In Chapter 10, we witnessed the miracle of the New Birth. God, by His sovereign grace, drags the corpse from the grave, giving a new heart and a renewed will. But a question remains: The sinner is now alive, but is he righteous? He may have a new heart, but he still has a criminal record. How can a holy Judge welcome a guilty rebel into His courtroom and declare him “Not Guilty”?
This brings us to Chapter 11 and the doctrine of Justification. This is the hinge upon which the Protestant Reformation turned. It answers the most terrifying question a human can ask: “How can man be right before God?” (Job 9:2). The Confession gives an answer that provides the only solid ground for peace of conscience: we are not justified by what the Spirit does in us, but by what Christ did for us.
(Note: Because the definitions of faith, imputation, and obedience discussed here are currently being questioned and undermined—particularly within the “Federal Vision” theology—we will be publishing an additional supplementary article tomorrow to provide a special excursus addressing that controversy.)
The Confession teaches that justification is a legal act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight, not for anything wrought in us or done by us, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
The Great Exchange (WCF 11.1)
The first paragraph is a masterpiece of theological precision. It defines what justification is and what it is not.
- What it is NOT: It is “not by infusing righteousness into them.” Justification is not a medical process where we get better and better; that is sanctification. It is not God making us good; it is God declaring us righteous.
- What it IS: It is “pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous.” It is a forensic (legal) verdict.
The ground of this verdict is crucial. It is “not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them.” Your new heart, your repentance, your love for God—none of these are the reason you are justified. The sole ground is “Christ’s sake alone.”
The Confession explicitly explicitly rejects the idea that faith itself is our righteousness: “nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness.” Faith is not a work we offer to God in exchange for salvation. Faith is merely the empty hand that receives the gift. What is imputed (credited) to our account is “the obedience and satisfaction of Christ.” He lived the life we should have lived (active obedience) and died the death we should have died (satisfaction/passive obedience).
Faith Alone, But Not a Lone Faith (WCF 11.2)
If Christ does all the work, what is the role of faith? “Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification.” It is the instrument, not the cause. It is the connector.
However, the divines guard against the error of Antinomianism (lawlessness). While faith is the only thing that justifies, “yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces.” True justifying faith is a living faith that “worketh by love” (Gal. 5:6). If your faith does not produce fruit, it is a dead faith, and a dead faith justifies no one (James 2:17). We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.
Justice Fully Satisfied (WCF 11.3)
How can God be gracious to us without being unjust to His own law? He cannot simply sweep sin under the rug. The Confession explains that “Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt… and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to His Father’s justice.”
This was a commercial transaction of cosmic proportions. The debt was paid in full. Therefore, our justification is an act of both “exact justice” (because sin was punished in Christ) and “rich grace” (because Christ was given for us freely). God is thus “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).
Timing and Application (WCF 11.4)
Here the Confession corrects the error of “Eternal Justification.” While “God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect,” and Christ died for them in history, “nevertheless, they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them.”
You were not justified when you were born, nor from eternity past. You were under the wrath of God (Eph. 2:3) until the moment you believed. Justification is a real event that happens in the life of a believer when the Spirit grants faith.
Sin and Fatherly Displeasure (WCF 11.5)
What happens when a justified Christian sins? Do they lose their justification? “They can never fall from the state of justification.” The verdict is final and irrevocable (Rom. 8:1).
However, our relationship with God is dynamic. While we cannot lose our status as citizens of heaven, we can damage our fellowship as children of God. We may “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.” God disciplines us not as a Judge punishing a criminal, but as a Father correcting a beloved child.
One Way of Salvation (WCF 11.6)
Finally, the Confession affirms the unity of the Covenant of Grace. “The justification of believers under the old testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the new testament.” Abraham was not saved by works; he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:3). From Adam to the last convert, there is only one name under heaven by which we must be saved.
Key Terms
- Forensic Justification: The doctrine that justification is a legal declaration by God as Judge, pronouncing the sinner righteous, rather than a process of moral transformation (which is sanctification).
- Imputation: The crediting of one person’s record to another. In justification, our sin was imputed to Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to us.
- Active Obedience: Christ’s perfect fulfillment of the Law’s positive demands during His life, which earns the merit of righteousness imputed to believers.
- Passive Obedience: Christ’s willing suffering and payment of the Law’s penalty on the cross, which satisfies divine justice regarding our sin.
- Instrumentality of Faith: Faith is the “sole instrument” (or means) by which we receive Christ’s righteousness. It is the open hand that receives the gift, not the merit that earns it.