through the merit of the total obedience, the bitter passion, the death, and the resurrection of Christ our Lord, whose obedience is reckoned to us as righteousness" (art. 3, in Tappert, Book of Concord, pp. 540-41).
34. See Calvin, Institutes, bk. 3, chap. 1, sec. 1. See also Luther, who says: "But the Scriptures set before us a man who is not only bound, wretched, captive, sick and dead, but who, through the operation of Satan his Lord, adds to his other miseries that of blindness, so that he believes himself to be free, happy, possessed of liberty and ability, whole and alive.. ." (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, p. 162). ..... but no one can give himself faith, and no more can he take away his own unbelief" (idem, Luther's Works, 35:371).
35. Calvin, Institutes, bk. 3, chap. 15, sec. 5.
36. Ibid., bk. 3, chap. 11, sec. 7.
37. See Martin Luther, "Two Kinds of Righteousness," Luther's Works, 31:297-306.
38. Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, pt. 1, pp. 490-91. Cf. Rom. 10:4.
39. Ibid., p. 528.
40. Formula of Concord, art. 3 of "The Solid Declaration," in Tappert, Book of Concord, p. 549.
41. Ibid., pp. 547-48.
42. Quoted in Karl Barth, Romans, p. 263. Cf. "Every good work of the saints while pilgrims in this world is sin" (Martin Luther, "Against Latomus," Luther's Works, 32:159).
43. Council of Trent, sess. 5, sec. 5; quoted in Leith, Creeds of the Churches, p. 407. Cf. the following statements from the Council of Trent: "If any one says that in every good work, the just man sins at least venially, or what is more intolerable, mortally, and hence merits eternal punishment, and that he is not damned for this reason only, because God does not impute those works unto damnation, let him be anathema" (p. 423). "If any one says, that the one justified sins when he performs good works.., let him be anathema" (p. 424).
44. The Geneva Confession; quoted in Lewis W Spitz, ed., The Protestant Reformation, p. 117. Emphases supplied.
45. Luther, "Lectures on Galatians, 1535," Luther's Works, 27:74-5.


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