The guardians of ‘free-will’ have exemplified the saying: ‘out of the frying-pan, into the fire.’ In their zeal to disagree with the Pelagians they start denying condign merit, and by the very form of their denial they set it up more firmly! By word and pen they deny it, but really, in their hearts, they establish it, and are worse than the Pelagians upon two counts. In the first place, the Pelagians confess and assert condign merit straightforwardly, candidly and honestly, calling a spade a spade and teaching what they really hold. But our friends here, who hold and teach the same view, try to fool us with lying words and false appearances, giving out that they disagree with the Pelagians, when there is nothing that they are further from doing! ‘If you regard our pretences, we appear as the Pelagians’ bitterest foes; but if you regard the facts and our hearts, we are Pelagians double-dyed.’ (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
‘Justification by faith only’ is a truth that needs interpretation. The principle of sola fide is not rightly understood till it is seen as anchored in the broader principle of sola gratia. (“Historical and Theological Introduction” to Bondage of the Will)
It is vital to understand that Luther was ready to die for the Gospel of justification by faith alone, but only as it was interpreted in the light of sovereign grace and the utter helplessness and inability of sinners in their sin. He did not see these doctrines as just dogmas to give a mental assent to, but as teachings that the souls must come to an inward conviction of. Not only that but the soul that wants salvation must reach the point of losing all hope in self and of anything that came from self. It is not just an agreement with the doctrine of total helplessness and inability, but it is the soul’s inward realization of that and losing all hope in self so that the teaching describes the soul and the reality that the soul has. The soul realizes that it has no ability and no hope in itself and so is utterly helpless in its sin. The only hope that the soul can possibly have, therefore, is in the sovereign grace of God. The soul must come to the point of a deep realization that God can save that soul if He is pleased to do so by His grace of He may not as He pleases.
Luther was crystal clear that the soul must reach a point of humiliation where it looses all hope in itself and its own ‘free-will’ in order for it to be ready to be saved. Until a soul is utterly emptied of all hope in self it will not look to grace alone for salvation. It will look to itself for some merit or some work that it can do which for most theologies today that would include a work of faith. While they may not call the act of faith a work that is precisely what it is. As long as sinners are not taught and driven away from all hope in themselves and all ability to come up with faith themselves, they will look to themselves for a reason or cause to be saved rather than grace alone. It is far easier to teach the words that a sinner is justified by faith alone and then encourage a sinner to make an act of faith or to say a prayer than it is to teach sinners the correct interpretation of justification by faith alone. Perhaps this is one reason why the biblical teaching of justification is largely unknown in America today.
One of the reasons that the correct interpretation of justification by faith alone is so lost in the modern day is because of so many teachers of Pelagianism in Reformed dress. A person can teach justification by faith alone with a fair amount of orthodoxy and yet miss the proper context and thus its proper interpretation. One thing that has happened in our day with the teaching of justification by faith alone is that the focus is on faith rather than grace. It is also true that the doctrine of man’s depravity can be taught apart from what it really means and so it is another danger. It is perfectly orthodox to teach that human beings are sinners and are in bondage to sin, but that is still leaving out some important points. Until sinners are taught and brought to a deep realization of the reality of their utter helplessness and inability in sin they will not see the utter need of grace and the utter need for God to give them faith. It will be just another doctrine that they need to have in their head in order to be consistent.
So the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone has been virtually lost in our day because of a hidden (to the teachers themselves and others) Pelagianism. It is not that a clear and open Pelagianism has come into the external church and has been accepted, but instead it came in the door calling itself Arminianism which has the appearance of more orthodoxy. Because of its appearance of more orthodoxy, it was accepted by many as a form of Christianity. As it went downhill and became more Pelagian, the Reformed people began to accept more deviations in order to be to overly exclusive and to keep their positions of influence in the denominations. So in reality Pelagianism has taken over though it has done so under different names. Reformed teaching is very deadly, even more deadly than open Pelagianism, when it does not interpret justification by faith alone with the background of man’s utter helplessness and inability in sin and in light of the bigger principle of sovereign grace. Until a few begin to see this and fall on their faces in utter helplessness before God, we will continue to be in “the Pelagian Captivity of the Church” in our day.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment