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Report on Justification, Presented to the Seventy-Third General Assembly

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Report on Justification, Presented to the Seventy-Third General Assembly Report on Justification Presented to the Seventy-third General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church Committee on Christian Education Orthodox Presbyterian Church Box P Willow Grove, PA 19090-0920 Prefatory Statement In response to an overture from the Presbytery of the Midwest, the Seventy-first General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church adopted the following Declaration on Justification: The Seventy-first (2004) General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (i) declares its continued commitment to the teaching of the Word of God, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms with regard to the doctrine of justification by faith alone; (ii) reaffirms that faith, which is a gift of God, is the sole instrument of justification; and (iii) reaffirms the following beliefs: a. “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone” (WSC 33). b. “Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God” (WCF 11.1). c. “Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justifi- cation: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love” (WCF 11.2) d. “Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Father’s justice in their behalf. Yet, inas- much as he was given by the Father for them; and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both, freely, not for any thing in them; their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice, and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners” (WCF 11.3). e. “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, shall join with him in the judging of rep- robate angels and men, and shall be received into heaven, where they shall be fully and for ever freed from all sin and misery; filled with inconceivable joys, made perfectly holy and happy both in body and soul, in the company of innumerable saints and holy angels, but especially in the immedi- ate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity. And this is the perfect and full communion, which the members of the invisible church shall enjoy with Christ in glory, at the resurrection and the day of judgment” (WLC 990). f. “Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always ac- company it, or of good works that are the fruits of it, nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were imputed to him for his justification; but only as it is an instrument by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness” (WLC 73). g. “Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that God in jus- tification imputeth the righteousness of Christ; in sanctification his Spirit infuseth grace, and en- ableth to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other, it is subdued: the one doeth equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation; the other is neither equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection” (WLC 77). By action of the Seventy-first General Assembly, this declaration was sent to all ministers and sessions of the Church, to all churches with which the Orthodox Presbyterian Church is in ecclesiastical relationship, and to the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council and the International Conference of Reformed Churches. It was also posted on the OPC website (opc.org) and published in New Horizons (Vol. 25, No. 8, Aug. – Sept. 2004). In response to the same overture, the General Assembly also elected a committee (of the seven members and two alternates elected, six men were able to serve: Messrs. L. Anthony Curto, Sidney D. Dyer, John V. Fesko [secretary], Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Alan D. Strange [vice-chairman], and David M. VanDrunen [chairman]) and as- signed it the following mandate: i To critique the teachings of the “New Perspective on Paul,” “Federal Vision” and other like teachings con- cerning the doctrine of justification and other related doctrines, as they are related to the Word of God and our subordinate standards, with a view of giving a clear statement to the presbyteries, sessions, and seminar- ies, and report back to the Seventy-second General Assembly. According to its mandate, the Committee reported to the Seventy-second General Assembly concerning its progress. That Assembly, at the Committee’s request, extended its mandate for another year so that it could prepare a full report for the Seventy-third General Assembly. Having received the report, the Seventy-third General Assembly instructed the stated clerk to send this re- port to the presbyteries, particularly to their candidates and credentials committees, and to all sessions and ministers of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, commending the report to them for study. The Assembly also requested the stated clerk to mail copies of this report to those churches with which the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has ecclesi- astical fellowship or a corresponding relationship. Further the Assembly requested the Committee on Christian Edu- cation (1) to distribute this report to seminaries with which it has contact; (2) to post this report on our denomina- tional website for easy access by interested parties; and (3) to consider publishing it separately for distribution; thereby commending the report for study. In commending the report for study, the Assembly approved the content and reasoning of the report. The Assembly did not take any action to endorse every word of the document or make the report itself a part of our con- stitution (which would have to be approved by the General Assembly and presbyteries in the manner provided in the Form of Government for the amendment of the constitution); nor was the document written with that purpose in mind. It should be noted that the General Assembly is not invested with power, by virtue of its own authority, to make pronouncements which bind the conscience of members of the Church. Yet the deliverances of the General Assembly, if declarative of the Word of God, are to be received with deference and submission not only because of their fidelity to the Word of God, but also because of the nature of the General Assembly as the supreme judicatory of the Church (Form of Government 15.8). In the Preface to the report, the Committee defended its dependency upon the primary and secondary stan- dards of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in writing the report. The Committee stated: In presenting this report, the Committee does not condemn all of the views of those mentioned herein, but it does agree that aberrant views on justification have been promulgated from within these circles. Therefore the Committee has sought to reaffirm the Church’s commitment to the teaching of Scripture and the West- minster Standards on justification and to identify and critique contemporary claims to the contrary from those holding these aberrant views. In the interests of maintaining the truths of the gospel and the purity, the peace, and the unity of the Ortho- dox Presbyterian Church, the report is commended to you for study. The report is reprinted here as it appeared in the Minutes of the Seventy-third (2006) General Assembly. ii Hebrew and Greek Fonts Hebrew and Greek fonts used in this document are under copyright and are used by kind permission of BibleWorks, LLC. If the fonts do not display on your computer you may download them free from the following location: bibleworks.com/fonts.html. Instructions for installing the fonts are included on the BibleWorks website. Readers of this document are asked to comply with displaying and preserving the copyright, which is stated as follows: “BWHEBB, BWHEBL [Hebrew]; BWGRKL, BWGRKN, and BWGRKI [Greek] Postscript® Type 1 and TrueTypeT fonts Copyright © 1994-2002 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. These biblical Greek and Hebrew fonts are used with permission and are from BibleWorks, software for biblical exegesis and research.” REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION PREFACE With this report, the Committee on the Doctrine of Justification presents to the Seventy-third General As- sembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church the result of two years of study of the matters entrusted to it. We pray that our work may be helpful for the church and serve to equip and embolden her for the proclamation and defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of the challenges to that gospel in the present day.
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