"The gift of salvation": Its failure to address the crux of justification

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 1999 by Seifrid, Mark

By faith, which is also the gift of God, we repent of our sins and freely adhere to the Gospel, the good news of God's saving work for us in Christ. By our response of faith to Christ, we enter into the blessings promised by the Gospel. Faith is not merely intellectual assent but an act of the whole person, involving the mind, the will, and the affections, issuing in a changed life. We understand that what we here affirm is in agreement with what the Reformation traditions have meant by justification by faith alone (sola fide).'

The lack of definition in the preceding paragraph spills over here. One wonders what precisely the "blessings promised by the Gospel" might be. Are they something more than the verdict of justification? As much as a Protestant must appreciate the acknowledgement that faith entails more than mere assent, the lack of clarity in the early part of the statement leaves the final declaration concerning "justification by faith alone" without substance. Does "faith" mean confidence that we are counted righteous on account of Christ's cross and resurrection alone? Or are we to read the "blessings of the Gospel" and the reference to faith as "issuing in a changed life" to mean that transforming love is included within justification? The first reading would mean that the Catholic dialogue partners have swept aside Trent and its anathemas. The second would mean that Protestant evangelicals have swept aside their historic confessions. I find it hard to think that either of these interpretations is possible. We appear to have here a statement which is sufficiently diffuse to satisfy everyone, without engaging the central issue of the meaning of the cross.

In fairness, it must be admitted that the participants indicate an "urgent" need for further discussion of such topics as

... the historic uses of the language of justification as it relates to imputed and transformative righteousness; the normative status of justification in relation to all Christian doctrine; the assertion that while justification is by faith alone, the faith that receives salvation is never alone...7

Yet this admission itself is troubling, especially in the first and last items mentioned. Given the earlier statement we examined, this final qualifying comment seems to say that a conceptual distinction between "imputed" and "transformative" righteousness no longer applies. The only task that remains is to sort out the historic uses of language on justification. It is true that recent biblical scholarship has tended to obscure the distinction between "imputed" and "effective" righteousness. Whether it has rightly done so is another matter. The framers of this document have every right to include such a perspective in their statement, as in fact has been done in other joint statements.

Nevertheless, if the "Gift of Salvation" is adopting such a position, it seems fair to ask that it clearly say so. Furthermore, one can hardly claim without further explanation that such a view stands in "agreement with what the Reformation traditions have meant by justification by faith alone."