The very essence of the gospel, of Jesus Christ, is justification by faith alone. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. None of our good works are meritorious. We are totally undeserving of salvation. God did not condition our faith on us accepting Christ in our future (God exists outside of time). No. Our justification is not grounded in any quality, action, or work on our part. It is grounded in the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to us, even as our sin was imputed to Him. This doctrine is known as penal substitutionary atonement. It is the very biblical gospel.
So we see that man is not saved by his works. Rather, we are saved by Christ’s works!
The doctrine of justification by faith alone addresses this fundamental issue of how sinful man can be at peace with a holy God. This is why it is the heart and essence of the gospel.
John Murray
The clearest statement of the concept of justification by faith in Galatians is to be found in Chapter 2, verses 15-16 in which Paul writes: We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.
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