“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:9).
Federal Visionists love this verse because they think that it is adequate to say that we have been justified by the blood of Christ. Obviously, such a statement lacks any mention of merit, which is the sine qua non of the Reformed gospel.
The Reformed faith has always insisted that justification is accomplished in two stages. First, we receive forgiveness of sins through the death of Christ. Second, and most crucially, we receive the merits of Christ through the life of Christ.
Forgiveness is important and all, but the main engine that drives the Reformed gospel is merit. Federal Visionists assert that merit is neither a Biblical word, nor a Biblical concept. However, this ignores the role of the Holy Spirit in shaping Reformed theology.
The reason that merit does not appear in the Bible is that the Greek language was incapable of expressing such a theologically potent word as merit. But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth Latin, and later, the English language, allowing merit to finally take its rightful place as the cornerstone of all Reformed theology.
Indeed, merit is the most glorious word in our rich Reformed vocabulary. A gospel presentation without the word “merit” is a different gospel, which is no gospel at all.
Thus, to say that we are justified by the blood of Christ is inadequate and sloppy. No one who is truly Reformed would speak so imprecisely.
