Justification by faith and works
Outside historic orthodoxy
The teaching that a person is made right with God by faith together with his own good works, obedience, or participation in sacraments.
Also called: faith plus works, works righteousness, justification by works, faith plus sacraments
What it means
This teaching holds that faith is necessary but not sufficient. To be finally accepted by God, a person must also add something: keeping the commandments, performing religious duties, receiving the sacraments, or cooperating with grace so as to grow in an inner righteousness that God then approves. Grace may be spoken of often, but it is grace that enables a person to become righteous enough, rather than grace that declares the ungodly righteous for Christ's sake.
Forms of this teaching are found in many religious groups. It was the central question of the Reformation, when the Reformers insisted from Scripture that justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Holders often appeal to James 2:24, which says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. The Reformers answered that James is speaking of the evidence of genuine faith before others, not the ground of acceptance before God.
What Scripture says
If righteousness came through the law, Christ died for nothing.
Those who try to be justified by the law have fallen away from grace.
Wages are owed to the one who works, but righteousness is credited to the one who believes.
Paul curses anyone who preaches a gospel contrary to the one received.
James shows that genuine faith is seen in works, which holders cite as their key text.
What is wrong with it
Paul says that if righteousness could come through law-keeping, Christ died for nothing, and that those seeking justification by the law have fallen from grace. He does not treat adding works to faith as a minor difference of emphasis; in Galatians he calls it "a different gospel" and pronounces a curse on it. The Galatian teachers believed in Jesus. Their error was adding circumcision as a condition of acceptance. Any addition to Christ, however religious, makes the same mistake.
How it undermines the truth
It undermines the sufficiency of Christ's work, as though His obedience and death need supplementing. It undermines grace, since a reward that must be earned in part is no longer a gift. It undermines imputation, by locating our righteousness in ourselves. And it destroys assurance, because no one can know whether he has added enough.
How it can harm a church
People taught this live either in anxious striving or in false security. The sensitive conscience never knows peace, and the proud one trusts in his record. Believers are robbed of the joy of salvation, and good works themselves are spoiled, because they are done to secure God's favor rather than out of gratitude for it. This is why the Reformers would not compromise here.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
History
The central dispute of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 11.1; WCF 16.5; LBCF 1689 11.1; Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 62; Belgic Confession Art. 22-24
On this site: Gospel & justification
Related terms
Justification by faith aloneHistoric orthodoxy
God declares sinners righteous in His sight not because of anything they do, but only because of Christ's righteousness, received through faith alone.
ImputationHistoric orthodoxy
God counts, or credits, one person's standing to another, so that our sin was counted to Christ and His righteousness is counted to those who believe.
The gospelHistoric orthodoxy
The good news that God saves sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and freely forgives and accepts all who turn from sin and trust in Him.
Federal VisionFlagged as a concern
A movement within Reformed churches that ties a person's standing with God closely to baptism and ongoing covenant faithfulness, blurring justification by faith alone.