http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2013/02/more-questions-answered.html#comment-form
- Brett Meyer said...
- To what Pastor Rydecki wrote I would add this observation. In his response to Question #1 the WELS This We Believe confession is quoted in which they use Romans 5:18 to establish their doctrine of Objective Justification.
"All need forgiveness of sins before God, and Scripture proclaims that all have been justified, for "the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men" (Romans 5:18)."
http://www.wels.net/what-we-believe/statements-beliefs/this-we-believe/justification
Note that WELS uses Romans 5:18 to establish their doctrine of Objective Justification where the whole unbelieving world has been justified: forgiven all sin. Note particularly that 5:18 is used to establish the objective side of the entire doctrine and not the subjective side (Subjective Justification) which they teach is when the individual accepts by faith their Objective Justification and is then saved by trust in that object.
The Catch22 is that if the justification in Romans 5:18 is Objective then the result of that same justification is Objective too. And the result is "...life for all men." Scripture reveals in the very same verse that the result of the justification in Romans 5:18 is eternal life.
To apply the justification in Romans 5:18 to the justification of the whole unbelieving world is to apply eternal life to the whole unbelieving world.
This is another example of why some people who contend against the doctrine of Universal Objective Justification believe that it teaches that the whole world has been justified unto eternal life. Individuals may confess the doctrine of Universal Objective Justification and deny that unbelievers are eternally saved but the doctrine's use of Romans 5:18 teaches that they are.
Romans 5:18, "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." KJV
