Westminster Confession on Justification
Forensic — righteousness imputed, not infused
...not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them.
THE POSITION
WCF 11.1 is unusually explicit for a confession: it denies infusion by name, denies that the act of believing is itself what is imputed, and names imputed obedience and satisfaction as the ground. Faith is the instrument, not the righteousness. WCF 11.2 immediately blocks the antinomian reading - faith 'is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces' - and 11.5 distinguishes the state of justification, which cannot be lost, from God's fatherly displeasure, which can be incurred.
5 However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
18 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The confessional standard of English-speaking Presbyterianism, completed by the Westminster Assembly in 1646 and adopted with its Scripture proofs. This entry rests on the 1646 text from the manuscript of Cornelius Burges as edited by S. W. Carruthers (1937) for chapters 1-24, and on the 1647 text for chapters 25-33; the Assembly's own proof texts attached to each paragraph supply every reference below.
Cite this page
"Westminster Confession on Justification", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/westminster/justification (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/westminster/justification).