Salvation
- Regeneration
"There are only three views that one can take regarding the author of regeneration: Either God alone is the author of regeneration, man and God are coauthors of regeneration, or man alone regenerates himself. The last view most Christians will recognize as false. The second view, that God and man are co-workers in regeneration, is known as synergism . The first view, that God alone is the author of regeneration, meaning, God regenerates whom He pleases without the cooperation or consent of the one whom He chooses to regenerate, is known as monergism. I am emphasizing this for a good reason. This difference, between whether regeneration is monergistic or synergistic, is one of the foremost reason for the two opposing theologies of Arminianism and Calvinism. In other words, what you believe the Bible teaches about who regenerates and how, will determine whether you will be a Calvinist or Arminian -- if you remain consistent in your thinking."
- Justification by Faith, by Michael Bremmer
"The words justification and justify mean to "acquit, declare righteous, vindicate, to justify as a judicial act"(11). In theology, justification refers to God's judicial declaration that all those who trust in Jesus Christ are right before God. Justification is a judicial or forensic act by God as judge. Justification always has this forensic sense. No matter what one may believe about the basis of justification--whether imparted righteousness, or imputed righteousness--it is still a judicial declaration. In other words, the question is not whether justification is forensic or not, the question is, What is the ground for this judicial declaration? Is it imputed righteousness, that is, as Luther says, an "alien righteousness," something outside ourselves, or is the ground of Justification imparted righteousness, that is, subjective, something within us, a personal righteousness infused into the believer by God's grace? This is the heart of the controversy."
- Justification, by Charles Hodge
"When the mind is enlightened by Divine truth, and duly impressed with a sense of guilt, it cannot fail anxiously to inquire, How can a man be just with God! The answer given to this question decides the character of our religion, and, if practically adopted, our future destiny. To give a wrong answer, is to mistake the way to heaven. It is to err where error is fatal, because it cannot be corrected. If God require one thing, and we present another, how can we be saved?"
- Imputed Righteousness: The Evangelical Doctrine, by R. C. Sproul
At the heart of the controversy between Roman Catholic and Reformation theology is the nature of justification itself. It is a debate not merely about how or when or by what means a person is justified, but about the very meaning of justification itself.
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