Justification by Faith and the Anxious Narcissism of Today
The 16th century Protestants understood the Christian gospel to say that we do nothing; God does everything. We add nothing to the sufficiency of God’s saving work, not even our faith. “Just lift your sorry heads and look at the bronze serpent held high in the crowd of sick and dying people and you will be saved” (Nu 21:6-9)! Five hundred years ago, when they began to read the Bible, the original ad fontes source, they quickly discovered the Bible’s central teaching: justification by faith. What this means, of course, is justification by Grace received by faith.
Martin Luther famously said that “Justification is the article by which the church stands or falls.” Article XI (“On the justification of man”) calls justification the ‘most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort.” And Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker, said, “The grand question, which hangeth yet in the controversy between us and the Church of Rome is about the matter of justifying righteousness.”
Phillip Cary, who teaches at the Templeton Honors College and Eastern University, points out the way we water down and pervert the glorious redemption brought to us by Jesus Christ by making it about us - our anxious narcissism. He writes about how we make faith about our faithfulness, rather than trusting in the faithfulness of God.
“Making the Gospel central decenters the doctrine of justification by faith alone, precisely by locating its center in Christ, not in our faith or our justification. After all, what the doctrine teaches is that we are justified simply by faith in the Gospel, not by faith in faith nor by faith in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. So you don’t have to believe in justification by faith alone in order to be justified by faith alone. Justification is what happens simply because, as Christians have always done, you believe in the Gospel that gives you Christ. What believing the Protestant doctrine of justification adds to this is a measure of self-understanding and assurance. I really can count on Christ alone to be my savior, because it is not what I do but what he does that saves and justifies me, and he has indeed promised to save and justify me. Therefore I am free to confess myself a sinner and repent of my sins - even my sins of unbelief - without fear that my sin and unbelief merely prove that I am not a Christian, that I am lost and damned. It is great consolation not to have to put faith in my good works or even in my own faith.”