March 21, 2009
Goodwin & Owen on Final Judgment
Filed under: Uncategorized — thomasgoodwin @ 1:50 am
This is a good portion of some research of mine, not in my thesis, that I plan to submit to a journal. It’s an article on trajectories in the doctrine of justification during seventeenth-century England. One of the trajectories I address below is the so-called “judgment according to works”.
The debate over justification was many-sided in the seventeenth century; and the doctrine of a final judgment according to works was not ignored by the Reformed orthodox. In fact, many of them wrote on the issue in a way not too dissimilar to, say, John Murray in the twentieth century.
The first point to make is that Thomas Goodwin does in fact affirm a double justification; the first authoritative, the second declarative or demonstrative. This is both before God and also made before the entire world by God. Goodwin writes that ‘the one is the justification of men’s persons coram Deo, before God, as they appear before him nakedly, and have to do with him alone for the right to salvation; and so they are justified by faith without works, either as looked at by God or by themselves’ (7:181). Believers, in this state, are accounted righteous through faith in Christ. Goodwin then adduces Rom. 4:2-5, the example of Abraham, in support of this justification; a justification that is a ‘private transaction’ (Goodwin’s term) between both.
However, God will, at the Day of Judgment, as King of all the world, judge men and ‘put a difference between man and man, and that upon this account, that the one were true believers when he justified them; the other were unsound, even in their very acts of faith …’ (Ibid). God will therefore make evident, for all to see, the difference between those whom he has truly justified and those who have been left under wrath, even though they may have ‘professed’ faith. One group, the justified, will hear ‘Come, ye blessed’ while the other will hear ‘Go, ye cursed.’
But Goodwin wants to do justice to James and Paul. God will not ‘put the possession of salvation upon that private act of his own, without having anything else to show for it.’ The key in all of this is to understand that Goodwin is making an argument for God’s own justification of himself at the day of judgment. God justifies apart from works, but he also will ‘go demonstratively to work’ and clearly distinguish between believing Abraham and unbelieving Ishmael. God will ‘justify his own acts of justification’ (Ibid). Or, put another way, God will justify the faith of the believer who has been justified.
The contrast between Paul and James is then brought into clearer view: ‘In a word, Abraham’s person, considered singly and alone, yea, as ungodly, is the object of Paul’s justification without works, Rom. 4:3-5. But Abraham, as professing himself to have such a true justifying faith, and to have been justified thereupon, and claiming right to salvation by it, Abraham, as such, is to be justified by works’ (Ibid).
Further, we can look at the case of Abraham in Genesis 22:12 (’now I know that you fear God’). God now has a visible demonstration of Abraham’s justification; ’so that whereas before I, upon a private act of my own, justified thee upon believing, I can now own thee to all the world, and have an evidence to give upon certain knowledge’ (182).
Here is where it gets interesting. Goodwin speaks about what sense ‘a man may be said to be judged by his works at the latter day’ (182). All those judged will either be justified or condemned. ‘So there is no more danger to say, a man at the latter day shall be justified by his works, as evidences of his state and faith, than to say he shall be judged according thereto’ (they are to be taken in the same sense, according to Goodwin).
To be judged ‘according to works’ is meant demonstratively. Christ will, for example, show forth and declare Abraham’s justification by looking to of his offering up of his son. The judgment at the latter day whereby believers are saved is termed a justification (see Matt. 12:36-37). Goodwin remarks that ‘[n]either is it anywhere said, that God will judge men according to their faith only ….’ Rather, ‘God will say, I am to judge thee so as every one shall be able to judge my sentence righteous together with me: 1 Cor. 4:5 …. the whole world may know that he justified one that had true faith indeed’ (Ibid). Again, the force of Goodwin’s argument rests primarily on God’s own justification of himself as the one who justifies the wicked.
The result of this, for Goodwin, is that ‘Paul’s judging according to works, and James his justification by works; are all one, and are alike consistent with Paul’s justification by faith only. For in the same epistle where he argues so strongly for justification by faith without works, as Rom. 3,4, he in chapter 2, also declares, that “he will judge every man according to his works”‘ (Ibid).
Goodwin concludes his argument (page 185) by using Abraham, again, as an example to drive home his basic point. That is, when man first believes, upon a bare act of faith, God justifies him. ‘And yet the case is such, as if in the future course of his life that man did not walk so as, by works and dispositions of holiness accompanying that faith, to give demonstration of himself to be a true believer, God at the latter day must recall that sentence, as pronounced upon a dead and empty act of faith. When therefore in his future course he walks suitably, he is said to fulfill or make good that first act of God; for he gives sufficient proof and demonstration that he had, and hath that kind of faith upon which God alone will be sure to justify a man, even a working faith that is lively. And in this sense is that saying of James here to be understood’ (185-86).
It seems to me that Goodwin is essentially arguing for a twofold justification. However, we must be careful what is meant by that. Principally, God is justifying himself. But, it is also true (see page 182) that Goodwin’s affirms a ‘judgment according to works’ (e.g. ‘neither will it be a sufficient plea at the latter day to say, Lord, thou knowest I believed, and cast myself at thy grace. God will say, I am to judge thee so as every one shall be able to judge my sentence righteous together with me …’ 182).
There’s no doubt Owen takes a similar approach than Goodwin. Owen is aware that some argue that every one shall be judged (and justified) by God at the last day in the same way and manner, or on the same grounds, by their works. ‘But’, says Owen, ‘God doth not justify any in this life secundum opera‘ (5:161). Believers are only said to be justified in this life apart from works. Therefore, he argues that it would be strange for God to justify at the last day by works when Scripture constantly ascribes our justification before God by faith apart from works.
Similarly to Goodwin, however, Owen argues that while we are not justified according to our works, God will judge all men, ‘and rendereth unto all men, at the last judgment, according to their works’; this is true and affirmed in Scripture (5:161). Furthermore, the ‘end of God in the last judgment is the glory of his remunerative righteousness, (2 Tim. 4:8)’ (Ibid).
Speaking of Matthew 25, Owen argues that this ‘is only of the visible church’ (Ibid). Like Goodwin, he argues that all in the visible church will plead their faith and this faith will be ‘put unto the trial whether it were sincere, true faith or no, or only that which was dead and barren. And this trial is made solely by the fruits and effects of it; and otherwise, in the public declaration of things unto all, it cannot be made. Otherwise, the faith whereby we are justified comes not into judgment at the last day‘ (Ibid) (See John 5:24).
All of this does not make Goodwin or Owen Roman Catholic sympathizers. For example, Owen’s chief polemic against Rome consists primarily in proving their distinction of a double justification to be false. The first justification, according to Rome, is the infusion of grace, through baptism which effects grace automatically ex opere operato, whereby original sin is extinguished and the habits of sin are expelled (5:137). The second justification is the formal cause of their good works (5:138).
Paul, they say, treats of the first justification only, whence he excludes all works … but James treats of the second justification; which is by good works …. Sanctification is turned into a justification …. The whole nature of evangelical justification, consisting in the gratuitous pardon of sin and the imputation of righteousness … is utterly defeated by it (Ibid).
Elsewhere, Owen argues that the distinction of two justifications, as defended and articulated by the Catholic Church leaves us with no justification at all (5:141).
There are only two ways by which a man may be justified according to Owen. The first justification is “By the works of the law” (5:157), wherein sinners are to fulfill all the terms of the law, like Christ, and the second is “by grace”, wherein Christ has fulfilled all the terms of the law on behalf of the elect (5:139). Justification is a work of God, “by grace”, that is once completed “in all the causes and the whole effect of it, though not as unto the full possession of all that it give right and title unto”(5:143). What Owen means is that a man is fully declared righteous as soon as he, by grace, puts his faith in Christ. However, the full benefits of justification like heaven, for example, are a future possession. Moreover, by believing with justifying faith, Christians become “sons of God” and have a right to all the benefits of his mediation which leaves any other justification unnecessary. Moreover, through faith in Christ believers sins are forgiven so that no one can lay charge against God’s elect, for “he that believeth hath everlasting life” (5:144-5). If justification is not at once complete, that is, in need of a second justification, “no man can be justified in this world” (5:145).
For no time can be assigned, nor measure of obedience be limited, whereon it may be supposed that any one comes to be justified before God, who is not so on his first believing; for the Scripture does nowhere assign any such time or measure. And to say that no man is completely justified in the sight of God in this life, is at once to overthrow all that is taught in the Scriptures concerning justification, and wherewithal all peace with God and comfort of believers. But a man acquitted upon his legal trial is at once discharged of all that the law has against him (Ibid).
For these reasons Owen rejects the Catholic doctrine of a twofold justification (cf. 5:159-60). Moreover, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms do not speak of a second justification but of an open acknowledgement and acquittal on the Day of Judgment. “What shall be done to the righteous at the day of judgment? A. At the day of judgment, the righteous, being caught up to Christ in the clouds, shall be set on his right hand, and there openly acknowledged and acquitted”(WLC 90).
Regarding the place of justified sinners in the covenant Owen makes several pertinent comments. The justified sinner is forgiven for all future sins, unless, however, “they should fall into such sins as should, ipso facto, forfeit their justified estate, and transfer them from the covenant of grace into the covenant of works; which we believe God, in his faithfulness, will preserve them from” (5:146). Here Owen is speaking of apostatized believers who then become subject to the full demands of God’s law but because of his doctrine of perseverance elect believers will not fall away (11
assim). He continues by arguing that because sin cannot be pardoned before it is committed, the obligations of the curse of the law are nullified in justified sinners which are “consistent with a justified estate, or the terms of the covenant of grace” (Ibid). Believers derive their security in justification from the fact that “It is God that justifieth;” And this depends on “the unchangeableness of the everlasting covenant (emphasis ours), which is ‘ordered in all things, and sure’…” (5:147).
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