Evaluating
the New Perspective on Paul (12)
(Part Two)
by Dr. Cornelis P. Venema
In
my previous article, I noted that, despite the importance of the idea of the
imputation of Christ's righteousness in the Reformation's understanding of
justification, the new perspective generally tends to diminish or deny that
justification involves such an act. Though N. T. Wright allows that
justification is to be understood in the context of the court-room (God as
Judge vindicates or pronounces in favor of someone), he dismisses the notion
that in so doing God grants or imputes righteousness to the justified person.
When
the Reformers spoke of the "imputation" of the righteousness of Christ
to believers in justification, they appealed to a number of passages in Paul's
epistles that speak of justification in terms of an act of imputation. Thus far
we have considered only Romans 4:2-6, one of the more important of these pas-
sages. In the following, we will consider several additional pas- sages that
are of special importance to the idea of imputation.
Though Romans 4 (a passage we considered in a
previous article) may not explicitly identify the righteousness that is the
basis for the believer's justification, there are several key passages in
Paul's epistles that clearly identify this righteousness as the righteousness
of Christ. These passages affirm that in justification God freely grants and
imputes the righteousness of Christ to believers. The first of these passages
is Romans 5:12-21, especially verses 16-21.
And
the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment
following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many
transgressions brought justification. If, because of one man's trespass, death
reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of
grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man
Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so
one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by
the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's
obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the
trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin
reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Note: see my chart on Federal theology. CWP]
This passage, which closes the apostle Paul's
summary treatment of the doctrine of justification in Romans 3-5, draws a
far-reaching comparison and contrast between the first Adam and the second
Adam, Christ. Just as all who are "in Adam" are subject to
condemnation on account of his one trespass, so all who are "in
Christ" receive justification and life on account of His one act of
righteousness. Though this passage bristles with difficult questions of
interpretation, our treatment of it will have to focus only on those things
that directly bear upon the subject of imputation andjustification.1
In
order to appreciate what this passage teaches about imputation and justification,
it is necessary to begin by noting the way the Apostle Paul connects the one
trespass of the first man, Adam, with the fact that "all sinned" (v.
12) and are under the reign of death. Though there are those who attempt to ex-
plain the phrase "all sinned" by taking this language to refer to the
actual sins of all men, this explanation does not fit well with the nature of
Paul's argument. The burden of Paul's argument is that there is an immediate
link between the one trespass of the one man, Adam, on the one hand,
and the reign of death and the judgment that brings condemnation upon the
many, on the other. For this reason, he emphasizes that death reigned from
Adam to Moses, "even over those whose sinning was not like the
transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come" (v. 14).
Even
though the trespass was Adam's, and Adam's alone, the consequence of this
trespass, death, reigned over all. Accordingly, the apostle insists that the
"one trespass led to condemnation for all men" and "the many
were made sinners" (vv. 18-19). By virtue of the union of all with Adam in
his one trespass, God imputes or reckons to all men the guilt of this trespass
and its judicial consequence, death. This is the sense in which we may say that
"all sinned" in Adam, and all bear, as a consequence, the judicial
liability of condemnation and death.
In a similar way, the apostle links the one man's
obedience (lit., "the act of righteousness of one") with the making
righteous of the many. Just as death reigned through the disobedience of the
first Adam, so "the free gift of righteousness reign[s] in life through
the one man Jesus Christ." So far as the doctrine of imputation is
concerned, the critical phrase in these verses is "the free gift of
righteousness." The many who are made righteous, who receive justification
and life through the work of Christ, are not made righteous through their own
deed or deeds. Nothing that they are or do constitutes them righteous or
beneficiaries of God's favorable verdict and acceptance. Rather, God's grace
"super-abounds" toward the many who are through union with Christ
made partakers of His righteousness.
For the purpose of understanding the doctrine of
imputation, the critical point in Paul's argument is his insistence upon the
direct (or immediate) participation of all who are united with Christ in His
one act of obedience. Just as Adam's sin (and not the sins of all men)
constitutes all as sinners under the judicial sentence. o( condemnation and
death, so Christ’s obedience (and not the obedience of the many) constitutes
the many as righteous and under the judicial sentence of justification and
life. The dominant thread in Paul's argument, both with respect to the participation of all men in Adam and the participation 'of
the many in Christ, is the judicial implication of our union with the
first and second Adams. God counts or reckons as guilty all who are in Adam;
and He counts or reckons as innocent all who are in the second Adam, Christ.
One
question that arises in this connection relates to the meaning of Paul's
expression, "the one act of obedience/righteousness." Does this
refer, to use the language of theology, to Christ's passive obedience alone
(His cross)? Or does it refer to Christ's active and passive obedience, using
the language of "one act" to summarize the whole of His life of
obedience? John Murray provides a helpful answer to
this question:
If
the question be asked how the righteousness of Christ could be defined as
"one righteous act," the answer is that the righteousness of Christ
is regarded in its com- pact unity in parallelism with the one trespass, and
there is good reason for speaking of it as the one righteous act because, as
the one trespass is the trespass of the one, so that one righteousness is the
righteousness of the one and the unity and the person and his accomplishment
must al- ways be assumed.2
Christ's
obedience upon the cross epitomizes His whole life of obedience. The cross does
not exhaust Christ's obedience but reveals it in its most striking form (cf.
Philippians 2:8, "becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross"). Indeed, were it not for the entirety of Christ's obedience from
the beginning to the end of His ministry, it would not be possible to speak of
His having died "the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might
bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
Another
important passage for an understanding of the imputation of righteousness as
the basis for the believer's justification is Philippians 3:8-9.
Indeed,
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not
having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes
through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
This
remarkable testimony of the apostle was written in the context of his fierce
and unyielding opposition to certain persons who were placing their confidence
before God on their own flesh (v. 3). Though the apostle does not explicitly
identify his opponents, it appears that they were persons who were boasting of
their own religious pedigree and credentials, particularly circumcision, on the
basis of which they sought to com- mend themselves before God. In his initial
reply to these opponents, the apostle engages in an extended ad hominem argument.
If his opponents would place their confidence before God in such things, the
apostle Paul has even more right to do so: "circumcised on the eight day,
of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to
the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to
righteousness, under the law blame- less."
Unlike
these opponents, however, Paul's boast or confidence is not in "a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law." His boast, rather, is in
"the righteousness from God that depends on faith." This
righteousness of God comes "through faith" to those who are
"found in Christ." Though Paul does not explicitly speak of God
imputing or reckoning the righteousness of Christ in these verses, the idea is
certainly present. Those who are united with Christ through faith receive,
on that account, a righteousness from God. This righteousness, Paul
insists in the most emphatic terms, is not his own righteousness but a
righteousness that comes from "outside of himself' as God grants it to
him. Paul's righteousness" as is true of any believer's, consists in the
free bestowal of an "alien" righteousness by God to all who are in
union with Christ.
The
last key passage to consider is 2 Corinthians 5:19-21.
In
Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses
against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we
are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on
be- half of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Perhaps
no passage in Scripture more clearly teaches the doctrine of imputation than
this one. The reconciling work of God in Christ took place when Christ, who
"knew no sin," was "made to be sin." In an inscrutable
manner, God regarded the sinless Christ as though He were sin. On the other
hand, God did "not count [our] trespasses against [us]"; He did not
treat or regard us in a manner consistent with our condition and circum- stance
as sinners. By these means-not counting our sins against us, making and
treating Christ as though He were sin-we are "become the righteousness of
God in Him." In this passage, as in those previously considered,
the apostle Paul does not expressly speak of the granting and imputing of
Christ's righteousness to believers. However, no other interpretation can
legitimately claim to do justice to this passage. It is only by virtue of our
union and participation in Christ that we come to benefit from His saving and
reconciling work. Charles Hodge's comments on this passage express this truth
well:
Our
sins were imputed to Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to us. He bore
our sins; we are clothed in His righteousness. ... Christ bearing our sins did
not make Him morally a sinner ... nor does Christ's
righteousness become subjectively ours, it is not the moral quality of our
souls. ... Our sins were the judicial ground of the sufferings of Christ, so
that they were a satisfaction of justice; and His righteousness is the judicial
ground of our acceptance with God, so that our pardon is an act of justice It
is not mere pardon, but justification alone, that gives us peace with God.3
Endnotes
1 For a more extensive treatment of Romans 5: 12-21
and its implications for the imputation of Christ's righteous- ness, see Piper,
Counted Righteous in Christ, pp. 90-114; and John Murray, The
Imputation of Adam's Sin (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed
reprint, 1959).
2 The
Epistle to the Romans, vol. I, pp. 201-202. Ct. Piper, Counted Righteous
in Christ, pp.110-114.
3 Charles Hodge, An
Exposition of the Second
Letter to the Corinthians (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, n.d.), pp. 150-151.
Dr. Cornel Venema is the President of
Mid-America Reformed Seminary where he also teaches Doctrinal Studies. Dr.
Venema is a contributing editor to The Outlook.
All articles in this series are posted
with the gracious permission of Dr. Venema and The Outlook
