The Justification Reader

by Thomas Oden

Quotations (red highlighting mine)

"The leading biblical interpreter from the great school of Antioch, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, in his fourth-century commentary on the Epistles of Paul, reflected on Ephesians 2:8, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith,' in this way: 'All we bring to grace is our faith. But even in this faith, divine grace itself has become our enabler. For [Paul] adds, 'And this is not of yourselves but it is a gift of God;' not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8-9).' It is not of our own accord that we have believed, but we have come to belief after having been called; and even when we had come to believe, He did not require of us purity of life, but approving mere faith, God bestowed on us forgiveness of sins" (Interpretation of the Fourteen Epistles of Paul.) [FEF 3:248-49,* sec. 2163.] A thousand years before Luther." [The Justification Reader, p. 44.]

"A generation before Theodoret, John Chrysostom had expressly stated: "So that you may not be elated by the magnitude of these benefits, see how Paul puts you in your place. For 'by grace you are saved,' he says, 'through faith.' Then, so as to do no injury to free will, he allots a role to us, then takes it away again, saying 'and this not of ourselves.' . . . Even faith, he says, is not from us. For if the Lord had not come, if he had not called us, how should we have been able to believe? 'For how,' [Paul} says, 'shall they believe if they have not heard?' (Rom. 10:14). So even the act of faith is not self-initiated. It is, he say, 'the gift of God.' (Eph. 2:8c)." [IOEP 2:160; ACCS NT 8:134.] [The Justification Reader, p. 44.]

"In asking why boasting is excluded, Origen commented on Romans 3:28, "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law." "If an example is required," remarked Origen, "I think it must suffice to mention the thief on the cross, who asked Christ to save him and was told: 'Truly, this day you will be with me in paradise; (Luke 23:43). . . . A man is justified by faith. The works of the law can make no contribution to this. Where there is no faith which might justify the believer, even if there are works of the law these are not based on the foundation of faith. Even if they are good in themselves they cannot justify the one who does them, because faith is lacking, and faith is the mark of those who are justified by God" (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans). [CER 2.132, 134, 136; ACCS NT 6:104.]So was justification by faith alone understood before the Reformers? The texts make this undeniable.  [The Justification Reader, p. 45.]

"Justification means both the discharging of the debt of sin, and the crediting (Imputation) of Christ's righteousness (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, V. 5)" [ANF II:444-46; cf. Calvin Inst., 4.16-17.] [The Justification Reader, p. 92.]

"The earliest of Paul's interpreters, Clement of Rome, 95 A.D., in his Letter to the Corinthians (32:4, 33:1), clearly struck to the root of justification teaching: "We, therefore, who have been called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our wisdom or understanding or piety, nor by the works we have wrought in holiness of heart, but by the faith by which almighty God has justified all men from the beginning, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. What, then, shall we do brethren? Shall we cease from good works, and shall we put an end to love? may the Master forbid that such should ever happen among us; rather let us be eager to perform every good work earnestly and willingly." [FEF 1:9, sec. 16.] [The Justification Reader, p. 45.]

"Augustine followed this same tendency of interpretation that would later appear in Luther. In his letter (186, 3, 10) Paulinus of Nola, Augustine subtly analyzed the relation of grace and freedom: "Let no one say to himself: 'If [justification] is from faith, how is it freely given? (cf. Rom. 3:24): If faith merits it, why is it not rather paid than given?' Let the faithful man not say such a thing; for, if he says: 'I have faith, therefore I merit justification,' he will be answered: 'What have you that you did not receive?' (1 Cor. 4:7). If, therefore, faith entreats and receives justification, according as God has apportioned to each in the measure of his faith (Rom. 12:3), nothing of human merit precedes the grace of God, but grace itself merits increase . . . with the will accompanying but not leading, following along but not going in advance." [FEF 3:10, sec. 1446.] [The Justification Reader, p. 46.]

"Scripture does not characteristically use the term "justify" to imply the direct infusion of a fully matured, full habituated behavioral quality into the recipient. Rather, it refers to an actual and legitimized declaration through which one is accredited right before the law and lawgiver. This is clear by analogy with Christ's seeming "sin" which is his real act of becoming "sin for us," a substitutional or forensic "sinfulness" on our behalf (Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 11.5.) [NPNF 1 12:333-35.] [The Justification Reader, p. 59.]

"Prosper of Aquitaine in his Call of All Nations (1, 17) stated the doctrine in much the same way Luther would later: "And just as there are no crimes so detestable that they can prevent the gift of grace, so too there can be no works so eminent that they are owed in condign judgment that which is given freely. Would it not be a debasement of redemption in Christ's blood, and would not God's mercy be made secondary to human works, if justification, which is through grace, were owed in view of preceding merits, so that it were not the gift of a Donar, but the wages of a laborer?" [FEF 3:195, sec. 20044] Hence it is incorrect to presume that patristic teaching knew nothing of justification."

"Luther understood that we are saved while yet sinners; so did Ambrosiaster in the fourth century. "All thanksgiving for our salvation is to be given only to God. He extends his mercy to us so as to recall us to life precisely while we are straying, without looking for the right road. And thus we are not to glory in ourselves but in God, who has regenerated us by a heavenly birth through faith in Christ" (Epistle to the Ephesians)." [Luther, Commentary on Paul's Epistles, ed. K. J. Vogels, 1968, CSEL 81:3:82; ACCS NT 8:134.]  [The Justification Reader, p. 47.]

"In the mid-fourth century Marius Victorinus commented on Ephesians 2: "The fact that you Ephesians are saved is not something that comes from yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not from your works, but it is God's grace and God's gift, not from anything you have deserved" (Epistle to the Ephesians 1.2.9." [BT 1972:152 (1256A-B); ACCS NT 8:134.] [The Justification Reader, p. 48.]

"The present time," explained Ambrosiaster, "means our time, in which God has given what long before he had promised to give at the time at which he gave it. . . . God gave what he promised in order to be revealed as righteous. For he had promised that he would justify those who believe in Christ, as he says in Habakkuk: 'The righteous will life by faith in me' (Hab. 2:4). Whoever has faith in God and Christ is righteous" (Commentary on Paul's Epistles). [CSEL 81 ad loc.; ACCS NT 6:103.] [The Justification Reader, p. 63.]

"Jerome argued that no one can earn grace. "We are saved by grace rather than works, for we can give god nothing in return for what he has bestowed on us" (Epistle to the Ephesians 1.2.1). PL 26:468B (574); ACCS NT 8:132.] [The Justification Reader, p. 48.]

"Faith itself is a gift of God. Without it no one is saved. "The blessed Paul argues that we are saved by faith, which he declares to be not from us but a gift from God. Thus there cannot possibly be true salvation where there is no true faith, and, since this faith is divinely enabled, it is without doubt bestowed by his free generosity. Where there is true belief through true faith, true salvation certainly accompanies it. Anyone who departs from true faith will not possess the grace of true salvation" (Eph. 2:7; Fulgentius, On the Incarnation 1). [CCL 91:313; ACCS NT 8:133-34.] [The Justification Reader, p. 48.]