61 称义——救恩是藉着信心、靠着恩典来的Justification- Salvation is by grace through faith
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to
Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
61 称义——救恩是藉着信心、靠着恩典来的
Justification - Salvation is by grace through faith
没有一个人靠着律法在神面前称义、这是显明的，因为经上说：[义人必因信得生。]（加3:11）
称义的教义——宗教改革的暴风眼——正是使徒保罗主要关切的事之一。对他而言，这教义是福音的核心（罗1:17；3:21-5:21；加5:15-5:1）塑造了他的信息（徒13:38-39）、委身与灵命（林后5:13-21；腓3:4-14）。虽然别的新约作者也肯定同样的教义实质，但是近五个世纪以来，更正教信徒所肯定、所辩护的神学术语，基本上仍是由保罗的作品中汲取出来的。
称义是神宽赦罪人（不义、不虔之人，罗4:5；3:9-24）的一项裁判行为，祂如同接纳义人一样地接纳罪人。因此之故，罪人与神先前那种远离的关系才得以永远地被纠正过来。这项称义的裁判是神公义的礼物（罗5:15-17），祂因着耶稣的缘故，赐给我们一种恩典的地位，接纳我们（林后5:21）。
神称义性的审判似乎很奇怪，因为从审判者这边来看，宣告罪人为义的判决显然是不公义的行为，而神自己的律法也明文禁止（申25:1;箴17:15）。但事实上它却是一项公义的审判，因为它是以耶稣基督的义为根基。耶稣基督是[末后的亚当]（林前15:45），是代表我们的元首。祂站在我们的地位上，顺服了束缚我们的律法，又忍受了我们因自己的不法本当承受的惩罚；因此，（且用中世纪的术语来形容），祂为我们[赢得]（merited）了称义的[功德]。所以，我们是在神公义的要求被满足，和基督算我们为义的根基上，恰当地蒙神称义了（罗5:18-19）。
神称义的判决是末日的审判，祂宣告我们在永世里的去处；又将这个宣告带入今世，在此时此地发表出来。这宣判是最后的审判，我们的命运就此决定，不管撒旦是如何地想要翻案（亚3:1；启12:10；罗8:33-34），神绝不再回头。一旦称义，就永远坚稳了（罗5:1-5；8:30）。
称义的必要途径，也就是说，神称我们为义的原因，乃是本着个人信靠耶稣基督为钉十架放的救主与复活的主（罗4:23-25；10:8-13）。这是因为我们得以称义的功德根基，完全在于基督。当我们因信投靠耶稣时，祂就赐给我们这公义的礼物，往昔改革宗教师门曾提到[与基督密契]的经历，我们就是凭此经历，领受到除此之外领受不到神的赦免与接纳（加2:15-16；3:24）。
罗马天主教公定的神学却将成圣包括在称义的定义之内，他们看称义有如一个过程，而非一件单独的，决定性的事件。他们甚至肯定地说：虽然信心对我们之被神接纳有其贡献，但是我们的赎罪与功德的功夫，也有贡献。罗马天主教看洗礼为一个领受成圣恩典的管道，并且是主要导使我们称义的起因。而任何时候我们若犯了足以失去救恩的罪过，以致失去了神起初接纳我们的恩典时，忏悔的圣礼则使我们透过赎罪的努力，可以取得适合的功德（congruousmerit），作为辅助性恢复的因素。适合的功德，有别于应受的功德（condign menrit）（注1），它是指神将新鲜的成圣恩典赐给我们，那是适合的，但不是神绝对必须赐的。所以罗马天主教的观点里，信徒是透过教会的圣礼系统，领受基督所流露出来之恩典的帮助，来救自己；而在今生，信徒通常是不会获得安稳在神恩典里的感受，但这样的教训却是与保罗所传讲的大相径庭。
注1-译者注[应受的功德]是指按严格的标准论功行赏。
JUSTIFICATION
SALVATION IS BY GRACE THROUGH
FAITH
Clearly
no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by
faith.” GALATIANS 3:11
The
doctrine of justification, the storm center of the Reformation, was a major
concern of the apostle Paul. For him it was the heart of the gospel (Rom. 1:17;
3:21-5:21; Gal. 2:15-5:1) shaping both his message (Acts 13:38-39) and his
devotion and spiritual life (2 Cor. 5:13-21; Phil. 3:4-14). Though other New
Testament writers affirm the same doctrine in substance, the terms in which
Protestants have affirmed and defended it for almost five centuries are drawn
primarily from Paul.
Justification
is a judicial act of God pardoning sinners (wicked and ungodly persons, Rom.
4:5; 3:9-24), accepting them as just, and so putting permanently right their
previously estranged relationship with himself. This justifying sentence is
God’s gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:15-17), his bestowal of a status of
acceptance for Jesus’ sake (2 Cor. 5:21).
God’s
justifying judgment seems strange, for pronouncing sinners righteous may appear
to be precisely the unjust action on the judge’s part that God’s own law
forbade (Deut. 25:1; Prov. 17:15). Yet it is in fact a just judgment, for its
basis is the righteousness of Jesus Christ who as “the last Adam” (1 Cor.
15:45), our representative head acting on our behalf, obeyed the law that bound
us and endured the retribution for lawlessness that was our due and so (to use
a medieval technical term) “merited” our justification. So we are justified
justly, on the basis of justice done (Rom. 3:25-26) and Christ’s righteousness
reckoned to our account (Rom. 5:18-19).
God’s
justifying decision is the judgment of the Last Day, declaring where we shall
spend eternity, brought forward into the present and pronounced here and now.
It is the last judgment that will ever be passed on our destiny; God will never
go back on it, however much Satan may appeal against God’s verdict (Zech. 3:1;
Rev. 12:10; Rom. 8:33-34). To be justified is to be eternally secure (Rom.
5:1-5; 8:30).
The
necessary means, or instrumental cause, of justification is personal faith in
Jesus Christ as crucified Savior and risen Lord (Rom. 4:23-25; 10:8-13). This
is because the meritorious ground of our justification is entirely in Christ.
As we give ourselves in faith to Jesus, Jesus gives us his gift of
righteousness, so that in the very act of “closing with Christ,” as older Reformed
teachers put it, we receive divine pardon and acceptance which we could not
otherwise have (Gal. 2:15-16; 3:24).
Official
Roman Catholic theology includes sanctification in the definition of
justification, which it sees as a process rather than a single decisive event,
and affirms that while faith contributes to our acceptance with God, our works
of satisfaction and merit contribute too. Rome sees baptism, viewed as a
channel of sanctifying grace, as the primary instrumental cause of justification,
and the sacrament of penance, whereby congruous merit is achieved through works
of satisfaction, as the supplementary restorative cause whenever the grace of
God’s initial acceptance is lost through mortal sin. Congruous, as distinct
from condign, merit means merit that it is fitting, though not absolutely
necessary, for God to reward by a fresh flow of sanctifying grace. On the Roman
Catholic view, therefore, believers save themselves with the help of the grace
that flows from Christ through the church’s sacramental system, and in this
life no sense of confidence in God’s grace can ordinarily be had. Such teaching
is a far cry from that of Paul.
