George Whitefield on Justification
Forensic — righteousness imputed, not infused
It implies the active as well as passive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ.
THE POSITION
Justification is by imputation — "in one word, by imputation" — of a righteousness that includes Christ's life as well as his death, and he complains that people mention only the second when the active obedience "is equally necessary." Works are excluded as any cause of it and required as its evidence: imputed righteousness "excludes works, indeed, from being any cause of our justification in the sight of God; but it requires good works as a proof of our having this righteousness imputed to us, and as a declarative evidence of our justification in the sight of men."
6 In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
20 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Anglican priest and field preacher of the Evangelical Revival and the First Great Awakening, who crossed the Atlantic seven times and died on his last American tour. Wesley's Oxford companion and, from his 1740 letter answering Free Grace, his public opponent on election — the Calvinist half of the Methodist split, set here beside Wesley and Edwards. This entry rests on that letter and eleven of the sermons printed in the standard selected editions.
Cite this page
"George Whitefield on Justification", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/whitefield/justification (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/whitefield/justification).