First, It (Justification) does not begin to take place in time, or at believing, but is antecedent to any act of faith.
- Faith is not the cause, but an effect of justification; it is not the cause of it in any sense; it is not the moving cause, that is the free grace of God; “Being justified freely by his grace”, #Ro 3:24 nor the efficient cause of it; “It is God that justifies”, #Ro 8:33 nor the meritorious cause, as some express it; or the matter of it, that is the obedience and blood of Christ, #Ro 5:9,19 or the righteousness of Christ, consisting of his active and passive obedience; nor even the instrumental cause; for, as Mr. Baxter {5} himself argues, “If faith is the instrument of our justification, it is the instrument either of God or man; not of man, for justification is God’s act; he is the sole Justifier, #Ro 3:26 man doth not justify himself: nor of God, for it is not God that believes”: nor is it a “causa sine qua non”, as the case of elect infants shows; it is not in any class of causes whatever; but it is the effect of justification: all men have not faith, and the reason why some do not believe is, because they are none of Christ’s sheep; they were not chosen in him, nor justified through him; but justly left in their sins, and so to condemnation; the reason why others believe is, because they are ordained to eternal life, have a justifying righteousness provided for them, and are justified by it, and shall never enter into condemnation: the reason why any are justified, is not because they have faith; but the reason why they have faith, is because they are justified; was there no such blessing of grace as justification of life in Christ, for the sons of men, there would be no such thing as faith in Christ bestowed on them; precious faith is obtained through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, #2Pe 1:1 nor, indeed, would there be any room for it, nor any use of it, if a justifying righteousness was not previously provided. Agreeable to this are the reasonings and assertions of Twisse {6}, Maccovius {7}, and others. Now if faith is not the cause, but the effect of justification; then as every cause is before its effect, and every effect follows its cause, justification must be before faith, and faith must follow justification.
John Gill
1.) The point that is being aimed at here is that as Justification is an eternal and immanent act of God being internal to the mind of God, Justification is not an act which arises anew in God each time someone has Justification applied to their consciousness. This is why Gill can say that “justification does not begin to take place in time.”2.) In light of this we might well divide Justification into Objective Justification and Subjective Justification. Justification in its objective sense would be the immanent and eternal act of God the Father whereby He did decree from all eternity the Justification of the elect entering into eternal covenant with the Son to the end that the Son would accomplish the requisite work of atonement in order to effectuate the eternal and immanent Justification decree whereby the many would be declared righteous. Subjective Justification then would be the Spirit’s work of taking from the Father and the Son to apply to the consciousness of the elect all that was decreed from eternity and effectuated at and in the Cross. This application in the ordo salutis would follow regeneration and faith.
2.) We might be better served therefore to say not only that we are justified by faith alone but also that we are faithed by justification alone.
3.) Note the Aristotelian categories of causation that Gill lays out
a.) Moving cause of Justification = Free Grace of God
Romans 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
b.) Efficient cause of Justification = God
Romans 8:33 It is God who justifies.
c.) Meritorious cause = Blood of Christ / Obedience of Christ
Romans 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
This obedience of the glorious Son includes His active obedience (fulfilling all the law on our behalf) and His passive obedience (receiving the penalty of the law on our behalf).
E.) Instrumental cause
Here I will depart from Gill insisting that faith in subjective justification is the instrumental cause. Regeneration produces faith and faith receives and owns the subjective application of the objective justification from eternity.
On this score we must be reminded again that Justification by or through faith in no way contradicts justification from eternity. Here we must distinguish again between the eternal and immanent acts of God and His transient gifts. We must distinguish between what happens in eternity and how this is manifested in time. God declares a person to be just by equipping him with justifying faith. Whom God calls he equips. That faith is a gift of God. Faith can have no causal influence on Justification nor does it add anything to its being. In other words faith receives the blessing of justification and the enjoyment of it. Faith is the passive instrument that God gives us to accept the application of His Justification which is from eternity.
So, we are saying that faith is the instrumental cause of subjective justification without implying that faith is the instrumental cause of objective Justification. Faith receives and owns the Spirit’s application of subjective Justification but is not creating the reality of objective Justification. Inasmuch as faith is not creating the reality of Justification as an immanent and eternal act of God in that sense it is not instrumental. However that very faith, like the objective Justification it passively receives was won for the elect sinner in the finished work of Christ. In this way we see that faith has no causal influence on the Objective work of Justification as a eternal and immanent act of God accomplished in time by the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Briefly reviewing then, faith is not in any class of causes whatever in terms of objective Justification — that is the Justification that remains an eternal and immanent act of God. However, faith is the passive instrumental cause of subjective Justification in rejoicing over what is published to the consciousness of the elect one. In this sense faith is an effect of objective Justification that logically leads in regeneration to being a passive instrumental cause unto subjective Justification. We are justified by faith alone because we were faithed by Justification alone.
The previous paragraph allows us to still agree with Gill when he notes that
the reason why any are justified, is not because they have faith; but the reason why they have faith, is because they are justified; was there no such blessing of grace as justification of life in Christ, for the sons of men, there would be no such thing as faith in Christ bestowed on them; precious faith is obtained through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus.In the arrangement above we also partially agree with Gill when he writes;
“then as every cause is before its effect, and every effect follows its cause, justification must be before faith, and faith must follow justification.”
Our only difference is that we are saying that Objective Justification is the cause of faith which in turn is the passive instrumental cause of Subjective Justification as the Spirit applies the faith and Objective Justification that was won for the elect one in the accomplished Justification work of Christ.
In such a way faith is prevented from becoming objectively causal which would, if allowed, turn faith into a work, and thus deny the completely Theocentric and gracious character of our great salvation.
