Huldrych Zwingli on Justification
Forensic — righteousness imputed, not infused
Christ is our righteousness. From this it follows that our works are good so far as they are Christ's, but not good so far as they are our own.
THE POSITION
Righteousness is Christ's and is reckoned to the believer; nothing of the sinner's own contributes. Article 22 of the Sixty-Seven states it as a bare identity — Christ is our righteousness — and draws the consequence that our works are good only so far as they are his. The Fidei Ratio shuts the door on the alternatives by name: no justification or satisfaction resting on works, no expiation or intercession from any saint, one sole Mediator.
12 Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
18 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Reformer of Zurich and the first Reformed theologian to leave a confession — the Sixty-Seven Articles of 1523 predate Augsburg by seven years. He pushed further than Luther on the Supper, which split the early Reformation at Marburg in 1529, further than anyone on the reach of election, and further than any other Reformer on who might finally be saved. This entry rests on the Sixty-Seven Articles (1523), the Declaration Regarding Original Sin (1526), the Fidei Ratio sent to Charles V (1530) and the Exposition of the Christian Faith written weeks before he died in battle — the last of these read only in its chapter on eternal life.
Cite this page
"Huldrych Zwingli on Justification", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/zwingli/justification (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/zwingli/justification).