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Examined Doctrine

Basil the Great on Justification

C.330 – 379 · GREEK FATHER
DISPUTED AMONG SCHOLARSNO STANCE FITS°
NO STANCE — AND WHY

None of the stances fits without misdescribing the figure

Every listed stance was tested against the sources, and each asserts something the figure does not. The reasoning is recorded in full, and it is the content.

De Spiritu Sancto 9.23
"abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, the being made God"

THE POSITION

Like Athanasius, his salvation language is deification, and the forensic/transformative/infused categories do not fit it. De Spiritu Sancto 9 ends its ladder of what the Spirit gives with "the being made God" — the goal is participation in the divine life through the Spirit's indwelling, reached by being cleansed and made spiritual by fellowship with him. There is no account of a sinner being declared or made righteous; the question is not posed.

WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE

Forensic — righteousness imputed, not infusedJACOBUS ARMINIUS · CALVIN · JONATHAN EDWARDS · THE CHURCH OF ELEVEN22 STATEMENT OF FAITH · JOSH HOWERTON · TIM KELLER · SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION · LUTHER · JOHN MACARTHUR · PHILIP MELANCHTHON · GAVIN ORTLUND · JOHN OWEN · JUSTIN PETERS · JOHN PIPER · R.C. SPROUL · CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON · WESLEY · WESTMINSTER CONFESSION · ZWINGLI
Includes being made righteous, not only declaredAUGUSTINE · CHRYSOSTOM
By infused grace, mediated sacramentallyAQUINAS
See all 25 figures on justification →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Bishop of Caesarea and monastic legislator. Supplied the Trinitarian vocabulary the church still uses — one ousia, three hypostases — and argued the Spirit's deity in De Spiritu Sancto while deliberately never calling him God outright.

7 OF 11 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Basil the Great holds →
Cite this page

"Basil the Great on Justification", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/basil/justification (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/basil/justification).

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