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Anxiety Detox Webinar
West Coast Christian Writers Masterclass

Reformation and Justification
You could smell the sweat, the discomfort in the classroom. Pastors-in-training, some of them in the employ of my own church, sat in my classroom at a local Christian college. It was time for an exam. An oral exam. A bit of Socratic tough love for an easy A. 

“Sam, tell me what justification means,” I said.

My student blushed and looked around vainly for help. “Um… being made righteous?” 

“Oh,” I said, “so after a person is justified, their lives are immediately righteous, and they start doing good things, right?” 

“Um… no?” 

“Tony, help Sam out,” I said, letting Sam off the hook.

“After you’re saved you’re supposed to do good works,” he said. 

“So, we teach salvation by works, is that what you mean?” I said. 

“No, no. Um, it’s like, well, like…”

These were Bible majors in a Christian college. Juniors and seniors. Most of this particular group had grown up in Christian homes, attending youth groups and church on a regular basis. 

Yet none of them could articulate what is arguably the single most important doctrine in the salvation-package, the doctrine of justification by faith — the very doctrine that revolutionized the life and impact of Martin Luther.

To be more specific, my students were unable to articulate the difference between being made righteous and being declared righteous, the very wedge that Luther would use to unintentionally split the church. 
Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that 'the just shall live by his faith.' Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. ~Martin Luther

Justification is the main hinge on which salvation turns. ~John Calvin
Knowing the centrality of justification, I have made exploring this doctrine a huge part of most of my classes for aspiring ministers. It is a foundational doctrine. Just as cracks in a wall point to a shifting foundation, so chaos in the church points to a defective doctrine of justification. 

Why? 

Imagine being the proud owner of a vintage car. A friend suggests spending some time tinkering under the hood. A few days later, you’re checking fluids together, setting the points, adjusting the timing, and tuning things up. Your friend points to the carburetor and says, “Let’s yank that thing out.”

You immediately object. “The car can’t run without a carburetor! Besides, that thing is bolted to the engine, and it connects with pretty much every other system under the hood. Friends don’t let friends mess with carburetors!”

Friends don’t let friends mess with the doctrine of justification by faith either. 

The doctrine of justification by faith is bolted tightly to the engine of Scripture. It interconnects with the doctrine of God, the doctrine of human nature, the doctrine of Christ, of salvation, of the church, and even of eschatology. 

When they made justification by faith the paramount doctrine of the Reformation, Luther and Calvin identified the one doctrine that makes all the other doctrines go.  

Unless we are crystal clear on this doctrine, we will muddy the waters of salvation, defame the character of God, fracture the stability of the church, and create a doctrinal vacuum that will suck in all sorts of error and chaos. 
Catholics and Protestants Together
What do evangelical heavyweights of yesteryear, such as Charles Colson,