justification by works

American  

noun

Theology.

1. the belief that a person becomes just before God by the performance of good works: the doctrine against which Luther protested in inaugurating the Protestant Reformation.

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Example Sentences

Wesley and all his preachers present, except one, signed a declaration admitting that the minutes were not sufficiently guarded in the way they were expressed, and repudiating the meaning which had been put upon them, viz. that of justification by works.

From Project Gutenberg

This is what is meant by justification by works.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus when St. Paul sets justification by faith and faith only in opposition to justification by works of the law, he is contrasting two different attitudes towards God and duty, which in the two halves of his own sharply sundered life he had himself conspicuously represented.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus justification by faith is opposed to justification by works of the law, as the universal or catholic to the merely Jewish or national, and in this aspect the contrast occupies a great place in St. Paul's thought and teaching.

From Project Gutenberg

Finally, the principle of justification by faith is contrasted with that of justification by works of the law in the view which it involves of the character of God.

From Project Gutenberg