What Saint Paul Really Said: Justification by Faith

What was Saint Paul talking about when he spoke of 'justification by faith'? Most of us think of ‘justification by faith’ as the crux of the gospel according to Paul. It is a system of salvation, in which we are saved from our sins. Because we are all sinners, we need to be made right with God in the sense of moral righteousness. Good works, not even high moral values… nothing we can do can save us from our sins. But we are justified by having faith in Jesus Christ. In this sense, ‘justification by faith’ is an evangelistic message. It is the good news that we tell our non-believing friends: that there is a way in which they can be justified by believing that Jesus died for our sins so that we can be made righteous in the eyes of God. And when we talk about righteousness, we usually understand it to mean that we are morally upright (of no sin) in the eyes of God.

The only problem is that Paul wrote about justification by faith mainly TO THE CHRISTIANS. OK, maybe the early church didn’t really understand all these things, so Paul had to teach them some basic theology. Or, could it be that the message of ‘justification by faith’ was a message particularly to the Christians of Paul’s time, with reverberations for us Christians in the 21st century?

Paul came from a thoroughly Pharisaical Jewish background. And Jews of his time believed that they were the chosen people of God – the covenantal people of God. And the symbol that marked them out from all the other pagan nations was the Law, mainly circumcision. It was their being under the Law that determined if they were God’s people, and if they would be the ones who would be saved when God announces His judgment on the world. When judgment comes, they would be deemed righteous before God. This righteousness comes by the grace of God, through faith, as Paul was quick to note when he spoke of God’s covenant with Abraham. It does not mean that one is ‘sinless’ or morally upright before God, but rather that God bestowed that righteousness upon His people by declaring them righteous on the day of judgment (based on the early Jewish judicial system). So the Jews believed that since they were the people of God, God would deem them righteous on the day of judgment. And the thing that would mark them out presently as belonging to that group of God’s people is of course, circumcision and the Law.

This was the context in which Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith came about. A number of the Jewish Christians during Paul’s time were insisting that their Gentile brothers be circumcised and to come under the Jewish Law. Only then would they be marked out as God’s covenant people. Only then, could they say that they were the people of God whom God will declare righteous on judgment day. But Paul insisted that we are all justified by faith. It is not about becoming a Jew, but rather it is by believing in Jesus. It is those who have faith in Jesus that God marks out as those belonging to Him. It is they who are His people and will be declared righteous on judgment day. It is they whom God will save.

If this is the case, then ‘justification by faith’ is not just an EVANGELISTIC message (if it ever was in the first place). It is an ECUMENICAL message. It does not tell us HOW we can be saved (i.e. not by works, but by faith), but rather, WHO God’s people are. Here we are in the 21st century arguing about who the real Christians are. Is it those who are baptized into a particular denomination or church? Is it those who speak in tongues? Is it those who believe in a particular system of salvation? Is it those who believe in justification by faith alone? Is it those who believe in Sola Scriptura? Is it those who believe in pre-tribulation rapture theory or some other doctrine? Paul’s message of ‘justification by faith’ comes clearly and strongly to us all. Just as it is not a matter of whether one is circumcised or not, neither do all these matter. Who will be marked out as the people of YHWH? Who will be the real covenantal people of God, chosen and blessed so that they can be a blessing to the world? All who believe in Jesus. All who, by faith, pledge allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. Be it Jew, Gentile, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Charismatic, Anabaptist… all are justified and marked out as God’s people.

Unlike the mistake that the Jews made when they thought that they would be saved and blessed to the exclusion of everyone else, we need to be aware that as the people of God, we were chosen to a blessing to others, just as God chose to bless Abraham so that through him, all the world will be blessed.

So if ‘justification by faith’ is not the crux of the gospel that Paul preached, what was? If ‘justification by faith’ was an ecumenical message to unite the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians rather than an evangelistic message, what was Paul’s evangelistic gospel? And what did it have to do with the gospel of the Kingdom of God that Jesus preached?