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Justification By Faith
We humans have an inherent tendency to justify ourselves. No sooner someone points to a real or alleged mistake on our part, the defenses go up and we pile reason upon reason to demonstrate why we were wrong. We all wish to justify ourselves. Ask any parent if you need additional proof!
The word Justification commonly refers to the act of declaring that a person is not guilty. It is somewhat in the same sense that this word is used in the Bible also. The major difference is that the doctrine refers to justification in front of God (and not man ) and that also in the matter of sins (and not everyday omissions or failings).
Man's inherent need for justification in front of others is seen among people of all languages, cultures, and time. But much greater than that is man's perceived need for justification in front of his Creator. This is why people of all religions and all times invented their own varied methods to get a clean chit from God. But, obviously, no man-made method can bring lasting justification. In all justly constituted human courts, a guilty person is deemed worthy only of punishment and not of vindication or justification.
Because of human conscience every person knows that he is a sinner who deserves only punishment. He also knows that the Omnipotent Divine court is infinitely more powerful and objective than the fallible human courts. This is why there is a life-long yearning in his heart to get right with God. The origin of all man-made religions and rituals can be traced to this fear and this yearning.
Man-made religion and ritual can offer, at the most, only a temporary satisfaction. It cannot save, and it cannot justify in the final reckoning. Thus God in His infinite mercy opened and offered a way of justification, the divinely ordained way for getting declared not-guilty. He also chose a succession of people to carry this message unadulterated to humans. It was transmitted from Seth to Noah and from Noah to Abraham orally and also through the written word. God also spoke directly with people in this chain. Finally He made Israel the custodian of this message. They were both to preserve the message from adulteration, and were also supposed to spread this message to people of all the world. And there are plenty of archeological and historical indications that they took this responsibility seriously.
As world population began to explode, even Israelites became so numerous that mere oral communication the essentials was not sufficient, and some sort of written and codified communication became necessary to get the message of divine justification to all. This is the time when God raised Moses to leadership.
Moses was a highly learned person, and since he was trained in the palaces of Egypt upto the age of 40, he was proficient in more than one language, was able to write in more than one kind of script, and had access to papyri and other writing material. God used him to write six books in in the Bible: the first five books, plus the book of Job. He also wrote many psalms. This was the first time when the divine message of justification was codified down in writing.
From here the exposition of this doctrine kept on becoming increasingly clear as God kept adding more books to the Canon, with unusually detailed descriptions of salvation and justification being given in the last portion of the book of Isaiah. In His three and a half years of public ministry, Lord Jesus repeatedly spoke about justification, and even illustrated it with stories. A classic incident is the parable of the arrogant Pharisee and the repentant Publican who went to the Temple. The Pharisee did not have an assurance when he left the temple after his prayers, though the followed the law to the letter. The penitent Publican, on the other hand, went away justified on the basis of his faith in God, though he probably had broken all the stipulations of the Law. Such is God's compassion, but many in the Old Testament times failed to recognize it.
The special activities of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost onwards, the writing down of the doctrinal books of the Bible (Romans to Judah), and the never-before seen but the newly-given filling and indwelling of the Spirit ensured that Divine Truth and the Divine Plan of the Ages are explained orally and also in writing to the people of God with unusual clarity. The message of Justification By Faith was spelt out in detail in the Epistles, specially and emphatically in the Epistle to Romans.
That Justification is an act of God's grace and that the keeping of the Law played no part in it was made abundantly clear to the Apostles. The Jerusalem Council publicly recognized this fact. Similarly, Peter the chief among the Apostles also recognized this truth when God spoke to him through the vision of a large tray filled with all kinds of animals. Since the Apostles and their close companions spent much time in an intensive exposition of spiritual truth, and since a large number of believers like the "Bereans" made it a point to search the scriptures on a daily basis, doctrines related to salvation and justification became unusually clear to believers in the first century. There was no doubt about these doctrines, and there were no conflicts in the church over justification by faith. The wrong teachings of Judizers who insisted upon keeping the law, and the pagan influence of Gnostics were the main problems then, and the Apostles fought them with all might.
The Eclipse Of The Doctrine: The second and third centuries did bring up many conflicts doctrinal matters, but these were generally connected with the Lord Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Accepting the doctrine of Trinity (which includes accepting the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit as co-equal and co-eternal with the Father) was a problem for Pagan religions, and people who came to the Christian faith from such backgrounds did create much problem about these truths. Several Church Councils had to be called to collectively proclaim the right doctrines.
Again no substantial question came up about the doctrine of justification during this period because the doctrine was more or less clear to the Bible teachers of these eras. Eventually the Roman Emperor Constantine "converted" to the Christian "religion" in the fourth century, and there started the eclipsing of all major doctrines.
Every religion in the world teachers that man needs to labour hard, all his life, to receive salvation. The Bible is the only exception because its emphasizes salvation by grace, not by works. This is totally opposed to all pagan thinking, and thus any pagan influence obscures the doctrine of grace-based salvation in the first place. As a consequence, the gross paganization of the Christian Faith under the Roman Christianity immediately obscured the clear and simple doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. Justification by faith no longer had the central position in Christian pulpit it had enjoyed so far.
After Romanization of the Church, the next development was the control of the Roman Bishop over the whole of Christendom. Many treacherous and curios political, ecclesiastical, and personal battles were fought by the Roman Bishop and his cronies for this control. Eventually through a combination of deception and clever manipulation, the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] rose to become the human lord over almost the whole of Christendom. This was a battle for fame, power, and money and not doctrine, for pure doctrine does not guarantee these things. And once the power came into his hand, the Roman Bishop or Pope and the Roman Church did everything possible to consolidated and keep that power concentrated in their hands. The first requirement for this was the development of a theology and a "religion" that was totally man-centric and work-centric instead of God-centric and grace-centric. The purpose was to enslave people, not to liberate.
Gradually a doctrine of work-based salvation was developed, taught and imposed upon the Christian church. Additions were made as and when possible or needed so as to imply that the "Church" controlled the gateway to salvation. So much so that even after a person's departure his soul was said to have gone to a place called purgatory. The relatives of a dead man had to keep on giving alms to the priests so that their dead forefather could escape the oppressive confines of purgatory and move to heaven.
Since God inspired the Bible in the common man's language, and since a diligent reading of the Bible would tell people about salvation and justification based upon the grace-faith system, the Roman Church also invented methods to keep the Bible away from the masses. All liturgy was shifted to languages not understood by the 'sheep', translation of the Bible was not allowed in the common man's language, and eventually the Roman Catholic church placed the Bible on the official list of "Forbidden Books". Severe punishment, imprisonment, and even confiscation of property was common if the Bible or a portion of it was discovered in any Roman Catholic home.
The Roman Catholics oppressed and even killed many for translating or for possessing the Bible. So enraged were they with William Tyndale for his Bible Translation that finally when they ware able to lay their hands upon his grave, they exhumed Tyndale's bones and burnt in public to make an example of those who dared to defy the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church.
Rediscovery Of The Doctrine: The doctrine of Justification By Faith was taught by many small groups worldwide in spite of Catholic suppression. Church history tells that a faithful remnant was always active in spite of the eclipse of doctrine.
The Catholic Church mercilessly chased and persecuted these smaller reform movements, suppressed them in every possible way, but they could not eliminate truth altogether. On the other hand, this violence ensured that these movements that held on to these Biblical truths did not become mass-movements.
The "Dark Ages" are known to all students of history. The Roman Catholic Church ruled much of the Christian world with an iron hand. Possessing or even reading the Bible was made a crime. Freethinking and dissent was made a crime. Obviously, very few dared to step out of the boundaries drawn by the Romish Church. Yet many curious minds eventually laid their hands upon the Bible. Many began to read the Bible, specially the books of the New Testament, in secret. This opened their eyes to many fundamental doctrinal truths, though only in an outline form. One of these men was Philip Melancthon. He wrote and spoke about God's justification which was available freely to all. (Presumably he did have access to the writings of the Remnant, which helped him to better grasp the Biblical truth).
Philip Melancthon's writings in turn touched Martin Luther a highly learned Roman Catholic monk. For years he had been reading the New Testament and fundamental doctrinal truths were gradually becoming clear to him. He knew the Roman Catholic dogma was all man-made humbug and an outright pagan system meant only for the exploitation of the laity by the all-powerful priestly class. As he kept discovering New Testament doctrines one by one, his restlessness and yearning to know the full and complete truth only kept increasing. He longed to discover the unifying thread behind all these doctrines. Finally as he was studying the Epistle to Romans, he was stuck by the insight that "Being Justified by Faith" is the key that united and revealed the fundamental doctrinal truths.
Soon he proclaimed this doctrine from the pulpit, and this Biblical insight spread among people like wild-fire. "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free" was visible to anyone who observed the spiritual awakening that spread rapidly in Europe.
The rest is well-known history. The Roman Catholic Church tried to suppress the Reformation with every tactic known to a conniving manipulator, and every tool of torture which a sadist can contrive. Yet the Protestant Reformation kept growing, and with that the doctrinal affirmation of "Justification By Faith" (Sola Fide in Latin) reached all the continents.
Post Reformation Developments: Though all doctrines are spelled out clearly in the Scriptures, not all doctrines are always clearly understood by people. Part of the reason is the way God has spread these truth throughout the Bible.
No Bible doctrine is ever introduced or explained in its totality in one place in the Bible. On the contrary, important statements are spread by God into many locations throughout the Old and New Testament. Thus all the verses related to a given topic have to be collected, classified and interpreted before a doctrinal topic can be understood clearly. This takes time and effort.
Since much systematic work is needed to define and expound any doctrine, the human understanding of any doctrine grows only gradually and in steps. Thus though the original Protestant Reformation brought people back to the fundamentals, it took many more years (and even some more Reformations of lesser scope had to take place) for further clarification and refinement in the understanding of many of these doctrines.
The rise of the Baptist Churches and the Presbyterian Churches, and the systematic work by their scholars further clarified many key doctrines, such as the doctrines related to the Inerrancy, and Infallibility of the Holy Scripture. The pinnacle of these Reformations was what is today known as the Plymouth Brethren movement.
The Plymouth Brethren movement started among the High Anglicans in England around the mid 1800s. Around 1890 a similar movement of the Holy Spirit took place independently in India, mostly among the Mar Thomaite, Jacobite, and Roman Catholic adherents. Eventually the believers from both of these movements recognized that they have the same doctrinal conviction, and thus they recognized each others as one and the same movement, later called the Plymouth Brethren.
Men in this group were dedicated Bible-students and they established doctrines based strictly on the protocols of the Bible interpretation, which in turn resulted in a worldwide emphasis on correct interpretation of the Bible. A large number of interpreters and theologians worldwide made a substantial contribution to restating Biblical doctrines accurately in common man's language. There were many other connected activities also, and together they played an important role in the revival and rise of conservative Christianity. This also was the era when the doctrine of Justification By Faith received further clarification and restatement.
Today the fruits of the Protestant Reformation, which reached its pinnacle in the Plymouth Brethren Movement, are in front of us. The fundamental doctrines are available in every man's language in an accessible manner.
The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith: The Scripture makes it clear that all men are sinners. In Romans 3: 23 we read "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God". In Psalm 51:5 we read, "Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me".
Thus every person is a transgressor in front of God, and every man, woman, and child is more or less conscious of it. They know they have trespassed, and just as every guilty person feels a need to justify himself, every sinner also yearns for relief. However, they also know that as trespassers they cannot be 'justified' because justification actually belongs to a person who is innocent. The only relief that a sinner and a violator can hope is "pardon" and not justification. The greater the offense, the more difficult would be a pardon. Further, the more grave the offense, the higher needs to be the position or rank of the office or judge before he can grant pardon. Everybody knows these things because these observations are part of all social life from the most primitive to the most advanced societies.
While trespassers and criminals are punished in all societies, a more lenient attitude is usually show to the repentant person. Many a times the period of imprisonment of the repentant person is reduced, or converted into a fine, after paying which he is set free. In rare cases even pardon is granted by the highest authority in response to appeals for mercy coupled with grounds for compassion, such as compassion towards his parents who need his care and support. All man-made religions take advantage of these practices and have built into themselves rituals for pleasing God (the highest authority) through alms, penance, and special rituals. The idea is to get a "remission" from the highest authority in the universe. Many of them even talk about forgiveness and cleansing of sins in lieu of harder work. There is, however, no question of 'justification' for the guilty either in human law or in man-made religions because man known that only a sinless and basically innocent person can be rightly "justified" by the judge.
The same was the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church: that man can get a remission and forgiveness, in lieu for penances, alms, and intercessory prayers of saints. The faithful were exhorted to lead a devout life, doing all what was expected of them to see if they might be able to secure a remission from punishment. There was no talk of justification (in the Biblical sense) because no judge of integrity can ever declare a trespasser as innocent. The maximum he could do was to offer pardon, making the recipient a "pardoned sinner" not righteous or innocent. However, this is not what God has in store for those who accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior. He both pardons as well as justifies, and that is part of the great Biblical doctrine of Justification by faith. It is amazing, but it does happen. God wants it that way and He has a way for doing the impossible. It can roughly be stated the following way.
The First Step, Salvation By Grace: As mentioned before, what a trespasser longs for is forgiveness and relief from punishment. This is exactly what God does first.
In Romans 6: 23 the Scripture says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus". In John 3:16 we read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have Everlasting life". While man struggles, God has already paid the cost and opened the way to all.
Man is alienated from God as long as he is a sinner condemned unto death. However, once he comes to God and obtained forgiveness and salvation, God can now work in him because he no longer a sinner condemned to death but a is a child of God with a special destiny. This is exactly what we see in the next stage.
The Second Step, Union With Christ: Once a person trusts in Christ and accepts Him as personal Savior, God forgives him and unites him with the Body of Christ. The fact that the Universal Church and its members are the Body of Christ is mentioned in Ephesians and Colossians. In Ephesians 2: 16 we read, "And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross". In Colossians 1:24 we read, "...For His body's sake, which is the church". And in Ephesians 12:22 and 23 we read, "... head over all things to the Church, which is His body...".
Taking a regenerate believer and uniting him with the body of Christ is a special activity of the Holy. In I Corinthians 12: 13 the Spirit of God says, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body". Here baptism refers to identifying or uniting two entities -- the believer and Christ.
There was no need for God to lay the penalty of our sins on Christ. That He chose to do so is His grace. Similarly, there is no need for God to unite the repentant sinner with the body of Christ. However, He does so in His grace because this union opens a way for God to do many things for the new believers. This union makes it possible for God to grant many things to the believers that He had granted to Christ because now the believer is in union with Christ. Thus, many things which Christ has can now be imputed to those who are in union with Christ.
The New Testament repeatedly uses the expression "in Him" and "in Christ". This is a reference to things which are given, or attributed, or imputed to believers "in union with Christ". We must remember that not all what Christ has can be given or imputed to others. But certain things like His Holiness can be attributed or reckoned to others at least positionally. This is exactly what happens in justification. Something is legally reckoned in the account of the believer.
The Third Stage, Justification: Once a new believer is united with the body of Christ, God grants many things to the believer which He grants to Christ -- because we are part of His body. Sonship of believers is a good example of this. God also imputes many things to believers which Christ has, and the best example here is justification.
It can be understood in the following way: Once a believer is united to the body of Christ, God views that person as part of the body of Christ. As a consequence, the righteousness which is Christ's so that God views that person as righteous (in Christ).
Here it should be understood clearly that Christ's righteousness in NOT transmitted or infused to a believer. On the contrary it is only attributed, imputed or legally reckoned to the believer. This is not a physical transmission to a believer, but only a legal accounting. This our "position" in Christ.
Thus this person who was a sinner till yesterday, stands as righteous in Christ today. God no longer sees him as a sinner but as a righteous person or a "saint" in the language of New Testament. This act of declaring and viewing a sinner as a person who is "not guilty", who is righteous, who is a saint, because he is imputed or covered with the righteousness of Christ is called justification. A sinner and trespasser cannot be justified. But when the penalty has been paid, and when he is covered with the cloth of Christ's righteousness, he who was a sinner now stands justified as a saint.
The Process Of Justification: In the previous paragraphs, we presented a split up picture God's work in several stages for the sake of clarity and understanding. In reality, these and several other things take place in the life of a believer simultaneously at the moment he believers in Christ. God the Father does all these things in His grace so that He can give us a new nature, a new identity, and a new destiny. However, it is always helpful from the human perspective to view these divine actions in a more expanded from for our understanding. That is what we have done in the previous pages. God forgives our sins, unites us, and we stand justified, all in one go and simultaneously.
The big question now is, does man play any role in his justification. Or can he do anything to expedite or assure his justification. All man-made religions and also the Christian cults assert that man can (and ought to) work for his justification, and thus hasten the process. To establish this man-made theory, all of them in one form or other teach that man has a "spark of the divine" in him that can be nurtured to grow and make him holy or justified. Of all the world religions, Hinduism teaches this in the most potent from, because they claim that man is god and all what he needs is to shed his illusion that he is a mere mortal, and embrace the truth that he is god. According to them, the moment man realizes that he is the very god of the Universe, he is liberated [free from all guilt and sin]. The Roman Catholics teach to the effect that this "spark" is transmitted to the child at the moment of his baptism. There is a whole range of teaching between these two, and ultimately all of them amount to "work for your justification" concept. However, this is not what the Bible teaches.
Justification is a gift of God, an unmerited favour from Him, and He does not demand or accept anything in lieu of it. In Romans 3: 24 the Holy Spirit reminds that, "Being justified FREELY by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". This is a reminder that redemption came first and that justification is granted freely and non-meritoriously along with that. The scripture repeatedly reminds that human work is not the basis of justification. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). Only personal faith, a totally non-meritorious response from man, can bring divine justification to him. This is "justification by faith" or Sola Fide, as repeatedly proclaimed (in Latin) by the Reformers. This is declared in many places in the Scripture including Roman 3:28 where we read, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law". In Gelatins 2:16 we read, "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even as we believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified".
Implications of Justification by Faith: To a modern reader a fundamental doctrine often looks just like another piece of theory. No practical implications can immediately be seen. The problem here is not with the doctrine, but with those who fail to expound the practical aspects after the explain the theoretical part. The more an expositor is removed in time from the Reformations, the greater is the possibility that he will fail to see this connection, making his preaching all the more ineffective.
All ideas have practical consequences. More so when the idea is in the form of a fundamental doctrine. This is illustrated by the Protestant Reformation which spread worldwide like a wildfire and created a vertical split in families, societies, and churches on the basis of a single idea -- the doctrine of Justification by Faith. The Roman Catholic Church tortured millions of Protestants and killed hundreds of thousands. The consequences of this single doctrine were so life-transforming that millions chose torture over compromise. Obviously this doctrine has series implications for life, enough for people to become willing to forfeit life and property. All fundamental doctrines have similar life-transforming effect when they are taught and understood properly.
Teaching Justification Leads to Freedom: All man-made religions teach work-based salvation and no objective justification. Thus their adherents (including the adherents of the 'Christian' religion) slave all their lives without assurance of salvation.
All man-made religions demand work first and ensure salvation after that. But God offers salvation first, and then expects the saved men to work. This work is not "for" salvation or justification which has given us a new identity, but "because of" the new life granted.
Anyone who has worked hard to pass an examination or for a promotion knows about the toil, tension and uncertainty. But God does not want man to suffer this fate for salvation. And anyway man's toils cannot earn salvation for him. So God provides promotion in grace, and then invites us to work (lead a holy life) because of what we received as a gift. There is no more uncertainty, fear, or doubt about the outcome.
Justification By Faith leads to true spiritual freedom. However, to enjoy this freedom, people first need to know about salvation by grace and justification by faith. They can know only when it is taught. It is the joy of this discovery, and assurance of the new life which motivated the Reformation Generations to pay the heavy cost.
Teaching about Justification leads to liberation, and liberation leads people to action. Doctrines do have practical consequences. This is the reason why Reformation was followed by the great Missionary Movement. What they experienced, they now wanted the whole world to experience. Liberty and liberation is contagious, specially when it comes after prolonged bondage. When right doctrine liberates people, they immediately wish to share it with others so they also might be liberated.
Suppressing Justification Leads to Slavery: We all know how leaders of all religions exploit their people. By making salvation uncertain and dependent upon the priestly class, they exploit the masses from birth to death and there is no rest for the relatives even after a soul leaves this world. With the "conversion" of Constantine, the Christian world also fell into the same pattern.
Actually the Christian faith is the sower of liberty. God does not ask people to slave to Him, to the Church, or to the priests for obtaining salvation. On the contrary He invites everyone to go unto Him and receive rest "freely". There is no need for fear, doubt or skepticism about one's salvation. It is available without toil as a gift to anyone and everyone. But this message also spells the doom for the priestly class that indulges in luxury by enslaving people. But the material fortune of the priestly class changed with the "conversation" of the Roman Emperor Constantine to the Christian "religion". Truth was suppressed, and owning or reading the Bible became a crime. There was no more any mention (or even remembrance) of inconvenient doctrines like justification by faith.
Just look at what Christendom became in the sixteen centuries after Constantine. A good example of this perversion is the Roman Catholic Church. For salvation a person had to depend upon priests, and had to bribe the priests to administer seven or more sacraments, and had to live under life-long slavery to the church. Sins had to be confessed regularly to a priest, a perversion through which they enslaved everyone. Spiritual freedom and Biblically true teaching are non existent in the church. Hundreds of millions are being pushed into hell, after having the false assurance that they know Lord Jesus Christ. It is suppression of "Justification By Faith" which has helped the Roman Catholic church to run the biggest spiritual slavery in the name of Christ the greatest liberator.
The picture is not much different in most Episcopalian Churches. Among the Protestants the majority of denominational Churches are associated with the World Council of Churches and its national counterparts in each nation. The top men in this umbrella group are so degenerate that they see no difference between Protestant Churches, the Roman Catholics, the Hindus, the Animists, and people of other religions. Their proclaimed goal is the development of a one-world religion, not the conservation of the evangelical Christian Faith. Justification by "works" in their banner and justification by faith in Christ is anathema to them.
Then there are the Eastern Orthodox Churches and their counterparts, which includes the Jacobites and sister groups. They abandoned the doctrine of justification by faith hundreds of years ago, and today they are growing every day in their intimacy and communion with the Roman Catholic church. In fact in Kerala there is a faction of Orthodox Churches and Bishops which function under the Roman Pope as their head. Salvation by grace through faith is anathema to all these groups.
Except for a small groups of Evangelicals among them, the Anglicans were always closer to the Roman Catholic dogma rather than to Bible. Thus in 1970s itself some of their top leaders had begun to proclaim that all religions are essentially one and the same. Indian groups such as the Mar Thoma Church, the Church of South India (CSI). The church of North India (CNI), are also moving in the same direction. The majority of their leaders might be religious and pious, but are not born-again. They jeer at the idea of salvation through grace and justification by faith. Hundreds of millions of so-called "Christians" race towards the hellfire under these leaders. Millions live entangled in man-made rituals slaving all their life to the whims of priests, never enjoying spiritual freedom. The single reason is suppression of the ideas related to the grace-faith system that is taught clearly in the Bible.
Conclusion: Every person in every society and religious group lives with guilt in one form or another. They crave for justification, but know that a guilty person cannot be justified. Therefore they spend all their life trying to obtain remission or forgiveness of sins, but no amount of human efforts has ever given an assurance of absolution to anyone.
The Word of God assures that God grants both salvation as well as justification in His grace, but this truth was suppressed every time that "Christian religion" rose to power. Protestant Reformation was the result of discovering this truth after 1000 years of suppression by the Roman Catholic church.
The Word of God says that the moment a person accepts Lord Jesus as Saviour. God grants him salvation, union with Christ, and many other things through this union. One of these is justification granted through imputing or through accounting the righteousness of Christ to him. This is grace.
Once a position is granted justification, he needs to work in keeping with that position. His daily life should prove to people that he is God's righteousness child. His conduct should match his new position. He should also spot and oppose all those developments which can snatch away the doctrine of Justification By Faith so as to enslave people.
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Justification By Faith
We humans have an inherent tendency to justify ourselves. No sooner someone points to a real or alleged mistake on our part, the defenses go up and we pile reason upon reason to demonstrate why we were wrong. We all wish to justify ourselves. Ask any parent if you need additional proof!
The word Justification commonly refers to the act of declaring that a person is not guilty. It is somewhat in the same sense that this word is used in the Bible also. The major difference is that the doctrine refers to justification in front of God (and not man ) and that also in the matter of sins (and not everyday omissions or failings).
Man's inherent need for justification in front of others is seen among people of all languages, cultures, and time. But much greater than that is man's perceived need for justification in front of his Creator. This is why people of all religions and all times invented their own varied methods to get a clean chit from God. But, obviously, no man-made method can bring lasting justification. In all justly constituted human courts, a guilty person is deemed worthy only of punishment and not of vindication or justification.
Because of human conscience every person knows that he is a sinner who deserves only punishment. He also knows that the Omnipotent Divine court is infinitely more powerful and objective than the fallible human courts. This is why there is a life-long yearning in his heart to get right with God. The origin of all man-made religions and rituals can be traced to this fear and this yearning.
Man-made religion and ritual can offer, at the most, only a temporary satisfaction. It cannot save, and it cannot justify in the final reckoning. Thus God in His infinite mercy opened and offered a way of justification, the divinely ordained way for getting declared not-guilty. He also chose a succession of people to carry this message unadulterated to humans. It was transmitted from Seth to Noah and from Noah to Abraham orally and also through the written word. God also spoke directly with people in this chain. Finally He made Israel the custodian of this message. They were both to preserve the message from adulteration, and were also supposed to spread this message to people of all the world. And there are plenty of archeological and historical indications that they took this responsibility seriously.
As world population began to explode, even Israelites became so numerous that mere oral communication the essentials was not sufficient, and some sort of written and codified communication became necessary to get the message of divine justification to all. This is the time when God raised Moses to leadership.
Moses was a highly learned person, and since he was trained in the palaces of Egypt upto the age of 40, he was proficient in more than one language, was able to write in more than one kind of script, and had access to papyri and other writing material. God used him to write six books in in the Bible: the first five books, plus the book of Job. He also wrote many psalms. This was the first time when the divine message of justification was codified down in writing.
From here the exposition of this doctrine kept on becoming increasingly clear as God kept adding more books to the Canon, with unusually detailed descriptions of salvation and justification being given in the last portion of the book of Isaiah. In His three and a half years of public ministry, Lord Jesus repeatedly spoke about justification, and even illustrated it with stories. A classic incident is the parable of the arrogant Pharisee and the repentant Publican who went to the Temple. The Pharisee did not have an assurance when he left the temple after his prayers, though the followed the law to the letter. The penitent Publican, on the other hand, went away justified on the basis of his faith in God, though he probably had broken all the stipulations of the Law. Such is God's compassion, but many in the Old Testament times failed to recognize it.
The special activities of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost onwards, the writing down of the doctrinal books of the Bible (Romans to Judah), and the never-before seen but the newly-given filling and indwelling of the Spirit ensured that Divine Truth and the Divine Plan of the Ages are explained orally and also in writing to the people of God with unusual clarity. The message of Justification By Faith was spelt out in detail in the Epistles, specially and emphatically in the Epistle to Romans.
That Justification is an act of God's grace and that the keeping of the Law played no part in it was made abundantly clear to the Apostles. The Jerusalem Council publicly recognized this fact. Similarly, Peter the chief among the Apostles also recognized this truth when God spoke to him through the vision of a large tray filled with all kinds of animals. Since the Apostles and their close companions spent much time in an intensive exposition of spiritual truth, and since a large number of believers like the "Bereans" made it a point to search the scriptures on a daily basis, doctrines related to salvation and justification became unusually clear to believers in the first century. There was no doubt about these doctrines, and there were no conflicts in the church over justification by faith. The wrong teachings of Judizers who insisted upon keeping the law, and the pagan influence of Gnostics were the main problems then, and the Apostles fought them with all might.
The Eclipse Of The Doctrine: The second and third centuries did bring up many conflicts doctrinal matters, but these were generally connected with the Lord Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Accepting the doctrine of Trinity (which includes accepting the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit as co-equal and co-eternal with the Father) was a problem for Pagan religions, and people who came to the Christian faith from such backgrounds did create much problem about these truths. Several Church Councils had to be called to collectively proclaim the right doctrines.
Again no substantial question came up about the doctrine of justification during this period because the doctrine was more or less clear to the Bible teachers of these eras. Eventually the Roman Emperor Constantine "converted" to the Christian "religion" in the fourth century, and there started the eclipsing of all major doctrines.
Every religion in the world teachers that man needs to labour hard, all his life, to receive salvation. The Bible is the only exception because its emphasizes salvation by grace, not by works. This is totally opposed to all pagan thinking, and thus any pagan influence obscures the doctrine of grace-based salvation in the first place. As a consequence, the gross paganization of the Christian Faith under the Roman Christianity immediately obscured the clear and simple doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. Justification by faith no longer had the central position in Christian pulpit it had enjoyed so far.
After Romanization of the Church, the next development was the control of the Roman Bishop over the whole of Christendom. Many treacherous and curios political, ecclesiastical, and personal battles were fought by the Roman Bishop and his cronies for this control. Eventually through a combination of deception and clever manipulation, the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] rose to become the human lord over almost the whole of Christendom. This was a battle for fame, power, and money and not doctrine, for pure doctrine does not guarantee these things. And once the power came into his hand, the Roman Bishop or Pope and the Roman Church did everything possible to consolidated and keep that power concentrated in their hands. The first requirement for this was the development of a theology and a "religion" that was totally man-centric and work-centric instead of God-centric and grace-centric. The purpose was to enslave people, not to liberate.
Gradually a doctrine of work-based salvation was developed, taught and imposed upon the Christian church. Additions were made as and when possible or needed so as to imply that the "Church" controlled the gateway to salvation. So much so that even after a person's departure his soul was said to have gone to a place called purgatory. The relatives of a dead man had to keep on giving alms to the priests so that their dead forefather could escape the oppressive confines of purgatory and move to heaven.
Since God inspired the Bible in the common man's language, and since a diligent reading of the Bible would tell people about salvation and justification based upon the grace-faith system, the Roman Church also invented methods to keep the Bible away from the masses. All liturgy was shifted to languages not understood by the 'sheep', translation of the Bible was not allowed in the common man's language, and eventually the Roman Catholic church placed the Bible on the official list of "Forbidden Books". Severe punishment, imprisonment, and even confiscation of property was common if the Bible or a portion of it was discovered in any Roman Catholic home.
The Roman Catholics oppressed and even killed many for translating or for possessing the Bible. So enraged were they with William Tyndale for his Bible Translation that finally when they ware able to lay their hands upon his grave, they exhumed Tyndale's bones and burnt in public to make an example of those who dared to defy the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church.
Rediscovery Of The Doctrine: The doctrine of Justification By Faith was taught by many small groups worldwide in spite of Catholic suppression. Church history tells that a faithful remnant was always active in spite of the eclipse of doctrine.
The Catholic Church mercilessly chased and persecuted these smaller reform movements, suppressed them in every possible way, but they could not eliminate truth altogether. On the other hand, this violence ensured that these movements that held on to these Biblical truths did not become mass-movements.
The "Dark Ages" are known to all students of history. The Roman Catholic Church ruled much of the Christian world with an iron hand. Possessing or even reading the Bible was made a crime. Freethinking and dissent was made a crime. Obviously, very few dared to step out of the boundaries drawn by the Romish Church. Yet many curious minds eventually laid their hands upon the Bible. Many began to read the Bible, specially the books of the New Testament, in secret. This opened their eyes to many fundamental doctrinal truths, though only in an outline form. One of these men was Philip Melancthon. He wrote and spoke about God's justification which was available freely to all. (Presumably he did have access to the writings of the Remnant, which helped him to better grasp the Biblical truth).
Philip Melancthon's writings in turn touched Martin Luther a highly learned Roman Catholic monk. For years he had been reading the New Testament and fundamental doctrinal truths were gradually becoming clear to him. He knew the Roman Catholic dogma was all man-made humbug and an outright pagan system meant only for the exploitation of the laity by the all-powerful priestly class. As he kept discovering New Testament doctrines one by one, his restlessness and yearning to know the full and complete truth only kept increasing. He longed to discover the unifying thread behind all these doctrines. Finally as he was studying the Epistle to Romans, he was stuck by the insight that "Being Justified by Faith" is the key that united and revealed the fundamental doctrinal truths.
Soon he proclaimed this doctrine from the pulpit, and this Biblical insight spread among people like wild-fire. "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free" was visible to anyone who observed the spiritual awakening that spread rapidly in Europe.
The rest is well-known history. The Roman Catholic Church tried to suppress the Reformation with every tactic known to a conniving manipulator, and every tool of torture which a sadist can contrive. Yet the Protestant Reformation kept growing, and with that the doctrinal affirmation of "Justification By Faith" (Sola Fide in Latin) reached all the continents.
Post Reformation Developments: Though all doctrines are spelled out clearly in the Scriptures, not all doctrines are always clearly understood by people. Part of the reason is the way God has spread these truth throughout the Bible.
No Bible doctrine is ever introduced or explained in its totality in one place in the Bible. On the contrary, important statements are spread by God into many locations throughout the Old and New Testament. Thus all the verses related to a given topic have to be collected, classified and interpreted before a doctrinal topic can be understood clearly. This takes time and effort.
Since much systematic work is needed to define and expound any doctrine, the human understanding of any doctrine grows only gradually and in steps. Thus though the original Protestant Reformation brought people back to the fundamentals, it took many more years (and even some more Reformations of lesser scope had to take place) for further clarification and refinement in the understanding of many of these doctrines.
The rise of the Baptist Churches and the Presbyterian Churches, and the systematic work by their scholars further clarified many key doctrines, such as the doctrines related to the Inerrancy, and Infallibility of the Holy Scripture. The pinnacle of these Reformations was what is today known as the Plymouth Brethren movement.
The Plymouth Brethren movement started among the High Anglicans in England around the mid 1800s. Around 1890 a similar movement of the Holy Spirit took place independently in India, mostly among the Mar Thomaite, Jacobite, and Roman Catholic adherents. Eventually the believers from both of these movements recognized that they have the same doctrinal conviction, and thus they recognized each others as one and the same movement, later called the Plymouth Brethren.
Men in this group were dedicated Bible-students and they established doctrines based strictly on the protocols of the Bible interpretation, which in turn resulted in a worldwide emphasis on correct interpretation of the Bible. A large number of interpreters and theologians worldwide made a substantial contribution to restating Biblical doctrines accurately in common man's language. There were many other connected activities also, and together they played an important role in the revival and rise of conservative Christianity. This also was the era when the doctrine of Justification By Faith received further clarification and restatement.
Today the fruits of the Protestant Reformation, which reached its pinnacle in the Plymouth Brethren Movement, are in front of us. The fundamental doctrines are available in every man's language in an accessible manner.
The Doctrine Of Justification By Faith: The Scripture makes it clear that all men are sinners. In Romans 3: 23 we read "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God". In Psalm 51:5 we read, "Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me".
Thus every person is a transgressor in front of God, and every man, woman, and child is more or less conscious of it. They know they have trespassed, and just as every guilty person feels a need to justify himself, every sinner also yearns for relief. However, they also know that as trespassers they cannot be 'justified' because justification actually belongs to a person who is innocent. The only relief that a sinner and a violator can hope is "pardon" and not justification. The greater the offense, the more difficult would be a pardon. Further, the more grave the offense, the higher needs to be the position or rank of the office or judge before he can grant pardon. Everybody knows these things because these observations are part of all social life from the most primitive to the most advanced societies.
While trespassers and criminals are punished in all societies, a more lenient attitude is usually show to the repentant person. Many a times the period of imprisonment of the repentant person is reduced, or converted into a fine, after paying which he is set free. In rare cases even pardon is granted by the highest authority in response to appeals for mercy coupled with grounds for compassion, such as compassion towards his parents who need his care and support. All man-made religions take advantage of these practices and have built into themselves rituals for pleasing God (the highest authority) through alms, penance, and special rituals. The idea is to get a "remission" from the highest authority in the universe. Many of them even talk about forgiveness and cleansing of sins in lieu of harder work. There is, however, no question of 'justification' for the guilty either in human law or in man-made religions because man known that only a sinless and basically innocent person can be rightly "justified" by the judge.
The same was the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church: that man can get a remission and forgiveness, in lieu for penances, alms, and intercessory prayers of saints. The faithful were exhorted to lead a devout life, doing all what was expected of them to see if they might be able to secure a remission from punishment. There was no talk of justification (in the Biblical sense) because no judge of integrity can ever declare a trespasser as innocent. The maximum he could do was to offer pardon, making the recipient a "pardoned sinner" not righteous or innocent. However, this is not what God has in store for those who accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior. He both pardons as well as justifies, and that is part of the great Biblical doctrine of Justification by faith. It is amazing, but it does happen. God wants it that way and He has a way for doing the impossible. It can roughly be stated the following way.
The First Step, Salvation By Grace: As mentioned before, what a trespasser longs for is forgiveness and relief from punishment. This is exactly what God does first.
In Romans 6: 23 the Scripture says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus". In John 3:16 we read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have Everlasting life". While man struggles, God has already paid the cost and opened the way to all.
Man is alienated from God as long as he is a sinner condemned unto death. However, once he comes to God and obtained forgiveness and salvation, God can now work in him because he no longer a sinner condemned to death but a is a child of God with a special destiny. This is exactly what we see in the next stage.
The Second Step, Union With Christ: Once a person trusts in Christ and accepts Him as personal Savior, God forgives him and unites him with the Body of Christ. The fact that the Universal Church and its members are the Body of Christ is mentioned in Ephesians and Colossians. In Ephesians 2: 16 we read, "And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross". In Colossians 1:24 we read, "...For His body's sake, which is the church". And in Ephesians 12:22 and 23 we read, "... head over all things to the Church, which is His body...".
Taking a regenerate believer and uniting him with the body of Christ is a special activity of the Holy. In I Corinthians 12: 13 the Spirit of God says, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body". Here baptism refers to identifying or uniting two entities -- the believer and Christ.
There was no need for God to lay the penalty of our sins on Christ. That He chose to do so is His grace. Similarly, there is no need for God to unite the repentant sinner with the body of Christ. However, He does so in His grace because this union opens a way for God to do many things for the new believers. This union makes it possible for God to grant many things to the believers that He had granted to Christ because now the believer is in union with Christ. Thus, many things which Christ has can now be imputed to those who are in union with Christ.
The New Testament repeatedly uses the expression "in Him" and "in Christ". This is a reference to things which are given, or attributed, or imputed to believers "in union with Christ". We must remember that not all what Christ has can be given or imputed to others. But certain things like His Holiness can be attributed or reckoned to others at least positionally. This is exactly what happens in justification. Something is legally reckoned in the account of the believer.
The Third Stage, Justification: Once a new believer is united with the body of Christ, God grants many things to the believer which He grants to Christ -- because we are part of His body. Sonship of believers is a good example of this. God also imputes many things to believers which Christ has, and the best example here is justification.
It can be understood in the following way: Once a believer is united to the body of Christ, God views that person as part of the body of Christ. As a consequence, the righteousness which is Christ's so that God views that person as righteous (in Christ).
Here it should be understood clearly that Christ's righteousness in NOT transmitted or infused to a believer. On the contrary it is only attributed, imputed or legally reckoned to the believer. This is not a physical transmission to a believer, but only a legal accounting. This our "position" in Christ.
Thus this person who was a sinner till yesterday, stands as righteous in Christ today. God no longer sees him as a sinner but as a righteous person or a "saint" in the language of New Testament. This act of declaring and viewing a sinner as a person who is "not guilty", who is righteous, who is a saint, because he is imputed or covered with the righteousness of Christ is called justification. A sinner and trespasser cannot be justified. But when the penalty has been paid, and when he is covered with the cloth of Christ's righteousness, he who was a sinner now stands justified as a saint.
The Process Of Justification: In the previous paragraphs, we presented a split up picture God's work in several stages for the sake of clarity and understanding. In reality, these and several other things take place in the life of a believer simultaneously at the moment he believers in Christ. God the Father does all these things in His grace so that He can give us a new nature, a new identity, and a new destiny. However, it is always helpful from the human perspective to view these divine actions in a more expanded from for our understanding. That is what we have done in the previous pages. God forgives our sins, unites us, and we stand justified, all in one go and simultaneously.
The big question now is, does man play any role in his justification. Or can he do anything to expedite or assure his justification. All man-made religions and also the Christian cults assert that man can (and ought to) work for his justification, and thus hasten the process. To establish this man-made theory, all of them in one form or other teach that man has a "spark of the divine" in him that can be nurtured to grow and make him holy or justified. Of all the world religions, Hinduism teaches this in the most potent from, because they claim that man is god and all what he needs is to shed his illusion that he is a mere mortal, and embrace the truth that he is god. According to them, the moment man realizes that he is the very god of the Universe, he is liberated [free from all guilt and sin]. The Roman Catholics teach to the effect that this "spark" is transmitted to the child at the moment of his baptism. There is a whole range of teaching between these two, and ultimately all of them amount to "work for your justification" concept. However, this is not what the Bible teaches.
Justification is a gift of God, an unmerited favour from Him, and He does not demand or accept anything in lieu of it. In Romans 3: 24 the Holy Spirit reminds that, "Being justified FREELY by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". This is a reminder that redemption came first and that justification is granted freely and non-meritoriously along with that. The scripture repeatedly reminds that human work is not the basis of justification. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). Only personal faith, a totally non-meritorious response from man, can bring divine justification to him. This is "justification by faith" or Sola Fide, as repeatedly proclaimed (in Latin) by the Reformers. This is declared in many places in the Scripture including Roman 3:28 where we read, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law". In Gelatins 2:16 we read, "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even as we believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified".
Implications of Justification by Faith: To a modern reader a fundamental doctrine often looks just like another piece of theory. No practical implications can immediately be seen. The problem here is not with the doctrine, but with those who fail to expound the practical aspects after the explain the theoretical part. The more an expositor is removed in time from the Reformations, the greater is the possibility that he will fail to see this connection, making his preaching all the more ineffective.
All ideas have practical consequences. More so when the idea is in the form of a fundamental doctrine. This is illustrated by the Protestant Reformation which spread worldwide like a wildfire and created a vertical split in families, societies, and churches on the basis of a single idea -- the doctrine of Justification by Faith. The Roman Catholic Church tortured millions of Protestants and killed hundreds of thousands. The consequences of this single doctrine were so life-transforming that millions chose torture over compromise. Obviously this doctrine has series implications for life, enough for people to become willing to forfeit life and property. All fundamental doctrines have similar life-transforming effect when they are taught and understood properly.
Teaching Justification Leads to Freedom: All man-made religions teach work-based salvation and no objective justification. Thus their adherents (including the adherents of the 'Christian' religion) slave all their lives without assurance of salvation.
All man-made religions demand work first and ensure salvation after that. But God offers salvation first, and then expects the saved men to work. This work is not "for" salvation or justification which has given us a new identity, but "because of" the new life granted.
Anyone who has worked hard to pass an examination or for a promotion knows about the toil, tension and uncertainty. But God does not want man to suffer this fate for salvation. And anyway man's toils cannot earn salvation for him. So God provides promotion in grace, and then invites us to work (lead a holy life) because of what we received as a gift. There is no more uncertainty, fear, or doubt about the outcome.
Justification By Faith leads to true spiritual freedom. However, to enjoy this freedom, people first need to know about salvation by grace and justification by faith. They can know only when it is taught. It is the joy of this discovery, and assurance of the new life which motivated the Reformation Generations to pay the heavy cost.
Teaching about Justification leads to liberation, and liberation leads people to action. Doctrines do have practical consequences. This is the reason why Reformation was followed by the great Missionary Movement. What they experienced, they now wanted the whole world to experience. Liberty and liberation is contagious, specially when it comes after prolonged bondage. When right doctrine liberates people, they immediately wish to share it with others so they also might be liberated.
Suppressing Justification Leads to Slavery: We all know how leaders of all religions exploit their people. By making salvation uncertain and dependent upon the priestly class, they exploit the masses from birth to death and there is no rest for the relatives even after a soul leaves this world. With the "conversion" of Constantine, the Christian world also fell into the same pattern.
Actually the Christian faith is the sower of liberty. God does not ask people to slave to Him, to the Church, or to the priests for obtaining salvation. On the contrary He invites everyone to go unto Him and receive rest "freely". There is no need for fear, doubt or skepticism about one's salvation. It is available without toil as a gift to anyone and everyone. But this message also spells the doom for the priestly class that indulges in luxury by enslaving people. But the material fortune of the priestly class changed with the "conversation" of the Roman Emperor Constantine to the Christian "religion". Truth was suppressed, and owning or reading the Bible became a crime. There was no more any mention (or even remembrance) of inconvenient doctrines like justification by faith.
Just look at what Christendom became in the sixteen centuries after Constantine. A good example of this perversion is the Roman Catholic Church. For salvation a person had to depend upon priests, and had to bribe the priests to administer seven or more sacraments, and had to live under life-long slavery to the church. Sins had to be confessed regularly to a priest, a perversion through which they enslaved everyone. Spiritual freedom and Biblically true teaching are non existent in the church. Hundreds of millions are being pushed into hell, after having the false assurance that they know Lord Jesus Christ. It is suppression of "Justification By Faith" which has helped the Roman Catholic church to run the biggest spiritual slavery in the name of Christ the greatest liberator.
The picture is not much different in most Episcopalian Churches. Among the Protestants the majority of denominational Churches are associated with the World Council of Churches and its national counterparts in each nation. The top men in this umbrella group are so degenerate that they see no difference between Protestant Churches, the Roman Catholics, the Hindus, the Animists, and people of other religions. Their proclaimed goal is the development of a one-world religion, not the conservation of the evangelical Christian Faith. Justification by "works" in their banner and justification by faith in Christ is anathema to them.
Then there are the Eastern Orthodox Churches and their counterparts, which includes the Jacobites and sister groups. They abandoned the doctrine of justification by faith hundreds of years ago, and today they are growing every day in their intimacy and communion with the Roman Catholic church. In fact in Kerala there is a faction of Orthodox Churches and Bishops which function under the Roman Pope as their head. Salvation by grace through faith is anathema to all these groups.
Except for a small groups of Evangelicals among them, the Anglicans were always closer to the Roman Catholic dogma rather than to Bible. Thus in 1970s itself some of their top leaders had begun to proclaim that all religions are essentially one and the same. Indian groups such as the Mar Thoma Church, the Church of South India (CSI). The church of North India (CNI), are also moving in the same direction. The majority of their leaders might be religious and pious, but are not born-again. They jeer at the idea of salvation through grace and justification by faith. Hundreds of millions of so-called "Christians" race towards the hellfire under these leaders. Millions live entangled in man-made rituals slaving all their life to the whims of priests, never enjoying spiritual freedom. The single reason is suppression of the ideas related to the grace-faith system that is taught clearly in the Bible.
Conclusion: Every person in every society and religious group lives with guilt in one form or another. They crave for justification, but know that a guilty person cannot be justified. Therefore they spend all their life trying to obtain remission or forgiveness of sins, but no amount of human efforts has ever given an assurance of absolution to anyone.
The Word of God assures that God grants both salvation as well as justification in His grace, but this truth was suppressed every time that "Christian religion" rose to power. Protestant Reformation was the result of discovering this truth after 1000 years of suppression by the Roman Catholic church.
The Word of God says that the moment a person accepts Lord Jesus as Saviour. God grants him salvation, union with Christ, and many other things through this union. One of these is justification granted through imputing or through accounting the righteousness of Christ to him. This is grace.
Once a position is granted justification, he needs to work in keeping with that position. His daily life should prove to people that he is God's righteousness child. His conduct should match his new position. He should also spot and oppose all those developments which can snatch away the doctrine of Justification By Faith so as to enslave people.
Original article contributed by Dr. Johnson C. Philip and Dr. Saneesh Cherian. Revised by:
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