Reforming Soteriology in the Sixteenth Century

The rediscovery of the biblical doctrine of salvation in the sixteenth century did not occur all at once. Initially, the early Reformers rediscovered the biblical meaning of the word justification. They realized that it meant “to declare righteous” rather than “to make righteous.” This led them to realize that the instrumental cause of justification was not baptism, but faith alone. In other words, the first thing the Reformers discovered was that the late medieval church had a distorted understanding of the solution to man’s great problem.

Over time, as they worked through the text of Scripture and compared its teaching with that of the Roman Catholic Church, they were able to discover that Rome had a distorted understanding of the solution because Rome had a distorted understanding of the problem. Rome’s soteriology, or doctrine of salvation (the solution), had developed in the way it had because of the way Rome understood the result of Adam’s sin (the problem). As we observed in the previous article, the Roman Catholic Church taught that when Adam fell, he lost a superadded gift of justifying/sanctifying grace. In this view, Adam and his posterity needed to regain that grace in order to be re-elevated to the supernatural order of being. In their view, this is accomplished through the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church.

As they studied Scripture, the Reformers realized that the Roman Catholic doctrine of man’s fall did not do full justice to the text. They came to understand that, in the fall, man did not merely lose a gift of superadded grace with little or no harm done to his nature. Instead, as the Westminster Confession of Faith would later express, in the fall

they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body. (WCF 6.2)

The theological term that would later come to describe this fallen state is total depravity.

It is important to note again that whatever one believes to be the problem will dictate one’s understanding of the solution (soteriology). Pelagius’ doctrine of salvation is what it is because of his understanding of the problem. Rome’s doctrine of salvation is what it is because of its understanding of the problem. The salvation of a dead man and the salvation of a wounded man require completely different means.

The Reformed churches explained God’s solution to man’s problem in terms of the covenant that God made between Himself and man. The Westminster Confession of Faith offers one of the clearest statements of this biblical doctrine of salvation. What follows is taken largely from this confession. Readers are encouraged to find a copy containing the biblical proof texts and carefully work through all of them.

As the Westminster Confession of Faith explains, before the fall, God made a covenant with Adam “wherein life was promised to Adam; and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience” (WCF 7.2). Significantly, and in contrast to the teaching of Rome, Adam had the power and ability to obey the law prior to the fall (WCF 4.2; 19.1). Furthermore, original righteousness was part of his nature, created as it was in the image of God (WCF 4.2; 6.2). It was not, as the Roman Catholic Church taught, a superadded gift added to his nature.

Because of man’s fall, he is no longer able to obey the law perfectly and thus no longer able to fulfill the terms of the first covenant. God, therefore,

was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein he freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe. (WCF 7.3)

The only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, was ordained from all eternity to be the one Mediator between God and man (WCF 8.1). He was ordained to save His people, those whom God, out of His free grace and love, chose in Christ “before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will” (WCF 3.5).

The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience, and sacrifice of himself, which he, through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him. (WCF 8.5)

The purchased redemption is applied by Christ to all the elect throughout history (WCF 8.8).

Because fallen man is in a state of sin and death, and not merely wounded or sick, he is unable to do anything to receive the purchased redemption on his own. God, therefore, effectually calls the elect out of death just as Christ called Lazarus out of the tomb. He regenerates them, giving them spiritual life and drawing them to Jesus Christ (WCF 10.1). Those whom God calls, He freely justifies. They are justified, or declared righteous, not on the basis of any works of their own, but on the grounds of the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone (WCF 11.1; 14.2). Those who are effectually called and justified are also sanctified throughout their life:

The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified; and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. (WCF 13.1; see also16.1–7)

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformed churches also taught that

They, whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved. (WCF 17.1)

In our next article, we will look at the way in which some Reformed theologians in the Netherlands became dissatisfied with Reformed confessional theology and began to move that theology back in the direction of Rome. We will also look at the Reformed church’s response at the Synod of Dordt.