by Ron Merryman ©

It is not an accident that in the oldest book in the Bible, Job asks, "How should a man be just with God?".¹ For this is a question that has perpetually plagued mankind. The New American Standard Version asks it this way: "How can a man be right before God?" Is it really possible for sinful man to be just or righteous before our holy, sinless God?

The answer of course, is an emphatic "Yes." The Apostle Paul dogmatizes this truth in Romans and Galatians, and theologians define it under the Doctrine of Justification.

Justification is God's judicial pronouncement of righteousness: it is a forensic or legal term suitable to a courtroom and is used in contradistinction to condemnation. Justification means that any sinner who believes, trusts, or rests solely in the saving/forgiving merits of Christ's work at Calvary is immediately and perpetually clothed in Christ's righteousness and is actually declared by God to be forever righteous in Him, that is, in Christ. Paul states this clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:21: 

Justification is God's imputation of that righteousness which His righteousness rightly requires Him to require of us. Imputation simply means that God credited us with Christ's impeccable righteousness the moment we trusted Him as our Saviour.

Since justification is solely by faith alone in Christ alone and by grace alone, should we not expect it to be challenged historically; that is, again and again as time goes by? Let me state that another way: if there is only one way for a man to be just before God, would you not expect challenges to that truth?

The purpose of this series is to trace some of these historical challenges. We will start with Peter and work our way to the challenges of our own day. As presently planned, the articles will run successively as follows: 

#1 Peter's Problem with Justification by Faith: Jewish Narrowness

#2 The Galatians Problem with Justification by Faith: Legalistic Additions

#3 Post-Apostolic Problems with Justification by Faith: Mystical Sacraments that Save (2nd-4th C. Perversions)

#4 Roman Catholic Problems with Justification by Faith: A Church that Saves; Ecclesiastical Tyranny (5th C. - Present)

#5 16th C. Reformers Re-affirm Justification by Faith: Back to the Bible

#6 Roman Catholic Reaction to 16th C. Reformers: Retrenchment: Sacraments that save thru a Saving Church

#7 The Current Perspective of Justification by Faith: the Chaos of Ecumenical Evangelism

That Peter and the Eleven had problems with any justification of sinners that reached beyond ethnic Jews is made abundantly clear in the first ten chapters of Acts. Their problem was narrowness: they perceived the salvation/justification package as a gift of God's grace, but meant only for the children of Israel! Even after Peter was convinced (coerced) by God to take the Gospel to a Gentile and to subsequently confess publicly the reality of Gentile salvation,² he lasped into legalistic attitudes that brought on open rebuke by Paul.³ Part of the first resistance and challenge to the truth of justification by faith came from the very Twelve that Christ had chosen to represent Him! Let's let the Scriptures speak to us on this subject.

The Old Testament clearly taught that salvation would come to the Gentiles.⁴ Jesus reaffirmed this truth several times to His disciples,⁵ but they insisted on interpreting all this teaching through Jewish glasses that filtered and distorted its significance. Nowhere is their myopia more apparent than in their understanding and application of what is called "The Great Commission."

The Great Commission… 

• was given twice: once in Galilee, Mt. 28:16-20; then a second time near Bethany, Acts 1:8;
• was directed in both instances to the Apostles, the Eleven, Mt. 28:16; Acts 1:2-4; 
• was/is specific in its scope: that is, you are to "disciple all people/nations,"⁶ "you shall be witnesses unto me…unto the uttermost part of the earth."⁷ Not just to Jews, not just to one ethnic people, not just limited to the borders of the Jewish State, but to all!

Read the Great Commission for yourself: 

Obviously, the Gentiles were included and were to be evangelized and discipled.

Fairness dictates that at least three things were necessary for a maximal geographical outreach of the Gospel: 1) manpower- back-up, 2) financial resources and support, and 3) time. The first two of these God amply provides in the formative stages of the Church, that is, by the end of Acts 4. As for time: at least 4-5 years pass till the conversion of Saul (Acts 9), yet to that point, only Jews had been evangelized. Note how clear the scriptures are on this fact: the disciples that were scattered to Phoenicia, to Cyprus, and to Antioch, under the persecution of Saul "preached the Word to none but unto the Jews only"(Acts 11:19; cmpr. 8:1-4). They scrupulously avoided the unclean Gentiles, the goyim! MOREOVER, THE TWELVE REMAINED IN JERUSALEM (Acts 8:1)! To be just or righteous before God was fine as long as you were Jewish.

The Great Commission did not affect their tunnel vision: their interest and efforts in communicating the Gospel were to Jews only until God forced the issue.

Observe the geographical spread of the Gospel in Acts 1-10: particularly the fact that it is extended to Jewish people only except in one case, that of Cornelius.

1. Acts 2:41, three thousand Jews and proselytes from sixteen nations get saved in Jerusalem as Peter preaches on the Day of Pentecost, the inaugural day of the Church. These converts are enough to evangelize the entire Mediterranean area from which they came. Remember, they are all converted Jews. 

4. Acts 5:14, after the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, "believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." STILL IN JERUSALEM; STILL NO OUTREACH TO THE UNCLEAN GOYIM-GENTILES. 
5. Acts 5:42, after Peter and John’s arrest, beating and threats by the Sanhedrin, "daily in the Temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ:" but geographically, they were still totally focused on Jerusalem, and ethnically, on Jews only. 
6. Acts 6:7, after the appointment of deacons to tend to daily mundane needs, "the Word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied IN JERUSALEM greatly…." 
7. Acts 8:1, upon the martyrdom of Stephen, "there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Sumaria, except the apostles (who stayed in Jerusalem)…(v.4) therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." Preaching to everyone, everywhere: right? Wrong: only to Jews despite the fact that they were in Gentile countries (see Acts 11:19)! Note that persecution impelled them to leave Jerusalem, not the desire to evangelize. And the Apostles stay right at home. 
8. Acts 10:34, Peter, only after some mental-arm-twisting by God, goes to the household of the Gentile Cornelius to tell them how to be saved. His first recorded words there are very significant, " Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons…." At last Peter saw the light: the Gospel that tells a man the only way that he can be just or right before a thrice holy God is not for the Jew only, but even for the unclean and despised goyim/Gentiles. God indeed is no respecter of persons. 
9. Acts 11:1,2, news that the Gentiles received the Gospel in the house of Cornelius reaches the Apostles and brethren in Jerusalem, and Peter is forced to defend his actions. After he rehearses the entire scene, the believers there finally perceive that the Gospel is not just for the Jew only: " when they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, ‘Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (11:18). Their Jewish narrowness is finally corrected. 

First: the message of salvation, the answer, yeah the only answer, to "How can a man be just before God?", is for all who have sinned. It is not to be viewed as narrowly select in its outreach. It took a long time for the Twelve and the early Jewish believers to perceive this truth. How about us: do we think that the Gospel is only for good, meaning, nice people? A test: have we witnessed to the most foul, most obscene of our fellow workers? 

Second: the message of salvation/justification must be constantly guarded against any incursion of or subversion by works-righteousness ideas. A man is just before God on the basis of the value of the blood-death of Jesus Christ through faith therein. Ethnicity, national identity, even religion has no merit in this matter. 

Footnotes