The sixteenth century Protestant Reformation called into question various aspects of late medieval Church teaching having to do with the nature of the Church, the sacraments, and the relationship between the authority of Scripture and the authority of Church tradition. Arguably the biggest issue that eventually divided Protestantism from Roman Catholicism, though, had to do with soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). Against the late medieval idea that one had to merit (with the help of God’s grace) one’s justification before God with good works, the Protestant Reformers argued that the Christian is justified before God by grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone. Our good works cannot save us, they argued, but only faith in Christ’s atoning work.
Justification by faith alone became one of the cornerstones of classical Protestantism. Today, many Protestants would say that the central point of Christianity is justification by faith. Many would even equate the Gospel with “justification by faith.” However, a careful examination of the teachings of the New Testament as a whole will show that discipleship to Jesus, not justification by faith, is the most fundamental aspect of what it means to be a Christian.
When Jesus gave His “Great Commission” to His Church, He told them, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). Note that Jesus did not tell us to make converts or believers, but to make disciples. According to Jesus, we do this by baptizing people into the Christian community, and then teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded His followers.
The way many Protestants talk, it’s as if they think Jesus’s Great Commission was, “Go and get people to believe that I died on a cross for their sins so they can be justified by faith alone.” Many Protestants regard Jesus’s moral teachings as merely a way for us to be driven to despair of meeting God’s standards, so that we can then turn to believing in Jesus’s atoning death. But Jesus tells us clearly that all members of the Church, all Christians, are supposed to be disciples who are taught to obey everything He commanded, including all of His moral teachings. According to Jesus, His Church is not just a collection of people that believe certain doctrines, but a community of disciples who actually seek to live their lives according to His moral teachings.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus makes it clear that being one of His disciples does not just mean believing certain things about Him. Rather, becoming a disciple of Jesus is a radical decision that involves a radical, costly commitment to following His way of life (Matt 7:21-23, 16:24-27; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 9:23-26, 14:26-34). It is this theme of discipleship to a crucified Messiah, rather than the theme of justification by faith, which is central to the Gospels.
Justification by faith is certainly an important theme in Paul’s epistles. However, it is not the central point of Paul’s theology. The central point of Paul’s theology is this: the Creator God had a plan to renew His Fallen creation through His covenant people, Israel. This plan has been derailed by His covenant people’s unfaithfulness. But, through what Jesus the Messiah has done, His people can be forgiven and renewed, becoming agents of God’s reconciling work. In fact, all people are now able, through Jesus, to become part of God’s covenant people and become agents of God’s reconciling work. Through His people, the Church, God will then bring blessing to all of His creation, as humanity will finally be able to rightly carry out its vocation of ruling over creation as God’s representatives.
Being justified by faith is how we begin the process of becoming participants in this amazing story of God’s relationship with His creation through His covenant people. But justification is just the beginning. It is not the central point of being a Christian. Paul makes it very clear that being active and obedient disciples of Jesus as participants in God’s Kingdom is not at all an optional part of being a Christian (Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5: 3-9). For Paul just as much as for Jesus, being a Christian means being a disciple, someone who, as part of the body of Christ, actively seeks to live out the Jesus way of life.
Paul focuses on the theme of justification by faith in Christ in order to refute the “circumcision party,” who claimed that one could only be justified and considered a true member of God’s people by being circumcised and following all the regulations of the Torah. For Paul, this was deeply problematic, since it created a wall of division between Jewish and Gentile Christians, creating a barrier to God’s plan to graft all people into His redeemed covenant people through Jesus. Therefore, Paul strongly affirmed that Christians are justified and considered true members of God’s people by faith in Jesus the Messiah alone, not by the works of the Law (i.e,. The Torah). In saying this, Paul did not at all intend to say that obedient discipleship to Jesus was not centrally important to being a Christian. Rather, he intended to emphasize that faith in the Messiah, not Torah observance, is now what defines membership in God’s covenant people.
Outside of Paul’s epistles, the rest of the New Testament does not speak much of the theme of justification by faith. But it does often speak of the theme of discipleship. The epistle of James entirely focuses on moral instruction for the early Christian community, and teaches that “faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless” (2: 17). 1 Peter focuses on the importance of living obediently, even if it means suffering as the crucified Christ suffered (2:20-25, 3:13-4:1, 4:12-19). 1 John speaks of Christians as “children of God” who are loved by God and love Him, strongly linking love and obedience: “This is the love for God: to keep His commands” (5:3). “We can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth” (2:3-4). The book of Hebrews speaks of “the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds” (6: 1) as one of the basics of the faith, urges its audience to steadfast endurance and obedience in the face of suffering as they follow Jesus, and commands, “work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not seek the Lord” (12:14). Like Hebrews, Revelation urges its audience to steadfast endurance and obedience in the face of suffering as they follow Jesus, and warns that lukewarmness in obedience will not be tolerated by Jesus (2:4-5, 3:15-19).
If we look at the New Testament as a whole, it is clear that discipleship to Jesus is what is most fundamental and basic to Christian identity. Justification by faith is an important, but secondary issue. The idea some Protestants have of Christians being forgiven by faith in Christ’s atoning work alone, and then perhaps (or perhaps not) obeying Him a little out of gratitude simply does not exist anywhere in the New Testament. Rather, it is only as we truly seek to follow and obey Jesus as His disciples that we can say we are justified by faith.
The Christian Gospel cannot be equated with the doctrine of justification by faith. Rather, the Christian Gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ has defeated the powers of evil through His death and resurrection and is reigning now as Lord of the whole world, and that God is making all things new through Him; therefore, all people everywhere are called to repent of their sins and submit to His Lordship. Those who do so, those who become His disciples are, of course, forgiven their sins through Christ’s atoning work on the cross. They should confess that they are justified before God by faith in Christ rather than by their own merit. But justification by faith is not the Gospel. It is a secondary matter.
The Protestant Reformers were right to object to the late medieval idea that one could merit one’s salvation through good works, and to insist that Christians are justified by faith alone. However, the doctrine of justification by faith has often been overemphasized in the Protestant tradition. A careful examination of the teachings of the New Testament will show that discipleship, not justification by faith, is the central point of being a Christian.
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