[Romans] 10:3 For since they did not know of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Because they did not know that God justifies by faith alone, and because they thought that they were righteous by the works of a law they did not keep, they refused to submit themselves to the forgiveness of sins, to prevent the appearance of their having been sinners, as it is written: ‘But the Pharisees, rejecting the purpose of God for themselves, refused to be baptized with John’s baptism’ ( Luke 7: 30).

4 For the end of the law is Christ for the righteousness of all who believe. On the day one believes in Christ, it is as if one has fulfilled the whole law (cf. Gal. 5: 3).

5 For Moses wrote of the righteousness which is by the law. Moses himself distinguished between the two kinds of righteousness, namely the righteousness of faith and the righteousness of deeds, because the one justifies the suppliant by works, but the other by belief alone. That the person who does these things will live by them.

– Pelagius, Commentary on St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

Justification by faith alone? Checked.

Faith imputes the active obedience or fulfillment of the whole law by Christ? Checked.

The Melancthonian/Anglican distinction between the two kinds of righteousness, that of faith and that of works? Checked

Congratulations, Pelagius is one of the fathers of the Reformation!

And “St” Augustine is a cad.

6 thought on “Pelagius: Forefather of the Reformation?”
  1. What you fail to realize is the so-called Reformation had nothing to do with any of that….that is, if we are talking about the Magisterial Reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli): that Reformation was all about denying freewill. Just read Luther’s “Bondage of the Will.” Not one of them believed in justification by faith alone; they believed in justification by predestination alone.

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