Introduction

The shepherds in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) continue to make man’s obedience to God’s commands to be decisive for man’s covenant fellowship with God and even for man’s justification. This teaching is not hard to find in the PRC these days. In fact, it is impossible to avoid these days.

But what of the sheep? Are they hearing this message? And do they believe this message? This would be a most interesting and revealing thing to know. After all, it is one thing for the theologians to preach, to write, to give lectures, to hold days of prayer. But what of the sheep? Is the message getting through? Are the sheep going home with the poison of man in their bellies and in their brains? Let us listen a moment to a few things that the sheep in the PRC are saying. This is not meant to expose any of the sheep or to “dox” them, as they say today. Rather, the purpose is to see that false doctrine always finds its way home with the sheep. The lie beguiles the sheep and corrupts their minds from the simplicity that is in Christ. The lie is serious, and it is serious when men preach it. It is serious that a man speaks the lie at all, for the lie dishonors Christ. But the lie is also serious because after it has been preached and written, the sheep take it home.

And so, what are the sheep saying?

Standing in the Final Judgment with Our Doing

The following comment was taken from a social media forum, in which the participants were alternately condemning or defending a recent sermon preached in First Reformed Protestant Church. A Protestant Reformed writer made the following condemnation of that sermon and its theology:

Just wow. WOW! I read AL quote and I sit back and wonder—and I’m left speechless. The same people who left our denomination press upon our faces how “whorish” and how “vile” it was that they actually sat under David Overway’s preaching and actually taught their children the very same—that works merit—and they even shed tears over it when they talk and yet now they sit under this and think nothing? How will they stand before God one day and when God judges them what will they say? “I didn’t have to DO anything! My minister told me it was already done for me?”

[Name withheld]¹

The question that the above writer asks about people standing in the judgment is exactly the right question: “How will they stand before God one day?” The question is, “When God judges them what will they say?” This is the question! It is a question about justification. How shall a fallen, corrupt, ungodly, sinful man stand before the holy God, whose eyes are too pure to behold evil? What shall a sinner say to the just and righteous God, who hates and curses all sin with no exceptions whatsoever? Yes, this is exactly the right question. But what the sheep in the PRC are saying about standing before the judgment seat of God is chilling and heartbreaking. So loudly and clearly have they heard the poisonous message of man’s working and doing to obtain something with God that they take that message before the judgment seat of God himself. When the question is, “What will they say?,” the sheep in the PRC cannot imagine saying, “Nothing!” The writer of the above quotation rejects and recoils from this answer: “I didn’t have to DO anything.” The writer rejects and recoils from this answer: “It was already done for me.” Presumably, the sheep imagine that what must be said is this: “I did have to do something, and I did it.” Presumably, they are prepared to say such a thing before the judgment seat of God. What other answers could there be? It must be either this: “I didn’t have to do anything to stand in this judgment because it was already done for me”; or it must be this: “I did have to do something to stand in this judgment, and I did it.”

If the author of the above statement is reading this, then I urge you to stand before God today, tomorrow, at your death, and at the final judgment and say exactly what you now recoil from: “I didn’t have to do anything! It was already done completely and entirely for me by Jesus Christ!” When you stand before God in judgment, say only this about yourself: “I am ungodly.” Period. Full stop. Nothing more about yourself. When you stand before God in judgment, don’t say, “But I loved thee and did many mighty works in thy name.” Don’t say, “But I loved my neighbor and served him well.” Don’t say, “But I prayed and went to church and was Protestant Reformed” (or Reformed Protestant or any such thing). Don’t even say, “But I believed in Jesus with a true and living and active faith.” And don’t even say, “But I believed in Jesus with a passive faith.” All of your believing, your loving, your praying, your church-going, and anything else you have ever done are insufficient. You do not have perfect faith, and you never will. You have never served God with the zeal that you ought to have had. You have broken all of God’s laws, and you have a totally depraved nature that is a raving enemy of God. You have a small beginning of the new obedience, and even then the cream of the crop of the best of your good works is only filthy rags. What in the world can anyone say of his doing before God!! The only thing you may say before the judgment seat of the holy God about yourself is this: “I am ungodly,”  and that is all.

And when you stand before the judgment seat of God today, tomorrow, at your death, and at the final judgment, your only appeal may be that, whereas you are ungodly, Jesus is godly. The appeal of the child of God is this: “Jesus obeyed for me. He obeyed God in my place. He obeyed God instead of my obeying God. And all of his obedience is counted as mine and is my righteousness.” And the appeal of the child of God is that Jesus’ blood covers everything that I am and everything that I have done. He was cursed for what I am, and he was cursed for what I have done, and he was cursed even for my good works, so that I do not need to be cursed by God for any of them.

Your only word about yourself before the judgment seat of God may be this: “I am ungodly.” Your only appeal before the judgment seat of God may be this: “Jesus said, ‘It is finished’—and he finished it indeed!”

The Credit for Faith

What else are the sheep in the PRC saying? The following comment was taken from another social media forum, in which a lengthy battle was being waged whether saving faith is passive. Over against a Reformed Protestant writer who maintained that faith is passive in justification, a Protestant Reformed man wrote this about faith:

With regards again to faith, it is man’s act but is impossible without God’s continual working in us to have faith. Therefore faith is man’s but impossible without God. The credit goes to both man and God at the same time. At least, this is how I understand it.

[Name withheld]²

The credit for faith goes to both man and God at the same time? Just follow through what that means for a moment. It means that when a man believes in Jesus Christ, then the credit for that man’s faith and for the salvation that comes through that faith goes to both God and man. God and man split the credit. It means that when a man believes, then God says about that faith, “Behold what I have wrought,” and man says about that faith, “And behold what I have wrought.” It means that when a man believes, that man says, “I credit God for my faith,” and that man says, “I credit me for my faith.” This is blasphemy.

The truth is that faith is entirely of God and not at all of man. In the matter of faith, as in the matter of all salvation, no man may boast in any respect. No credit in any sense whatsoever goes to man for his faith. Faith is not man’s, but faith is God’s. Even when man is rightly said to believe, that believing is not of him but of God. “Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active” (Canons 3–4.12, in Confessions and Church Order, 169). Faith is God’s gift to man and not man’s gift to God. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). God gives man man’s believing, and man does not give God man’s believing. “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ…to believe on him” (Phil. 1:29). God produces man’s will to believe, and man does not at all produce his will to believe. “He who works in man both to will and to do, and indeed all things in all, produces…the will to believe.” God produces man’s actual activity of believing itself, and man does not in any sense whatsoever produce his actual activity of believing itself. “He who works in man both to will and to do, and indeed all things in all, produces…the act of believing also” (Canons 3–4.14, in Confessions and Church Order, 169). The Holy Spirit is the author of faith in a man, and man is not the author of his own faith, for the Spirit is called “the Author of this work” that results in a man’s believing and “the admirable Author of every good work wrought in us” (Canons 3–4.12, 16, in Confessions and Church Order, 169–70).

In fact, the whole point of salvation being by faith alone is that man might be seen to be utterly nothing and that all of the boasting of man might be utterly cut off. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). Lest any man should boast! 

The whole point of salvation being by faith alone is that the salvation of man might be seen to be entirely gracious, that is, entirely the undeserved gift of God. “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace” (Rom. 4:16).

The whole point of salvation being by faith alone is that Christ and his work might be the whole of our salvation and that not any of us or our work might be any of our salvation. The whole significance of faith is its object: Christ and his work. None of the significance of faith is what man did or does or will do. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:16).

To return to the statement of the Protestant Reformed man, there is a line in his statement that is most revealing. That line is this: “At least, this is how I understand it.” The man speaks of his understanding. He speaks of what he knows about faith. He speaks of his knowledge of the doctrine of faith. What he knows about faith is this: “The credit goes to both man and God at the same time.” This is what he knows! This is what he understands!

This line reveals that the poison of making much of man is finding its way into the minds and the theology of the sheep. They believe the things that are being taught to them. They are getting the message loud and clear. Even if no Protestant Reformed theologian has ever said or ever would say, “The credit goes to both man and God at the same time,” that is the inevitable conclusion of the theology that is being taught. In fact, the sheep are to be commended for coming out and saying the meaning of the theology more clearly than the theologians.

Justification in the Way of Obedience

What else are the sheep in the PRC saying? This email was sent by a Protestant Reformed man to the three editors of Sword and Shield:

Nathan, Andrew, and Martin–

I know you men are still claiming that the Protestant Reformed churches preach Justification by faith and works. As I and my wife read the Bible for family devotions, it has become more and more obvious to me as to what the Protestant Reformed churches mean when they say “Justification in the way of obedience”. The Protestant Reformed church does not and never has preached Justification by works. Justification in the way of obedience means that with an earnest, faith generated desire to obey God’s laws, (however imperfectly) God is pleased to give the believer the assurance of justification. (Read Romans 12 verses 1 & 2.) How much assurance would there be if a person’s only desire was to walk in willful disobedience to God’s law? You men know this is right and true. Please help your followers to come back to the Protestant Reformed church fold of believers.

[Name withheld]³

This letter is a must-read for every Protestant Reformed (and Reformed Protestant) layman. It is a must-read for every Protestant Reformed (and Reformed Protestant) officebearer. This letter simply and clearly lays out the Protestant Reformed doctrine of justification as that doctrine is understood by a Protestant Reformed layman in the year 2021. The letter is a perfect snapshot of what the Protestant Reformed man in the pew believes about justification. The view of the Protestant Reformed layman is critical. Really, the view of the layman is more important than the views of all of the theologians, because the layman’s view is the fruit of all of the theologians’ teaching. The message that the layman believes is the message that the theologians have been getting across to him. This letter shows that the Protestant Reformed man in the pew has been listening and learning. The Protestant Reformed man in the pew has been ingesting what his professors, ministers, and elders have fed him. After all of the sermons have been preached, after all of the speeches have been given, after all of the articles have been written, after all of the theologians have clashed, after all of the ink has been spilled and spilled again, after all of the lengthy and learned dissertations have been delivered, after all of the settled and binding decisions have been made, after all of the discipline has been exercised, after all of the lamenting and moaning has been uttered, and after all of the dust has settled, this letter shows what the Protestant Reformed man goes home with.

The Protestant Reformed man goes home with this: “Justification in the way of obedience.”

This is no small matter, for whoever goes home with “justification in the way of obedience” also goes to hell with “justification in the way of obedience.”

“Justification in the way of obedience” introduces man’s good works of obedience into man’s justification. It introduces man’s good works of obedience into man’s justification at the point of man’s assurance of his justification. “Justification in the way of obedience means that with an earnest, faith generated desire to obey God’s laws, (however imperfectly) God is pleased to give the believer the assurance of justification.” According to this doctrine, God is not pleased to give the believer the assurance of his justification without these good works of obedience. The believer’s assurance of his justification waits until the believer has desired to perform his good works of obedience. Only when the believer desires to perform his good works of obedience, then with that desire of the believer, God is pleased to give the believer the assurance of his justification.

As if that were not enough of a burden for the poor believer before he may be justified before God, it is added that his desire to do good works must be “earnest.” Now before the believer can have the assurance of his justification, he must have a desire to do good works, and it must be an earnest desire to do good works.

It makes no difference for this doctrine that the believer’s desire to do good works is faith-generated. The issue is not where the desire to do good works comes from, whether from God or from man. The issue is that a believer’s works are introduced into his justification. His justification and the pleasure of God wait on the believer’s earnest desire to do good works.

As proof of this doctrine, our Protestant Reformed man in the pew appeals to Romans 12:1–2. This is part of the conditioning that he has fallen victim to through the doctrine of the PRC. He views any and every text that contains a command to do good works as a command unto his salvation and unto his justification and unto his assurance and unto his covenant fellowship and unto his communion with God. He has been conditioned to read the Bible as one great program of conditions. The fact of the matter is that Romans 12:1–2 is the command to do good works because of God’s salvation. Chapter 11 ends with salvation: the salvation of all Israel (v. 26). Chapter 11 ends with God’s covenant: God’s covenant with all Israel (v. 27). Chapter 11 ends with justification: the taking away of Israel’s sins (v. 27). Chapter 11 ends with a doxology of praise to the God, the depth of whose wisdom and knowledge is unsearchable (v. 33). And Chapter 11 ends with a confession that “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen” (v. 36). Chapter 12 opens with the conclusion of all of this salvation and wisdom of God: Therefore! “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (vv. 1–2).

But the Protestant Reformed man has been conditioned to see “justification in the way of obedience” even there.

With this doctrine of “justification in the way of obedience,” no man will be justified. With this doctrine, men go to hell with Cain, with the Judaizers, and with the Pharisees. This is our Lord’s own evaluation of a doctrine that introduces man’s obedience into his justification. In Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican, the Pharisee who had a whole prayer full of good works did not go down to his house justified but went down to his house unjustified (Luke 18:14). In the apostle’s condemnation of any works-righteousness, he wrote, “A man is not justified by the works of the law” (Gal. 2:16). In the Spirit’s doctrine in Hebrews, Cain did not obtain witness that he was righteous with his offering of the fruits of his toil and labor (Heb. 11:4). The doctrine of “justification in the way of obedience” sends men to hell. And this is the doctrine that Protestant Reformed men are being sent home with.

All who believe that justification is in the way of obedience: Repent.

The truth about justification is that it is not “justification in the way of obedience” but “justification by faith alone.” The obedience of man has nothing to do with his justification. Only the obedience of Christ has to do with his justification. The believer’s righteousness before God is strictly and entirely the righteousness of Christ. And the believer’s assurance of his righteousness in Christ is strictly and entirely faith, regardless of his works and irrespective of his works.

That has to be put in the strongest possible terms. For justification it does not matter if you sin or if you do not sin. For justification it does not matter if you obey God’s law or if you do not obey God’s law. For justification it does not matter if you do good works or if you do not do good works. So also for your assurance. For your assurance of justification, it does not matter if you sin or if you do not sin. For your assurance of justification, it does not matter if you obey God’s law or if you do not obey God’s law. For your assurance of justification, it does not matter if you do good works or if you do not do good works. Justification simply is not a matter of what you do or do not do. Assurance of justification (which is justification) is not a matter of what you do or do not do. In fact, the only thing that you are in your justification is ungodly. You have no good works but only sin. You have no purity but only filth. You have no obedience to God’s law but only rank and raging disobedience to God’s law. You are the murdering thief on the cross, you are the chief persecutor of the church, you are the thieving publican, you are the sheep who wandered when none of the others did, you are the prodigal son, you are the notorious harlot, you are the chief of sinners. In a word, you are ungodly. And the ungodly are justified! Only the ungodly are justified!

For your justification it does not matter whether you sin or do not sin, but it very much matters whether Christ sinned or did not sin. And Christ did not sin! For your justification it matters whether Christ obeyed God’s law or did not obey God’s law. And Christ obeyed God’s law! For your justification it matters whether Christ did good works or did not do good works. And Christ did good works! So also for your assurance of justification. For your assurance of justification, it matters whether Christ was pure, obeyed God’s law, and did good works. And he was pure, he obeyed God’s law, and he did every good work. In justification you are given a righteousness that is entirely external to you and that has  nothing to do with anything you did or will ever do. It is an alien righteousness. It is a righteousness that is entirely someone else’s. That is, Someone Else’s, for it is the righteousness of Christ. That righteousness, which will never include anything that you ever did or that you will ever do, is counted as yours, so that God counts you to have done what you never did and never will. God counts you to have done what only Christ ever did. Christ obeyed the law perfectly instead of you. He obeyed God’s law in your place. You will never, never, never have to obey the law to be right with God. Your obedience to the law does not make you more right with God. Your disobedience to the law does not make you less right with God. For your righteousness with God is not your obedience or disobedience to the law but another’s obedience to the law. That is, Another’s obedience to the law. And God publishes your righteousness to you in the gospel and applies it to your heart by the Spirit, who causes you to embrace Jesus Christ by faith, not by works. That is justification.

Now, do you believe all that? It is too good and gracious to fathom, but that is the gospel. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:21–23).

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (v. 28).

That alone is the gospel. That gospel is “justification by faith alone.” And that gospel is the mortal enemy of “justification in the way of obedience.”

Again, let all who believe that justification is in the way of obedience repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone.

But Protestant Reformed men will not repent at my call, though it is the call of Jehovah himself. Protestant Reformed men have been taught that they must not listen to me, and they have learned that lesson well. Protestant Reformed men have been taught that the editors of Sword and Shield are not ministers who bring the word of Jehovah, and they have learned that lesson well. We are not Reverend Langerak, Reverend Lanning, and Reverend VanderWal, but we are “Nathan, Andrew, and Martin.” It is exceedingly rare that a Protestant Reformed man or woman refers to us as ministers or calls us by our titles. It is nauseatingly common that Protestant Reformed people go out of their way to make it a point to call us “Nathan, Andrew, and Martin.” Not that any of us care about a title. But the seriousness of it is this: Protestant Reformed men and women are going to their houses with “justification in the way of obedience,” and they have been rendered stone deaf to the only ministers in the world who are truly calling them in the name of the Lord to repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation.

Conclusion

So, this is what the sheep are saying because this is what the sheep are hearing. If anyone has lingered in the PRC until now, it is time to get out. Man is so ingrained into the theology of the PRC that the sheep are going to the final judgment with their doing, giving the credit for their faith to God and man, and going down to their houses with justification in the way of obedience. This is not going to get better in the days to come but worse.

The antidote to the poison is not hard to find. “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere [pure] milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Pet. 2:1–3).