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Justification by Faith

Not only but especially since the Protestant Reformation, interpreters of Paul have been keenly interested in what the apostle means by saying that a person is justified from faith and not from works of the law. This essay parses the debates over this controversial phrase, focusing especially on recent discussion and briefly proposing a constructive account. The essay first discusses the language of justification in Paul’s letters, then considers and rejects some common but false antitheses in this discussion (individual versus corporate, forensic verses apocalyptic), then explores Paul’s particular insistence that justification is not from works of the law, and finally considers Paul’s chosen counterpart to works of the law, namely faith or trust. It is here proposed that justification is for Paul part of a cluster of central topics alongside reconciliation, participation, deliverance, and other key themes—bracketed on one side by the atoning death and resurrection of Christ and on the other by the glory of God.