The doctrine of justification profoundly shapes the way we view our relationship with God and our approach to the Christian life. Today, Michael Reeves describes the immense joy that a right understanding of this truth should elicit. Get Michael Reeves’ teaching series Reformation Truths on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3660/reformation-truths Meet Today’s Teacher: Michael Reeves is president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in the United Kingdom. He is the featured teacher for the Ligonier teaching series The English Reformation and the Puritans. He is author of many books, including The Unquenchable Flame, Delighting in the Trinity, and Rejoice and Tremble. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Full Episode
You will not love God unless you know He loves you first. You will not love Him unless you know a security in which to enjoy Him. And therefore, justification by faith alone must be the very foundation stone of healthy Christian living.
We've been talking a lot about Martin Luther as we approach October 31st, often referred to as Reformation Day. Luther famously wrote, "...the love of God does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it."
And today on Renewing Your Mind, you'll hear how he came to say that, as his mind was renewed according to the Word of God, and he finally understood the gospel and the truth that we are justified by faith alone. Today is the final day that you'll hear from Michael Reeves and his series, Reformation Truths.
So if you'd like this series on DVD, along with digital access to the messages and study guide, make sure you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org before this offer ends at midnight. Here's Dr. Reeves.
We come now to the wonderful doctrine of justification, the matter of the Reformation, the matter that made the Reformation the Reformation. As John Calvin put it, the first and keenest subject of controversy between us. Now justification is perhaps the ultimate example of a doctrine that quite different Christian traditions can hold to and understand in completely incompatible ways.
Both Rome and the Reformers now and then believed and taught justification in some sense. both held that God justifies by His grace through faith, which sounds like and has been taken to mean real agreement on this first and keenest subject of controversy. But justification
is a prime example of a doctrine that is susceptible to very different readings and which therefore needs to be closely defined. So let's start with the understanding of justification Luther was brought up with before the Reformation. And to get it, you really need to go back to the great 5th century theologian Augustine.
who believe that if you want to understand justification, you need to turn to the book of Romans, which you might have been expecting. But chapter 5 and verse 5, which says, God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit he's given us. Now, that is a lovely biblical truth, but it's not justification.
But as Augustine understood it, what happens in justification is that God pours his love into our hearts, internally transforming us, making us more and more loving, more and more righteous, more and more just, deified. I'm internally transformed. I'm more and more inherently righteous and holy, more and more personally worthy of heaven as I'm transformed.
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