We are continuing to look at what sola fide means in terms of justification. There are many ideas about the use of faith in justification, and we are looking at those. We have been looking at John Owen’s thoughts on five ways that people say faith is used. The first (used as an instrument) is considered to be the biblical one by the Reformed and evangelical people at least since the Reformation. William Cunningham, speaking of faith as an instrument, puts it this way: “as justifying simply as it is the appointed means by or through which men individually receive or lay hold of the righteousness of Christ,–was that which was taken by all the Reformers, and which has been ever since held by almost all the Protestants who have honestly and cordially embraced the theology of the Reformation.”
In other words, men who were considered to be Reformed in history did not teach that just because a person ascribes to justification by faith alone did not mean that they believed the historical and biblical teaching of justification by faith alone. The little word “by” teaches us that it is vital to know the truth of how faith is to be used in justification in order to protect justification by grace alone. Either the word “by” is used to mean that faith is the instrument in justification by grace alone through faith alone or it means something else. Again, this is not just some theological game of semantics, playing with words, or splitting hairs, this gets at the very essential part of the Gospel itself. We must always remember that there is only one Gospel.
What does this mean? It means that to believe in justification by faith alone as the older writers do is to defend faith as an instrument that God uses in justifying the sinner. It also shows the great danger of Arminians and the Reformed alike who do not understand, teach, or evangelize with the historical view of faith in mind. One can be vociferously Reformed in many ways and yet miss this point almost entirely. Yet it is utterly vital to the biblical teaching of grace alone and Christ alone. If justification is the hinge by which the Church stands or falls, then the use of faith as an instrument rather than the other views is the hinge on which the hinge itself turns.
Francis Turretin (1623-1687) was a giant in his day and his writings are still among the best available on the theology of Scripture. In his Sixteenth Topic (Justification) and the seventh question of that Topic he writes this: “Does faith justify us properly and by itself or only relatively and instrumentally?” He takes his stand that it is instrumentally and denies that faith justifies us by itself in opposition to the Socinians, Remonstrants (Arminians), and the Romanists.
However, it is not controverted whether faith justifies-for Scripture so clearly asserts this that no one dares to deny it. Rather we inquire regarding the manner in which it justifies, in describing which there is an amazing discrepancy of opinions… All our opponents agree in this-that faith justifies properly and by itself and so is our very righteousness-but with some differences. For the Socinians maintain that faith of the act of believing is the cause of our justification so that there is no other immediate and formal righteousness by which we are just before God than our faith; also justification is a universal affection of faith-“Not because it is considered such by the gracious acceptation of God; by which it pleased him to reckon faith for perfect righteousness, or for perfect righteousness, or for a perfect fulfillment of the law, no otherwise than formally under the legal covenant, the perfect obedience of the law was that universal righteousness upon which life depended” (as Socinus, De Iesu Christo Servatore [1594] frequently expresses it… The Remonstrants [Arminians] agreed with them on this point in their Confession, c. 21+ (cf. The Confession or Declaration of the…Remonstrants 18* [1676], p. 211).
The widespread cry in our day is that as long as people believe in justification by faith they are fine. There are still some who will stand for justification by faith alone. But even then the field is thinned down even more when we try to wrestle with the use of faith in justification. As Turretin pointed out, all the positions hold to justification by faith. That is beyond any real controversy with those who have any respect for Scripture at all. But despite the difficult language, notice how he sets out the difference in how people use faith. These positions are not just of words, they are conceptually an infinite distance apart. The Gospel in our day is maligned by many in the Reformed camp as well because they don’t struggle with the instrumental use of faith. They tell people to believe as if that is an intellectual act of believing some facts. It is not. It is a heart that has turned from trust and hope in its own ability to believe or do anything else to be saved and receive Christ Himself by grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment