Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans shows us that faith is not the instrument of justification. I bring this point up because today faith has been made just that. Look at this quote from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
“The means or condition of justification is faith (Romans 3:22,25,26,28, etc.) which rests upon the pure grace of God and is itself, therefore, His gift (Ephesians 2:8). This making faith the only instrument of justification is not arbitrary, but because, being the receptive attitude of the soul, it is in the nature of the case the only avenue through which Divine blessing can come.”
Making faith out to be the instrument of justification changes the nature of faith. It moves faith from a position of revelation to a position of appropriation. It moves the act of justification from the position of grace to that of debt. Did God condition justification on what He would fulfill in a man, or did He condition justification on what He would fulfill in Jesus Christ?
What then is the instrument of justification? It is the faith, the gospel of God, the truth, the word, the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the obedience unto death of Jesus Christ. The instrument was Him. For this purpose, to justify the many, He was set forth by God the Father. That is the theme of the book of Romans; the justification of the children of God by Jesus Christ. Look at this excerpt from Not Faith, But Christ written by Horatius Bonar.
“Faith is not our savior. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Savior is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.”