Lutherans, for example, don’t see the idea that baptism grants salvation as conflicting with this. In practice, Protestants give different meanings to the “faith alone” formula. The idea is that in order to come to God, be forgiven, and be declared righteous, you don’t need to do anything to earn your place before God except have faith in Jesus Christ. When Protestants use the phrase “faith alone,” they are describing how we are justified. Catholic theology would say that there is more to justification than that, but it is true that at the beginning of the Christian life God forgives a person’s sins and declares him righteous. This is occurs at the beginning of the Christian life, when a person first turns to God.Īs far as it goes, this description is accurate. The way typical American Evangelicals use the term, when God justifies someone, he declares that person’s sins forgiven and proclaims the person righteous.
Unfortunately, there is considerable disagreement about what justification involves.
The New Testament uses the word justification to refer to one of the things that God does for us by his grace. It occurs in a specific context-the doctrine of justification. The discussion of faith and works doesn’t take place in a vacuum.
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