How One is Justified before God, and of Good Works according to Martin Luther

THE THIRD PART OF THE SMALCALD ARTICLES
Article XIII: How One is Justified before God,
and of Good Works What I have hitherto and constantly taught concerning this I know not how to change in the least, namely, that by faith, as St. Peter says, we acquire a new and clean heart, and God will and does account us entirely righteous and holy for the sake of Christ, our Mediator. And although sin in the flesh has not yet been altogether removed or become dead, yet He will not punish or remember it. And such faith, renewal, and forgiveness of sins is followed by good works. And what there is still sinful or imperfect also in them shall not be accounted as sin or defect, even [and that, too] for Christ's sake; but the entire man, both as to his person and his works, is to be called and to be righteous and holy from pure grace and mercy, shed upon us [unfolded] and spread over us in Christ. Therefore we cannot boast of many merits and works, if they are viewed apart from grace and mercy, but as it is written, 1 Cor. 1, 31: He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, namely, that he has a gracious God. For thus all is well. We say, besides, that if good works do not follow, faith is false and not true.

Commenting on Phil 2:12-13 Dr Gordon HClark writes:

"Now, then, what does the verse say? Well, of course, it says that we should work out our own salvation. Let us be quite clear on the fact that the Bible does not teach SALVATION by faith alone. The Bible teaches JUSTIFICATION by faith alone. Justification then necessarily is followed by a process of sanctification, and this consists of works which we do. It consists of external actions initiated by internal volitions. We must therefore work out our own salvation; and this, in fear and trembling because we must depend on God. What then does God do in our process of sanctification? The verse says, God works in us. .." BIBLICAL PREDESTINATION by Dr Gordon H Clark pg 120

"Not only do destructive critics make such mistakes; many sincere and devout worshippers are also confused. They often say that we are saved by faith alone. This of course is false. We are justified by faith alone; but we are regenerated without any previous faith or works; we are sanctified by faith and works; and we shall be glorified by neither. A closer study of Scripture would help us avoid confusion relative to the several distinct phases in an all-inclusive salvation." THE PASTORAL EPISTLES by Dr Gordon H Clark
pg 133

"Two more ideas need a minimum of explanation before the exposition of verse 5 is complete. The first of these represents salvation as something future. Often salvation is spoken of as complete: We have been saved, it happened once for all, and that is the end of it. Now while we have been saved once for all, it is not true that that is the end of it. If Christians would be more particular in their use of words, they would escape many unnecessary misunderstandings. Salvation is a very broad term, and its phases are so diverse that what is true of one phase is not true of another. No doubt it is necessary on occasion to speak of salvation in its entirety, but it is more frequently necessary to focus attention on some part. For this reason the Christian should-should have learned in Sunday School-the correct definitions of regeneration, justification, repentance, sanctification, and glorification. These are all parts of salvation, but not all have happened once for all. Regeneration is an instantaneous, subjective, moral change; justification is an instantaneous, objective, forensic change. Repentance and sanctification are subjective but not instantaneous. The notion that one has been born again rather implies that it is not all over with, but that a new life should follow. And the completion is still in the future, ready, as Peter says, to be revealed at the last time...." NEW HEAVENS, NEW EARTH A COMMENTARY ON FIRST AND SECOND PETER page 21 by Dr Gordon H Clark

And also watch our video THE RELATION BETWEEN FAITH AND WORKS according to Dr Gordon H Clark for further details.

Category:

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Tags:

• Martin Luther
• Smalcald Articles
• Lutheranism
• Reformation
• Protestantism
• theology
• Bible
• faith and good works
• the Holy Trinity
• Father
• Son
• Holy spirit
• polemics
• dogma
• rhetoric
• Scriptures
• antinomianism

[pegcage]

The problem is no man can judge another's works in this sense: When God gives you a new heart, he changes your tendencies to live the wrong way and turns you to living more godly. That righteousness can at first be as simple as making different godly choices in your personal life, whereas you once chose sinful ways. Therefore you cannot judge my works, and I cannot judge yours, because we do not know how God is working in another. We must not make religious activity the measure of good works.

[Blogrich55]

@pegcage "We must not make religious activity the measure of good works."

No, that would be one of the chief errors of Lordship Salvation. However, a faith that fails to result in a person being a new creation is not biblical faith. Without the effect, there can be no cause. It is simple logic:

X If a person is justified Y he will be sanctified

Y That person is not sanctified

Therefore he is not justified.

. We must remember that both the cranberry and the water melon are fruits. God bless!

[RedBeetle]

Blogrich55,

You changed the subject to A.A. Hodge and his free-will / common grace theology, which you admit you support in your videos. Since you insist you are a Clarkian, how do you explain the fact that you are continuously being caught teaching free-will and common grace, and why do you continuously push free-will and common grace theologians?

Let me remind you that Gordon H. Clark rejected free-will and common grace.

Dr. Ken Talbot was correct when he said Richard Jackson is not Reformed.

[Blogrich55]

@RedBeetle "Since you insist you are a Clarkian, how do you explain the fact that you are continuously being caught teaching free-will and common grace, and why do you continuously push free-will and common grace theologians?"

You have just committed the fallacy of complex question, Monty. You've asked me a question based on an unproven assumption. I have NEVER taught free will or common grace.

You still have not answered the question concerning Charles Hodge.

[Blogrich55]

@RedBeetle "Notice you didn't contest that..."

I notice you didn't answer my question about Charles Hodge Monty. It would seem that you are back to not giving straight answers again.

[pegcage]

A true Christian understands that when we are justified, the Holy Spirit gives us a new heart. It is out of that new heart (new creation) that good works come, but they are not the works of religion, that is rituals, etc. They are the works of God that are fulfilled in "Love your neighbor as yourself." Loving your neighbor can mean you tell him the gospel, so he too can be saved. So that is a good work. Good works are not obeying a man or an institution, but obeying God.

[dreiher2]

Where in the Gospel of John, where the entire book is written to talk clearly about the moment of saving faith that justifies forever (John 20:31), and NOT faith in terms of a believer's fellowship, and/or faithfulness to that religion (James 2), do we see that faith in (i.e. John 3:16) can be "false?" Our "religion" can be a sham, but faith is a moment of being persuaded Jesus is the granter and guarantor of everlasting life. There is no "false" faith in that sense.

[Blogrich55]

TO THOSE READING THESE COMMENTS: Sadly Monty Collier is unable to answer my direct question concerning his opinion of Charles Hodge. I have had to remove comments made by Afrikitty because she is spamming the comment section with irrelevant remarks lying and attacking me personally. So pathetic that Monty needs his pit bull to run interference. He should quit grasping at straws and man up and answer the question. He has often said that failure to answer shows defeat.Well Monty?

[Blogrich55]

@RedBeetle "it was a clear warning sign of his enormous ego."

Once again you are accusing me of the very thing YOU are guilty of. Anyone watching your videos knows what a GIANT ego you have Monty. That's why you need Lizzy fawning and drooling on you to stroke your pathetic ego.

HOWEVER: all of this is totally irrelevant to the question asked of you which YOU seem afraid to answer. What do you think of what Charles said in his commentary on Romans that we quoted? Is he a mess like A A Hodge?

[Blogrich55]

@Afrikitty More lies Lizzy? There was ONE RedBeetIe channel. The others were probably started by you: GospelPerverter, CrumpetCruncher, etc... etc...

[Blogrich55]

@RedBeetle "Oh, I forgot: you lack basic grammar

You are grasping at straws to avoid answering the question. You still haven't answered the question.