Restoring Sola Fide
God’s Word creates what he commands
In Justification by the Word, Jack D. Kilcrease reintroduces Martin Luther’s key doctrine. Though a linchpin of the Reformation, Luther’s view of justification is often misunderstood. For Luther, justification is an expression of God’s creative Word. To understand Luther on justification, one must grasp his doctrine of the Word. The same God who declared “let there be light”—and it was so—also declares “your sins are forgiven.” Justification is an objective reality. It is achieved in Christ’s resurrection and received through an encounter with the risen Christ in Word and sacrament. Justification turns us outward, away from our own unsteady feelings and limited understanding, to look to Christ. And the church must preach justification, lest we so easily forfeit the joy of the gospel. Justification by the Word inspires readers to reencounter the radical doctrine of justification by faith alone.
According to [Phillip] Cary, this unreflective faith is possible for Luther because of his belief in the sacramentality of the word.1 Here Cary echoes the work of the German Luther scholar Oswald Bayer, who claims that it was in fact the sacramentality of the word, and not justification by faith, that was central to the so-called Reformation breakthrough.2 The word of justification is objectified in both in preaching and the sacraments in such a way as to shift the focus from authentic appropriation of God’s grace to the question of the surety of God’s promise. Since the risen Jesus is genuinely present in the means of grace, he is capable of mediating a direct assurance of his justifying grace for sinners who look for him there. The tendency of believers to reflect upon and worry about the authenticity of their faith is seen by Luther as a sinful resistance to Jesus’s promise that they have already been accepted.
READ MORETherefore, instead of “justification through faith” it might be appropriate to characterize Luther’s position as “justification by the word.”
In this book, we will endeavor to show that, although it has been neglected and misunderstood by Protestants and Catholics alike, Luther’s “justification by the word” is a better model for understanding salvation in Christ. It will be argued that this is not only the case because it is more faithful to the teachings of the Scriptures, but also because it is the only doctrine of salvation that fully succeeds in de-centering the self and overcoming the self-incurvature of sin (incurvatus in se). As Luther himself observes in his Galatians commentary of 1531: “This is the reason why our theology is certain, it snatches us away from ourselves and places us outside ourselves, so that we do not depend on our own strength, conscience, experience, person, or works but depend on that which is outside ourselves, that is, on the promise and truth of God, which cannot deceive.”3
[1] Phillip Cary, “Why Luther is Not Quite Protestant: The Logic of Faith in a Sacramental Promise,” Pro Ecclesia 14, no. 4 (2005): 447–486. Also see similar argument in Phillip Cary, The Meaning of Protestant Theology: Luther, Augustine, and the Gospel That Gives Us Christ (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 258–62.
[2] Oswald Bayer, Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation, trans. Thomas Trapp (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 52–53; and Bayer, Promissio: Geschichte der reformatorischen Wende in Luthers Theologie (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1971), 240–41.
[3] LW 26:38
COLLAPSEPhillip Cary, Scholar-in-Residence, Templeton Honors College, Eastern University wrote:Jack Kilcrease has undertaken a staggering task: a comprehensive summary of what the Bible teaches and what the church in all her manifestations has historically confessed regarding the central article of the Christian faith: Justification. Lest you think a weighty tome (nearly 400 pages) on a complex topic meticulously researched and copiously documented can be safely ignored, I urge you to think again. The book is a tour de force in that it manages to trace the theme of justification in Scripture from the creation to the eschaton, giving fair consideration to each contrasting (and conflicting) view of justification that has arisen throughout church history. One consistent thread ties the whole magnum opus together: the power and efficacy of the Word of God. The Reformation was not about a doctrinal debate, but a crisis in pastoral care. Kilcrease argues convincingly that Luther’s revolutionary teaching on justification was not merely a correction of medieval Catholic excesses, but a rediscovery of the ground of all Christian teaching and ministry: the sacramentality of the Word. Put simply, the Word of God does not merely teach or describe, it creates. If you believe—as I do—that the true care of souls is a ministry of the Word of God and that justification is the ground of consolation and comfort for wounded consciences, this is the book for you. If not, you will still be greatly encouraged by a book so richly drenched in gospel promises.
John W. Kleinig, retired lecturer at Australian Lutheran College and the author of numerous books, including Grace upon Grace: Spirituality for Today and commentaries on Hebrews and Leviticus wrote:Luther has often been made into a hero of modern subjectivity, as if it's all about having faith. Jack Kilcrease corrects the record: it's all about the gracious Word of God, which gives us faith in the heart and every other good gift in Christ. For the Gospel word has the same effect as a sacrament: it gives what it signifies. Kilcrease's book pushes us in the direction of this word-centered path, which is the great gift of Lutheran theology to the larger Christian tradition.
Mark C. Mattes, professor of theology and philosophy, Grand View University; author of Martin Luther’s Theology of Beauty wrote:Given its relevance, it is therefore rather strange that the teaching of justification has recently been downplayed and sidelined in Christian theology and ethics. Commendably, Jack Kilcrease attempts to rectify that deficit in a wide ranging, systematic, ecumenical study from a Lutheran perspective for pastors and teachers to engage with people in their quest for personal validation and acceptance. He argues that justification is forensic, proleptic, Christological, Trinitarian, and verbal. It is forensic in that it is the gracious acquittal of guilty people by God in his court of justice. It is proleptic in that their present acquittal anticipates their pardon in God’s final judgment and so secures their eternal salvation. It is Christological because that verdict is based on the death of Jesus for their sins and his resurrection for their justification. It is Trinitarian because their acceptance by God the Father is received as a gift through the faith in his Son that is produced by the Holy Spirit. It is verbal because they are justified by God’s efficacious, sacramental word that not only declares them righteous but also makes them righteous. Through God’s word the pardon that Christ won for them is delivered to them and received as they put their trust in his word rather than in anything they do or feel or are.
Too many Christians wring their hands over whether their faith is authentic and thus saving. Instead of looking to Christ alone, as Scripture teaches, they seek instead to assess the genuineness of their feelings or the extent to which their behaviors are changed. Jack Kilcrease tackles this pastoral problem head-on through a sweeping survey of Scripture, early Christian thinkers and medieval theologians, and the thought of Martin Luther along with his disciples and detractors. The upshot: views of justification which fail to honor the truth that God’s word not only describes reality but also conveys reality and gives Jesus Christ for faith to grasp, fall short of a scriptural view of the doctrine of justification. Kilcrease’s affirmation of the sacramentality of the word is a perspective that contemporary Christians need to hear.
Finalist for Christianity Today's 2023 Book Awards in Academic Theology