Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
Justification does not come by keeping the whole law or any part of it, nor is it given on the basis of uncircumcision, the laws of nature or any other traditions. Here we see the opinion of those who say that before the law was given, our ancestors were justified by the laws of nature, but that after the law was given, they were justified by the laws of Moses and nowadays we are justified by the gospel and the other laws that we have.
To counter this idea, we must firmly insist that there has always been only one and the same form of justification, which consists of faith. In this verse [Galatians 5:6] Paul removes every privilege of the flesh and thus everything else as causes of righteousness, apart from faith, the promise, the gospel and so on. To express all this the apostle uses two words, circumcision and uncircumcision, in order to make Jews and Gentiles equal to one another and proclaim that both are justified for exactly the same reasons. …
Faith is effective through love. Once it has obtained righteousness, it is neither slow nor lazy in doing other good works of charity. If faith justified us through love or by the addition of love, our righteousness would be uncertain because nobody would know at what point he had loved enough to obtain righteousness.
For the reference, see Erasmus Sarcerius on justification by faith, not the law of nature nor of Moses.
To counter this idea, we must firmly insist that there has always been only one and the same form of justification, which consists of faith. In this verse [Galatians 5:6] Paul removes every privilege of the flesh and thus everything else as causes of righteousness, apart from faith, the promise, the gospel and so on. To express all this the apostle uses two words, circumcision and uncircumcision, in order to make Jews and Gentiles equal to one another and proclaim that both are justified for exactly the same reasons. …
Faith is effective through love. Once it has obtained righteousness, it is neither slow nor lazy in doing other good works of charity. If faith justified us through love or by the addition of love, our righteousness would be uncertain because nobody would know at what point he had loved enough to obtain righteousness.
For the reference, see Erasmus Sarcerius on justification by faith, not the law of nature nor of Moses.
