THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINE OF PROTESTANTISM: JUSTIFICATION BY
FAITH
"Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this
man is proclaimed unto you, remission of sins: and by him every
one that believeth is justified from all things, from which he
could not be justified by the law of Moses."—Acts 13:38, 39.
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for
righteousness."—Rom. 4:5.
These are two remarkable passages and this chapter will be occupied
with an exposition of them. Our subject this morning is, The
Distinctive Doctrine of Protestantism: Justification by Faith. The
doctrine of Justification by Faith was the doctrine that made the
Reformation. It is to-day one of the cardinal doctrines of the
Evangelical Faith. This doctrine, though first fully expounded and
constantly emphasised by Paul, runs throughout the entire Bible from
Genesis to Revelation. It is in the first book of the Bible, the book
of Genesis, that we read, +"Abraham believed in the Lord; and he
counted it to him for righteousness."+ (Gen. 15:6.) In these words
in the very first book in the Bible we have the germ of the whole
gracious and precious doctrine of Justification by Faith.