Calvin on the Ambiguity of "Faith Without Works Justifies"

How God justifies us without works, yet faith always produces good works.

John Calvin, sometime before his death in 1564, wrote his most careful and articulate presentation of justification by faith in his commentary on Ezekial 18:17. The reformer did so by pointing out that the phrase “faith without works justifies” is ambiguous since it can be true or false depending on whether the phrase “without works” adverbially modifies the verb “justifies” or adjectively describes the noun “faith” (Gaffin, Word & Spirit, 2023: 648).

I recognize that might be hard to track. So let me break down Calvin’s view of the phrase “faith without works justifies” from his commentary on Ezekiel and also his general view of faith, justification, and works from his Institutes.

“The faithful are esteemed just even in their deeds”

To understand Calvin’s claim that “faith without works justifies” can be true or false depending on whether “without works” is adverbial or adjectival, we need to understand his broader doctrine of justification.

First, Calvin defines “justification simply as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favour as righteous men. And we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness” (ICR 3.11.2). This imputation flows from our union with Christ: “our righteousness is not in us but in Christ, that we possess only because we are partakers in Christ” (ICR 3.11.23; also 3.17.8). And: “in some wonderful manner, he pours into us enough of his power to meet the judgment of God” (ICR 3.11.23). By “meet the judgment of God,” Calvin means satisfy, as in make satisfaction (ICR 3.11.2). We partake of Christ in this way, Calvin explains, by faith (e.g., ICR 3.11.2)

Second, Calvin not only teaches that God justifies us by imputing Christ’s righteousness to us, but he also affirms that God reckons our imperfect good works as righteous as well: “the good works done by believers are accounted righteous, or, what is the same thing, are reckoned as righteous” (ICR 3.17.8). This is because the good works believers do, while not meritorious, can be thought of as imperfect yet “covered by Christ’s perfection” and forgiveness (ICR 3.17.8). By being in Christ, God not only reckons Christ’s righteousness as ours, but he also reckons our imperfect good works as righteous by being in Christ.

This, Calvin brings up again in his commentary on Ezekiel 18:17 when he writes:

“​​When therefore, we say that the faithful are esteemed just even in their deeds this is not stated as a cause of their salvation, and we must diligently notice that the cause of salvation is excluded from this doctrine; for, when we discuss the cause, we must look nowhere else but to the mercy of God, and there we must stop. But although works tend in no way to the cause of justification, yet, when the elect sons of God were justified freely by faith, at the same time their works are esteemed righteous by the same gratuitous liberality.”

Note first that Calvin says the deeds or works of the faithful are “esteemed righteousness” by “the same gratuitous liberality” that God gives in our free justification by faith. Second, these works or deeds do not cause our salvation. Third, the cause of our salvation or justification is God’s mercy (not works).

Put simply, Calvin argues that:

• God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us by our partaking of him by faith (e.g., ICR 3.11.2–3)

• God also reckons our imperfect and non-meritorious works as righteous by the same gratuitous grace (ICR 3.17.8; Comm on Ezekiel 18:7)

With these distinctions in mind, Calvin turns to faith and works and the grammatical ambiguity of the phrase “faith without works justifies.”

Faith without works justifies: true and adverbial

Immediately after his above comments on the cause of justification, Calvin explains:

“Thus it still remains true, that faith without works justifies, although this needs prudence and a sound interpretation; for this proposition, that faith without works justifies is true and yet false, according to the different senses which it bears.

The proposition, that faith without works justifies by itself, is false, because faith without works is void. [taking the phrase “without works” in the adjectival sense, describing the noun “faith”]

But if the clause ‘without works’ is joined with the word ‘justifies,’ the proposition will be true. [taking the phrase “without works” in the adverbial sense, modifying the verb “justifies”]

Therefore faith cannot justify when it is without works, because it is dead, and a mere fiction. He who is born of God is just, as John says (1 John 5:18). Thus faith can be no more separated from works than the sun from his heat: yet faith justifies without works, because works form no reason for our justification; but faith alone reconciles us to God, and causes him to love us, not in ourselves, but in his only-begotten Son.”

God justifies us without works. That is true. Faith justifies; this justification is without works. This is without-works-justification. God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us and pardons us without works.

Faith without works justifies: false and adjectival

But, Calvin points out, “faith cannot justify when it is without works, because it is dead, and a mere fiction.” “In this passage,” Richard Gaffin explains, “Calvin is on the proverbial razor’s edge, where we occasionally find ourselves in sound theologizing faithful to Scripture. Certainly, he is not saying here what he emphatically and repeatedly denies elsewhere, that I must do a certain amount of good works or obey God for a certain amount of time before I can be justified or be sure I am justified” (Faith & Spirit 2013: 648).

So what does he mean? Gaffin writes, “his comments highlight that even in its initial exercise justifying faith is inherently disposed to obedience and good works, which are bound to come to expression, however imperfectly, over time” (2013: 648). Gaffin then situates Calvin’s view within the Westminster Confession of Faith 11:2, which I will quote in full here:

“Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.” (WCF 11:2)

Faith here is “the alone instrument of justification,” yet that faith is “not alone in the person justified.” This faith “is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.”

Gaffin notes that the WCF cites Galatians 5:6 in evidence of this claim, which says: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” In other words, only faith working through love counts for anything.

And that seems to be not only what WCF 11:2 is saying but also Calvin. Or in his own words: “faith can be no more separated from works than the sun from his heat: yet faith justifies without works, because works form no reason for our justification; but faith alone reconciles us to God, and causes him to love us, not in ourselves, but in his only-begotten Son.”

Practical conclusions

Catholics sometimes accuse Protestants of cheap grace or ignoring the biblical commands to good works. But neither Calvin nor the rest of the Reformed do so. They instead affirm that Christ’s merit alone justifies us by faith, which faith necessarily begets good works.

Calvin, for example, interprets James chapter 2 as “demanding of believers a righteousness fruitful in good works.” In other words, “James does not allow those who lack good works to be reckoned righteous” (ICR 3.17.12). So “a believer … declares his righteousness by good works” (ICR 3.17.12). In this sense, for Calvin, good works are necessary.

But they are necessary not as the cause or reason of our justification. Faith is fruitful in good works. Hence, “faith cannot justify when it is without works, because it is dead, and a mere fiction.” Yet is this not what James clearly says? “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Can a dead faith save? It was never alive to begin with. Thus, it cannot.

A living faith must be alive, and so James says, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). This showing demonstrates already existing faith; faith that demonstrates itself in good works, that is, a lively faith.

Again, since for Calvin, God reckons us righteous in Christ and even reckons our imperfect good works as righteous, it is not as if we can say our good works save us. Rather, the alone instrument of our justification is faith; and Christ’s imputed righteousness alone merits our justification; and all good works that show our faith have zero merit in them. They are the flowering of faith, but they are not the cause of our justification. That alone remains Christ’s imputed merits.

But faith remains fruitful in good works. Gaffin explains, “Calvin accents how inseparable, yet distinct, good works are from faith as the alone instrument of justification” (2023: 648). And so Gaffin concludes his article, “Such works—it is surely true to Calvin to add—are necessary as ‘the fruits and evidences of a true and lively [that is, justifying] faith’ (WCF, 16:2)” (2023: 649).

It is hard to disagree with Gaffin’s appraisal of Calvin, whose view, I would add, agrees with many Reformational and post-Reformation theologians.

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To learn more about this topic, read the following resources:

Mark Jones on future Justification in Goodwin.

Mark Jones on Works and the Continuation of Justification.

Wyatt Graham on whether the Reformed taught justification by works.

Wyatt Graham on imputed and inherent righteousness in early Reformed thought.

Wyatt Graham on Petrus van Mastricht’s view of good works as a way to life and continuation of justification.

Wyatt Graham on Thomas Goodwin’s double justification.

Note: Gaffin describes Calvin as seeing the phrase “faith without works justifies” as ambiguous, and I have used that as part of my title for that reason (2013: 648).