The Articulation of Justification by Faith

Chapter 5 develops the theme of Reformed Conformist resilience during the reign of Charles I. Drawing principally on Ward’s numerous determinations on the subject, Davenant’s ambitious Praelectiones, and Ward’s posthumously published treatise on justifying faith, it establishes that the doctrine of justification by faith alone was likewise the subject of regular defence and articulation in Cambridge throughout the 1630s. It also underlines the consonance of their position with that outlined in Downame’s 1634 Treatise on Justification. As Prideaux’s lectures and Montagu’s remarks on the subject demonstrate, this doctrine was integral to the Reformed vision of grace. Its ongoing articulation further establishes the vibrancy of Conformist Reformed theological opinion in the 1630s.

“God’s Righteousness Is Revealed in Every Believer from Faith to Faithfulness” (Rom 1.17): A Possible Reading

This study proposes understanding Rom 1.17 as: “For God’s righteousness is revealed in every believer from faith to faithfulness, as it was written, ‘The righteous will live by faith,’” based on various exegetical considerations in both its syntagmatic and literary context and its role in the overall shape of Romans. It highlights Paul’s holistic and dynamic picture of Christian life in which justification by faith produces its fruits in a believer’s everyday life.

Beginnings

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is a revised recension of a liturgical text, first issued in 1549, which was at once an engine and a product of the English Reformation. This chapter situates the original Prayer Book in that context, and offers a detailed examination of its most contested text: the Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion. This service was heavily revised in 1552, and the revisions shed light on the intentions of the revisers and the meaning of the revised text, which remains largely the same in the final revision of 1662. Among the theological issues involved were justification by faith, the presence of Christ, the nature of a sacrament, and the purpose of the eucharistic liturgy in a reformed church. This chapter also considers, more briefly, the revisions of other services that were made in 1552.

„…Glaubensgerechtigkeit“ Calvins Begründung der Reformation

“… Justification by faith” Calvin’s grounds for the Reformation ABSTRACT In 1539, at the young age of 30, Calvin wrote a letter to Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto, an eminent scholar and proponent of the Roman Church, in answer to the latter’s letter earlier that year to Geneva. This answer of Calvin, as requested urgently by the City of Geneva, is very well-known for the way how Calvin refuted Sadoleto’s arguments against the Reformation and thus took up the cudgels for the very city that banned him only a year before. This Calvin did by justifying the quintessence of and necessity for the Reformation. Since then, this text has not only been known as one of the most famous defences of the principles of the Reformation of the six-teenth century but even has been described as probably the most powerful and sys-tematic successful apologetic Reformation writing of that age as such. In this article, Calvin’s analysis of the core of the Reformation is discussed against the background of his relation to Martin Luther and their appreciation for each other. According to Calvin the “heart” of the Reformation was justification by grace alone. Ultimately it is only a matter of faith in Christ alone. For his explanation of justification by grace and faith alone, Calvin refers consistently to Scripture as the Word of God. In this Chris-tological approach – for which Luther according to a witness expressed his apprecia-tion – Calvin and Luther are very close to each other indeed. Key concepts: Luther, Calvin, Sadoleto, justification, Reformation, grace alone, faith alone “… regverdigmaking deur die geloof” Calvyn se begronding van die Reformasie Opsomming Op die jong ouderdom van 30 skryf Calvyn in 1539 ’n brief aan Kardinaal Jacopo Sadoletus, beroemde geleerde en verteenwoordiger van die Roomse Kerk. Hierdie brief van Calvyn wat hy op die dringende smeekversoek van die stadsraad van Genève geskryf het, het hom baie roem laat inoes. Calvyn weerlê met hierdie skrywe Sadoletus se aanklagte teen die Reformasie en tree daarmee in die bresse vir die stad wat hom die jaar vantevore verban het. Daarby begrond hy die kern van die Reformasie en die noodsaak daarvoor. Sedertdien staan hierdie brief nie slegs bekend as een van die mees befaamde apologetiese geskrifte van die Reformasie nie maar is dit selfs beskryf as die mees kragtige en teologies suksesvolle verdediging daarvan in die sestiende eeu. In hierdie artikel word Calvyn se verklaring van die kern van die Reformasie bespreek teen die agtergrond van sy verhouding met Martin Luther en beide van hulle se respek vir mekaar. Volgens Calvyn is die hart van die Reformasie die regverdigmaking deur genade alleen. Dit gaan ten volle oor geloof in Christus alleen. Vir sy verklaring van die regverdigmaking deur genade en geloof alleen beroep Calvyn hom konsekwent op die Skrif as Woord van God. In hierdie Christologiese benadering – waarvoor Luther volgens ’n getuie waardering uitgespreek het – staan Calvyn en Luther dig bymekaar. Kernbegrippe: Luther, Calvyn, Sadoletus, regverdigmaking, Reformasie, genade alleen, geloof alleen

Sejarah Penafsiran Ajaran Paulus Mengenai Pembenaran Oleh Iman

No one can be justified before God for doing good deeds. No matter how good a man is, if he does not believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he will not be saved from the wrath of God to come. There is no human being who is right before God, and no sinful man can save himself in any way. The only way out is in the way that God has given to the problem of all sinners, by sending Jesus Christ to the world to die for sinners. "And for this he came, so that every man believed in him, who was sent by God" (John 6:29). The Bible teaches that salvation is only obtained because of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the object of that faith. This salvation is known as the statement "Justified by faith. Paul explained this teaching in each of his writings. This teaching of justification by faith has been repeatedly denied by some people who disagree with Paul's opinion. The history of the church from the early centuries to the present has proven the variety of understandings that have emerged from this teaching, but one important thing is that sinful humans are justified by their faith in Jesus Christ before God.Keywords: Paul;history; justified by faith.AbstrakTidak ada seorang pun yang dapat dibenarkan di hadapan Allah karena telah melakukan perbuatan baik. Sebaik apa pun manusia, jika dia tidak percaya kepada Yesus Kristus, Anak Allah maka ia tidak akan selamat dari murka Allah yang akan datang. Tidak ada seorang pun manusia yang benar di hadapan Allah, dan tidak ada seorang manusia berdosa yang dapat menyelematkan dirinya sendiri dengan cara apa pun. Satu-satunya jalan keluar adalah dengan cara yang Allah telah berikan untuk masalah semua orang berdosa, yaitu dengan mengutus Yesus Kristus ke dunia untuk mati bagi orang berdosa. “Dan untuk itulah Dia datang, yaitu supaya setiap orang percaya kepada Dia, yang telah diutus oleh Allah” (Yohanes 6:29). Alkitab mengajarkan bahwa keselamatan hanya diperoleh karena iman kepada Yesus Kristus. Yesus Kristus adalah obyek iman tersebut. Keselamatan ini dikenal dengan pernyataan “Dibenarkan karena iman. Paulus menjelaskan ajaran ini dalam setiap tulisannya. Ajaran pembenaran oleh iman ini telah berulang kali disangkal oleh beberap orang yang tidak setuju dengan pendapat Paulus. Sejarah gereja mulai dari abad permulaan sampai pada masa sekarang ini telah membuktikan beragamnya pemahaman yang muncul terhadap ajaran ini, namun satu hal yang terpenting adalah bahwa manusia berdosa dibenarkan oleh iman mereka kepada Yesus Kristus di hadapan Allah.Kata Kunci: Paulus; sejarah; iman; dibenarkan oleh iman.

Justification by Faith

Not only but especially since the Protestant Reformation, interpreters of Paul have been keenly interested in what the apostle means by saying that a person is justified from faith and not from works of the law. This essay parses the debates over this controversial phrase, focusing especially on recent discussion and briefly proposing a constructive account. The essay first discusses the language of justification in Paul’s letters, then considers and rejects some common but false antitheses in this discussion (individual versus corporate, forensic verses apocalyptic), then explores Paul’s particular insistence that justification is not from works of the law, and finally considers Paul’s chosen counterpart to works of the law, namely faith or trust. It is here proposed that justification is for Paul part of a cluster of central topics alongside reconciliation, participation, deliverance, and other key themes—bracketed on one side by the atoning death and resurrection of Christ and on the other by the glory of God.

Salvation in the Spirit

This chapter applies the pneumatological and affective account of “experience” given in Chapter 2 to examine the work of the Spirit in salvation. It focuses on the movement in contemporary soteriology away from traditional Protestant theologies of justification by faith and towards theologies of participation and theosis. It analyzes a series of recent accounts to demonstrate that soteriologies of participation either have significant difficulties in articulating how the saving work of the Spirit is experienced in bodies (as in Torrance and Tanner), or else end up with a problematically optimistic account of the Spirit’s transformative work in Christians (as in contemporary neo-Thomism). It then argues that Philip Melanchthon’s sixteenth-century account of justification by faith is substantially more successful on both counts. This is due to Melanchthon’s extensive use of affective categories to make sense of how salvation in the Spirit comes to be experienced in ways that are legible in embodied human lives. This section also provides an extended refutation of the “legal fiction” argument against traditional Protestant soteriologies, made recently by Milbank, amongst others. The chapter concludes by drawing on patristic accounts of soteriological participation to argue that affective transformation of the kind described by Melanchthon can be construed as a form of soteriological participation.