REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO STUDY JUSTIFICATION IN LIGHT OF THE CURRENT JUSTIFICATION CONTROVERSY

Your committee was formed with the mandate “to study the doctrine of justification by faith in light of the current controversy surrounding the relationship of good works to justification.”[1] The committee has interpreted the scope of the mandate to particularly include a study of the teachings of Norman Shepherd on justification by faith, and also to include a study of the teachings of the so-called New Perspective on Paul. At this stage in our work your committee presents our report and recommendations concerning Shepherd’s teachings, believing that the New Perspective on Paul warrants a separate treatment.

While we would like simply to dismiss Shepherd's teachings on justification by faith as negligible error and move on, we find this difficult to do because of the growing impact of his teachings in the broader Reformed community and even within our own fold. Indeed Shepherd's influence has reached our communion in that a former elder became an advocate of his views and was removed from the church. More broadly it is reported that Shepherd’s ideas are having greater impact in other Reformed denominations. It is well known that Shepherd continues to teach and write. In addition, others now defend and propagate his or similar views in Reformed churches, over the internet, and elsewhere.

We do not believe that we need to address every error that comes down the road, nor do we need to wait until those errors take firm hold in our churches and upset the peace that the Lord has given us. Since Shepherd's influence has grown and the controversy surrounding his teaching shows no sign of abating in the near future, it is appropriate that synod appointed this committee to consider the issues and suggest actions that appear to be necessary to guard our church from any errors and heresies that are associated with Shepherd's teachings. This your committee has done and we submit our efforts for your consideration and action.

NORMAN SHEPHERD’S DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

INTRODUCTION

In 1963 Norman Shepherd succeeded John Murray in the department of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia). In 1975 controversy over Shepherd’s teaching broke out both at the Seminary and in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), where Shepherd was serving as a pastor.[2] O. Palmer Robertson notes the circumstances in which the controversy first began: “The ‘justification issue’ came to the attention of the Faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in 1975, when certain students were reported to have set forth a position that justification was by faith and works when being examined by various church bodies.”[3] This subsequently led to a seven year investigation into the teaching of Norman Shepherd, which eventually resulted in him being dismissed from his teaching post at Westminster “as of January 1, 1982.”[4] In May 1982 charges were filed against Shepherd and presented before the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the OPC, but “Mr. Shepherd was transferred out of the Philadelphia Presbytery before charges filed against him could be heard. He was received into the Christian Reformed denomination … without notation that charges had been filed against him.”[5] “He served pastorates in the CRC in Minnesota and Illinois before retiring in 1998.”[6]

Though our purpose is not to rehash all the historical details of the original controversy, it is worth noting that the Faculty at Westminster did not find it easy to resolve the controversy. According to Robertson’s history of the controversy, the Faculty found it difficult “to determine whether actual error was being taught in Mr. Shepherd’s formulations, or whether Mr. Shepherd’s modes of expression simply were misleading because of their lack of clarity.”[7] It should also be mentioned that all during the controversy, Shepherd had both supporters and opponents.[8]

His supporters think he was treated unfairly and should never have been questioned for his views on justification, let alone removed from the Faculty. His opponents think his supporters in both the Presbytery and the Seminary managed to short circuit the proceedings in both Presbytery and Seminary, which allowed him and his false teaching to escape clear condemnation.[9]

Eighteen years after Shepherd’s dismissal from Westminster Seminary, and with the publication of Shepherd’s book titled The Call of Grace, subtitled How the Covenant Illuminates Salvation and Evangelism,[10] the old debate concerning Shepherd’s view on justification has resurfaced, and has created quite a stir in Reformed circles: “this study is highly controversial, not only in the seminary community in which Shepherd ministered for many years, but in the wider arena of contemporary evangelical and Reformed theology.”[11]

Our primary purpose is to examine Shepherd’s view of justification in light of the Bible and reformed theology. Although Shepherd has other controversial and problematic views on related issues such as the nature of the covenant, election, and baptism, we will restrict our analysis primarily to his teaching on justification.

Though Shepherd’s teaching on a number of related theological issues was called into question, the key point of debate was whether he held to the Reformation’s doctrine of justification by faith alone, as expressed in the Westminster Standards, or had, in one way or another, lapsed into teaching that justification was by faith and works together.[12]

We will first look at Shepherd’s views as the Westminster Faculty perceived them, and which eventually formed a part of the Faculty’s own explanation for dismissing Shepherd. Next, we will see that Shepherd’s teaching on justification expressed in The Call of Grace does not differ essentially from his teaching that resulted in his dismissal from Westminster in 1982. Then we will examine a recent article on justification that Shepherd wrote for the journal Reformation and Revival.[13] Finally, we will consider an advancement of his position in two lectures that he gave on August 8-9, 2003, at a conference entitled “Contemporary Perspectives on Covenant Theology,” sponsored by the Southern California Center for Christian Studies. This essay will soon reveal that Shepherd’s doctrine of justification is contrary not only to classic reformed theology but also to the biblical gospel of sola fide.

I. Westminster Seminary’s Perception of Shepherd’s Teaching

A. The Early Stages of the Controversy

From the very beginning of the controversy, the Faculty at Westminster had to deal with Shepherd’s idea that faith and works work together as an instrument of justification. According to the Seminary Board, “Shepherd questioned making justification by faith alone a touchstone of orthodoxy, since, as he argued, what can be said of faith can also be said of good works; neither can be the ground of justification, both can be instrument.”[14] Because this idea directly challenged the Westminster Confession of Faith’s statement that “Faith … is the alone instrument of justification,” (11.2) the Faculty requested Shepherd to prepare a paper explaining his view of ‘faith alone’ as expressed in the Westminster Standards. Shepherd’s fifty-three page paper, dated October 1976, was titled “The Relation of Good Works to Justification in the Westminster Standards.”[15]

After reviewing Shepherd’s paper, the Faculty, in its report to the February 10, 1977 meeting of the Board, singled out expressions that they found troubling. For example, ‘faith coupled with obedience to Christ is what is called for in order to salvation and therefore in order to justification.’ ‘Thus, faith and new obedience are in order to justification and salvation.’[16] A fuller report to the faculty was made to the Board meeting of May 17, 1977.

The Faculty report specified four areas where modifications of the language and formulations of Mr. Shepherd were to be desired. These concerned his broad use of the term justification, his language of requirement for good works in relation to justification, his reluctance to make faith prior to justification even in a logical sense; and his strategy of explaining the ‘alone’ function of faith as separating it from meritorious works rather than from other graces.[17]

Although six members of the Faculty “believed that these criticisms were not severe enough,” and “held Mr. Shepherd’s views to be erroneous,”[18] a majority of the Faculty concluded that “although Mr. Shepherd’s ‘structure of argumentation seems bound to create misunderstanding,’ his formulations fell within the toleration limits of the Westminster Standards (April 25, 1978, Report to the Board).”[19] For those of us on the outside looking in, we can sympathize with Robertson’s observation that the

…implications of this conclusion are rather striking. Mr. Shepherd’s formulations on the central doctrine of justification almost certainly will mislead the church into thinking that somehow works were the way of justification. Yet these formulations were not out of accord with the Westminster Confession.[20]

B. Philip Hughes’ Dissent

A dissent from the Faculty’s majority decision was registered in writing by Philip E. Hughes, visiting Professor of New Testament at the Seminary, who began his dissent by expressing amazement that he actually found himself in disagreement with the Faculty of Westminster over the fundamental doctrine of justification.[21] The value of Hughes’ dissent is that, even though first written in the late 70’s, it remains today an up-to-date critique of Shepherd’s teaching on justification.

Hughes expressed concerns, which to him crystallized the issue facing the Seminary. Hughes’ major concern was that the Faculty in its report on Shepherd spoke approvingly of the necessity of good works for salvation. No one denies that the root of faith produces good works, and that without personal subjective holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). “But the attempt is being made to connect these good works with faith in such a way that though defined as non-meritorious they are regarded as necessary to our future (or final or eschatological) justification: no good works, no Heaven!”[22] Endorsement is given to the idea that justification is “a process in three stages: initial (‘this initial entry into God’s favor’), continuing (‘the continued enjoyment of God’s favor’), and consummating (‘the consummation of God’s favor at the Judgment’).”[23] The problem with this idea is that it “has the effect of calling in question the perfection and the once-for-all character of the initial – and I would insist, the only – justification of the sinner who puts his trust in Christ and to whom the perfect righteousness of Christ is fully and indefectibly imputed.”[24] It also “implies that the sinner’s justification is in some real sense dependent on what he does, on the nature of his works, following his ‘initial’ justification.”[25]

In response to the Faculty’s concern that faith not be isolated from good works, Hughes remarks with emphasis,

where justification is concerned (and this is the essential qualification) I do indeed isolate faith from good works and I do indeed regard good works as intrinsically in competition with the unique role of faith. I deprecate the extension of justification into the sphere of sanctification, for it is precisely this procedure that leads to the notion that the good works of the Christian have a necessary part to play in his justification. … This is the whole point of the Biblical and Reformed emphasis on faith alone where our justification is concerned; for justification by faith alone (sola fide) means justification by faith in isolation, and particularly in isolation from works.[26]

How can Shepherd argue that works are necessary for our justification when Paul clearly says ‘a man is not justified by the works of the law’? Hughes makes reference to Shepherd’s contention that the “works of the law” that Paul excludes from justification are “something quite different from the works of the Christian.” The works of the law “are the works of the unbeliever futilely trying to justify himself by works-righteousness,” but the works of a Christian are “works that are pleasing and acceptable to God.”[27] Therefore, according to Shepherd, it is only legalistic works, not genuine good works, that are excluded from justification.

One of the most popular texts adduced in support of the contention that the good works of Christians are not excluded from justification is Romans 2:13, where Paul says, ‘the doers of the law will be justified.’ Hughes objects by arguing that “this text is not speaking of the works of the Christian, indeed, that it has nothing to do with justification by faith, or with faith that works and is active.”[28] This is proven from the fact that after Paul asserts that only the doers of the law will be justified, he “moves on to demonstrate the universality of human sinfulness, insisting that there is absolutely no one at all who does good, and therefore that all without exception are in need of divine grace and of the justification which comes by faith apart from works [cf. Romans 3:9-12, 20, 23].”[29] Yes, the doers of the law will be justified, but the facts are that no one is good (Romans 3:9-12), and therefore ‘no human being will be justified in his sight by the works of the law’ (Romans 3:20).

The phrase ‘the doers of the law will be justified,’ according to Hughes, plainly indicates the Old Testament principle that “law is a principle of justification to the person who keeps it. … Hence the affirmations of the Old Testament that it is by the doing of the law that a man shall live (Leviticus 18:5; Nehemiah 9:29; Ezekiel 20:11,13).”[30] The same emphasis is evident in the New Testament. For example, in response to the lawyer’s question, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus first said, ‘What is written in the law?’ Then He said, ‘Do this, and you will live’ (Luke 10:25ff.). Likewise, Jesus told the rich young ruler, ‘If you would enter life, keep the commandments’ (Matthew 19:16ff.). This is the principle to which Paul draws attention in Romans 10:5, where we read that ‘the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it.’ So again, Paul asserts that ‘the law does not rest on faith, for He who does them shall live by them’ (Galatians 3:12, quoting Leviticus 18:5). However, because of his sinfulness, Paul found that ‘the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me’ (Romans 7:10). “But the fault is not the law; it is the sinner who is a law-breaker.”[31]

Because they are law-breakers, sinners can never be justified by the law; they can only be condemned by it. A different principle of justification is needed if the sinner is to live before God. … Consequently, the Gospel principle for sinners is that they may live and be just before God only by faith-union with Christ, with whom alone as the sole law-keeper, God is well pleased.[32]

Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law on the sinner’s behalf, and suffered the penalty of our law breaking. Accordingly, ‘As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous’ (Romans 5:19). “As the sole ‘doer of the law’ – the incarnate Son alone is just before God, and in him alone is the sinner’s justification (1 Corinthians 1:30).”[33]

Finally, I wish to maintain that

the evangelical doctrine that ‘a man is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ’ applies not only to works done prior to regeneration but also to works done after regeneration. My argument is based on the Biblical teaching that the good works of the Christian believer are still works of the law. The promise of the new covenant includes the assurance: ‘I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts’ (Jeremiah 31:33; cf. Ezekiel 11:19ff.).[34]

It follows that the good works of the believer are the same as the good works enjoined by the law. But they are the good works of his sanctification, not of his justification. To speak of a necessity of these good works for our salvation … is to assign to them that very justifying status as works of the law which Paul has repudiated.[35]

In response to Hughes’ concerns, Westminster Faculty member Dr. Richard B. Gaffin Jr. defended Shepherd on the ground that Shepherd was simply trying to stress the Reformation emphasis that though faith alone justifies, the faith that justifies is never alone but is always accompanied by all other saving graces.[36]

C. Charges filed against Shepherd

On May 27, 1977, charges were formally filed against Shepherd in the Philadelphia Presbytery of the OPC. Subsequent to the charges being made, Shepherd submitted to the Presbytery his “Thirty-Four Theses on Justification in Relation to Faith, Repentance, and Good Works.”[37] As an alternative to receiving the charges against Shepherd the Presbytery chose to deliberate the Thirty-Four Theses. The most contested of these theses, according to Robertson, were the following:

‘The Pauline affirmation in Romans 2:13, ‘The doers of the Law will be justified,’ is … to be understood … in the sense that faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ will be justified (Thesis 20).’[38]

‘The exclusive ground of the justification of the believer in the state of justification is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, but his obedience … is necessary to his continuing in a state of justification (Thesis 21).’

‘The righteousness of Jesus Christ ever remains the exclusive ground of the believer’s justification, but the personal godliness of the believer is also necessary for his justification in the judgment of the last day (Matthew 7:21-23; 25:31-46; Hebrews 12:14) (Thesis 22).’

‘[G]ood works … though not the ground of [the believer’s] justification, are nevertheless necessary for justification (Thesis 23).’[39]

“After a year’s deliberation, the Presbytery was evenly divided. It could not decide whether these formulations were in accord with Scripture and the Confession.”[40]

After the May 23, 1978 Board meeting, Shepherd was given a leave of absence in order to revise his position and then report back to the Board. On February 8, 1979, the Board received Shepherd’s paper, “The Grace of Justification,”[41] and discussed it, along with Shepherd’s “Thirty-four Theses,” which currently was being evaluated by the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the OPC. The Faculty concluded that,

Mr. Shepherd held essentially to the substance of his formulations as developed in the October 1976 paper. The modification of certain phrases as requested by the Board had not changed the substance of his position. Good works were necessary as the way of justification, and not simply as its fruit. Walking in the way of justification was necessary to maintain justification. The sinner seeking justification might just as well be told to follow Jesus as to believe in Jesus.[42]

D. Westminster Seminary’s Reason for Dismissing Shepherd

To make a long story shorter, Westminster Seminary eventually dismissed Dr. Norman Shepherd. In order to defend its action in dismissing Shepherd, the Seminary Board wrote an eighteen page paper for the public titled “Reason and Specifications Supporting the Action of the Board of Trustees in Removing Professor Shepherd,” approved by the Executive Committee of the Board, February 26, 1982 (see again footnote 13). The first part of the paper reviews the history of the controversy (some parts of which have already been referenced in this essay), and the second part summarizes the theological reasons for the removal of Shepherd. According to its own testimony, “the Board did not remove Mr. Shepherd on the ground of demonstrated errors in his teaching,” but rather “because it has become convinced that Mr. Shepherd’s teaching regarding justification, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, and related themes is not clearly in accord with the teaching of Scripture as it is summarized in the system of doctrine contained in the Westminster Standards.”[43] While the Board acknowledged that a comparison between Shepherd and the Westminster Standards on justification evinces significant doctrinal differences, they were not willing to charge Shepherd with doctrinal error. “While the Board has not judged that his views are in error, the Board has come to the conviction that his views are not clearly in accord with the standards of the Seminary; for this reason it has acted within its authority to remove him from his office for the best interests of the Seminary.”[44]

The Board’s reasons for Shepherd’s removal are contained in the section, “Problematics in Mr. Shepherd’s Views.”[45] The problems in Shepherd’s teaching, according to the Board,

are inherent in his view of the ‘covenant dynamic.’ Although Mr. Shepherd appeals to the history of Reformed covenantal theology to support his position, the Board finds that Mr. Shepherd’s construction is distinctive. It is in the distinctive elements and emphases of his theology of the covenant that the problem appears.[46]

First of all, “In his ‘covenant dynamic’ Mr. Shepherd develops a formula that permits him to join good works to faith as the characteristic and qualifying response to grace. Obedience is the proper, full, and comprehensive term for all covenantal response, and specifically for our response in the covenant of grace.”[47] In fact, “faith is itself a work, an act of obedience within the total response of obedience.”[48] While Shepherd “is willing to affirm that good works are the fruit of faith, he prefers the language of accompaniment or of a ‘working faith.’ Both faith and good works are alike fruits of the Spirit, and are not to be thought of in sequence.”[49] According to Shepherd,

The works to be distinguished from faith in the Pauline passages are not good works, but works of the flesh, works that are done to provide a meritorious ground of justification. … Since faith, repentance, and good works are intertwined as covenantal response, and since good works are necessary to justification, the ‘ordo salutis’ would better be: regeneration, faith/repentance/new obedience, justification.[50]

The problem with Shepherd at this point is that the “confessional emphasis on faith as the alone instrument of justification is muted in the ‘covenant dynamic’ accent. The Westminster Standards emphasize faith alone, not merely in contrast to self-righteous works but in contrast to all that we might do.”[51]

Secondly, Shepherd’s ‘covenant dynamic’

makes the function of our obedience in the covenant to be the same as the function of the obedience of Adam in the covenant before the fall. … Adam’s covenantal obedience in the garden did not merit any reward; neither does our covenantal obedience. But both are required by the covenant command. The threat for disobedience is eternal death. This threat is as real for us as it was for Adam in the garden. The warning of the New Covenant must not be blunted or made hypothetical in any way. God’s threat to Adam or to Israel was not idle, and the same sanction of the covenant is directed against us in the New Covenant.[52]

To be sure, says Shepherd, we have resources that Adam did not have. “We have forgiveness of sins in the blood of Christ; we have the Spirit to move us to obey; but we also have the same covenant condition to meet, and the same threat for disobedience.”[53] Shepherd insisted that the threat of eternal death applies to believers, and he “urged before the Board that just as Adam’s posterity would not be ‘off the hook’ if Adam had obeyed, but would be bound to fulfill the condition of obedience, so the posterity of Christ are not ‘off the hook.’”[54]

The problem with Shepherd here “lies in failing to do justice to the history of redemption, to the distinctiveness of God’s administration with Adam and to the distinctiveness of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ.”[55] Shepherd fails to recognize, as has always been recognized in reformed theology, that if Adam had obeyed, his posterity would not have been in the same probationary position as Adam. “Parallel to the doctrine of the imputation of Adam’s sin runs the assumption of the imputation of Adam’s righteousness to his descendants had be obediently fulfilled his probation (WCF VII:2).”[56]

Furthermore, Shepherd omits any clear treatment of the teaching of the Westminster Confession that Christ, as the Second Adam, was our covenant keeper. “As the Westminster Standards teach, the covenant of grace is made with Christ and with the elect in him. He is the only Mediator of the New Covenant. He has borne the judgment, the wrath due to us, not simply as sinners, but as covenant-breakers.”[57] “Christ’s active obedience has fulfilled all righteousness for us.”[58] Shepherd’s

omission of any clear treatment of Christ as the covenant Head, of his active obedience, of the imputation of his righteousness in the fulfillment of the covenant command, of his probation in our place (this in a treatment of the covenant that professes to be distinctly Reformed, after years of discussion) evidences a lack of clarity that cannot but cause concern.[59]

Shepherd has met such criticism in a way that adds to the confusion.

He assumes that those who criticize his view are falling away into antinomianism; that to emphasize that Christ has fulfilled the covenant for us is to take us ‘off the hook.’ Yet this is precisely the issue that the Westminster Standards so carefully define. They do it by showing how the law, revealing God’s will and righteousness, remains the norm for our obedience even though believers are delivered from it as a covenant of works ‘so as thereby they are neither justified nor condemned’ (LC Q.97).”[60]

The Westminster teaches that the threats of the law are of use to the regenerate not as a threat of eternal death but rather “‘to show what even their sins deserve, and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law’ (WCF XIX:6).”[61] The special use of the law is to show believers ‘how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good; and thereby to provoke them to more thankfulness and to express the same in their greater care to conform themselves thereunto as the rule of their obedience’ (LC Q.97).[62]

Shepherd rejects the Westminster Confession’s sharp contrast between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. According to the Westminster, the “covenant of works was conditioned upon perfect, personal obedience. The covenant of grace provides the obedience of Jesus Christ and therefore does not have our obedience as its condition but requires only faith in Christ to meet the demand of God’s righteousness.”[63] Shepherd does away with this distinction and makes faithful obedience the all-embracing condition of all covenants. The danger of Shepherd’s uniform concept of covenant faithfulness “is that both the distinctiveness of the covenant of grace and of the new covenant fullness of the covenant of grace will be lost from view and that obedience as the way of salvation will swallow up the distinct and primary function of faith.”[64] Shepherd argues that making covenant obedience the central category for our response to God

can be done without danger since this obedience is not meritorious and therefore cannot become the ground of our salvation. But the very simplicity of this solution creates its danger. There is a vast and crucial difference between fleeing to Christ for salvation and serving God acceptably in new obedience. Close as the relation must be between faith and works, the distinction is central to the gospel [emphasis mine].[65]

II. The Call of Grace.

We come now to Shepherd’s book The Call of Grace.[66] In this book, Shepherd reiterates the same brand of covenant theology, which the Westminster Faculty in 1982 considered to be non-reformed and at the root of Shepherd’s problematic teaching on justification. Since a full discussion of this book is beyond the scope of this essay we will restrict ourselves primarily to an examination of those parts of the book that bear directly on the relation of justification and good works. Our brief examination will demonstrate that Shepherd’s covenant theology continues to permit him to view the good works of Christians as necessary for justification.

At the very outset of his book, Shepherd is unashamedly open about his belief that his brand of covenant theology is the solution to “the problem of faith and works,” or the problem of how to relate faith and works, a problem which Shepherd claims is one of the “unresolved questions” of “the Protestant Reformation.”[67] In Shepherd’s words, “We are profoundly grateful for the progress that was made by the Reformation. We were led into a more biblical understanding of the way of salvation. Nonetheless, unresolved issues remain.”[68] The unresolved question is, as Shepherd sees it, if you say as the reformers did that a person is saved by faith alone apart from works, how do you say that “without suggesting that it makes no difference what your lifestyle is like? In other words, how do you preach grace without being antinomian? On the other hand, how do you preach repentance without calling into question salvation by grace apart from works? How do you insist on obedience without being legalistic?”[69]

Remarkably, Shepherd claims that this question was not answered satisfactorily by the reformation, yet nowhere in his book does he interact with the reformation’s most notable solution to ‘the problem of faith and works,’ namely, the Heidelberg Catechism’s paradigm of sin, salvation, and service. According to the Catechism, we are justified, redeemed, and saved through faith alone, apart from our works; and this doctrine does not make men antinomian, because the indwelling Holy Spirit guarantees that those implanted into Christ by true faith will bring forth fruits of thankfulness (see Question 64). In other words, true faith will invariably produce good works. Shepherd does not like to speak of good works as the inevitable fruit or evidence of faith, because in his mind this is tantamount to suggesting that good works are optional. Shepherd writes,

When the call to faith is isolated from the call to obedience, as it frequently is, the effect is to make good works a supplement to salvation or simply the evidence of salvation. Some would even make them an optional supplement. According to the Great Commission, however, they belong to the essence of salvation, which is freedom from sin and not simply freedom from eternal condemnation as the consequence of sin [emphasis mine].[70]

Note again, according to Shepherd, to say that obedience is simply the evidence of salvation is to isolate the call to faith from the call to obedience, and thereby to slip into antinomianism. For this reason Shepherd refuses to say that a man is justified by faith alone apart from obedience. To do so, in his mind, is to cut off obedience from faith and make obedience optional for the Christian.

Shepherd’s solution for antinomianism is to posit, as he always has, that faith and obedience in the covenant are not to be thought of in sequence – first faith for justification and then obedience for gratitude (a la Ursinus). Rather, faith and obedience are intertwined and thus both are a condition of obtaining justification, salvation, and eternal life. In classic covenant theology, faith and obedience do not function in the covenant of grace as conditions in the same sense or of the same thing. Faith is the sole condition of justification and eternal life. Obedience is a condition only in the sense that it is a duty of the covenant. It is necessary only in the sense that it is a necessary fruit of justification. As Francis Turretin once elaborated, we must “bear in mind the different senses of a condition.”

It may be taken either broadly and improperly or strictly and properly. If in the latter sense, faith is the sole condition of the covenant because under this condition alone pardon of sins and salvation as well as eternal life are promised (Jn. 3:16; Rom. 10:9). There is no other which could perform that office because there is no other which is receptive of Christ and capable of applying his righteousness. But in the former, there is nothing to hinder repentance and the obedience of the new life from being called a condition because they are reckoned among the duties of the covenant (Jn. 13:17; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 8:13).[71]

Contrary to this, Shepherd does not distinguish different senses of a condition. For him faith and obedience function as conditions in the same way in that they both are equally necessary to obtain justification and eternal life.

Shepherd conceives of faith and obedience as equally necessary for justification because he sees no essential difference between faith and obedience.[72] To believe is to obey. As proof, Shepherd cites 1 John 2:23: ‘And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.’ See, says Shepherd, “Even faith itself is a matter of obedience to the command of our Lord.”[73] Obedience “is the fullness of faith. Obedience is simply faithfulness to the Lord; it is the righteousness of faith.”[74] Therefore, to tell sinners, ‘Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved,’ is essentially the same as telling them, ‘Obey Jesus and you will be saved.’ This aspect of Shepherd’s teaching was recognized eighteen years earlier by the Westminster faculty, as we noted in the first section of our essay: ‘The sinner seeking justification might just as well be told to follow Jesus as to believe in Jesus’ (see again footnote 41).

It is in connection with his treatment of the Abrahamic covenant that Shepherd outlines his teaching that faith and obedience have the same necessity as a condition for entering into eternal life. According to Shepherd’s own emphasis, the “faith that was credited to Abraham as righteousness was a living and obedient faith.”[75] By making this statement, Shepherd does not simply mean, what the reformers often said, that justification is by a faith that produces obedience (and a faith that fails to produce obedience it is not true faith). What Shepherd wants to say is that Abraham’s faith itself was active and living obedience to the Lord; therefore, it is erroneous to say that Abraham was justified apart from his obedience. As a proof text for his view, Shepherd cites James 2:21, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?” and James 2:24, “You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.”

Traditionally, whenever commentators quote these statements of James in connection with a discussion on justification, they see the need to reconcile James with Paul’s statement that Abraham was not justified by works (Romans 4:2). How can James say that Abraham was justified by works when Paul says that Abraham was not justified by works? The classic reformed answer to this question is that James did not speak of justification in the same way as Paul did. Just as words often have more than one meaning in different contexts, so it is with the word ‘justification.’ ‘To justify’ can mean either ‘to declare righteous,’ or ‘to demonstrate righteousness.’ No one stated the classic view better than Calvin did: “If you would make James agree with the rest of Scripture and with himself, you must understand the word ‘justify’ in another sense than Paul takes it.”[76] We “must take notice of the twofold meaning of the word justified. Paul means by it the gratuitous imputation of righteousness before the tribunal of God; and James, the manifestation of righteousness by the conduct, and that before men, as we may gather from the preceding words, ‘Show to me thy faith,’ &c.”[77] “When Paul says that we are justified by faith, he means no other thing than that by faith we are counted righteous before God. But James has quite another thing in view, even to show that he who professes that he has faith, must prove the reality of his faith by his works.”[78]

In contrast to Calvin, Shepherd (who doesn’t even mention the traditional reconciliation between Paul and James) believes James speaks of justification in the same way that Paul does, and that on this account full credence must be given to James when he says that a man is justified by works. Shepherd counts James 2:24 among “passages of Scripture that speak of repentance and obedience as conditions for entering eternal life,”[79] and argues that previous attempts to make such passages fit into a paradigm of salvation by grace are dubious. “Various exegetical and dogmatic devices of dubious validity are used to defuse and tame these texts [i.e. Galatians 5:6 and James 2:24] so that they do fit.”[80] It is on the basis of his interpretation of James that Shepherd is unwilling to affirm the historic Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from obedience. For Shepherd, if obedience is of the essence of faith, and we are justified by faith, then our obedience cannot be excluded from the verdict of justification.

Shepherd believes that the Mosiac covenant, just like the Abrahamic covenant, subsumes faithfulness under faith. He writes,

The Mosaic covenant embodies promises, and promises can be received only by faith. For Israel, the promises came wrapped in the garments of the Mosaic law. That is why faith in these promises also entailed faithfulness with respect to the commandments. Obedience is simply an expression of faith in the promises of God, not an alternative to faith.[81]

Note carefully what Shepherd does here. He says that the promises can be received only by faith, but then he says that the faith that receives the promises also entails faithfulness. And by saying that obedience is an expression of, and not an alternative to, faith, he means that faith and obedience are not alternative methods of obtaining eternal life. Rather, faith and obedience together constitute the same method.

Just like the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, the new covenant follows the same paradigm of promising eternal life on the condition of faithfulness. For Shepherd, salvation or eternal life or justification is not, as evangelicals have always thought, obtained and secured once and for all the moment a sinner truly believes, but only after a lifetime of faithfulness. Nowhere does Shepherd say that a sinner is justified and saved once and for all the instant he believes in Jesus. Whenever Shepherd speaks of salvation or eternal life or justification he speaks solely in eschatological terms – as that which awaits the believer at the end of his journey. The gospel “promises eternal life after the final judgment” [emphasis mine].[82] The gospel promises eternal life only to those who persevere in the faith.[83] A person does not possess eternal life until he has lived a faithful life. Obedience is not a response of gratitude to a salvation already obtained by faith alone apart from obedience, but obedience itself is a necessary condition for salvation. The only way of obtaining eternal life, salvation, and justification, is “by way of a living, active, and obedient faith.”[84] In the end, it matters little whether Shepherd views the verdict of justification as being pronounced once at a certain point in time, or often throughout the course of life, or only at the end of history. In any case his antidote for antinomianism is to make a penitent and obedient faith the method of obtaining justification/salvation/eternal life.

The assertion that a man is justified by obedience clearly smacks of legalism and Roman Catholicism. In order to avoid the charge of legalism, Shepherd reassures us that he does not, as Rome does, view good works as the meritorious grounds of justification. In other words, good works do not merit eternal life.[85] We are not saved because of our faith and good works. “Fulfilling the obligations of the Abrahamic covenant is never represented as meritorious achievement.”[86] The inheritance of eternal life “does not come because of human achievement or merit.”[87] We do not “obtain forgiveness on the basis of something we have done.”[88] Rather, eternal life is ultimately obtained “only because of the redemptive work of the Messiah.”[89] OT saints “could be saved, but ultimately only because of the Christ to come.”[90] Shepherd maintains the biblical distinction between the grounds of justification being the redemptive work of Christ and the means of justification being faith. What he adds, however, is the notion that obedience, being intertwined with faith, can also be part of the means of obtaining eternal life: “eternal life is a free gift, unearned and unmerited, but it must be received by a penitent and obedient faith.”[91] Repentance and obedience, just like faith, are the necessary conditions of our acceptance with God, “but they are not the meritorious grounds of our acceptance with God.”[92] What harm can there be, Shepherd asks, in making our good works, just like our faith, a non-meritorious means of justification? This question takes us back to the very beginning of the controversy – back to the original concern of the Westminster faculty, which is worth noting again: “Shepherd questioned making justification by faith alone a touchstone of orthodoxy, since, as he argued, what can be said of faith can also be said of good works; neither can be the ground of justification, both can be instrument” (see again footnote 13).

But what about all those passages, like Romans 3:28 and Galatians 5:4, that clearly exclude works not only as grounds but also as the means of justification? Shepherd’s familiar answer is that the works excluded from justification are not good works but legalistic works or works done to provide a meritorious ground of justification.

When God, therefore, calls for faith that is living and active, and for a blameless walk through life, he is not asking for what Abraham tried to accomplish with Hagar and Ishmael. The obedience that leads to the fulfillment of promise is totally different. It is the expression of faith and trust in the Lord, not the expression of confidence in human merit.[93]

“The obedience required of Israel is not the obedience of merit, but the obedience of faith.”[94] Paul’s statement in Galatians 5:4, “you who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ,” is directed against the person who “seeks to achieve his own salvation by what he does.”[95]

Therefore, according to Shepherd, Rome’s error is not the inclusion of good works in justification but rather it is in thinking that there is merit in works. It is only when men try to merit eternal life by their works that their works are excluded as a means of justification. But works done non-meritoriously as an expression of faith are not excluded as a means of justification. This is how Shepherd reconciles Paul and James on justification. The difference between Paul and James is not how they use justification but how they understand works. When Paul excludes works from justification he is excluding meritorious works. When James includes works in justification he is including non-meritorious works, that is, works done as an expression of faith and not in an effort to earn God’s favor.

It is particularly Shepherd’s rejection of the traditional reformed doctrine of the covenant of works that permits him to make obedience a means of justification.[96] Shepherd does not believe that the relationship into which God entered with Adam should be described as a covenant of works.[97] He specifically takes issue with Charles Hodge as a representative of the traditional reformed view.

Hodge says that Scripture knows only two methods of obtaining eternal life. One method demands perfect obedience and the other method demands faith. The original covenant with Adam is sometimes called a covenant of life because eternal life is promised as the reward for perfect obedience. It is frequently called a covenant of works because works are the condition on which the promise of life is suspended. Whether it is called a covenant of life or a covenant of works, the idea is the same. Life is promised on the condition of works. The new covenant, by way of contrast, promises life on the sole condition of faith. Eternal life is the gift of grace.[98]

This quote provides the context in which to understand the exact nuance of Shepherd’s statement, quoted earlier in connection with his treatment of the Mosaic covenant, that obedience is “not an alternative to faith.” Shepherd rejects the idea that perfect obedience and faith represent two alternatives or methods of obtaining eternal life. He believes that there always has been only one way of obtaining eternal life, namely, by means of a living and active and obedient faith.

What Shepherd particularly dislikes about the doctrine of the covenant of works is the reformed principle that Adam had to obey God perfectly in order to inherit or merit eternal life. He calls this principle, the “works/merit” principle.

The basic principle embodied in this conception of the covenant of works can be called the ‘works/merit’ principle. In the covenant of works, God is a just judge, and his creatures will be dealt with in accordance with strict principles of justice. It is a matter of simple justice to reward perfect obedience with eternal life. At the same time, the slightest infraction of the rules will forfeit eternal life.[99]

Though this formulation of the covenant of works is somewhat of a caricature,[100] Shepherd’s disapproval is clear enough. He disapproves of “the idea that perfect obedience merits the reward of eternal life as a matter of simple justice.”[101] God “never did, relate to his people on the basis of a works/merit principle” [emphasis mine].[102] In fact, “the very idea of merit is foreign to the way in which God our Father relates to his children.”[103]

If it is true that God never has required perfect obedience as a condition of eternal life, then the reformers were incorrect to insist that the only obedience acceptable to God, if offered as a condition of justification, must be perfect obedience.[104] Shepherd disagrees with the following summation of the reformed view, provided by his own pen.

Although the period of probation ended with Adam, the works/merit principle remains in force. If a person could present himself before God as free from sin, he would not be condemned. He would merit the reward of eternal life. However, no one will inherit eternal life in this way, because no one can present himself before the Lord as free from sin.[105]

Since the works/merit principle has never been in force, argues Shepherd, it was wrong for the reformers to insist that it remains in force after the fall. Whether before or after the fall, according to Shepherd, eternal life does not need to be merited by perfect obedience.

Shepherd especially takes issue with the reformed idea that the works/merit principle plays a key role in the Mosaic covenant. Once again, Shepherd provides a summary of the view he disagrees with.

The law serves the purposes of grace by revealing the depth of our sin and misery as we compare our lives to its perfect standard. It thereby shows the impossibility of finding eternal life by way of perfect obedience. … In this way, the law (and more broadly, the Mosaic covenant) drives us to Christ so that we can find salvation as a free gift of grace.[106]

Clearly, Shepherd denies the reformed view that the way in which the Mosaic covenant drives us to Christ is by showing both the necessity, and impossibility, of obtaining eternal life by means of perfect obedience. According to reformed theology,[107] the Mosaic covenant reminded Israel of the original condition of the covenant of works, namely, that God bound Adam’s posterity to perfect obedience as a condition of eternal life; therefore, in order to obtain eternal life, man must satisfy this condition, either by himself or by another.

In Shepherd’s covenant theology, Christ as the last Adam did not have to do what the first Adam failed to do. Christ did not have to merit eternal life for us by His perfect obedience, for perfect obedience never has been a condition of eternal life. Nowhere does Shepherd speak of Christ’s perfect obedience being imputed to believers. Rather, he says Christ’s obedience was imputed to Christ Himself! “His was a living, active, and obedient faith that took him all the way to the cross. This faith was credited to him as righteousness.”[108] The implication is that Christ’s perfect obedience was necessary only to qualify Him to be our Redeemer and provide us an example of how to obtain the fulfillment of the promises by an obedient faith. “As the covenant is kept, according to the pattern of Jesus Christ, the promises of the covenant are fulfilled.”[109] Christ did not need to obey for us. He simply needed to take care of the problem of disobedience, which He did by His death on the cross where He paid the penalty for disobedience.[110] God can forgive sinners the penalty for disobedience only because (here’s the grounds) Christ paid the penalty for disobedience. God forgives all those who have faith in Jesus. True enough, but here is the stickler: Shepherd says that the way in which one receives forgiveness is by means of a living, active, and obedient faith. Jesus’ death guaranteed the blessing of eternal life. But it is only by our faithfulness that we will inherit that blessing. “But just as Jesus was faithful in order to guarantee the blessing, so his followers must be faithful in order to inherit the blessing” [emphasis original].[111] “He promises forgiveness of sins and eternal life, not as something to be earned, but as a gift to be received by a living and active faith.”[112]

Because Shepherd believes that perfect obedience is not necessary for a sinner to obtain the verdict of justification, he leaves the distinct impression that the Christian’s imperfect obedience in and of itself is acceptable to God, and thus can be the means of obtaining the verdict, ‘You are righteous.’

To sum up, Shepherd contends that in order to avoid the twin dangers of antinomianism and legalism the church must abandon the traditional works/merit principle and adopt what he calls the “grace/faith principle.”

Salvation is both by grace and through faith. These are the two parts of the covenant: grace and faith, promise and obligation. Grace is not without conditions, and a living and active faith is not meritorious achievement. It is the biblical doctrine of the covenant that enables us to sail safely between the Scylla of legalism and the Charybdis of antinomianism.[113]

Thus, by making a living and active faith the condition of salvation we avoid antinomianism, and by making a living and active faith a non-meritorious condition of salvation we avoid legalism.

III. Shepherd’s article in Reformation and Revival[114]

Shepherd’s purpose in writing this article is to question whether we should continue to use the traditional Protestant formula, ‘justification by faith alone.’ His concern is that involved in this formula are certain ambiguities and liabilities, and he wants us to “understand and avoid the ambiguities and liabilities involved in it.”[115]

Shepherd begins with a brief description of how the formula of justification by faith alone has typically been employed by some Protestant preachers. “We are justified and saved by faith, not by works. There is nothing we can do or need to do to escape from sin and its consequences. Only Jesus can save us and he saves us when we put our faith in him. That is all it takes, a simple act of faith.”[116] Shepherd will go on to disagree with the notion that all it takes is a simple act of faith.

Shepherd makes the rather bold claim that the formula, ‘justification by faith alone’ appears nowhere in the Westminster Standards, and that “By not using the formula, justification by faith alone, the Westminster Standards avoid a serious misunderstanding of the gospel.”[117] Shepherd believes the formula justification by faith alone has arisen on account of Luther’s insertion of “the word ‘alone’ into his translation of Romans 3:28 to make it read ‘For we hold that one is justified by faith alone apart from works of the law.’ This is the origin of the dogmatic formula, justification by faith alone. However, his insertion actually distorts Paul’s meaning.”[118]

Even though the Westminster Standards say that, “Faith … is the alone instrument of justification,” (11.2) Shepherd claims it is not the same as saying justification by faith alone. Though both the Larger and Shorter Catechisms clearly say that the righteousness imputed in justification is “received by faith alone” (Larger Catechism, Question.70; Shorter Catechism, Question 33), nevertheless, Shepherd argues, “They do not use the formula, ‘justified by faith alone.’”[119] The reason for this, says Shepherd, is because the use of such a formula would have contradicted another statement in the Westminster, namely, that faith “is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love” (11.2). Shepherd believes that the precise formula ‘justified by faith alone’ was left out of the Confession in order to avoid giving the false impression that the faith that justifies is alone, that is, separated from all other saving graces, such as repentance and good works. “There is no such thing as faith alone in the sense of faith existing all by itself.”[120] For instance, “Faith and repentance are inseparable twins.”[121] The Bible calls for both faith and repentance as a response to the preaching of the gospel (cf. Luke 13:3-5; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 20:21). Even the Westminster Confession says that repentance “is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it” (15.3). Hence, “It is not an adequate answer to say that justification is by faith alone, meaning faith without repentance, but that repentance will inevitably follow as the fruit and evidence of faith and justification.”[122] We must not “resort to the idea that repentance and obedience automatically follow upon justification as evidence of salvation that is granted by faith alone apart from repentance and obedience.”[123] Shepherd thinks the formula ‘saving faith is followed by good works’ implies that faith can exist without good works. Therefore, he argues, though the Confession is certainly correct to say that good works are ‘the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith’ (16.2), we must not understand this “as though faith could exist without its fruits and evidences” [emphasis mine].[124] Moreover, the very fact that regeneration is prior to faith, and, in addition to faith, gives birth to repentance and obedience, “explains why faith can never be alone.”