Schreiner believes works are necessary for salvation

I am just about done with Thomas Schreiner's book Faith Alone. Needless to say it is horrendous. The fact that this book was written and written from a Calvinistic Baptist point of view and endorsed by the Seminary's president is very frightening. When Schreiner says that Faith is living and active (Page 196) and throughout the book he is saying that works are necessary for salvation, for final justification (Page 48, 63, 65, 81, 84, 87, 98, 199, 200, 203) these aren't just mere slip ups. We might say a man may wright a good theological text and then might in it say one thing wrong. But the fact that he has repeated it for so much and for so long, this is not a mere mistake. He is teaching the Roman Catholic view of faith, which teaches that Faith is active our salvation. When he explains James 2, he says John Calvin and John Owen were wrong; Schreiner's view is the Catholic view. When Schreiner says good works are evidences, one should ask evidences for who? Luther himself says God does not need your good works. Does God need your good works to know whether you are believing the Gospel promises? No. Your neighbor needs your good works. Even with these they are a mere conjecture. For the question is what is a line? A line is between two points. However, we have never seen a line. Again, Schreiner says both James and Paul speak in a soteriological manner. 

Why is Justification by Faith alone so Important?

 I bought Schreiners book Faith alone. In it he says, "How important is 'Faith alone' - the doctrine of justification? I am not arguing that sola fide is the gospel, though I believe it is one element ot entailment of the gospel. Those who reject the motto aren't necessarily proclaiming a different gospel."

Well Mr. Schreiner the Apostle Paul would say that if Righteousness came by works of the law then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21) and to place one's trust in something other than Christ alone which is Faith alone is to believe in vain.

What is the hearing and doing of James 1?

 Some people teach that Christians are to not just hear the word, but they are also to believe and do the word.

But the question is what does it mean to do the word if not to believe? How does one do a proposition? if the Bible is a propositional book revealed by God alone then how does one do it other than believe it? I mean no one can do the Gospel. And no one can do the Law.

James talks about hearing and doing of the word. James 1:19-24. But elsewhere it talks about hearing and receiving the word, Ezekiel 33:31. Elsewhere, Deuteronomy 4:6 it says hear and keep. And even still elsewhere in Revelations 2 or 3 it talks about hearing and receiving.

How do we receiving and keep God's word but by believing it.

We believe what the Bible alone tells us because it is God's word. The Bible tells us who God is and what He has revealed for the Salvation of the elect alone. Tell us who we are outside of Christ and how Christ alone saves us from sin.

No doubt the result of believing the word results in doing good works. Good works follow from faith. Good works are not the belief but the results of belief, of trust, of assent, of assurance.

Our good works cannot be the grounds of our Assurance

What Lordship Salvation does and those who hold to it is that it grounds our assurance in our works. It separates the object of justification from sanctification. It is Christ's death that justifies us. It is His death alone that sanctifies us. Our works here on earth are mingled with sin, therefore, cannot be the basis of our assurance.

People who ground their assurance in their works end up measuring their spiritual life on the basis of imperfect works. It is because these works are so imperfect that they cannot be the measuring rod of our salvation. Our salvation is grounded in and by Christ alone. Regeneration, Repentance, and Faith all send us to Christ alone. The Hebrew writer says that it is by faith we see Christ. Our faith, which is passive in our justification, looks to Christ who is the object of our justification and author of our faith.

We must learn to look to Christ and his finish work for our assurance and let the good works done be whatever they are simple works mingled with sin.

No Justification because of works before grace or works after grace

Johannes Piscator, "The Apostle derogates justification not only from those works which are done before faith, but also from those which are done after faith. For he speaks of Abrahams works, which are mentioned in Scripture for to show his uprightness as that he obeyed God going out of his own country, and offered his son. But works which Abraham did beore faith, are mentioned in the Scripture, not as such whereof he might rejoice, but as such whereo he might worthily be ashamed: namely, that he served strange gods, Josh. 24.2."

By Faith do we do good works

Faith may result in action, and certainly true faith in Jesus always will result in action; but faith itself is not doing but receiving. - J. Gresham Machen

The Augsburg says something similar:
"It is also taught among us that such faith should produce good fruit and good works and that we must do all such good works as God has commanded, but we should do them for God's sake and nor place our trust in them as if thereby to merit favor before God." - Augsburg Confession, Article 6


The basic idea is that Faith causes good works. This is true.

Gill says,

"Doctrine has an influence upon practice, especially evangelical doctrine, spiritually understood, affectionately embraced, and powerfully and feelingly experienced; so true is what the Apostle asserts, that the Grace of God, that is, the Doctrine of the Grace of God, that bringeth Salvation, the good news, the glad tidings of salvation by Christ, which is peculiar to Gospel Doctrine, hath appeared to all men, Gentiles as well as Jews, in the external ministry of the word; teaching us, to whom it comes with power and efficacy in the demonstration of the Spirit, that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, Tit. ii. 11, 12." - John Gill, Introduction to the Body of Divinity, Pg. xxiii


I like what he says here. Doctrine has an influence upon practice. Of course we know that we may believe the truth and yet sometimes what is believed does not right away translate in what we practice. But the order is first doctrine and then practice. Not that we look to doctrine first and then second to our practice but rather it is the case that as we look to doctrine always that it SHOULD turn out to practice.

Christian Liberty where the commands of God do not clearly communicate

"Already, at an early date, we have taught Christian liberty from [the writings] of St. Paul. There is to be freedom of choice in everything that God has not clearly taught in the New Testament, for example, in matters pertaining to various foods, beverages, attire, places, persons and various forms of conduct [Rom. 14:2-6; 1 Cor. 8:8-10]. We are obligated to do nothing at all for God, except believe and love. Now tell me, where has Christ forbidden us to elevate the sacrament or commanded us to elevate it? Show me one little word, and I will yield. Yet Dr. Karlstadt ventures to burst out and say that it is forbidden by Christ, and considers it a sin as great as the denial of God. He is unable to prove this. Nor is it true. Is it not a woeful, pitiable blindness, so to burden souls with sin and murder them, and make laws where none exist?" -Martin Luther, Against the Heavenly Prophets, Pg. 205-206

Going beyond Justification by Faith?

"Even before the Reformers had passed off the stage, different sects began to grow up within the Protestant movement and to break from the founding churches. The sects said that Luther made a good start in reviving the doctrines of justification by faith, but they had the feeling and Luther stood only half way and that they must go on, higher and deeper.
But Luther discerned that they erred on the greater charter of Protestantism - justication by  faith - and, as far as he was concerned, if this was wrong everything was wrong. 'Whoever departs from the article of justification does not know God and is an idolator,' wrote Luther. 'For when this article has been take away, nothing remains but error, hypocrisy, godlessness, and idolatry, although it may seem to be the height of truth, worship of God, holiness, etc.' (What Luther says [St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959], Vol. II, pp. 702-704).
These sectarian teachers did not deny justification as an initiating step in the Christian life. Their error was the old one of relegating justification to something whereby the believer can make a start and then go on to higher things. With them, justification by faith was no longer the center. Their focus was away from Christ's work to their own, from the objective to the subjective." -John Robbins, Appendix found in The Holy Spirit, Pg. 102 

External actions depend on our thinking

Righteousness also requires right thinking about God. This point is more clearly seen when we consider man's estate after the fall. His duties, in addition to public worship, now include ministering to the sick and unfortunate, restraining sin and crime, and to this end establishing civil government. But none of these external actions is righteous or pleases God, unless motivated by righteous thinking. It is intellectual activity that makes the external action pleasing to God. - Gordon H. Clark, The Philosophy of Gordon H. Clark volume 7

What are Good Works?

Good Works are those that God commands us in his word to do. Nothing more and nothing less. Jeremiah 7:21-23, Deuteronomy 12:8, 32, and Jeremiah 32:35


John Calvin also says, "Now, since the Lord, when about to deliver a rule of perfect righteousness, referred all the parts of it to his own will, this shows that nothing is more acceptable to him than obedience. This is worthy of the most diligent observation, since the licentiousness of the human mind is so inclined to the frequent invention of various services in order to merit his favour. For this irreligious affectation of religion, which is a principle innate in the human mind, has betrayed itself in all ages, and betrays itself even in the present day, for men always take a pleasure in contriving some way of attaining righteousness, which is not agreeable to the Divine word. Hence among those which are commonly esteemed good works, the precepts of the law hold a very contracted station, the numberless multitude of human inventions occupying almost the whole space. But what was the design of Moses, unless it was to repress such an unwarrantable license, when, after the promulgation of the law, he addressed the people in the following manner! 'Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.'" - The Institutes, 2. 8. 5.

Calvin also says, "We are certainly bound by the same declaration, for the claims of the Lord on behalf of his law, that it contains the doctrine of perfect righteousness, beyond all doubt remain perpetually the same; yet not contented with it, we are wonderfully laborious in inventing and performing other good works, one after another. The best remedy for this fault will be a constant attention to this reflection, that the law was given to us from heaven to teach us a perfect righteousness, that in it no righteousness is taught, but that which is conformable to the decrees of the Divine will; that it is therefore vain to attempt new species of works in order to merit the favour of God, whose legitimate worship consists solely in obedience, but that any pursuit of good works deviating from the law of God is an intolerable profanation of the Divine and real righteousness." - The Institutes, 2. 8. 5.

Here we have it from Calvin that good works are  what God commands as oppose to what many so-called 'Christians' who have never read their Bibles think of good works as something done for the nilly willy of it.