Defining Our Terms
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If we get the doctrine of justification wrong, we get the gospel wrong. Today, R.C. Sproul explains what it means to be justified, revealing where the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church differed on this essential doctrine.
Get the book The Legacy of Luther, plus lifetime digital access to R.C. Sproul’s teaching series Justified by Faith Alone and the accompanying digital style guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3657/donate
Meet Today’s Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On what basis does God ever declare a person just? For Rome, it's because they are just. For the |
| 0:08.9 | reformed understanding, the sole grounds for the justification of a believer is the righteousness |
| 0:16.2 | of Christ. It's Christ's righteousness and his righteousness alone that justifies us. In fact, |
| 0:23.6 | the phrase justification by faith alone is simple shorthand for justification by Christ alone. |
| 0:32.6 | It is Christ's righteousness and his righteousness alone that justifies us. |
| 0:44.9 | Now that's good news, and that'll be our topic today on this Thursday edition of renewing your mind. |
| 0:51.3 | The gospel is always under attack. Distortions seek to creep into the church. |
| 0:57.6 | Pressure from the world seeks to force us to downplay the exclusivity of Christ or the reality |
| 1:03.7 | of sin. When you read Galatians, even then in the early church, the Apostle Paul was fighting |
| 1:09.9 | false teaching and attacks upon the gospel. |
| 1:13.2 | It's a series like the one you're hearing this week from R.C. Sprole are so needed to help us not |
| 1:18.4 | forget the purity of the gospel and to help us take a stand against error. As Protestants, |
| 1:24.8 | we believe in justification by faith alone. |
| 1:28.0 | But what does that really mean? |
| 1:29.9 | Here's Dr. Sprawl to help define our terms. |
| 1:35.0 | We've been looking at the posting of the 95 Theses by Luther in 1517, and consequently at the Roman Catholic understanding of justification. |
| 1:52.0 | And in Luther's thesis, he brought into question the whole system of justification that was embraced by the Roman Catholic Church. |
| 2:06.3 | At this point, he still believed, essentially, in the Roman system, but questions were beginning to haunt him. |
| 2:16.1 | And among them was the question of the Treasury of Merits. |
| 2:21.6 | And the Treasury of Merit was critical to the whole concept of indulgences. |
| 2:29.2 | We know how the indulgence controversy created a firestorm at the time because the way in which |
| 2:36.5 | Johann Tetzel was selling the indulgences. |
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