Counted As Righteousness

In the chapter on justification in  18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know, J. I. Packer explains what Paul means in Romans 4 in one of the phrases that some interpret incorrectly and use to support the teaching that Christ’s righteousness is not imputed to the sinner in justification, but rather, it is an individual’s own faith that is counted as their righteousness (See here, for example.).

The rendering which declares Abraham’s faith to have been ‘reckoned’ or ‘counted as righteousness’ (vv. 3, 5, 9, 22), though found in RSV, NIV, NEB and most modern versions, is no good…. ‘As’ represents the Greek preposition eis, meaning ‘towards’ or ‘with a view to’ in a wide range of contexts, and ‘for rightousness’ (KJV, RV) was a much better way to translate it, although ‘reckon’ and ‘count’ are no doubt improvements on the older word ‘impute’. Paul is not saying here that faith is our righteousness, but that we are justified through believing. Certainly, faith is the occasion and means of our justification, but Christ’s obedience (5:19), His righteousness…(v. 18), His propitiation for our sins (3:25…), is its ground.

John Piper agrees that eis should be translated “for” or “unto” rather than “as” (See Counted Righteous in Christ, footnote on page 62.) in Romans 4:3, 5, 9, 22. He also explains that

in Paul’s mind, “faith being credited for righteousness” is shorthand for faith being the way an external righteousness is received as credited to us by God—namely, not by working but by trusting him who justifies the ungodly[.] Paul’s conceptual framework for imputation in verses 4 and 5 would, therefore, not be God’s crediting something we have to be righteousness, but God’s crediting a righteousness we don’t have to be ours by grace through faith.

I’ll admit I’ve had a hard time explaining exactly why this phrase means what it means and these two quotes have helped.

Saturday's Old Post: Christ's Active and Passive Obedience and Our Justification

Since I usually don’t have time for blogging on Saturday, I’ve decided to occasionally feature a favorite old post from the archives. This might be the post I like best of all the ones I’ve written in the seven years I’ve been blogging. It was originally posted in July of 2007.

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress….
(Nicolaus Zinzindorf, 1700-1760,
translated by John Wesley, 1703-1791)

Recently, everywhere I look I see the mention of the active and passive obedience of Christ, and what (or whether) both aspects of Christ’s obedience contribute to our justification. The concepts of the active and passive obedience of Christ were included in the last three questions from the Westminster Larger Catechism that I’ve posted, although those particular terms weren’t used. But the ideas are there, with the catechism clearly teaching that both the active and passive obedience of Christ are necessary for the justification of sinners. And one of the books I read and reviewed recently, By Faith Alone, dealt a bit with the active and passive obedience of Christ and whether both are necessary grounds for our justification. So I’ve been thinking about the two kinds of obedience and what they contributed to our justification, and if I’m thinking about it, you know I’m going to write about it.

Passive Obedience
Christ’s passive obedience refers to his bearing the curse of the law for us in his death on the cross. The word passive as used here does not mean that Christ’s sacrificial death was simply something done to him, and that he played no active role in it. (We know that’s not the case, for Jesus tells us clearly in John 10:18 that he laid down his life of his own accord and authority, making him an active participant in his own death.) Rather, the term passive in passive obedience comes to us from the Latin obedentia passiva, in which passiva refers to Christ’s suffering. You’ve seen the pass root used like this elsewhere, as in the term passion used to refer to refer to Christ’s suffering and death.

Christ’s passive obedience—his obedience in bearing the curse of the law for us—is the basis upon which our sins are forgiven. His death was an atoning death, and he was our substitute. Our sins were placed upon Jesus Christ on the cross and he endured the penalty for our sin in our place. This payment of our penalty through Christ’s suffering and death on our behalf is the reason we can be pardoned.

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The Cross of Christ: The Salvation of Sinners

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted on a reading from John Stott’s The Cross of Christ as part of Reading Classics Together at Challies.com. This week’s reading was Chapter 7, The Salvation of Sinners. 

In this chapter, Stott examines four images of atonement: propitiation, redemption, justification and reconciliation. I’d heard the word metaphor used in regards to the different ways of viewing the atonement, but I’d not heard anyone use the term images. I like it, because these are all different ways of seeing one multi-faceted act, and describing them as images is a perfect way to express this.

I was also pleased to see that Stott relies on (and recommends) Leon Morris’s work when explaining what the four images of atonement tell us. Morris’s work is still one the best resources we have on the atonement and I’d like to see it read more.

Instead of giving a summary of the whole chapter, I’m going to focus on a few things this chapter teaches us about justification. Stott chooses four of the phrases Paul used in regards to justification and tells us what we can learn from them.

1. Justified by his grace. This phrase explains the source of justification. It comes to us from God’s undeserved favor.

   Self-justification is a sheer impossibility (Rom 3:20). Therefore, “it is God who justifies” (Rom 8:33); only he can. And he does it “freely (Rom 3:24, dōrean, “as a free gift, gratis”), not because of any works of ours, but because of his own grace.

2. Justified by his blood. This phrase shows us the ground of justification. Justification is based on Christ’s work.

   When God justifies sinners he is not declaring bad people to be good, or saying that they are not sinners after all; he is pronouncing them legally righteous, free from any liability to the broken law, because he himself in his Son has borne the penalty of their law-breaking.

3. Justified by faith. Faith is the means of justification. “[F]aith’s only function is to receive what grace freely offers.” And since faith is only the means of justification—not the ground—it is the only means of justification.

   For unless all human works, merits, cooperation and contributions are ruthlessly excluded, and Christ’s sin-bearing death is seen in it’s solitary glory as the only ground of our justification boasting cannot be excluded.

4. Justified in Christ. This phrase points to the effects of our justification. It “points to the personal relationship with him which by faith we now enjoy.” Justification “cannot be isolated from our union with Christ and all the benefits this brings.”

There you are, just a short summary of a section of what Stott teaches us about justification in this long and meaty chapter. Next up is chapter 8, The Revelation of God.