Here is why the Scripture ascribes justification to faith alone:Namely, because in faith it is more manifested that man is justified not by his
own virtue, but by the merit of Christ. For as in beholding the serpent God
placed healing in the desert, because the looking indicated more than the men
were healed by the virtue of the serpent, not of any personal work or medicine;
so faith shows that sinners are justified by the virtue and merit of Christ, in
whom believing they are saved, not by any virtue and merit of their own. And it
is the reason why justification is ascribed to faith especially by Paul, who
strives to exclude from justification the works of the law, and human merit or
efficacy, and to place it in the virtue and merit of Christ alone. Therefore he
makes mention of faith in Christ. This neither repentance, nor love, nor hope
have, for faith is carried more immediately and distinctly to it, by whose
virtue we are justified.
--Toletus in Turretin, Francis. Justification. Ed. James T. Dennison, Jr. Trans. George Musgrave Giger. Phillipsburg, N. J.: P & R Publishing, 1994.
