The Meritorious Cause of Justification
Aug 27, 2009
In the debate over justification, it is important to ask the right questions. When it comes to the cause or foundation of justification, the question is of the utmost importance.
Francis Turretin, in his discussion of justification, notes that the question is not whether inherent righteousness is infused into us through the grace of Christ (for evangelicals believe and teach that the benefits of justification and sanctification are so indissolubly connected with each other that God justifies no man without equally sanctifying him and giving him inherent righteousness, p. 11).
The question is whether that inherent righteousness enters into our justification, either as its cause or as a part, so that it constitutes some part of our justification and is the meritorious cause and foundation of our absolving sentence in the judgment of God (p. 11).
The Roman Catholic communion maintains that inherent righteousness is the meritorious cause on account of which we are justified. The orthodox answer a resounding no.
This distinction is not a meaningless quarrel about words neither is it reserved for the halls of academia. Rather, as Turretin remarks, the question concerning the meritorious cause of our justification is the principal foundation of our salvation, which if is overthrown or weakened, all our confidence and consolation both in life and death must necessarily perish (Justification, p. 13).
When a man is overcome with sin and a sense of real guilt before God, what is it that he trusts in that he may be acquitted before God and reckoned righteous? What is that righteousness that can survive the perfect judgment of God, overcome condemnation, obtain the forgiveness of sins and a right to eternal life? If the answer is not righteousness that inheres in us, what is the foundation and meritorious cause upon which our justification rests?
Turretin answers,
"...the righteousness of Christ alone imputed to us is the foundation and meritorious cause upon which our absolutary sentence rests, so that for no other reason does God bestow the pardon of sin and the right to life than on account of the most perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to us and apprehended by faith," (p. 13).
Only a perfect righteousness (Matt. 5:48) that is in accordance with truth in which there is no "wiggle room" for deception or grading on a curve (i.e., a gracious acceptation by God) will be acceptable to God. Inherent righteousness is not perfect and therefore no man can stand in God's judgment trusting in his inherent righteousness, which consists in works of the law (divine or human of any kind; Gal. 2:16).
The imputed righteousness of Christ alone is the meritorious cause of salvation and is apprehended by faith alone, which acts instrumentally and receptively not meritoriously (Rom. 3:20-28; Rom. 4:6; Gal. 2:16).
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