| I think each of us has at least one of what the French call our "betes noires," those little black beasts that drive us mad. One of mine is when I hear modern-day Presbyterians saying that faith is our response to salvation rather than saying that we are saved "by grace through faith." So while I enjoyed parts of Merwyn S. Johnson's, "The Marks of the True Church," Presbyterian Outlook, 3-5-07, I was disappointed to hear him repeat this overused--and in my view highly inaccurate--contemporary Presbyterian nostrum. He writes: "How can the Reformation marks of the true Church help us at the present time? Several things come to mind. First, the Reformation confessions have a whole different take on grace and salvation. Faith, they say, is the result of our salvation, not the cause of it." (underscore added.) He continues, "The chief end of the Christian life is to glorify and enjoy God forever, not to be saved for its own sake (Mark 8:34f)."
I think each of us has at least one of what the French call our "betes noires," those little black beasts that drive us mad. One of mine is when I hear modern-day Presbyterians saying that faith is our response to salvation rather than saying that we are saved "by grace through faith." So while I enjoyed parts of Merwyn S. Johnson's, "The Marks of the True Church," Presbyterian Outlook, 3-5-07, I was disappointed to hear him repeat this overused--and in my view highly inaccurate--contemporary Presbyterian nostrum. He writes: "How can the Reformation marks of the true Church help us at the present time? Several things come to mind. First, the Reformation confessions have a whole different take on grace and salvation. Faith, they say, is the result of our salvation, not the cause of it." (underscore added.) He continues, "The chief end of the Christian life is to glorify and enjoy God forever, not to be saved for its own sake (Mark 8:34f)." I must respond: 1. I served for ten years on a presbytery examinations committee. Often I asked examinees about the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. I would ask if faith were necessary to receive salvation. Over the years up to 10 or 15% of those we examined who were graduates of PC(USA) seminaries (but not, usually, graduates from Fuller or Gordon Conwell) would give an answer something like this: "No, faith is not necessary for salvation, because faith is a gift of God, not a work, and we are not saved by works." "Faith is our response to God's salvation," they would often add, agreeing with Dr. Johnson. 2. Since a significant number of Presbyterian ministerial candidates say this, and since Dr. Johnson tells us the Reformation creeds say it, perhaps we should investigate this claim. Could it be, after all, that the wrong answer was actually given by the majority of seminary graduates who said something along the lines of, "Justification by grace alone through faith alone means that faith is how we receive God's free gift of grace in Jesus Christ"? 3. I am convinced that to present, as Dr. Johnson does, our two theological options as being either "faith as a result of our salvation" or "faith as a cause of our salvation" is an error. I believe that this framing of the issue is faithful neither to scripture nor to the Reformed confessions. The Bible and the Reformed confessions are clear that works are not the cause of our salvation but are, rather, the result. But faith is treated differently, outside this schematization. Or to be more precise, while the Bible and the Reformed confessions affirm that faith is not the cause of salvation, they do not affirm that it is the result either. Let me explain. 4. It is true that the Reformed confessions and scripture do not present either works or faith as a cause of our salvation. Therefore, all of those who regard their faith as somehow earning their salvation are quite wrong, and in this Dr. Johnson is right. But, unlike works, faith is not looked upon as the result of salvation either (as if to say a person could be saved before they had faith.) Instead, in the Bible and in the confessions faith is presented as the way in which we receive (or appropriate) salvation. Faith is the means by which we open our hands, so to speak, and receive the free unearned gift of God. 5. The fact that the New Testament affirms that faith itself is a gift of God's Spirit is not the issue here. That faith is a gift is of course true. However this does not change the fact that a person must reach out and receive God's salvation in order to get it. To reach out and to receive God's salvation in Christ can be called in Greek "pistis," variously translated, "faith," "trust," and it could perhaps even be rendered "surrender[i]." The fact that Paul says no one can say (and by implication, mean) Jesus is Lord without God's Spirit (I Corinthians 12:3) can in no logical way be taken to imply that this step of faith (trusting Jesus as Lord) is either un-necessary or else comes after salvation. It is not contradictory to say that faith is how we receive grace AND to say that faith is a gift of God's Spirit! 6. John Calvin in the Institutes compares grace to the contents of a huge jug. He compares faith to the mouth of the jug, through which its contents come to us. Grace comes to us through faith, he says. When I teach confirmation class, following the lead of my seminary New Testament Professor Balmer Kelley who taught at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, I give each participant a dollar bill. We talk about how this is a free gift which no one in the class earned. I then ask them what they had to do to receive it. "Only reach out and take it," they tell me. "So did reaching out and taking it cause you to earn it?" I ask. "No," they answer. "The dollar bill was free." Sadly, what sixth graders understand, in my own experience, a not insignificant minority of PC(USA) seminary graduates fail any longer to understand, in part I am afraid because of statements by professors like the one made by Dr. Johnson: "Faith, they [the Reformation confessions] say, is the result of our salvation, not the cause of it." 7. Why after asserting (inaccurately, I am arguing) "Faith, they [the Reformation confessions] say, is the result of our salvation, not the cause of it does Johnson add in italics "The chief end of the Christian life is to glorify and enjoy God forever, not to be saved for its own sake (Mark 8:34f)". The answer is more apparent when we look at Mark 8:34-35 which Dr. Johnson cites but does not quote: "Then he [Jesus] called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.'" Does Dr. Johnson cite Mark 8:34 ff. as well as "the chief end of man" because in the context of discussing the connection between faith and salvation, he is afraid that people who accept Christ only to save themselves from hell with no apparent interest in God's kingdom, in glorifying Him, or in enjoying Him, will either not be saved or else do not have true faith? That is an important question which needs to be discussed. Perhaps not all such people do have true faith. Perhaps very few do. But any such exploration of the definition or content of true faith does not change the fact that according to scripture salvation is still by grace through faith alone. If Dr. Johnson wants to argue that in true faith at least a mustard seed-sized part of us needs to be focused on God, loving and seeking to glorify Him, and enjoying Him, then I will not disagree. But none of that means that faith is a result of salvation. Faith is not merely our response to a salvation which is now only "by grace alone." 8. While I am asserting that it is not true to say that faith is a response to or a result of salvation or of being saved, it would be right to say that faith is a response to and a result of the saving act (or in academic jargon--the salvific act--) of Jesus Christ living, dying and being raised for us and for our sins. Maybe this is what Dr, Johnson wanted to say. If so, I agree! Surely this is affirmed by II Corinthians 5: 19 and 20: (God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and giving us the word of reconciliation. We are Christ's ambassadors, and He makes his appeal through us to the world, "be reconciled to God.") This passage makes clear that God in Christ has already done everything necessary for the salvation of the world, but it also makes clear that we must receive or appropriate it by faith in order to be reconciled. 9. Why in the world does all of this matter? Though this may not be what Dr. Johnson personally believes, the logical end-result of his position that faith is a result of salvation is that salvation is by grace alone, and faith is not necessary to receive or appropriate it. If this is so, then everyone may very well be saved already. Alternatively, if only some number of elect persons are saved, then these persons still do not need to receive or appropriate their salvation though faith in order to be saved, because faith is only a result of a salvation that they have already. If this is so, then there is no need for II Corinthians 5:20b, "We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." There would no longer be any urgency in the call to faith; or at least the call would no longer be "be reconciled," but rather "respond to the reconciliation you already have." To me, the logical end point of this line of thinking (that faith is a result of or a response to salvation) which is apparently going on in many seminaries, is to destroy the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, an essential Biblical and Reformed doctrine. The Scots Confession puts the necessity of appropriating grace through faith nicely: "For since there is neither life nor salvation without Christ Jesus; so shall none have part therein but those whom the Father has given unto his Son Christ Jesus, and those who in time come to him, avow his doctrine, and believe in him. (We include the children with the believing parents.)" The Second Helvetic Confession agrees: "WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH ALONE. But because we receive this justification, not through any works, but through faith in the mercy of God and in Christ, we therefore teach and believe with the apostle that sinful man is justified by faith alone in Christ, not by the law or any works." (see citations below) 10. Unlike Dr. Johnson, I have not found even one Reformation confession (much less more than one as he asserts) which says that faith is a result of salvation. I will, however, close with a number of additional confessional statements which say that salvation is by grace through faith. Since these citations are the most important part of what I am writing, I hope readers will not skip them but will read them carefully. **** Q. 84. How is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the preaching of the holy gospel? A. In this way: The kingdom of heaven is opened when it is proclaimed and openly testified to believers, one and all, according to the command of Christ, that as often as they accept the promise of the gospel with true faith all their sins are truly forgiven them by God for the sake of Christ's gracious work. On the contrary, the wrath of God and eternal condemnation fall upon all unbelievers and hypocrites as long as they do not repent. It is according to this witness of the gospel that God will judge the one and the other in this life and in the life to come.' Heidelberg Catechism, 1562, Book of Confessions (B.C.) 4.084 (underscore added) ****
JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WORLD, AND THE TRUE AWAITED MESSIAH. For we teach and believe that this Jesus Christ our Lord is the unique and eternal Savior of the human race, and thus of the whole world, in whom by faith are saved all who before the law, under the law, and under the Gospel were saved, and however many will be saved at the end of the world. Second Helvetic Confession, 1561, B.C. 5.077. (underscore added)
WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH ALONE. But because we receive this justification, not through any works, but through faith in the mercy of God and in Christ, we therefore teach and believe with the apostle that sinful man is justified by faith alone in Christ, not by the law or any works. For the apostle says: 'We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law' (Rom. 3:28). Also: 'If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. . . . And to one who does not work but believes in him who justified the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness' (Rom. 4:2 ff.; Gen. 15:6). And again: 'By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--not because of works, lest any man should boast,' etc. (Eph. 2:8 f.). Therefore, because faith receives Christ our righteousness and attributes everything to the grace of God in Christ, on that account justification is attributed to faith, chiefly because of Christ and not therefore because it is our work. For it is the gift of God. Second Helvetic Confession, 1561, B.C. 5.109. (underscore added) WE RECEIVE CHRIST BY FAITH. Moreover, the Lord abundantly shows that we receive Christ by faith, in John, ch. 6, where he puts eating for believing, and believing for eating. For as we receive food by eating, so we participate in Christ by believing. JUSTIFICATION IS NOT ATTRIBUTED PARTLY TO CHRIST OR TO FAITH, PARTLY TO US. Therefore, we do not share in the benefit of justification partly because of the grace of God or Christ, and partly because of ourselves, our love, works or merit, but we attribute it wholly to the grace of God in Christ through faith. For our love and our works could not please God if performed by unrighteous men. Therefore, it is necessary for us to be righteous before we may love and do good works. We are made truly righteous, as we have said, by faith in Christ purely by the grace of God, who does not impute to us our sins, but the righteousness of Christ, or rather, he imputes faith in Christ to us for righteousness. Moreover, the apostle very clearly derives love from faith when he says: 'The aim of our command is love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith' (I Tim. 1:5). . Second Helvetic Confession, 1561, B.C. 5.110 (underscore added) **** THE KIRK--As we believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, so we firmly believe that from the beginning there has been, now is, and to the end of the world shall be, one Kirk, that is to say, one company and multitude of men chosen by God, who rightly worship and embrace him by true faith in Christ Jesus, who is the only Head of the Kirk, even as it is the body and spouse of Christ Jesus. This Kirk is catholic, that is, universal, because it contains the chosen of all ages, of all realms, nations, and tongues, be they of the Jews or be they of the Gentiles, who have communion and society with God the Father, and with his Son, Christ Jesus, through the sanctification of his Holy Spirit. It is therefore called the communion, not of profane persons, but of saints, who, as citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, have the fruit of inestimable benefits, one God, one Lord Jesus, one faith, and one baptism. Out of this Kirk there is neither life nor eternal felicity. Therefore we utterly abhor the blasphemy of those who hold that men who live according to equity and justice shall be saved, no matter what religion they profess. For since there is neither life nor salvation without Christ Jesus; so shall none have part therein but those whom the Father has given unto his Son Christ Jesus, and those who in time come to him, avow his doctrine, and believe in him. (We include the children with the believing parents.) This Kirk is invisible, known only to God, who alone knows whom he has chosen, and includes both the chosen who are departed, the Kirk triumphant, those who yet live and fight against sin and Satan, and those who shall live hereafter. Scots Confession, Chapter XVI, 1860, B.C. 3.16. (underscore added) *** The Larger Catechism is not a Reformation-era Creed, but its affirmations are also interesting: Q. 60. Can they who have never heard the gospel, and so know not Jesus Christ nor believe in him, be saved by their living according to the light of nature? ****
A. They who having never heard the gospel, know not Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, or the laws of that religion which they profess; neither is there salvation in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Saviour only of his body the Church. B.C. 7.170 **** In closing, please remember that to say faith is how we RECEIVE God's grace does not mean that faith is a work that EARNS God's grace and it does not deny that our faith is a GIFT of God! This is powerfully affirmed by the Scots Confession: CHAPTER XII -- "Faith in the Holy Ghost"3.12 "Our faith and its assurance do not proceed from flesh and blood, that is to say, from natural powers within us, but are the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; whom we confess to be God, equal with the Father and with his Son, who sanctifies us, and brings us into all truth by his own working, without whom we should remain forever enemies to God and ignorant of his Son, Christ Jesus. For by nature we are so dead, blind, and perverse, that neither can we feel when we are pricked, see the light when it shines, nor assent to the will of God when it is revealed, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus quicken that which is dead, remove the darkness from our minds, and bow our stubborn hearts to the obedience of his blessed will. And so, as we confess that God the Father created us when we were not, as his Son our Lord Jesus redeemed us when we were enemies to him, so also do we confess that the Holy Ghost does sanctify and regenerate us, without respect to any merit proceeding from us, be it before or be it after our regeneration. To put this even more plainly; as we willingly disclaim any honor and glory for our own creation and redemption, so do we willingly also for our regeneration and sanctification; for by ourselves we are not capable of thinking one good thought, but he who has begun the work in us alone continues us in it, to the praise and glory of his undeserved grace." underscore added) Winfield Casey Jones is pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Pearland, TX. His church website is www.pearlandpres.org , and he can be reached at wrjones2002@yahoo.com. [i] TWNT, VI, p. 220 "To the degree that pistis as genuine upakoe is the surrender of the natural man, it is the eschatological attitude of a man which is made possible by God's eschatological act." (article on "pisteuo ktl" by Bultmann.)
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