Before Steadfast Lutherans (!) Erase the Thread, As They Did for Darwin Schauer - Pastor Paul Rydecki Defends Justification by Faith Against Jay Webber's Rationalistic Halle Pietistism

Rev. Paul Rydecki :
Actually, what the reader of the ACLC statement will find is very little theology and very (very) many vain accusations of “logical fallacy,” and even the bizarre accusation of the ELDoNA having separated from Article IV of the Augsburg Confession. Fear not. Far from “completely rejecting justification as taught by Scripture,” the ELDoNA completely embraces justification as taught by Scripture and as confessed in the Augsburg Confession and throughout the Book of Concord. As for the completely false and unfounded accusation made in the above comment, I don’t think it’s helpful for a self-proclaimed “closet Calvinist” to be casting such aspersions on the ELDoNA’s confession of the Gospel. But if anyone wishes to discuss the actual content of the ELDoNA’s Theses on Justification in the light of Scripture and the Confessions, that could be productive.

Rev. Paul Rydecki :
To state what should be obvious, “justification by faith alone” also does not mean justification without faith.

Rev. Paul Rydecki :
Likewise, 2 Cor. 5:19-20 declares the ministry of the Word to be the very means by which God reconciles the world to Himself.

Rev. Paul Rydecki :
To state what should be obvious, “justification by faith alone” also does not mean justification without faith.

Rev. Paul Rydecki :
@Jim Pierce #12 
There is no Biblical record of this supposed forensic declaration upon unbelievers. Likewise there is no Scriptural record of the Father responding to the works of Jesus by declaring the world righteous. None. You can’t miss what’s not there. What there is in Scripture is the declaration of the Father that He justifies the one who believes in Jesus (Rom. 3:26) and that He counts faith for righteousness (Rom. 4:5-8). What there also is in Scripture is God’s declaration that all who do not believe in Jesus are not justified, but stand condemned already (Jn. 3:17-18).

2. Justification is not a physical or medical act (actus physicus sive medicinalis), by which the unrighteous man is changed by an inward transformation into a righteous man, but a judicial act (actus forensis sive iudicialis) by which the person who is in himself unrighteous is declared righteous.

Justification is purely a judicial act. But it differs essentially from the declarations which are handed down in human courts. There the judge pronounces the righteous man righteous and the guilty man guilty. If he pronounces the guilty man righteous, he is an abomination to God (Prov. 17:15). But this very thing which the judge may not do God does when He justifies a man through the Gospel and faith. God pronounces the “ungodly” righteous (Rom. 4:5). The Apology calls attention to this difference between the actus forensis in the divine justification and the actus forensis in civil courts. “Therefore, since in this passage our righteousness is the imputation of the righteousness of another, we must here speak concerning righteousness otherwise than when in philosophy or in a civil court we seek after the righteousness of one’s own work” (Trigl. 207, Art. III, 185). Luther calls the teaching that the divine method of justification must be patterned after the rule governing human courts of justice “the venom of Satan” and “the most pestilential pest [pestilentissima pestis],” St. L. V:517. It is characteristic of all good Papists and poor Protestants to set up the principle that God can declare only such people righteous as are righteous in themselves, having kept the Law or at least desiring to keep it; it would be unethical for God to employ any other method of justification.

However, God will not be counseled by men. As He has declared the righteous Christ to be unrighteous (”made Him to be sin,” 2 Cor. 5:21), so He declares men, who in themselves are unrighteous, to be righteous—He “justifieth the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). Those who criticize the divine mode of justification ignore the divine mode of redemption. They have entirely forgotten that God placed His incarnate Son under the duty and curse of His Law, in the stead of man (Gal. 4:4–5; 3:13); and having thus satisfied the demands of His justice, He now, through the Gospel and faith, justifies those who in themselves are unjust, who have transgressed all the commandments of God.

Δικαιοῦν is always used in the New Testament in the declaratory, the forensic sense. Moreover, according to Scripture, God pronounces “the ungodly” righteous, “without the Law,” “without the deeds of the Law,” therefore without making any moral demands whatever on man; Scripture counts faith, to the exclusion of human worth and human works, for righteousness.Rom. 4:5: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” This passage proves conclusively that justification is a forensic, declaratory act.

Pieper, F. (1953). Christian Dogmatics (electronic ed., Vol. 2, pp. 524–525). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

An essential prerequisite of justification by faith, or of subjective justification, is the objective justification (the reconciliation) of all mankind. If God had not in His heart justified the whole world because of Christ’s vicarious satisfaction, and if this justification were not offered in the Gospel, there could not be a justification by faith. All those who deny the objective justification (the objective reconciliation) will, if they would be consistent, also deny that subjective justification is brought about by faith; they will have to regard faith as a complement of Christ’s merit—a human achievement. But objective reconciliation is the clear teaching of Scripture. Also our Lutheran Confessions base justification by faith on the fact that God is reconciled with the world and offers the forgiveness of sins as a gift (res promissa) in the Gospel. Apology: “When we believe that God, for Christ’s sake, is reconciled to us, we are justified freely by faith.” “Remission of sins is something promised for Christ’s sake. Therefore it cannot be received except by faith alone. For a promise cannot be received except by faith alone.” (Trigl. 147, Art. IV [II], 87; 145, ibid., 84.)

Pieper, F. (1953). Christian Dogmatics (electronic ed., Vol. 2, p. 508). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Joel Dusek :
Is this an accurate statement of the positions?
Side A: “God has declared Jesus righteous and all people everywhere to be righteous because of Jesus, and this is true whether a person believes it or not”. (Objectivity applies to belief.)
Side B: “God has declared Jesus righteous and all people who believe in Him to be righteous, with no contribution from those people whatsoever”. (Objectivity applies to works.)

Joel, I wouldn’t use this language at all with regard to God “declaring Jesus righteous.” God revealed Jesus to be righteous at every point of His earthly life, from His conception, to His Baptism, to His transfiguration, to His death on the cross, to His resurrection. At no point did Jesus cease to be righteous. Even when our sins (i.e., the sins of the world) were imputed to Him and He was punished for them, He remained the Righteous One. Christ was righteous, but was counted a sinner by God. He never needed to be “absolved” or “justified” as sinners do, because He never ceased being righteous. He was “shown to be righteous,” He was “vindicated.” This is the sense of the one verse in Scripture that applies the Greek verb “dikaioo” (to justify) to Jesus (1 Tim. 3:16). There is no “vicarious justification” even hinted at in that verse.

Conversely, at every point of our earthly lives, all men remain sinners. Even when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us by faith, we remain sinners who are counted by God to be righteous, not with a righteousness of our own, but with the imputed righteousness of Christ.

This cannot be said of unbelievers. They are sinners who are still counted as sinners by God. They have never been counted as anything but sinners.

So, Joel, I would simplify your statement above to the following: “God has punished Jesus for the sins of all people, and all who trust in Him are declared by God to be righteous, without any merit or worthiness on their part, because God has clothed them in the righteousness of Jesus by faith in Jesus.”

Paul himself shows this with a most beautiful statement in 1 Cor. 4:3–4: “I am not aware of any charge against me, but in this I am not justified.” He adds the reason for this: “Because I am not judged by a human court, nor do I judge myself.… It is the Lord who judges me.” And in Rom. 4:2: “If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.”

Thus, the use of the legal term “justification” refutes the ideas of the Epicureans. For it shows that the justification of the sinner is not some insignificant or perfunctory thing, but that the whole human being stands before the judgment of God and is examined both with respect to his nature as well as his works, and this according to the norm of the divine law. But because after the entrance of sin a human being in this life does not have true and perfect conformity with the law of God, nothing is found in this examination, whether in the person’s nature or in his works, that he can use to justify himself before God; rather the Law pronounces the sentence of condemnation, written by the very finger of God Himself.
Now God does not justify the ungodly by some kind of mistake, as a judge often makes a faulty decision by failure to examine the evidence sufficiently or by wrong thinking; nor through indifference, as if He did not care about the transgression of His law; nor through wickedness, as if He approved of our iniquity, connived with it, or were in collusion with the impious. A justification of this kind God Himself pronounces to be an abomination, Ex. 23:1; Is. 5:23; Prov. 17:15. God cannot retract the sentence of condemnation revealed in the Law, unless it is perfectly satisfied or fulfilled, Matt. 5:18.

Thus righteousness and satisfaction are required where God is to justify. Luther is correct when he says that God remits no sin unless the Law has been satisfied with regard to it. In the case of human judgment, to be sure, guilt is absolved either because of some preceding merit (for they are accounted worthy who deserve to be forgiven), or with respect to present righteousness and innocence either of the cause or of the person, or with respect to a satisfaction which the guilty party promises to make either to the judge or to his opponent in the case. But before God’s judgment man can put up nothing in his own defense in order that he might be justified, as many very clear Scripture passages declare.
Therefore, because God does not justify out of frivolity, unconcern, error, or iniquity, nor because He finds anything in man whereby he might be justified before God; and yet the just requirement of the Law must be fulfilled in those who are to be justified, Rom. 8:4, therefore a foreign righteousness must intervene—the kind of righteousness which not only with payment of penalties but also with perfect obedience to the divine law made satisfaction in such a way that it could be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. To this the terrified sinner, condemned by the voice of the Law, flees in true faith. This he desires, begs for, lays hold of; to this he submits himself; this he uses as his defense before the judgment seat of God and against the accusation of the Law. By regard for this and by its imputation he is justified, that is, he is absolved from the comprehensive sentence of condemnation and receives the promise of eternal life. This is what Paul is saying in Rom. 3:31 : “The doctrine of the righteousness of faith does not destroy the Law but upholds it.”

Chemnitz, M., & Preus, J. A. O. (1999). Loci theologici (electronic ed., p. 481). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Jim Pierce :
@Rev. Paul Rydecki #32 
Pr. Rydecki,
First, I answered your false claim which is “There is no Biblical record of this supposed forensic declaration upon unbelievers.” Both Chemnitz and Pieper give you the Scriptural basis for this “forensic declaration.”

Second, Pieper writes, “An essential prerequisite of justification by faith, or of subjective justification, is the objective justification (the reconciliation) of all mankind. If God had not in His heart justified the whole world because of Christ’s vicarious satisfaction, and if this justification were not offered in the Gospel, there could not be a justification by faith. ” So, how do you answer Pieper? Pieper provides you with the Scriptural basis for objective justification.

“However, the Gospel reveals and declares this mystery which was hidden for long ages, that since the human race could not make satisfaction to the Law and the Law could in no way be dissolved and destroyed, God made a transfer of the Law to another person (a matter which belongs to the article of justification) who should fulfill the Law both by satisfaction and obedience for the whole human race. And because that person is both God and man, therefore His satisfaction is the expiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), and hence Christ is the end of the Law for the salvation of everyone who believes (Rom. 10:4)” (Vol., I, Art. VII, p. 497)