Articles
Being Justified by Faith
Romans 5
Verse 1: Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Or, literally, "Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God." Greek writers were more exact in the use of participles than we are. We would say, "Mounting a horse, he rode away;" but the Greeks would say, "Having mounted a horse, he rode away." The mounting preceded the riding. And in Paul's language the justification precedes peace with God.
To justify a person is to pronounce him free from any guilt or blame. When a man through faith puts sin out of his heart and life, and submits to the will of God, he is forgiven of his sins. He is then declared to be righteous. As no guilt or blame then attaches to him, he is justified. It is evident that in Paul's language, to be righteous and to be justified is the same thing; for he had been arguing that we are made righteous by faith, and then adds: "Having therefore been justified by faith, we have peace with God."
Paul had been arguing that we are made righteous by faith in Christ, instead of by works of the law. It was equivalent to saying that we become righteous by obedience to the gospel instead of by obedience to the law. With Paul, faith in Christ means full acceptance of Christ as he is revealed to us and the faithful ordering of our lives according to his will. They greatly err who seek to prove by Paul that we are justified by faith only, without obedience to the gospel. The phrase "justified by faith," does not warrant the conclusion that we are justified by faith only.
It is a sound principle of exegesis to find out the use a writer makes of a word or phrase, and then to interpret his language in the light of that discovery. It is not difficult to find out the use Paul makes of the phrase in question, for he uses it more than do all the other writers of the New Testament. A few of the many examples found in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews will illustrate Paul's use of the phrase "by faith." "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain" (verse 4). Every step that Abel took and every lick that he struck in preparing the altar, the wood, and the sacrifice were included in the phrase "by faith." "By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house" (Verse 7). That was a huge task, requiring many days of hard labor; but it was all done by faith. All the labor and toil expended in building that ark are included in the phrase "by faith." It was a working faith that built that ark. Justified by faith-ark built by faith. Unless a person is willing to affirm that the ark stood completed the moment Noah believed, he should not contend that a person is justified the moment he believes. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down" (Verse 30). Here the phrase "by faith" includes thirteen trips around the walls of the city of Jericho. The walls did not fall down by faith only. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land" (Verse 29). Here the phrase "by faith" spans the channel of the Red Sea from shore to shore, and includes all that was done in the crossing. It therefore includes their baptism unto Moses, for in crossing they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. 10:1, 2). So also in our deliverance from sin the phrase "by faith" includes our baptism into Christ. Proof: "For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ" (Gal. 3:26, 27). They were children of God by faith in Christ because their faith had led them to be baptized into Christ. These illustrations, with many more that could be given, show us that faith is taking God at his word and doing what he commands. By taking God at his word and doing what he said, Noah built an ark; and by taking God at his word and doing what he said, we are justified. A faith that will not do whatever God commands will not justify any one. There is more rebellion than faith in the heart of one who will not do what God commands.
(Whiteside’s Commentary on Romans).
