Historical Evaluations of Christian Thought

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Challenging the Traditional Interpretations of Justification by Faith, the first, two-part work in this series, is now available in print and eBook formats.

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Challenging the Traditional Interpretations of Justification by Faith is a two-part work that evaluates the teaching of justification by faith from the early church to modern times in light of Scripture and the ministry of Watchman Nee (1903-1972) and Witness Lee (1905-1997). Part 1 begins with a thorough presentation of the evaluative standard by which the teachings of different Christian traditions will be measured. Following a historical overview of the major traditions' teachings on justification by faith, part 1 proceeds to give a detailed assessment of the doctrine as taught in the patristic era, the medieval era, and by Martin Luther at the inception of the Protestant Reformation. Part 2 continues the evaluation begun in part 1 by examining the teaching of justification by faith from the mid-sixteenth century to the twenty-first century. Throughout these centuries numerous accounts of this foundational Christian truth have been offered, and many controversies have been and continue to be fought. Beginning with the Lutheran tradition in the opening chapter, the authors identify the contributions and shortcomings of each of the major Christian traditions. While many of the Christian traditions have contributed some light to the church’s understanding of justification by faith, the authors contend that most of them have fallen short of the truth that in justification God approves the believers solely on account of their union with Christ as righteousness through faith.

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  Part 1 - Table of Contents   Part 2 - Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 Introduction

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God has given Christ as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to the believers for their full salvation in all its aspects, and of these three, Christ has been given to them as righteousness for their justification. Through God’s infusion into them, the believers are joined to the Christ whom they believe into, and He becomes, among many other things, their righteousness before God. In themselves, apart from Christ, the believers have no righteousness that God can accept for their justification, but through the faith that God has infused into them they are one with the Christ who is righteousness in Himself as both God and man. Since they are inseparable from Christ as righteousness, God accepts the believers in their union with Him and justifies them because they have Him as their righteousness. Thus, justification is God’s accounting Christ as the believers’ righteousness because of their faith, that is, their union with Him.