CONTENTS
the basis of God’s grace wrought by Christ, the believer then UNION WITH CHRIST, AS JOHN OWEN sought to maintain and secure (1616-83) FAMOUSLY WROTE IN HIS his justification. The Council WORK COMMUNION WITH GOD, PROVIDES of Trent famously promoted THE FOUNDATION FOR THE BELIEVER’S the idea that believers would seek their initial justification COMMUNION WITH THE TRIUNE GOD AND by baptism and their second HIS FELLOWSHIP WITH THE BODY OF CHRIST, or final justification by their THE CHURCH. THE DIVINES WROTE OF THIS Spirit-wrought works. The DOCTRINAL NEXUS BEFORE OWEN WROTE HIS divines reject both of these FAMOUS WORK IN 1657. ideas by objecting to infused righteousness and arguing that justification is not based churches throughout the world now use them as upon anything done by the their confessional standards. believer. Another error they rejected was the view of Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran theologian The Westminster Confession has much to who taught that believers share in the divine say about the doctrine of justification. How righteousness of Christ. In other words, we are not is Westminster’s statement on justification justified by Christ’s imputed righteousness but distinctively Reformed in contrast to, say, by being in union with Christ and sharing in his Roman Catholicism and Arminianism? own personal divine essential righteousness. The By the time the Westminster divines wrote the divines reject this by stating that justification does Confession, much theological water had passed not rest upon anything “wrought in” the believer. under the bridge—there had been a number In addition to rejecting these errors, the divines of significant debates over the doctrine of also state that believers are not justified by God justification, as well as debates contemporary “imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any with the Assembly’s work on the confession. other evangelical obedience to them, as their Right off the bat, the Confession makes several righteousness” (WCF XI.i). They do not mention important qualifications about justification. him by name, but the divines reject the views of Justification is not by “infusing righteousness Jacob Arminius (1560-1609). Arminius believed into” the elect and “not for anything wrought in that God looked upon the faith of believers as if them, or done by them” (WCF XI.i). Both of these it were righteousness. The Reformed, by contrast, statements present objections to two different taught that faith was instrumental and laid hold of theological errors—views promoted by the Christ’s righteousness. For Arminius, justification Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran theologian rests upon faith, whereas for the divines, Andreas Osiander (1498-1552). Rome taught that justification rests solely upon the obedience and God infused his grace into a person by means of satisfaction of Christ. his baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit. On 18 | CREDO MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2015