Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Salvation, Part 13.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

Well, today we have a very interesting and important topic to discuss.

Last time, we looked at the contrasting views of the Protestant reformers and traditional

Roman Catholic theologians concerning the nature of justification.

We saw that Catholics traditionally understand justification to be the infusion of moral virtue into us,

something that can increase over time. While the Protestant reformers understood justification

to be a change of legal status before God, which is accomplished once

and for all. Today, we want to come to some assessment of these competing views. By way of

assessment, I think that the Protestant reformers correctly understood Paul to be talking

about a legal act whereby we are reckoned to be righteous. We are not somehow morally transformed

into virtuous people. Rather, God declares us to be righteous. We are reckoned as righteous

because we have placed our faith in Christ. One way to appreciate this is to realize that the

opposite of justification is condemnation. The opposite of justification is not moral

turpitude, rather the opposite of justification is condemnation. When a criminal is condemned by the

court, he acquires a legal status that is the opposite of acquittal

by the court or pardon by an executive authority. The language of the New Testament reflects

this opposition between justification and condemnation for those who are not in Christ Jesus.

For example, Romans chapter 8 and verse 1 says,

there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In Romans 8, 33 and 34, Paul says,

it is God who justifies, who is to condemn. Do you see the polar opposites there? God is the one

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