Jesus Canceled Your Debt! By Pastor Jon D. Buchholz
In nomine Jesu
Objective justification under attack
A dispute has arisen among Lutheran theologians regarding the doctrine of justification. The specific question deals with the completeness of justification at Christ’s cross and empty tomb, as well as the role of faith in justification. Did God justify the world objectively, apart from the faith that receives it subjectively? Or is God’s justification only effected when an individual trusts the promise of forgiveness? Is there only one justification—that which is a completed reality by the work of Christ and received by faith? Or is the distinction between objective and subjective justification practically teaching two justifications which are separate and distinct from one another? Is justification complete apart from faith? Or is justification only completed when faith is added?
We maintain:
God forgave the sin of the world by removing the sin of the world and placing it upon Christ. The world’s debt has been paid in full and canceled by Christ (universal forgiveness).
In the cross and empty tomb of Christ, God really has acquitted the world of sin, so that in Christ Jesus the world’s status has been changed to “justified” before God (universal justification). On this basis, real reconciliation has been effected between God and the world (universal acquittal, universal reconciliation).
Through the means of grace, these completed realities are proclaimed and distributed wherever the gospel goes out into the world.
Through Spirit-worked faith, these completed realities are appropriated and received through faith, so that the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of Christ become the possession of individual sinners (individual justification).
We understand the word "justification" to be defined according to a broader sense of the term, so that it is used in reference to the substitution of the righteousness of Christ for the world's sin; the universal verdict of "not-guilty" pronounced upon Christ as the world's substitute; the achievement of the forgiveness of sins for all people; and the personal attribution of forgiveness and imputation of the righteousness of Christ through faith.
This is the position articulated by theologians of the former Synodical Conference (false - early Missouri and WELS were Justification by Faith in their catechisms). The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS), and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod are heirs of this doctrinal position (false - no the Objective Justification fanatics gradually took over). Advocates of this position see the substance of this doctrine (if not its terminology, which arose later) taught by Luther, the Lutheran reformers, the Lutheran Confessions, and early Lutheran dogmaticians. (Yes, the lying, apostates see OJ everywhere, but OJ is not in Luther or the Book of Concord or the great doctrinal teachers like Chemnitz, Gerhard, Calov, Quenstedt. OJ is not anywhere in the Bible.)
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GJ - Some in the LCMS and WELS, clergy and laity alike, are unaware of the basic lies of
- Objective Justification,
- aka Universal Objective Justification,
- aka Justification of the World,
- aka General Justification,
- aka Justification of the Sinner (Edward Preuss, who claimed everyone was justified before birth.)
