Latest / Reformed Thinking / Brothers, Live and Preach Justification by Faith | John Piper

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Brothers, Live and Preach Justification by Faith | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We're here to really dig into
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Christian truths together. Glad you could join us for the
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deep dive. This is where we take your
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sources, pull out the core ideas, and help you get a solid
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handle on big concepts quickly. But you know, thoroughly.
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Our aim is always to equip you, help you think through these
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complex ideas with a bit more clarity.
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Today we're tackling a really foundational 1 justification by
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faith alone. It's shaped Christian thinking
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for, well, centuries, and the sources we're looking at give us
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a pretty focused view on its meaning, how it unfolded
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historically, and importantly, its impact.
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Absolutely, and the material we have is quite rich.
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It really gives a good look at the central doctrine.
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So today we'll be trying to shed some light on exactly how faith
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connects us to Christ's righteousness.
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What does that really involve? And you know, why has this
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specific teaching been such a bedrock for Christian life and
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the church overtime? We'll hear from some key figures
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to Paul, of course, Luther, Calvin, even folks like Bunyan
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and Jonathan Edwards later on. They all championed this truth.
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That really sets the scene well. So thinking about that mission,
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when we look at the sources, where did they suggest we start?
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I mean, what does justification actually mean?
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Right, The sources are pretty clear.
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Justification isn't about God making someone morally better
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inside, like a process. It's a declaration.
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Think of it like a verdict delivered by God in a moment.
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Not guilty, acquitted, accepted, forgiven, righteous.
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It's a legal standing, you're declared righteous.
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It's a finished act from God's side.
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And this distinction, well, it's crucial.
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It tells you right away it's something God does for you and
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not something you achieve. And the book of Romans,
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specifically Romans 4 verse 5, is highlighted as just, you
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know, pivotal for getting this. It reads to the one who does not
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work but trusts him, who justifies the ungodly.
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His faith is counted unto righteousness.
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OK, so it's a declaration, a verdict, not about effort but
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about trust. That definitely goes against the
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grain, doesn't it? That verse, Romans 4.5,
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something like it, carries a lot of weight.
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What are the key signals our research points out in that
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verse for understanding by faith alone?
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Yeah, Romans 4.5 you could argue.
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As the material suggests, it's maybe the single most important
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verse on this topic in the New Testament.
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It really contains 3 very clear signals that teach this
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doctrine. The first one is right there in
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the phrase to the one who does not work.
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That's pretty striking, isn't it?
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It describes the person being justified.
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They're not working in the sense of earning.
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It emphasizes that this justification isn't earned.
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Not through human effort, not through keeping religious rules,
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not through any merit of our own.
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It happens instantly, a divine verdict.
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It doesn't depend on your past performance or a list of good
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deeds. And this really sets
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justification apart from say, sanctification, ongoing process.
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Exactly. Sanctification is that lifelong
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journey of becoming more like Christ, where our efforts and
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works do play a part, enabled by grace, of course.
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But justification is different. It's a complete change in legal
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status receive the moment you stop trying to earn it and just
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trust it comes by faith alone, precisely because it's not based
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on our work. That clarifies the not working
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part a lot. It really separates God's
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verdict from our human striving. It means we're starting with
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grace. Pure gift, not earning.
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OK, so what's the 2nd signal in Romans 4.5 the sources bring
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out? The second one is, well, it's
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quite startling. It's the phrase but trusts him
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who justifies the ungodly. Now, our human sense of fairness
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might, you know, balk at that a bit.
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Yeah, it sounds almost. Wrong.
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It can seem counterintuitive, maybe even shocking, God
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declaring righteous those who are in themselves ungodly.
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But that's exactly what the verse says.
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And the reason this is possible, and this is the heart of the
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gospel really is what Romans 5.6 says Christ died for the
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ungodly. It's God extending his mercy,
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his right standing to people who are frankly not righteous on
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their own. And the research stresses faith
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itself isn't our righteousness. Faith is just the act of relying
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on God who does this amazing thing, declaring the ungodly
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righteous through Christ. And this happens right at the
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start, at the very beginning of faith, while someone is still
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objectively in a state of ungodliness, before good works
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even start showing up, which, you know, offers incredible
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hope. Anyone feeling trapped by their
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ungodliness, this is for them. It's like getting a pardon, a
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full pardon, before you've even started serving the sentence
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because someone else took it all.
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That's wow. So we have the one who does not
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work and trusts him, who justifies the ungodly.
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What's the final piece? The 3rd signal from this verse.
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The 3rd signal pulls it all together.
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It's the phrase his faith is counted as righteousness.
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Now, this phrase can be misunderstood, so it's really
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important to be clear. As our sources explain, it
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doesn't mean faith is a kind of work we do which God then kindly
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accepts instead of perfect righteousness.
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Nor does it mean faith itself is the righteousness God sees in
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us. The material is quite precise.
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It's is his faith, his faith alone, that is counted as
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righteousness. Not his works, not his love, not
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the fruit of his faith. Just His faith.
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And this distinction is critical.
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We need to dig into this a bit more because if we get this
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wrong, we might slide back into thinking our faith somehow earns
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God's favor. Right.
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So count it as righteousness. That's the phrase, yeah.
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But like you said, it's tricky. My first thought might be, OK,
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so my act of believing is my righteousness.
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What do the sources say about where people often trip up on
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that? That's a really common and
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understandable question, and the sources are very clear here.
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When it says faith is counted as righteousness, it's not saying
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faith is like a down payment that God graciously accepts as
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if it were the full amount. It's not a good deed.
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We perform a kind of mini righteousness that God just
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decides is good enough. If it were based on our works,
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even the work of having faith, then, as Paul argues elsewhere,
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it would be a wage, not a gift. And that would give us something
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to boast about, wouldn't it? Look how strong my faith is now.
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The core meaning, the sources emphasize, is that faith unites
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us to Christ. And because we're united to Him,
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God sees Christ's perfect righteousness as if it were
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ours. So it's about who Christ is for
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us, not what our faith achieves as some kind of meritorious act.
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Faith is more like the the connector.
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Exactly. Faith is the uniting principle.
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It connects us with Christ and all that God is for us in Him.
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So when God looks at you, if you're trusting Christ, he sees
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you in Christ, and therefore he sees Christ's righteousness as
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your righteousness. Faith connects you to God's
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righteousness, which is Christ's righteousness.
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It's like being given a perfectly clean criminal record,
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not because you suddenly became perfect, but because you're now
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legally linked to someone whose record is perfect.
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And this leads us to the doctrine of imputation, or
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sometimes it's called alien righteousness.
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Alien righteousness. Yeah, sounds a bit sci-fi, but
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it just means a righteousness that comes from outside of us.
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It's alien to us. It belongs to Christ.
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Imputation means crediting or reckoning Christ's perfect
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righteousness to our account. It's his obedience, his
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sacrifice credited to us. And the material points to
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several Bible passages that really flesh out.
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OK, so how do other passages help clarify this idea of
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crediting Christ's righteousness to us through faith?
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Well, Paul uses this idea quite a bit.
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Look at Romans 4 verse 6. David also speaks of the
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blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from
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works, and then verse 11 of the same chapter that righteousness
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might be counted to them. See, what's being counted or
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credited is righteousness itself.
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Faith is the means or the channel through which that
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righteousness comes to us. It's not the righteousness
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itself. It's like maybe a key that
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unlocks a vault full of treasure.
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The key isn't the treasure, but it gives you access to the
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treasure. Then you have Romans 3 verses
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2122. It talks about the righteousness
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of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
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Again, faith is the pipeline, the conduit that brings God's
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righteousness, which is Christ's righteousness, to us, not the
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source, but the means of reception.
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And then maybe the clearest passage on this exchange is
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Second Corinthians 5.21. That's the one about He made him
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who knew no sin. That's the one for our sake.
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He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might
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become the righteousness of God. This is often called double
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imputation. It's like a great exchange.
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Our sins, our guilt, legally transferred to Christ on the
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cross. His perfect righteousness, His
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lifelong obedience legally transferred to us.
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We become the righteousness of God, not intrinsically, but
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because we are in Him, clothed in His perfection.
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Wow, a complete legal swap our sin for his righteousness.
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That's quite stunning when you think about it.
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How does 1st Corinthians 1.30 fit in?
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Right, First Corinthians 1.30 says God made Christ Jesus our
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wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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And but the sources highlight this.
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It says Christ is our righteousness, not our faith.
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Faith simply unites us to Christ who is our righteousness.
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John Bunyan, who we'll talk about more later, found immense
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comfort in this verse. He saw that the man Christ Jesus
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is our righteousness before God. So Christ himself is our
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righteous standing because we are in Christ Jesus.
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But simply God looks at the believer and says, I see
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Christ's perfect record covering you.
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It's a status change totally independent of how good you feel
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or act on any given day. OK, these concepts can feel a
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bit abstract. The material uses an analogy to
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help picture it. The clean room story.
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Could you walk us through that? Sure, imagine, a father tells
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his son. Let's call him Barnabas.
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Clean your room before school. If it's spotless, you can go to
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that special game tonight. But Barnabas, well, he messes
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up, gets distracted, doesn't clean it, heads off to school.
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Later, the father finds the disaster zone.
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He's disappointed, but out of love for his son, he decides,
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you know what, I'll clean it myself.
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He makes it absolutely perfect. Barnabas comes home, sees the
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state of it earlier, feels terrible, knows he blew it.
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He goes straight to his dad, genuinely sorry, apologizes and
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says I know I can't go to the game.
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But the father, having already cleaned the room by his own
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grace, says Barnabas, I'm going to credit your apology and your
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humility as a clean room. The room is clean.
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You can go to the game. So the key is the apology itself
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didn't clean the room. It wasn't like saying sorry
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magically tidied everything up. Exactly.
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The father's statement doesn't mean the apology is the physical
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state of cleanliness. Barnabas didn't do the work.
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The Father did the work out of grace.
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The apology was the connection point.
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It was the act of trust and humility that linked Barnabas to
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the promise associated with the clean room.
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The clean room righteousness was provided by the Father God.
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It was credited to the Son, not because the apology was the
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cleaning, but because the apology faith connected Him to
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the Father's gracious provision. In the same way, when God
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credits your faith as righteousness, it means your
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faith connects you to Christ. Christ Himself becomes your
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righteousness in God's sight. It's His perfect record, this
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alien righteousness credited to you, securing your acceptance
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totally apart from your performance.
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This idea, this truth, standing with God through faith and a
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righteousness outside ourselves, it's not something Luther just
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invented, right? It has deep roots.
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Let's trace that a bit, starting way back with Abraham.
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His story seems really central for Paul.
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Oh, absolutely. Genesis 15, verse 6.
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It's simple but profound. Abraham believed God and it was
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counted to him as righteousness. Pauline's heavily on this in
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Romans 4. He quotes it directly in verse
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3. To build his whole case for
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justification by faith alone, he draws a straight line from
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Abraham to us New Testament believers.
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The principle hasn't changed. Abraham's faith counted as
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righteousness. Paul brings us up again in
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verses 9 and 22. It shows even millennia before
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Christ. Righteousness was a gift
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received by faith, not earned by works.
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And importantly, Abraham was declared righteous before the
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Law of Moses was even given. So it wasn't about keeping the
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law. That's a key point.
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Then it Fast forward to Paul's own ministry.
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Look at Acts 13 when he was in Antioch of Pasidia.
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The impact of him preaching this was pretty dramatic.
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Right. Tell us about that.
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What happened there? Paul goes into the synagogue and
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he lays it out boldly. He talks about forgiveness of
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sins and justification through Jesus, something the Law of
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Moses just couldn't provide. The law could point out saying
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yes, give rituals, but it couldn't actually make someone
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righteous or grant full forgiveness.
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Paul announces that through Jesus, everyone who believes is
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justified from everything from which you could not be justified
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by the law of Moses. And the reaction, It was
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immediate. People were begging them, please
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come back next Sabbath and tell us more about this.
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And the next week, the sources say nearly the whole city turned
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up to hear the word of God. Many Jews, many God fearing
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Gentiles who were already seeking, they started following
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Paul and Barnabas. It shows how liberating this
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message was for people trying to live under the law's demands.
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It met a deep need for real acceptance.
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Moving on from the apostles, how did this idea fair in the
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centuries that followed? Sometimes it feels like it got a
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bit obscured. What about someone like
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Augustine in the 4th and 5th centuries?
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Augustine is complex. His way of talking about
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justification might not sound exactly like Luther or Calvin
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later on. It wasn't maybe as
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systematically clear, but the material we've looked at
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suggests probably not true that I got some completely missed or
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didn't preach this doctrine. He wrestled deeply with grace.
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Faith works. The real may be confusion about
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alien righteousness, where the lines blurred between being
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declared righteous and becoming righteous.
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That seems to have become more pronounced after Augustine.
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So while the precise formulation evolved, the sources suggest
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this core idea of God's unearned favor through Christ wasn't
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totally lost, even if it wasn't always front and center or
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perfectly articulated. OK, so there's continuity even
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with nuances. What about further into the
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Middle Ages? Centuries after, I guess, And we
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get Anselm. What does the sources say about
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him? Anselm, living around 10:33 to
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11:00 O 9, is presented as likely holding to justification
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by faith alone, at least implicitly.
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Our sources quote from his counsel for the dying, which is
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pretty revealing. He tells the dying person to put
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their whole trust only in Christ's death, commit entirely
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to it, cover themselves wholly with Christ's death.
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Think about that era. People facing death, often
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terrified, being told to rely on their good deeds, sacraments,
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penance lot. Of anxiety.
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Exactly. And Ansom offers this radically
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different advice. He tells them to basically say
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to God, Lord, I'm putting the death of Jesus Christ between
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your judgement and me. That's my only plea.
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If God says you're a Sinner, My responses Lord, I place Christ's
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death between my sins and you. If God shows his wrath, Lord, I
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put Christ's death between your wrath and me.
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This direct soul reliance on Christ's work bypassing personal
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merit, suggests, as the sources say, the doctrine was
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implicitly, if not explicitly, held by many pious souls, even
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during times often seen as obscuring grace.
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It was like an underground stream.
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That image of interposing Christ's death is powerful, and
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it definitely sounds like a precursor to what happened in
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the Reformation when this truth just burst into the open.
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Martin Luther's discovery around 1518.
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Such a watershed moment. Oh, absolutely.
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It was deeply personal, theological, revolutionary for
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him. Before this, Luther was honest.
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He said he hated that word righteousness of God because the
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way it was taught then he understood it as God's act of
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righteousness, the standard by which God judges and punishes
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sinners. And Luther, even though he was
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living this outwardly righteous life as a monk, felt like an
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utter Sinner inside with a extremely disturbed conscience.
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Trying so hard but feeling he failed.
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Exactly. He couldn't believe his own
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efforts, his penance, could ever satisfy God, he admitted.
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I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punished his
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sinners. He felt God was just adding
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insult to injury, demanding righteousness from people
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already crushed by sin. He described himself as raging
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against God. That sounds like intense
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spiritual torment. So what broke through?
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How did he get from that anger and despair to peace?
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It came through sheer persistence, wrestling with
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Paul's letter to the Romans, specifically Romans one verse
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17. In it the righteousness of God
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is revealed as it is written, He who through faith is righteous
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shall live. He fixated on this.
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What did Paul mean by the righteousness of God?
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Day and night he meditated on it, and then by what he called
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the mercy of God, it dawned on him.
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He realized the righteousness of God here wasn't primarily God's
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demanding justice, but God's gift of righteousness, the
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righteousness by which the righteous person lives received
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by faith. It was, as he put it, the
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passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by
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faith. This insight just completely
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flipped everything for him. He said here I felt that I was
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altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through
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open gates. He called it his sweetest word,
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the gate to paradise. It wasn't just theology
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changing. It was his whole being, his view
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of Scripture, his relationship with God.
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He went from hating that word to loving it because he saw it as
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God's gift, not just his demand. Altogether born again.
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You can almost feel the relief in those words.
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It makes you think how many others have felt that same
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release through this truth? What about John Calvin?
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He was right there with Lutheran championing this.
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How did he articulate it? Calvin absolutely cherish this
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truth. He saw it as the central point,
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the 1st and keenest subject of controversy with Rome.
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He knew everything else hinged on it.
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He put it this way, since we're all lost sinners before God,
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Christ is our only righteousness.
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And he explained how Christ's obedience wiped out our
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failures. His sacrifice appease God's
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anger. His blood washed our stains, His
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crossbore our curse. His death paid our debt, so
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we're reconciled to God by no merit of his own, by no value of
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works, but by gratuitous mercy, pure unearned favor.
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When we grab hold of this by faith, this we term the
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righteousness of faith. Calvin brought such clarity and
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structure to it, really helping embed it and Reformed thought.
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Now, a really common pushback then and now is this idea of
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loose living. If our works don't save us, why
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bother being good? How did Calvin handle that
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practical concern? That's a crucial question, and
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Calvin addressed it directly. He said, yes, justification is
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by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone.
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I use a great analogy, the sun. You can talk about the sun's
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heat and the sun's light separately, but you never
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actually find one without the other.
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They're constantly conjoined. In the same way.
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True living faith, the kind that justifies, is never solitary.
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It always inevitably produces regeneration, changed heart, new
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desires, and therefore good works will follow.
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He emphasized. When we talk about faith alone,
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we don't mean a dead faith, which worketh not by love.
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That kind of faith doesn't justify anyone.
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Real faith naturally expresses itself in love and obedience.
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But, and this is key, those works are the fruit, the
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evidence of justification, not the basis or the cause of it.
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So works matter, but they flow from our secure standing with
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God. They don't create it.
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That distinction between basis and fruit seems vital.
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The liberating power of this wasn't just for the reformers.
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It continued to change lives like John Bunyan, the author of
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Pilgrims Progress. Oh Bunyan story is powerful.
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He lived and breathed this truth because it literally rescued him
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from, as he described it, hopelessness and despairing.
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When he was young man, he talked about how he was trying so hard,
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ignorant of Jesus Christ, and going about to establish his own
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righteousness, trying to earn God's favor on his own steam,
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and it just tormented him. Then one day the sentence just
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landed on his soul. My righteousness is in heaven.
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And he said he saw with his soul's eyes Jesus Christ at
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God's right hand. There was my righteousness.
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Not inside himself. Exactly.
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His righteousness wasn't his feelings, his good deeds, his
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repentance, or even his faith itself.
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It was Jesus Christ himself, objectively real in heaven at
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God's right hand. This meant his standing with God
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didn't depend on his good frame of heart one day or his bad
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frame the next. It was secure in Christ.
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The effect? He said His chains fall off my
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legs. Indeed, he felt loosed from my
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afflictions, and Irons went home rejoicing for the grace and love
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of God. And he found huge support for
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this in first Corinthians 1.30. Christ is our righteousness.
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Bunion's experience just resonates with anyone exhausted
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from trying to be good enough. And jumping forward again, this
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same truth was central to the spiritual energy of the Great
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Awakening. In the 17 hundreds, Jonathan
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Edwards saw it as foundational. Yes, Edwards, a key figure in
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that American revival, was very clear.
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He said the preaching of justification by faith alone
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grounded the strength of the movement of God.
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He observed what was happening his own town, Northampton, and
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saw the start of that revival as a remarkable testimony of God's
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approbation, God's approval of this specific doctrine.
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Edwards noted that his sermons focusing on this truth were
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remarkably blessed. People weren't just
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understanding it intellectually, it was engaging their hearts,
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making them earnestly seek this justification in Christ.
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He faced pushback, people criticizing him for defending it
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so strongly. But he said, Despite that, God's
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work wonderfully break forth amongst us, and souls began to
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flock to Christ as the Savior in whose righteousness alone they
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hoped to be justified. For Edwards, this doctrine
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wasn't just one teaching among many.
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It was the engine driving the whole movement from beginning to
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end. It offered people a clear path
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to peace with God through grace. So we've traced this thread from
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Abraham through Paul, Augustine, Anselm, the Reformers, Bunyan
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Edwards, this powerful idea echoing down the ages.
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What does it all boil down to for us today, for the church as
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a whole, and for you listening right now?
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For the church, the sources consistently paint this doctrine
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as absolutely vital. It's what creates, reforms, and
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revives the church. Luther didn't mince words.
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He called it the head and the cornerstone.
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He said it alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves and
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defends the Church of God, and without it the Church of God
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cannot exist for one hour. That's incredibly strong
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language. It is.
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It shows how central he believed it was.
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Get this wrong and the whole structure weakens.
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Calvin said something similar. If you remove the knowledge of
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justification by faith alone, the glory of Christ is
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extinguished, religion abolished, the church destroyed,
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and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown.
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These aren't small claims. They believe the health, the
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integrity, even the existence of the church depends on getting
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this right and proclaiming it Clearly.
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A church that gets this will be marked by grace and humility,
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pointing people solely to Christ.
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And drilling down to the personal level for us as
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individuals, what are the practical takeaways from this
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truth for daily life? On the individual level, this
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truth is life changing. It rescues hopeless sinners and
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emboldens imperfect Saints. It meets our deepest needs.
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If you feel like a hopeless Sinner, crushed by guilt, never
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measuring up, this doctrine says God justifies the ungodly simply
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through faith in Christ. You don't fix yourself first.
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You come as you are, and his perfection is counted as yours.
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That brings, as Philippians says, a peace with God that
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passes all understanding, a deep security, knowing your standing
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isn't based on your shaky performance.
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This makes you a secure person. You're freed from that endless
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treadmill of seeking approval for money, status, success, even
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from trying to be religious enough or getting revenge for
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hurt. Because your value is already
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settled. Precisely.
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Your righteousness is Christ's. It's perfect and unchanging.
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So your identity isn't tied to circumstances or what people
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think. And that security breeds genuine
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freedom. Freedom to love God out of
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gratitude, not fear. Freedom to serve others
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generously, not to score points, but because you're already full.
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It equips you, as Hebrew says, to lay down your life in the
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cause of Christ for the joy that is set before you, because your
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ultimate future is secure. And it's all a free gift.
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Christ, live the life we couldn't, died the death we
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deserved, to give us a righteousness we didn't earn.
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You can't buy it, can't contribute to it.
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It's just received by faith. This deep dive really highlights
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how liberating and strengthening this truth of justification by
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faith alone is. As you think about all this,
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maybe consider how this understanding shapes your own
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view of God's grace and where you stand before Him.
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Yeah, the sources show how this one idea turned lives upside
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down, Luther Bunion, and fueled massive spiritual movements.
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So maybe reflect on this. How might this stunning truth
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that God justifies the ungodly simply by faith, crediting
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Christ's perfect righteousness to us?
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How might that reshape your daily outlook?
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How could it give you a more solid footing for your own walk
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with God? It really is a truth to live and
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breathe it for the security that ultimately can't be shaken
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because it rests entirely on Christ, not on us.