Evaluating
the New Perspective on Paul (14)
The Reformational Answer
to the Problem
Dr. Cornelis P. Venema
In order to address these questions, we will begin with a summary of the traditional reformational answer to them. During the course of the debates of the sixteenth century on the doctrine of justification, the Reformers, who insisted that the believer's justification is based wholly upon the righteousness of Christ received by faith alone, were compelled to consider how this is compatible with a final judgment according to works. Since the Roman Catholic objections to the Reformers' understanding of justification often included an appeal to the Scriptural teaching of a final judgment according to works, the subject of justification and the final judgment was an unavoidable feature of their teaching.
Rather
than attempt to sort out the variety of answers provided to this question
during the sixteenth century, we will take the handling of it in the Protestant
confessions to be representative. In these confessions, several themes are
present.
Fundamental
to the reformational view was the claim that justification was a judicial act
of God that irre vocably and definitively declares that believers
are right with God and
heirs
of eternal life. Justification is not,
like sanctification, a process that occurs over time as believers are renewed
and conformed to Christ by the working of His Spirit. Justification is a declarative act of God in which He pronounces
the status of believers to be one of acceptance and favor with Himself. This
free justification or acceptance with God is wholly based upon the work of
Christ, whose righteous- ness is the sufficient and the only basis for God's
justifying verdict.
When
believers come to enjoy the benefit of Christ's saving work through faith,
their justification declares, here and now, nothing less than the
favorable verdict that God will publicly confirm at the time of the final
judgment. Free justification declares that all the believer's sins, past,
present and future, are for- given and covered by the perfect righteousness of
Jesus Christ, whose life of obedience and sacrificial death constitute their
righteousness before God. In this respect, justification anticipates the
favorable verdict that will be openly declared at the final judgment. When
believers are joined to Christ through faith, they become beneficiaries of the
verdict that God declared already in the resurrection of Christ from the dead
(Romans 4:25).
To
state the matter conversely, if the final judgment were to undo or reverse the
verdict already pronounced in the believer's justification, the confidence of
believers that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus" would be compromised (Rom. 8: 1). To speak of a "future"
or final justification that is partly based upon works jeopardizes the
believer's assurance of full and irrevocable justification.
Nowhere
in the confessions of the Reformation is this more emphatically stated than in
the Westminster Confession of Faith. In Chapter 7, "Of
Justification," it is affirmed that "God doth continue to forgive the
sins of those that are justified; and, although they can never fall from the
state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God's
fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto
them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew
their faith and repentance" (section 5, emphasis mine).
The
language of this Confession unmistakably declares that justification is a
once-for-all judicial act, which secures the believer's right standing with God
in a manner that is irrevocable. No
room is left by this Confession for the idea of a future justification that
completes what would otherwise be an unfinished reality.
In
the Heidelberg Catechism, a similar point is made, though in the express
context of its treatment of the final judgment. When the question is asked,
"What comfort is it to you that Christ shall come to judge the living
and the dead?," the answer strongly insists that this judgment occurs
within the framework of a solid confidence that Christ's obedience and
sacrifice have already secured, permanently and irrevocably, the
believer's freedom from the curse of the law: "That in all my sorrows and
persecutions, with uplifted I head I look for the very same Person who before
has offered Himself for my sake to the tribunal of s God, and has removed all
curse from me, to come as Judge from heaven" (Q. & A. 52). According
to this confession, the final judgment does not represent a fearful prospect of
loss for believers who place their trust in Christ, since Christ has secured
once-for-all their freedom from the curse of the law and accomplished for them
all that is necessary to secure their right standing with God (Romans 8:31-39;
Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13).
According
to the Reformation confessions, since this definitive and irrevocable
declaration of the believer's standing with God is based solely upon the
righteous- ness of Christ, which is received by faith alone, the works that playa
role in the context of the final judgment may not be regarded as the ultimate
basis or ground for the favorable verdict and acquittal that this judgment
publicly declares. The confessions clearly and repeatedly assert that the only
righteousness that is the ground for the justifying verdict of God is the
righteousness revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-24; 5:1,2,16;
Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 3:9; II Corinthians 5:21).
Since
believers are justified by faith "apart from works," the final
judgment's contemplation of the works of believers may not be construed as a
justification by works, even though such works are the necessary and
inevitable fruits of a true and living faith. Though it is acknowledged that
the final judgment includes a public confirmation of the believer's
present justification, this judgment is not described as a kind of future or
final justification that completes an otherwise unfinished process. To regard
the final judgment as a final justification would inevitably compel the view
that justification, at least in its ultimate expression, is not a free gift of
God's grace that is granted for the sake of Christ's righteousness alone.
If
the confessions of the Reformation clearly speak of justification as a
once-for-act of God, which does not require nor comport with a future or final
justification according to works, this still leaves open the question regarding
the way they handle the final judgment and the obvious role that works play in
this judgment. How, then, do the confessions treat the subject of the role of
good works in the context of the final judgment?
To
answer this question, it is significant to observe that the confessions of the
Reformation freely affirm the reality of a final judgment according to works.
They also openly acknowledge that the good works of believers are genuine works
that please God and are accordingly rewarded by Him. However, the reformational
confessions are careful to note that the good works that God rewards in the
context of the final judgment have at least three important characteristics.
First,
they are not the kinds of works that could ever justly deserve the verdict that
free justification pronounces. Such works could never be "the whole or
part of our righteousness before God," according to the Heidelberg
Catechism, "[b]ecause the righteousness which can stand before the
tribunal of God must be absolutely perfect and wholly conformable to the divine
law, while even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with
sin" (Q. & A. 62; cf. Romans 3:9,20; 10:5; 7:23; Galatians 3:10; 5:3;
Deuteronomy 27:6; Leviticus 18:5).
Second,
the good works of believers are themselves the fruits of God's sanctifying
grace at work in the hearts and lives of his people. They are those good works
that God prepared beforehand for believers to walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
And
third, the works of believers are only "good" in so far as they
proceed from faith, the same faith that finds no other basis for acceptance with
God than that provided by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They are the
inescapable fruits of a true and living faith, though faith alone "before
we do good works" is the exclusive instrument whereby believers receive
the free gift of justification (Matthew 7:18; John 15:5; James 2: 18,22). The
principal motive that is operative in the Christian life is that of gratitude
and devotion borne out of the awareness of God's super-abounding grace in
Christ (Romans 12:1). To suggest that the good works of believers constitute
the basis or reason for their final acceptance and favor with God would be to
transpose them into an unbiblical key.
Were believers motivated to obey God by the prospect of the loss of
their justification and inheritance in the covenant, their works would be
performed in "bad faith," that is, out of an ungrateful denial of the
perfection of Christ's work on their behalf.
When God rewards the works of faith, therefore, He rewards those works
that He produces by His own Spirit in the lives of believers.
Since
the genuine good works of believers, which play an important role in the final
judgment, are not the kind of works that could justify anyone, the confessions
also insist that their reward, though genuine, is not the gift of salvation itself
or the title to eternal life (1 Corinthians 3: 14-15). Salvation is wholly a
gift of God's grace in Christ (Romans 6: 13) and therefore it cannot be as a
reward for good works that we are saved. The respective rewards and praise that
God grants to the good works of believers are a genuine and undeniable feature
of the final judgment. However, the praise of the believer's good works in the
context of the final judgment is not to be understood as though they were the
basis for the believer's salvation.
The
believer's acceptance with God and right to eternal life always, whether in
this life and in the setting of the final judgment, remain based upon the
gracious work of Christ. Were the believer's acceptance with God or inheritance
of eternal life to depend upon who they are or what they have done, the
assurance of free justification would be lost and works would become the way
whereby believers receive their salvation, which would be a denial of
justification by the instrumentality of faith alone.
Acceptable
Good Works
Among
the more important features of the confessions' treatment of a final judgment
according to works is their insistence that the acceptance and reward by God of
the good works of believers is by grace and not merit. When God rewards
the works of believers, He does not reward them in terms of their inherent
value, as though, strictly speaking, there would be a sense in which they
"deserve" this reward. Since the works of believers are always
imperfect and stained with sin, and since these works are themselves the fruits
of Christ's Spirit at work in them, it is not possible to speak of their reward
as a reward that is properly merited. There is no sense in which the reward God
grants for such works could be said to be "due" believers, as though
this reward were like a wage that is due a worker who has satisfactorily
fulfilled all his duties (cf. Luke 17:10; Romans 4:4). In- deed, however
genuine and praiseworthy the works performed by believers, their acceptance and
reward from God depends wholly upon a prior acceptance of their persons for
the sake of the righteousness of Christ.
In
this connection, the confessions introduce a distinction, which is also found
in the writings of John Calvin and other Reformed theologians of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, between the justification of the believer's person and
the justification of the believer's works. Though present in several of
the confessions, nowhere is this distinction more clearly stated than in the
Westminster Confession of Faith: "Notwithstanding, the persons of
believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in
him; not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight; but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept
and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and
imperfections" (Chap. 16, section 6).
The
point of this distinction is to emphasize that whatever pleasure God takes in
the otherwise imperfect works of His children, this pleasure wholly depends
upon and is undergirded by His prior pleasure in their persons, which is on
account of the righteousness of Christ alone. By speaking of an acceptance or
justification of the works of believers, the Confession clearly does not mean
to speak of something that "completes" or complements the believer's
prior justification by faith alone. The acceptance of the work of believers is
subordinated to, and only possible upon the basis of, a previous saving
justification of the persons of believers. When believers come before God with
their works, they come as those who are united to Christ and, in union with
him, clothed with his perfect righteousness. The acceptance of their works,
accordingly, is altogether gracious and unmerited. Apart from the saving
acceptance of their persons in Christ, the works of believers could not
possibly be pleasing to God, since, as the Confession rightly describes them,
they are always "accompanied with many weaknesses or imperfections."
The acceptance of the works of believers is not a second part or chapter in the
ongoing process of the believer's justification. Rather, it is a fruit and
consequence that follows from a more basic act, namely, the free justification
of believers themselves on account of work of Christ on their behalf.
Within
the context of these emphases, the confessions affirm that believers will not
be acquitted in the final judgment, or receive the confirmation of their free
justification and praise for their good works, unless their lives give evidence
of the genuineness of their faith. God will not declare the final acquittal of
professed believers whose lives belie or deny their profession. In this
respect, it is permissible to say that believers will only be vindicated in the
final judgment within the context of an acknowledgment of their good works,
which prove their genuineness of their faith. The good works that
true faith produces are a necessary part of what be- longs to the salvation of
any believer (a genuine conditio sine qua non). But they are not the
cause or reason for the salvation of any believer. In other words, believers will only be saved when they embrace
the gospel with the kind of faith that necessarily produces good works. However,
this certainly does not mean that we should view the final judgment as a kind
of final chapter in the believer's justification, which would determine on the
basis of works whether believers are worthy of eternal life.
According
to the confessions, therefore, the final judgment and acquittal of believers is
"according to" but not, strictly speaking, "on account
of' their good works. Because true faith is "ever accompanied with
all other saving graces" (Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 11,
section 2), including good works, the final judgment will openly confirm the
salvation of those in whom the Spirit of Christ has worked. The final judgment
will show that the faith that alone justifies is not alone in those who
genuinely believe in Christ. None of those
whom God justifies freely for the sake of Christ are left in the condition in
which they were found. Rather, the
Spirit of Christ, who is the Spirit of sanctification, always and
simultaneously renews believers in new obedience to the law of God. The purpose
of the final judgment, accordingly, is to vindicate God's righteousness in
declaring his justified and sanctified people to be the proper recipients of
their open acquittal and praise. By contrast, the judgment of the unbelieving
and impenitent will publicly declare that they remain in their sins and are
deservedly recipients of condemnation and death.
Conclusion
The classic treatment of the subject of justification and a final judgment according to works in the Reformation confessions, includes several interrelated themes. All believers, whose free justification is based upon the righteousness of Christ alone received through faith alone, will be judged at the time of Christ's coming. Because justification is a definitive and irrevocable declaration of the believer's acceptance with God and title to eternal life, this final judgment, though a judgment according to works, is not under- stood to be a final phase or step in a process of justification that is still unfinished. Rather, it is a judgment that will publicly declare and confirm what is already true, namely, that Christ has removed every accusation against his people and any basis for their remaining under the curse of God. Furthermore, be- cause the same faith that receives the gift of Christ's righteousness for justification is also, by the working of the Spirit of Christ, a faith that proves its genuineness by its fruits, the final judgment will declare the propriety of God's judgment in favor of believers by recognizing and rewarding the works of believers. The works of believers will not be the reason or basis for God's favor- able verdict and acquittal of believers in the final judgment. Nor will the reward of these works be the gift of salvation or eternal life. The role of good works in the final judgment will be to offer the occasion for God to reward graciously, and not according to merit, those good works of believers that are the fruits of his gracious working in them. Believers will be judged "according to" their works, but they will not be saved "on the basis" or by reason of their works. Though we may properly say that believers will only be acquitted in the final judgment when their profession is confirmed by their good works, we may not say that this acquittal is based upon their good works.
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Dr.
Cornelis P. Venema is the President of Mid-America Reformed Seminary where he
also teaches Doctrinal Studies. Dr. Venema is a contributing editor to The
Outlook.
This
article, along with the articles in this series are posted with the gracious
permission of Dr. Venema and The Outlook, edited by Rev. Wybren Oord.