The Very Essence of the Glad Tidings of Christ in the Latin "Simul Justus et Peccator": 95-Biblical Points on How Someone Is Right with God, Saints, and Sinners: A Sermon on the Scriptural and Historical Reformation Phrase of the Reformed Baptist Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone

Faith of our fathers! living still
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene'er we hear God's glorious Word:
Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
Our fathers, chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free;
And blest would be their children's fate
If they, like them, should die for thee:
Faith of our fathers! God's great pow'r
Shall draw all nations unto thee;
And through the truth that comes from God
His people shall indeed be free:
Faith of our fathers! we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife,
And preach thee, too, as love knows how
By witness true and virtuous life (TH, 487).

1.  Justification by faith alone refers to how someone is right with their holy Creator: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (three distinct Persons in One true being).

2.  Justification by faith alone is a Spirit-and-Word born faith (Tit 3:5; Jn 1:13; Rom 4ff; Eph 2:8-9).

3.  Simul Justus et Peccator is a Latin phrase by Dr. Martin Luther in Reformation history that is the very heart of the good news of Jesus Christ that meant "at the same time just and sinner."

4.  No one in the Church of Rome possesses the permanent state of justification by faith alone, because it is openly and publicly rejected and condemned in the Council of Trent.  Are there those in the Roman leadership that do not "sign on the dobbed line?"  The Lord Jesus knows who they may be if there has emerged any so far since I last heard, but we are called to a public confession and testimony of our faith.  A secret faith never availed anyone.

5.  Roman and Orthodox leaders that deny the only way to be right with God in regards to the very imputation of Christ alone by faith alone should not be in the leadership of the affairs of any "church" because they deny the scriptural essential for how someone is right with God.  Such people have no business in the leadership of the church and are self-condemned.

6.  There is a misconception among secular people that saints (that is, people in the unbreakable state of justification) do not engage in sin from their radical remaining corruption. 

7.   That is, all saints are sinners but some sinners are saints.   The Bible teaches that not everyone will go to heaven; the converted elect who exclusively believe Christ from being born from above will enter heaven not people who add something to the grace of Jesus in light of the gospel of Galatians.  Let us be careful to examine God's holy Word and believe what it clearly says.

8.  Those who deny that justification is by faith alone in Christ alone are no longer the body of Christ.

9.  Faith alone is confidence in Christ alone.

10.  The nature of faith is through the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

11.  Faith cannot come from the world, the flesh, the devil or hell.

12.  Faith is a work of God alone in man's heart by God's free Spirit.

13.  Faith is not a human work but it is God's eternal gift.

14.  Faith comes from the changed heart of man.

15.  Faith is the substance of things unseen.

16.  The result of faith is the divine Scriptures.

17.  The result of faith is the Word preached.

18.  The result of faith is the immutable gospel.

19.  The object of faith ought to be God alone.

20.  The object of faith is Christ alone.

21.  The object of faith is the Spirit alone.

22.  Faith means confidence in the writings of Moses.

23.  Faith is in the writings of the prophets.

24.  Faith is in the rational and infallible truths of the gospel.

25.  Faith is trusting in God's promises.

26.  The good kind of faith is saving faith.  That is, this kind of faith is not from man but from God alone.

27.  There is a false faith that merely attains to mental assent.  True faith demonstrates itself without meritorious works but a cosmic recognition of Christ alone for how someone is right with God.

28.  False faith is teaching that it is a meritorious work.

29.  False faith is in the baptismal waters to be forgiven.

30.  False faith comes from baptismal regeneration.

31.  False faith is in the Roman practice of indulgences.

32.  There is a dead faith that is not a living and true faith.

33.  True faith comes by the monergistic regeneration of the divine Word and the divine Spirit alone.

34.  True faith is boundless because with God nothing is impossible.

35. True faith is what God's elect people possess.  That is, anyone can profess faith, but do you really possess faith?

36.  How do you know if you possess faith?   Do you really know Jesus alone as your God and Savior?

37.   Has not the Spirit bore witness with your spirit that you are a child of God according to His mere good pleasure and outworking invisible hand?

38.  It is better to embrace justification by faith alone than embrace works of satisfaction that the Bible says are filthy garments!

39.  The fruit of faith is remission of sin.

40.  The fruit of faith is justification.  That is, faith comes by God's work in divine regeneration (apart from baptism in every way and in every sense).  We can't manifest faith through cooperative free will, because only God can save.

41.  The fruit of faith is freedom from eternal condemnation.

42.   The fruit of faith is spiritual salvation in the light and life of Christ.

43.   The fruit of faith is eternal life.

44.  The fruit of faith is adoption by God.

45.  The fruit of faith is access to God through Christ alone by His Spirit alone.

46.  The fruit of faith is edification.

47.  The fruit of faith is preservation.

48.  We ought to live by faith in the Christian life.

49.  We ought to walk by faith in the Christian life.

50.  We ought to pray by faith in the Christian life.

51.  We ought to resist evil by faith.

52.  We overcome the world by faith.

53.  Christians always die in faith.

54.  The ultimate spiritual reason for faith is not free will.

55.  The ultimate supernatural manifestation of faith is God alone.

56.  The growth of faith is to stand firm in it before a holy God.

57.  The growth of faith means to continue in faith.

58.  Christians are to be strong in the faith of Christ.

59.  Christians are called to abound in Christ.

60.  Christians are to be well-grounded in the Christian faith.

61.  Christians are to hold fast to faith through confidence in the work of the Holy Spirit in the pursuit of holiness.

62.  Christians ought to pray for other Christians to increase in faith because of the honor of Christ alone.

63.  Faith is not a gift to boast of concerning our "no good" flesh because it is by God's choice alone.

64.  Christians have assurance of faith because of God's work in bringing them to Himself.

65.  Hebrews 11 is a historical example of steadfast faith in Christ by the Old Testament saints.

66.  Saints are called to keep, study, read and know God's written Word.

67.  Saints are not bound to "Sacred Tradition" like the infallible binding authority of the written Word.  For in the infallible Word alone do we see the clear testimony of God on Christ alone.

68.  Saints grow spiritually because of the work of the Spirit and the Word.

69.  Saints are called to avoid evil.

70.  Saints are called to avoid all kinds of sexual sin.

71.  God's protects His elect people who have responded in faith.

72.  The source of salvation is God alone.

73.  The glory of salvation is God alone because the work is His alone.

74.  God uses means to accomplish His purposes but it never adds to the simplicity and purity of Christ alone.

75.  There is a double imputation.  That is, the deepest hell-magnified sin is imputed to Christ alone at His Cross but the matchless righteousness of Christ alone is imputed to the sinner who has been born again through the cosmic application by the Spirit of Christ and the Word of Christ in effectual calling.

76.   The source of salvation is God's grace.  What is God's grace?  Grace is simply the sole life and death of Christ alone.   

78.  How we know this is divine grace?  We know it is the only and true grace of God because of His unmistakable bodily resurrection (the sign of Jonah).

79.  The source of salvation is God's choice in providing mercy.


80.  The source of salvation is Christ alone because the cosmic intention of the Cross was God's elect people alone.

81.   The source of salvation is the Cross in that it totally forgives and cleanses sin, but any addition to it makes it defiled.  The life of Christ is not an unlawful addition for how someone is right with God because He provides His all-availing and unified merit.

82.  Regeneration is not sacramental waters.  Rather it is God's work of grace by His Spirit and living Word.


83.  Justification is not a process that is mixed with sanctification.  It should remain distinct but never separated.  That is, we posses no inherit goodness to stand before God.  We need His imputed righteousness alone not works of human hands.

84.  Past sanctification is that God has already made us holy.

85.  Progressive sanctification is the pursuit of holiness.  It involves cooperation from the new nature by God's Spirit.  We would still argue that it is God's grace alone not our cooperative new nature though we cooperate in this sense of sanctification.

86.  Past glorification is spiritual knowledge that you are a child of God now.


87.  Future glorification is the glorification of Christ alone in the supernatural and complete proliferation of His unified merit in exaltation of Jesus Christ alone in His person and work alone where all boasting of a sinner is excluded.

88.  The sinner is made completely sinless because of Christ alone not anything from the sinner in future glorification or the whole of spiritual salvation and redemption. 

89.  No church, leaders, or organization can remove a glorified sinner from heaven once they are there in the holy presence of Jesus Christ.

90.  Is Jesus Christ your Judge or Savior?  He ought to be your Savior if you trust Him alone for how you are right with God.

91.  Jesus alone is the Savior of His elect people alone.


92.  No devil or sin can undo justification through Christ alone.

93.  Justification should teach us to live a godly life.

94.  The Cross does not mean "sin like the devil."  Rather it means live a life of God-honoring obedience apart from various works of the flesh that are all basically cosmic idolatry.

95.  A Christian is someone who knows they cannot save themselves in part or in whole or just a little bit.  Who gets the glory in the outcome of your theology?  Is it Jesus alone or man?

One day when heaven was filled with his praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin—
Dwelt amongst men, my example is he!
Living, he loved me; dying, he saved me;
Buried, he carried my sins far away;
Rising, he justified freely, for ever:
One day he's coming—O, glorious day!
One day they led him up Calvary's mountain,
One day they nailed him to die on the tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is he!
One day they left him alone in the garden,
One day he rested, from suffering free;
Angels came down o'er his tomb to keep vigil;
Hope of the hopeless, my Saviour is he!
One day the grave could conceal him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door;
Then he arose, over death he had conquered;
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore!
One day the trumpet will sound for his coming,
One day the skies with his glories will shine;
Wonderful day, my beloved ones bringing;
Glorious Saviour, this Jesus is mine! (TH, 689).