Questions on the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion.

Some questions are proposed on the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion  -

XI. Of the Justification of Man.
WE are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort; as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

Question - if faith is an act done by man, why is faith not a work that causes justification? Afer all faith is a work is it not?

2We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers 3and continually recalling before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your enduring hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Question - if faith is not an act done by man, why is faith required to cause justification?

Question - if faith is a work informed by charity, why does only faith justify, when faith without love is worthless (1 Cor 13:2)?

Question - if faith alone justifies, why does faith justify and love does not justify, when love is greater than faith (1 Cor 13:13)?

Question - if faith alone justifies, is faith an instrument whereby Christs righteousness is imputed to one's account?

Westminster Larger Catechism

Question 70: What is justification?
Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.
Question 71: How is justification an act of God's free grace?

Answer: Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in the behalf of them that are justified; yet inasmuch as God accepts the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.

Question - if faith that justifies is a grace and faith is an instrument that causes Christ’s righteousness to be imputed to the believer, why doesn't hope or love do the same? After all hope and love are also graces from Christ, and grace is grace. Therefore hope and love should also be instruments of justification. Why then restrict justification to faith alone as a grace, when there is NT evidence for hope and love as graces as well?

Question 72: What is justifying faith?
Answer: Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assents to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.

Question - if the pardon of sin is achieved by faith alone, what is the role of repentance as a grace from Christ? 

Question - if Christs righteousness is imputed to one's account, why is the man justified and not only his account?

Question - if justification is by faith alone, then justification can only be lost when one sin's against faith and does not believe. Yet St Paul clearly teaches that other sins exclude one from the kingdom (heaven) and thereby cause damnation. How does the Anglican teaching on justification by faith alone square with St Paul's teaching on salvation?

Gal 5:20 idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, 21and envy; drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,…

1 Cor 6:8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers! 9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to nor perform homosexual acts, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.…

Question - According to the longer catechism, justification is by faith alone, where faith in an instrument which causes the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer. What evidence is there from scripture that faith is an instrument?

Question 73: How does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?
Answer: Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it, nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were imputed to him for his justification; but only as it is an instrument by which he receives and applies Christ and his righteousness.

Question - if there is no explicit evidence for faith as an instrument, what assurance does one have that faith actually does what Anglicanism says it does? After all if faith as an instrument is merely a conclusion found by interpreting a text, it is merely the opinion of men, is it not?

Question - if the Holy Spirit dwells within Christians to help them live new life and die to sin, why doesn't the indwelling action of the Holy Spirit cause justification, rather than faith alone?

Question 75: What is sanctification?
Answer: Sanctification is a work of God's grace, whereby they whom God has, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.

Question - if the Holy Spirit is the creator, why does the new creation not cause justification but rather, only faith?

Question - if faith alone theology is problematic, doesn't this mean the Anglican faith is therefore eclectic and in error?

Question - if Christ acts a priest on the cross as a sacrifice, and as an intercession to the Father in heaven, why is the perfect work of Christ on the cross require Christ's priestly intercession in heaven?

Question 44: How does Christ execute the office of a priest?
Answer: Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be a reconciliation for the sins of his people; and in making continual intercession for them.

Question - if Christ's has priestly intercession in heaven what is the relationship to the work of the cross?

Question - if justification occurs by faith alone, then justification occurs when faith is had. Yet St Paul teaches sanctification and justification occur together in baptism. 

1 Cor 6:11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

St Paul’s union of sanctification and justification occur together in baptism in 1 Cor 6 seems to contradict the Anglican separation of sanctification and justification. For according to Anglicanism justification occurs at faith and sanctification occurs when the spirit acts within the believer. Such needs to be explained.

Question 77: Wherein do justification and sanctification differ?
Answer: Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that God in justification imputes the righteousness of Christ; in sanctification his Spirit infuses grace, and enables to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other, it is subdued: the one does equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation; the other is neither equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection.

Question - if justification is the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer, why wouldn't the imputation of Christ's righteousness rather be an imputation that ontologically follows upon sanctification, whereby the Christian is set free from sin and made holy as an intrinsic cause of Christ's righteousness? In other words, imputation should really mean grace has been infused, making the Christian holy, rather than imputation follows upon faith alone, regardless of holiness. If the latter, then it seems God is involved in a blasphemous lie of calling a sinner righteous when the sinner is not made holy by the Spirit. The confusion created by the Anglican articles requires clarification.

Question - if baptism washes away sins, why doesn't baptism cause justification, but only faith causes justification?

Question 165: What is Baptism?
Answer: Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, wherein Christ has ordained the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to be a sign and seal of ingrafting into himself, of remission of sins by his blood, and regeneration by his Spirit; of adoption, and resurrection unto everlasting life; and whereby the parties baptized are solemnly admitted into the visible church, and enter into an open and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord's.

JM