The Calvinist International
(This is the final essay in a series on the Federal Vision. The first installment, a general introduction to the state of the conversation, can be found here. The second installment identifies the various personalities and their history. The next three essays explained the FV theology in more detail: essay three is here, essay four is […]
Douglas Wilson is the embodiment of “RIP my mentions.” His controversies range from politics to theology to literature. People laud him as a visionary leader, and people deride him as a cult leader. To some he is too conservative. To others, he has departed from the true Reformed tradition. Wilson has copycat followers, deranged former […]
Justification at its most basic is straightforward. A man recognizes that he is a sinner. He judges himself to be guilty for his sin before God. He looks for a source whence he can obtain the righteousness he does not possess. He finds it offered to him in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He trusts […]
In Institutes 3.3.19, John Calvin gives a “summary of the gospel” (cf. 3.3.1), in which he makes the important point that “the gospel,” the good news that Scripture and the church proclaim, includes not only the forgiveness or remission of sins (justification), but also renewal (sanctification), which derives from the general category of repentance. Both […]
In this installment, Contarini continues on the theme of justification before God by imputation, that is, by the merit of Christ apart from any works of our own. The justice or righteousness by which we are justified–by which we are wholly pleasing to God–is that which is gratuitously given to us, in distinction from that which […]
We’ve now referred to “twofold justice” a few times, viz. the justice and charity inherent in us by grace, and the justice of Christ’s perfect merit imputed to us through union with Christ by faith. But, having dealt with the potential ambiguity of the term “justice,” the cardinal comes now to the important question: on […]
Herewith the next installment. (Read that first and then circle back up here.) A couple of important points: Contarini denies that we are justified because of inherent faith, as though “faith” in the proposition were treated as a good work that is equivalent to “righteousness.” Next, he denies that when we say, “We are justified by […]
Cleaning out some paperwork in my office reminded me that, after three years, I should get back to this series and finish it at some point. Lo these many months ago I started a new translation of Cardinal Gasparo Contarini’s treatise De iustificatione, “On Justification.” I was not quite halfway through it when last I paused, […]
Is faith our righteousness? No, faith is the sole instrument whereby God graciously imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. Where Do We Draw the Heresy Line? In my recent book, Faith.Hope.Love, I devote a section of the book to affirming the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith against the Arminian doctrine of justification […]
While I was doing my PhD dissertation on Thomas Goodwin I kept a blog to throw out ideas and thoughts about my research. I remember once writing about Goodwin’s doctrine of “judgment according to works” and not long after a URC minister– a friend of mine –emailed me to tell me that he had been […]