THE WAY OF SALVATION
The Role of Christian Obedience in Justification
By Paul A. Rainbow. Paternoster. xxi & 330 pages. £19.99
ISBN 1 84227 352 3
Here is a book that sets out to challenge the great Reformation principle of sola fide (‘by faith alone’).
The author is a New Testament lecturer at North America Baptist Seminary and he uses his biblical expertise to argue for two justifications, an initial one based on Christ’s righteousness and a second one based on a Christian’s good works. The works of a non-Christian contribute nothing to salvation, but the works that follow faith, which God enables a believer to perform, what the Puritans called ‘evangelical obedience’, these do, according to Rainbow, contribute to a Christian’s final justification on the day of judgment. Good works of believers, he maintains, will not be seen as the evidence of faith but the basis for final justification. He regards faith as ‘the ultimate condition’ for both events but considers that deeds are ‘proximately conditional in their own right’ for final justification.
