RC Sproul: On Justification by Faith Alone

RC Sproul is one of my heroes. I am blessed and thankful to be able to say that. I have learned as much from RC in print, in audio, and in personal conversation as I have learned from anyone. One of the most important lessons RC every taught me was how important it is that you turn your body on a pivot and not sway or shift your body on the back swing. Yes, as astute as he is theologically, he always impressed me with his knowledge of all things golf. My kind of man! But I digress. At the T4G Conference it was RC's charge to proclaim, once again, the indispensable doctrine of justification by faith alone. The organizer of the conference knew that no one in the past half century has articulated and defended this doctrine as feverishly and eloquently as RC. He was the right man for the job, and he delivered.
Justification by faith alone, said Martin Luther, is the article upon which the church stands or falls. While most in churches today preach for felt needs and emotional responses, RC reminded us that the heart of the gospel is justification by faith, and when that is lost or obscured what we have is what we have today - a weak, insipid, ineffective gospel where people are not justified by faith, but they are justified by death. This is particularly true among African-Americans.
Attend the funeral in an average African-American church and you will read in the obituary or hear from the remarks that the deceased professed Christ at an early age and was baptized. Therefore, we are to take assurance that he was saved and is safely resting in the arms of the Savior, regardless of his confession and lifestyle at the time of death. The reason that our churches can exist with such an understanding, such a dichotomy between biblical faith and popular notions of faith, is because preachers can preach with immunity a gospel void of justification by faith alone. Yet Biblical preaching, indeed Reformed preaching, has at the heart of it a justification that produces sanctification, both positional and practical. Could it be that the weakness we witness in the lives of Christians and the slow growth in sanctification is due to a lack of biblical preaching on the grounds of sanctification? Justification by faith alone is indispensable for our faithful living. Therefore we must insist that it is preached, that it is the warp and woof of our proclamation.

The war over justification is still raging. Regardless what some may say, the Reformation is not over. In fact, among African-Americans in our time, it is just beginning. The siren song of popular pulpits in our time is loud and seductive. Sheep are being lead astray with flattering words and flippant phrases. Yet the faithful ministers of God must continue to give a clear call and sound a mighty trumpet for sola fide (faith alone), that the true sheep of Christ may hear and prepare themselves for battle. RC has fought long and hard. May we, with like courage, take up the mantle.