from John MacArthur on the doctrine of justification by faith, the principle of sola fide, and the imputation of Christ's righteousness:
Several years ago I made some inaccurate statements that have unfortunately confused people about where I stand on the doctrine of justification by faith. While teaching a series on this crucial issue, I made the point that God does not justify anyone whom He does not also sanctify. That is true. Unfortunately, however, I also implied that God's sanctifying work in us may in part provide the ground on which He declares us righteous. That is not true. I also suggested that God's righteousness is infused into believers in a way that makes their justification something more than a forensic declaration. That is emphatically not true.
This error was confined to a single series preached several years ago. It was not a part of any argument I ever made in The Gospel According to Jesus or any of my other writings on the lordship issue. In fact, one of my central points in that debate has involved a systematic defense of sola fide, the doctrine of justification by faith, and the imputation of Christ's righteousness. See "Just By Faith" in Faith Works: The Gospel According to the Apostles [Dallas: Word, 1993], 87-104. See also below for a bibliography of books where I have dealt with the doctrine of justification.
But some of my misstatements were published in a study guide and in the first edition of my Romans commentary. When I realized my error, I withdrew the study guide from publication. It is no longer available. Furthermore, I immediately corrected the Romans commentary. Only a few relatively minor word-changes were necessary to correct the problem. About 90 seconds of material was also edited from the tape series in order to correct the problem on the tapes.
For the record, I have never believed that we can be justified because of anything good in us (Phil. 3:9). Scripture clearly teaches that God accepts us and declares us righteous only because of Christ's perfect righteousness, which is imputed to us by faith alone (Rom. 4:1-6). God's ongoing work of making us righteous is properly labeled sanctification””and should be carefully distinguished from justification. I hereby retract any earlier statements I ever made to the contrary.