Justification, Volume 1 (New Studies in Dogmatics)
Overview
Volume 1 engages in a descriptive task—an exercise in historical theology exploring the doctrine of justification from the patristic era to the Reformation. Broadening the scope, Horton explores patristic discussions of justification under the rubric of the “great exchange.” He provides a map for contemporary discussions of justification, identifying and engaging his principal interlocutors: Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Gabriel Biel, and the magisterial reformers. Observing the assimilation of justification to the doctrine of penance in medieval theology, especially via Peter Lombard, the work studies the transformations of the doctrine through Aquinas, Scotus and the nominalists leading up to the era of the Reformation and the Council of Trent. He concludes his first study by examining the hermeneutical and theological significance of the Reformers’ understanding of the law and the gospel and the resultant covenantal scheme that became formative in Reformed theology. This then opens the door to the constructive task of volume 2—to investigate the biblical doctrine of justification in light of contemporary exegesis.
Top Highlights
“Typically, medieval scholastics followed Augustine in regarding the first justification in baptism as regeneration but followed Origen (indirectly via Lombard) in reckoning that penance was necessary for present and future sins. Remissio (forgiveness) now became the terminus ad quem (goal) of the process of justification rather than its terminus a quo (source). This is a significant turning point in the medieval understanding of the doctrine.” (Page 100)
“Thus, faith justifies not because it embraces Christ’s alien righteousness as one’s own (again, that would not have occurred to Thomas) but because it is the beginning of sanctification. This is a foundational point for understanding the difference between Roman Catholic and Reformation views of justification. We are a long way from the patristic comments that I quoted in chapter 2; it is assumed now that justification is a process of becoming holy through infused grace and that grace-inspired merits are means to that end. ‘From this aspect,’ namely Paul’s appeal to faith in exclusion of works, ‘Christ’s death was meritorious and satisfied for our sins.’76 However, Christ’s merits merely provide the ground for the believer’s meritorious cooperation with infused grace.” (Page 108)
“In Scripture, especially in Paul, Luther discovered that the righteousness God is, by which he condemns us, is the same righteousness God gives, freely, as a gift, through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:19–31). This ‘marvelous exchange’ of Christ’s righteousness for the sinner’s guilt was beautifully articulated by some medieval theologians, such as Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). However, understanding justification as an exclusively forensic (legal) declaration, based on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness through faith alone, was the chief insight of the Reformation. In this way, the broader consensual understanding of the ‘great exchange’ attained its most refined and satisfying formulation.” (Page 25)
- Title: Justification, Volume 1
- Author: Michael Horton
- Series: New Studies in Dogmatics
- Volume: 1
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Justification (Christian theology)
- ISBNs: 9780310491637, 9780310491606, 9780310491620, 0310491630, 0310491606, 0310491622
- Resource ID: LLS:JUSTIFICATION01
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-08-07T17:52:40Z
Michael Horton has taught apologetics and theology at Westminster Seminary California since 1998. In addition to his work at the Seminary, he is the president of White Horse Media, for which he co-hosts the White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated, weekly radio talk-show exploring issues of Reformation theology in American Christianity. He is also the editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine. Before coming to WSC, Dr. Horton completed a Research Fellowship at Yale University Divinity School.
A member of various societies, including the American Academy of Religion and the Evangelical Theological Society, Dr. Horton is the author/editor of 20 books, including a series of studies in Reformed dogmatics, whose final volume (People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology) was published in 2008. In addition to the popular Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, Dr. Horton’s latest books are Covenant and Salvation: Union with Christ, Lord and Servant: A Covenant Christology, and A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship. He has written articles for Modern Reformation, Pro Ecclesia, Christianity Today, The International Journal of Systematic Theology, Touchstone, and Books and Culture. Dr. Horton is a minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America. He has served two churches in Southern California. He resides in Escondido, California, with his wife, Lisa, and their four children.