Tag Archives: faith
The Puritans on Justifying Faith
Posted on 17. Oct, 2009 by Mark Jones.
“It is harder to believe in Christ for righteousness than to keep all the commandments, because keeping the commandments hath something in the heart of man agreeing with it, but so hath not the way of justification by faith” – Philip Henry
Goodwin and Owen both wrote works on justification (and on the Holy Spirit). There are, of course, similarities, but there are also differences. Goodwin had a special concern with assurance and his work is more pastoral than Owen’s. Owen’s work is technically superb, but I would rate Goodwin’s work above Owen’s on account of better pastoral emphases.
In his work on justification, Goodwin had a burden to maintain the graciousness of the covenant of grace. Chief among his concerns was that graces and grace had been confused, not only by the Arminians, Socinians, and Catholics, but by some of his own (Calvinistic) brethren who were heavily emphasizing the conditional character of the covenant of grace. For example, Goodwin writes: [...]
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Owen on “Lively Justifying Faith”
Posted on 18. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.
One of the biggest points of contention over the Protestant doctrine of justification concerns the nature of true, saving faith. The topic of conditions in the New Covenant also relates to this issue. In this post I hope to address both topics. In the first place, Owen asks in his “Greater Catechism”, “By what means do we become actual members of this church of God?” Answer: “By a lively justifying faith …” [...]
