justification by works

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.

Example Sentences

The theory of justification by works, to which the Church owed so much of its power and wealth, had, in its development, to a great extent deprived religion of all spiritual vitality, replacing its essentials with a dry and meaningless formalism.

From Project Gutenberg

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

Parliamentarian and Puritan Oliver Cromwell and others feared this presaged a return to justification by works and the popish faith.

From Project Gutenberg

So that the doctrine of justification by works, in the sight of God, is altogether inconsistent with the whole Scripture, both of the Old Testament and the New, and with our holy Christian faith.

From Project Gutenberg