Without the Deeds of the Law

When the sinner comes to faith in Christ, or in the Gospel, he is at once justified before God by his faith. Since the Gospel offers him the forgiveness of sins gained by Christ for the whole world (objective justification), the acceptance of this offer, by faith, is all that is needed to accomplish his subjective justification… Subjective justification is meant when Paul says Rom. 3:28: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith.” “By faith” and that means, as Scripture expressly states, “without the deeds of the Law.” Natural man cannot conceive of such a thing as the divine method of justification; he knows only a justification by works. Scripture therefore is intent on inculcating upon a man the truth that any and all works of the Law are excluded from justification. Rom. 3:28: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law.” Gal. 2:16: “Man is not justified by the works of the Law.” All works, works of any kind or description, are excluded. Neither the “good” works of unbelievers, such as those of the Pharisees, nor the truly good works which flow from faith, such as those of faithful Abraham, can justify a man before God. It is a method of justification unheard of among men. But Scripture tells us why God justifies men without the Law and the works of the Law. he does it (1) because He wants men to be sure of the forgiveness of sins (Rom. 4:16: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.”); and (2) because He wants man to glory not in himself, but in God’s entirely unmerited grace in Christ (Eph. 2:9: “Not of works, lest any man should boast”; Eph. 1:6-7: “To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us acceptable in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”). God’s method of justifying men by faith is indeed a wondrous one. We may easily lose sight of its wonderful character, since it is so familiar to us. But Luther is right when he says: “It is a great thing to hold and believe in sincere faith that all my sins are forgiven and that through such faith I am righteous before God. That is certainly a wondrous justice and far different from the justice of all jurists, all learned and wise men of this world.” (St. L. XIII:2495.) But this “wondrous” justice of justification by faith is based on that “wondrous” fact that God has reconciled the world unto Himself by Christ’s vicarious satisfaction, that in His heart He has forgiven their sins and offers this forgiveness, this righteousness, in the Gospel. One cannot present the doctrine of justification by faith without constant reference to the universal, objective justification.

Via Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics, vol.2, “Justification by Faith, Without the Deeds of the Law”