William Perkins (1558–1602), the “father of Puritanism,” was a very influential early Reformed theologian both in Elizabethan England and beyond. Perkins lived and preached in a time of turmoil. In particular, Roman Catholics had made numerous attempts to regain England for the papacy, both at the political and at the theological levels. One vital question in this time was surrounding justifying faith—is it a faith formed by love or an instrument in justification?
A Living Faith: A Faith Formed by Love
The late R. C. Sproul stated, “[T]he best way to understand Reformed theology is to see it in the background of classical Roman Catholic theology.” It is important to understand how Perkins defined the Roman Catholic position on justification so we can better hear Perkins’s exegetical defense of Sola Fide. Perkins wrote that for Rome the “first” justification contained two parts: “pardon of sin by the death of Christ, and the infused habit of charity. The second is by works, which (they say) do meritoriously increase the first justification and procure eternal life.”[1] In short, this “infused habit of charity” in Roman Catholic theology according to Perkins, is a faith formed by love which increases one’s justification unto everlasting life. For Perkins, the faith that justifies for Rome has an addition or mixture.[2] On account of this addition or mixture of love, then, one is justified by an inherent righteousness because love is what is wrought inside us. It is a work done by the person even if it is done in cooperation with grace or even with Christ’s work in us.[3]
The Exclusive Particle
Throughout his works Perkins objected to the idea that one was justified by a mixed faith. On the contrary, faith was to be regarded as an instrument “to apprehend and apply that which justifies, namely, Christ and His obedience.”[4] Perkins saw justifying faith as a “hand of the soul” which receives Christ, as communicated in passages such as Romans 3:21, 4:5, and 10:5.[5] In others words, we are justified because of Christ and we receive him through faith. “[F]aith does not cause, effect, or procure our justification and salvation, but, as the beggar’s hand, it receives them, being wholly wrought and given of God.”[6]
Perkins’s Roman Catholic opponents turned to Galatians 5:6 as their locus classicus. This text was also discussed at the Regensburg Colloquy of 1541. The outcome of the Colloquy threatened to undermine the Protestant doctrine of justification, since the attempted compromise formulated two grounds of justification: Christ’s imputed righteousness and the righteousness wrought in the believer.[7] Regensburg Article 5 states, “Therefore the faith that truly justifies is that faith which is effectual through love [Gal. 5:6].”[8] Perkins was aware of Article 5 and debated Rome’s interpretation of Galatians 5:6 in much the same way as Calvin and Luther had done before him. For Luther, Calvin, and Perkins Galatians 5:6 teaches how the justified should live as Christians, not how they are justified before God.[9] In other words, Galatians 5:6 was not teaching the cause of justification, but rather how the already justified-sinner is to live in godliness. And this living in godliness in no way contributes or adds to one’s justification. Perkins concluded, “[L]ove is not made an impulsive cause to move God to pardon our sins, but only a sign to show and manifest that God had already pardoned them (Luke 7:47, 1 John 3:14).”[10]
Roman Catholics claimed that the term “alone” was not present in the Greek text when it came to Romans 3:28, etc. and had to be read into those passages by the Reformers. Perkins responded: “Paul here in Romans 3:28 teaches that faith apprehends Christ for righteousness ‘without the law’ that is, without anything that the law requires at our hands.” This was Rome’s grave oversight since the exclusive particle “without the law” was synonymous with the word alone.[11]Romans 3:21 was one of the many other exclusive forms of speech in Scripture where “righteousness is revealed without the law.”[12] These exclusive forms of speech found in the pages of Holy Writ communicated that “We are justified freely, not of the law, not by the law, without the law, without works, not of works, not according to works, not of us, not by the works of the law, but by faith.”[13] The exclusive particle, according to Perkins communicated three things. First, “nothing within us is an efficient or meritorious cause.” Second, “nothing within us is an instrument or means to apply the obedience of Christ unto us but faith which is ordained by God to be a hand to receive the free favor of God in the merit of Christ.” Third, “our renovation or sanctification is no matter, form, or part of our justification, but that it wholly stands in the imputation of the justice [righteousness] of Christ.”[14]
Conclusion
For Perkins, a faith formed by love looks inside oneself for self-justification, while faith alone as instrument rests and looks outside oneself to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ alone.[15] This is the human tendency to look within, to our works, to our own inherent righteousness, which is but filthy rags; this is the cor incurvatus ad se: the heart curved in upon itself. So what then is the answer to this desire to look within? The only answer for us rebels is to trust the God and man, Jesus Christ and His finished work outside of us. The only way for sinners to be right before God is to rest “upon a righteousness out of ourselves in the person of Christ, which is His obedience and suffering” said Perkins.
Inwoo Lee (BA, UCSD) earned his MA (Historical Theology) in 2020 from Westminster Seminary California. He teaches Bible and theology at a Christian school located in the Greater Seoul area in South Korea where he resides with his wife Holly.
[1] Perkins, The True Gain, in The Works of William Perkins, 9:61.
[2] Perkins, Commentary on Galatians, in Works, 2:111, 324–325.
[3] In Chapter XVI, the Council of Trent made this case: “Thus, neither is our own justice established as our own from ourselves, nor is the justice of God ignored or repudiated, for that justice which is called ours, because we are justified by its inherence in us, that same is [the justice] of God, because it is infused into us by God through the merit of Christ.”
[4] Perkins, A Golden Chain, in Works, 6:236; Perkins, Commentary on Galatians, in Works, 2:122.
[5] Perkins, Exposition upon the Whole Epistle of Jude, in Works, 4:34.
[6] Perkins, Commentary on Galatians, in Works, 2:177–178. Perkins here is similar with Luther’s comments on Galatians 2:16; 3:12, and 3:25. Luther used this language of holding, laying hands on, and grasping. He wrote, “Therefore, it is faith alone grasping onto Him, which justifies (Ergo sola fides hoc apprehendens justificat),” “Faith says yes to the promise and grasps it,” “Therefore this glorious victory, purchased for us by Christ, is not obtained by means of any of our works but by faith alone grasping unto Him (sed sola fide apprehenditur).” Martin Luther, Martin Luther’s Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (1535), trans. Haroldo Camacho (Irvine: 1517 Publishing, 2018), 115, 237, 325. Further, faith is defined by Reformer Johannes Wollebius (1589–1629): “The form of faith, for purposes of teaching, may be described under three heads: knowledge [notitia], assent [assensus], and trust [fiducia]. Knowledge is understanding of those things that are necessary for salvation. Assent means that whatever is taught by the word of God is firmly believed to be true. Trust is that [aspect of faith] by which each of the faithful applies evangelical promises to himself.”Johannes Wollebius, Compendium of Christian Theology in J. W. Beardslee, ed. and trans., Reformed Dogmatics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 162–163.
[7] Anthony S. Lane, The Regensburg Article 5 on Justification: Inconsistent Patchwork or Substance of True Doctrine?, 1.
[8] Lane, Regensburg Article 5 on Justification, 183.
[9] Lane, Regensburg Article 5 on Justification, 36; Luther, Martin Luther’s Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (1535), 428–31; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans. William Pringle, (Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1948), 152. Perkins, Commentary on Galatians, in Works, 2:333.
[10] Perkins, Reformed Catholic, in Works, 7:43–44.
[11] Perkins, The True Gain in Works, 9:65.
[12] Perkins, Commentary on Galatians, in Works, 2:333.
[13] Perkins, A Reformed Catholic, in Works, 7:45.
[14] Perkins, Reformed Catholic, in Works, 7:43–44.
[15] Perkins, A Golden Chain, in Works, 6:233. Emphasis mine.
