Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

1. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW. The Roman Catholic view confounds justification
and sanctification. It includes the following elements in justification (a) the expulsion of
indwelling sin; (b) the positive infusion of divine grace; and (c) the forgiveness of sins.
The sinner is prepared for justification by prevenient grace, without any merits on his
part. This prevenient grace leads the sinner to a fides informis, to conviction of sin, to
repentance, to a confident reliance on the grace of God in Christ, to the beginnings of a
new life, and to a desire for baptism. Justification really consists in the infusion of new
virtues after the pollution of sin has been removed in baptism. After the expulsion of
indwelling sin, the forgiveness of sin or the removal of the guilt of sin necessarily
follows. And after that the Christian advances from virtue to virtue, is able to perform
meritorious works, and receives as a reward a greater measure of grace and a more
perfect justification. The grace of justification can be lost, but can also be restored by the
sacrament of penance.
2. THE VIEW OF PISCATOR. Piscator taught that only the passive obedience of Christ is
imputed to the sinner in justification, unto the forgiveness of sins; and that His active
obedience could not possibly be imputed to him, unto the adoption of children and an
eternal inheritance, because the man Christ Jesus owed this to God for Himself.
Moreover, if Christ had fulfilled the law for us, we could no more be held responsible
for the keeping of the law. Piscator regarded the bearing of the penalty of sin and the
keeping of the law as alternatives, of which the one excludes the other. He left the door
open for regarding the sinner’s own personal obedience as the only ground of his future
hope. This view is very much like that of the Arminians, and is quite in line with the
doctrine of Anselm in the Middle Ages.
3. THE VIEW OF OSIANDER. Osiander revealed a tendency to revive in the Lutheran
Church the essentials of the Roman Catholic conception of justification, though with a
characteristic difference. He asserted that justification does not consist in the imputation
of the vicarious righteousness of Christ to the sinner, but in the implanting of a new
principle of life. According to him the righteousness by which we are justified is the
eternal righteousness of God the Father, which is imparted to or infused into us by His
Son Jesus Christ.
4. THE ARMINIAN VIEW. The Arminians hold that Christ did not render strict
satisfaction to the justice of God, but yet offered a real propitiation for sin, which was
graciously accepted and acted on as satisfactory by God in pardoning sin and thus
justifying the sinner. While this only squares past accounts, God also makes provision
for the future. He just as graciously imputes the believer’s faith to him for
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