Paradise Lost - Universitatea "Emanuel"

56
PERICHORESIS 2/2 (2004)
CORNELIU C. SIMUŢ
the work of God, not the work of man. 17 In his A Confutation of the
Rhemists Translation, Cartwright argues that justification points to God’s
glory, and is not meant to emphasize the merits of men. 18 For example,
Cartwright mentions that Adam’s justification is placed in faith. It is
obvious that Adam could not boast of his merits but only of his grave sins.
This is why God decided that the way to salvation should be founded on
faith, not on works or their consequent merit. In fact, this was Adam’s only
chance; otherwise there would have been absolutely no hope for him. Thus,
in spite of his most serious sins, Adam could hope to be justified by God
due to faith, not works. Faith and works, however, cannot be separated.
Faith is proved by good works, which is a clear indication that justification
is followed by sanctification. 19
Justification is based on the justice of Christ and is forensic in essence.
Thus, justification is to consider or to account someone righteous as if he
were righteous in reality. In Cartwright, justification seems to be preceded
by [effectual] calling, because only those who hear the call of God are
justified eventually. Because it cannot be separated from sanctification,
justification does not only mean to consider or to account righteous but also
to make righteous. But in the end, Cartwright is very careful to underline
the primacy of justification over sanctification, mainly because the former
is totally the work of God, with no human intervention, while the latter is
only partially, though necessarily, the work of God as man cooperates with
God’s grace. Here is Cartwright’s wording:
And we boldly affirme that is more glory to God and commendation to Christ’s
justice to call and account an evil man just; than to make him of an evil one just
in the works that are done by himselfe. 20
Cartwright is preoccupied to push justification as far as possible from the
realm of human abilities. Justification is by faith alone and by imputation.
Thus, it means that God considers man to be justified. Man can never
consider himself justified in the sight of God. Faith is a gift of God, so man
cannot contribute anything to his justification. The entire merit for man’s
justification does not lie within man’s capacities, but within God’s power:
“By justification through faith alone, or by imputation, glory is taken from
men and given unto God.” 21
Cartwright further explains that imputation must be considered in
relation to the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of man does not
qualify itself for justification. The only valid righteousness of justification is
the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to man. This means that God
considers man to be righteous in his sight based on the righteousness of
Christ. Man is unrighteous, but God looks at him through the righteousness
of Christ as if man really possessed it. The righteousness of Christ is
external to man and remains external to him. There is no way in which man
could possibly claim to have even the most insignificant merit for his
justification. Only God has the merit for justification, both in considering