BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMANS

THE LAW OF GOD

The law of God intensifies the wrath of God against sin:
"For the law works wrath,..." (Rom. 4:15a ERS).
With the introduction of the law, sin becomes a transgression (parabasis, a going aside, a deviation, hence, a violation) of the law. "But where there is no law neither is there transgression" (Rom. 4:15b ERS). A transgression of the law is sin, but sin is more than just a transgression of the law and it may exist where the law of God does not exist.

"For until the law sin was in the world;
but sin is not imputed when there is no law" (Rom. 5:13 ERS).
In the period between Adam and Moses, before the law was given, there was no law. But in this period before the law, "sin was in the world"; men were sinning. Sin existed where the law did not exist. From the Biblical point of view sin must be understood and defined in terms of God and not in terms of the law. Sin is any choice that is contrary to faith in the true God -
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23 KJV).
A transgression of the law is sin but sin is not just a transgression of the law. The KJ version mistranslates the statement in I John 3:4: he hamartia estin he anomia. It should be translated "sin is lawlessness" (RSV, NEB, NIV) not "sin is the transgression of the law" (KJV). The Greek word anomia basically may mean either "no law" or "against law." Hence, it means "anarchy" or "rebellion." "Freely translated v.4 would then be to the effect that 'he who commits sin is thereby in revolt against; indeed, sin is nothing but rebellion against God.'" [1]

The law came in alongside in order that the transgression might abound (Rom. 5:20b). Thus through the law, sin became exceedingly sinful (Rom. 7:13b). "Since through the law comes the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20b; see also Rom. 7:7b), the law shows what sin is and thus makes clear the true character of sin and that the basic sin is idolatry (Exodus 20:3-6; Deut. 5:7-10; 6:13-15; 8:19; 11:16-17; 29:24-27; 30:17-18). But this does not mean that sin is to be defined in terms of the law. The law just exposes its true character. The law not only reveals what sin is but also God's direct opposition to man's sin, that is, the wrath of God which is the curse of the law.

"Cursed is every one who continues not in all things
that are written in the book of the law, to do them"
(Gal. 3:10b ERS; see also Deut. 27:26; 29:27).
Thus the law brings the wrath of God, not directly by means of an inevitable moral process of cause and effect, but indirectly by showing what is God's personal reaction to man's sin.

What is the law? The term "law" is used most often in the Bible, especially in the New Testament (Matt. 5:18) and Christian theology, to refer to the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21), sometimes improperly called the moral law. Sometimes it is used to refer to the whole law of Moses, ceremonial as well as the Ten Commandments, statutes and ordinances (Luke 2:22; John 7:23). Sometimes it is also used to refer to the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23- 24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21) as well as the whole Old Testament (John 10:34, quoting Psa. 82:6; I Cor. 14:21, quoting Isa. 28:11). The Hebrew word for law, torah, means direction, guidance, instruction, teaching. As such it is that content of God's revelation of Himself which makes clear man's relationship to God and to his fellowman. It provides guidance of man's actions in relationship to God and to his fellowman. Thus it is the Word of the Lord (Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160). It is first of all about God's act of redemption of Israel from Egypt (Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6; Psa. 119:174 parallelism) and then about man's obedient response to this act (Ex. 20:3-17; Deut. 5:7-21). The law is the covenant that God made with the children of Israel through Moses (Ex. 24:1-12). The commandments of the law are based upon the grace of God who provided redemption from Egypt (Deut. 4:37-40; Psa. 119:146) and are the terms of God's covenant with His people (Ex. 19:3-8; Deut. 5:1-3). In contrast to the covenants with Noah (Gen. 9:8-17) and with Abraham (Gen. 15:12-18; 17:1-14), which were covenants of sheer grace, the Mosaic covenant is conditional. God made unconditional promises to Noah and Abraham of what He would do. The blessings of these covenants were unconditional. The blessings of the Mosaic covenant are, on the other hand, conditioned upon obedience (Deut. 28:1-14) and the curses upon disobedience (Deut. 28:15-20; 30:1-20). These conditions are given in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3-17; Deut. 5:6-21) and other statutes and ordinances.

What is the difference between law and grace? The difference is not: rules and no rules. The difference is in the relationship of the blessing to obedience. Under the law the bestowal of the blessing is conditioned upon obedience; obey in order to be blessed (Ezek. 18). Under grace the blessing is bestowed unconditionally to bring about obedience: obey because you are already blessed (John 13:34; Eph. 4:32; Titus 2:11-12; I John 3:3; 4:11,19). Grace appeals to the unconditioned prior bestowal of the blessing as the grounds of obedience. Law, on the other hand, appeals to obedience as the ground of the bestowal of the blessing.

The Mosaic covenant is not pure law but is based on the grace of God who graciously provided redemption for the children of Israel and who in free grace chose to establish His covenant with them. This redemption by God from Egypt is the grounds of the appeal for obedience to the terms of the covenant which are stated in the Ten Commandments.

"20:2 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
20:3 You shall have no other gods before me."
(Ex. 20:2-3).
This is the order of grace; obey because you are already blessed. But the Mosaic covenant is not pure grace because the blessings of the covenant are conditioned upon Israel's obedience.
"30:15 See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.
30:16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God
which I command you this day,
by loving the Lord your God,
by walking in His ways,
and keeping His commandments
and His statutes and His ordinances,
then you shall live and multiply,
and the Lord your God will bless you in the land
which you are entering to take possession of it.
30:17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear
but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,
30:18 I declare to you this day, that you shall perish,
you shall not live long in the land
which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.
30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse;
therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live,
30:20 loving the Lord your God,
obeying his voice, and cleaving to him;
for that means life to you and length of days,
that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers,
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
(Deut. 30:15-20).
This is the order of law. Obey in order to be blessed. The Mosaic covenant is a mixed covenant of grace and law.

What is the purpose of the law? Being a clarification of man's relationship to God, the purpose of the law is to expose the nature of sin (Rom. 3:20; 7:7b) and God's reaction to man's sin in the form of wrath (the curse of the law; see Rom. 4:15; Gal. 3:10b). Therefore, to the question: "Why the law?" Paul answers in Gal. 3:19:
"It was added because of transgressions,... until the seed [Christ, Gal. 3:16]
should come to whom the promise had been made." (cf. Rom. 5:20).
Until Christ came, the Jews were kept under the law (Gal. 3:23) as a tutor (Gal. 3:24) who guarded the immature child until he became a mature son (Gal. 4:1-2). Therefore, the law was a temporary arrangement (Heb. 7:18; 9:9-10). The Mosaic law was given only to Israel (Deut. 4:7-8, 32-33,36; Psa. 147:19-20). From Adam to Moses there was no law ( Rom. 5:13-14), and the Gentiles do not have the law (Rom. 2:14, twice).

The Scriptures, and in particular the Apostle Paul, do not teach that there is a law of nature, lex naturae, after Stoic fashion. In Romans 2:15 Paul does not say that the Gentiles have "the law" (ho nomos) written on the heart, but that "the work of the law" (to ergon tou nomou) is written on their hearts. In this passage, Paul is not talking about having the law but about keeping or fulfilling the law. In the context, Paul is contrasting the Jew who has the law but does not keep it with the Gentile who does not have the law but does what the law commands. Having the law is not sufficient.

"For not the hearers of the law are righteous with God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified." (Rom. 2:13 ERS).
It is these particular actions of the Gentiles, which are in harmony with the law, that Paul is referring to when he says that the work of the law is written on their hearts. For it is from the heart, where the decisions are made, that the work of the law comes. Grammatically the word "written" (grapton) agrees with the word "work" (ergon), and not with the word "law" (tou nomou). The work, not the law, is written on the heart. For if Paul had said that the law was written on the heart, he would be saying that the Gentiles had the law in a more intimate way than the Jews had it. The latter had it written only on the tables of stone or in a book. Moreover, Paul would also be saying that the Gentiles had the law written on their hearts which provision was only promised in the new covenant.
"But this is the covenant which I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my law within them,
and I will write it upon their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
(Jer. 31:33).
But in the preceding verse Rom 2:14, Paul specifically says that the Gentiles do not have the law.
"2:14 For when Gentiles, not having the law, do by nature the things of the law,
these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,
2:15 who show the work of law written in their hearts."
(Rom. 2:14-15a ERS).
And he says it twice in this one verse alone that Gentiles do not have the law, so that there will be no misunderstanding. We must be careful not to read into Paul any Stoic-like concept of the law of nature, lex naturae, that is the exact opposite of what he here intended or meant.

The conscience does not contain an absolute standard of right and wrong as implied in the Stoic law of nature. The standard that conscience uses to judge the action of the will is relative to the ultimate criterion that the person has chosen. That is, the god that a person has chosen and worships supplies the standards of the conscience. This is why not every person has the same feelings of guilt or responsibility for his decisions or actions (I Cor. 10:28-29; 8:7). The conscience can be modified (seared or hardened, I Tim. 4:2) by rejecting the judgments of the conscience (I Tim. 1:19-20). And a weak conscience can be made strong by the increase of knowledge (I Cor. 8:7). The fact that everybody's conscience has a standard does not mean that all have the same standard. There is not in everyone's conscience a universal standard, lex naturae.
[The double genitive absolute phrase in Rom. 2:15b,
"their conscience bearing witness and their
conflicting thoughts accusing or even excusing",
is a grammatically independent clause. It should be taken with the sentence that follows, which is the usual syntax, and not with the preceding subordinate clause. It should be translated as follows:

"2:15b As their conscience bears witness
and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse,
2:16 in that day God will judge the hidden things of men
according to my gospel, through Christ Jesus." (Rom. 2:15b-16 ERS).
This makes good sense if the Stoic teaching concerning the law of nature in the conscience is not read into the context.]

Can man keep the law? Yes, he can; that is, man is able to choose to do what the law commands.

"30:11 For this commandment which I command you this day
is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.
30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say,
'Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us,
that we may hear it and do it?'
30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say,
'Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us,
that we may hear it and do it?'
30:14 But the word is very near you;
it is in your mouth and in your heart,
so that you can do it." (Deut. 30:11-14).
But man does not do it (Rom. 3:10-12; Jer. 4:22; Psa. 10:4; 14:1-3; 53:1-3). Why? Because he is spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), and he sins because he is spiritually dead ( Rom. 5:12d ERS). The law cannot make alive and thus cannot produce righteousness.
"Is the law then against the promise of God? Certainly not;
for if a law had been given which could make alive,
then righteousness would indeed be by the law." (Gal. 3:21).
Although the law is God's revelation of Himself, the Word of the Lord (Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160), it contains only a knowledge about God and not a personal knowledge of God. But more basically, this knowledge is only about God's act of redemption of the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt, and not of the salvation of man from death and from sin. The situation of man spiritually has not been altered by this act of God or the giving of the law. Man is still spiritually dead. Therefore, because the law contains only the knowledge about a national, political-sociological act of God and not about God's act of salvation from death, nor a personal revelation of Himself to the heart of man that makes him alive; the law cannot make alive. On the contrary, the law presupposes the possession of life and righteousness. The keeping of the law only guarantees the continuance of life (Lev. 18:5; Deut. 30:18-20; Ezek. 18:5-9, 21-23, 27-28; 20:11; Luke 10:27-28) already possessed. The choice between life and death in Deut. 30:15-20 is the choice between physical life and physical death, not between spiritual life and spiritual death, which choice is only presented under grace in the preaching of the gospel. The choice of faith in Jesus Christ is the choice of spiritual and eternal life in Christ, for He is the life (I John 5:11-12). Of course, it is also the choice of physical life and the resurrection from physical death at His second coming. The law could not make alive physically, spiritually, or eternally, but only guaranteed the continuance and elongation of physical life ( Deut. 30:18-20).

What the law could not do, God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. God has made us alive to Himself in the resurrection of Jesus and set us free from the slavery of sin. Since the basic sin is idolatry (trust in a false god) and sin is a slavery to a slave master (John 8:34), the false god is the slave master. We were all slaves of sin, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing him personally. But we have been set free from this slavery of sin through the death of Christ. Jesus entered into our spiritual death and died our death. His death is our death. Now when a slave dies, he is no longer in slavery; death frees him from slavery. So we likewise have been set free from the slavery of sin having died with Christ. We have died to sin with Christ (Rom. 6:1-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we have been made alive to God together with Him in His resurrection. His resurrection is our resurrection. We are no longer slaves of sin but have become slaves of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Now that we are alive to God in Him, we have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18). For just as death produces sin, so life produces righteousness. Since we have passed from death to life, we have been saved from sin to righteousness (I Peter 2:24).

From the Biblical point of view the law has three serious weaknesses (Rom. 8:3).

  1. The law cannot remove the wrath of God but causes wrath ( Rom. 4:15a; Gal. 3:10b; the curse of the law = the wrath of God). And the law cannot remove the wrath of God because
  2. it cannot take away sin (Heb. 10:1-4, 15-18). Not only is the law unable to take away sin, but it causes sin (Rom. 7:5, 8, 11, 13). This is not because the law is evil (on the contrary, it is holy, righteous and good, Rom. 7:12) but because
  3. the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21). The law cannot deliver man from the death that has been passed to him from Adam ( Rom. 5:12, 15, 17). On the contrary, it brings death (Rom. 7:10-11, 13). The law makes death, primarily physical death, the result of personal sins (Ezek. 18:4, 20; Deut. 24:16; Isa. 59:2) and superimposes this relationship of death-because-of-sin upon the more basic relationship of sin-because-of-death ( Rom. 5:12d ERS; Gal. 4:8). But the law did not change this more basic relationship; man sins because of spiritual death. And the law cannot remove this death, and therefore the law cannot remove sin. Also, since the law cannot make alive, it cannot produce righteousness ( Gal. 3:21) and therefore peace with God ( Rom. 5:1).
    "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Rom. 10:4 NAS).
    Because Christ alone can and did remove death and does make alive and thereby righteous.
The law has therefore a threefold weakness: it cannot remove wrath, sin or death because it cannot produce peace, righteousness or life. There is no salvation by the law.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

The revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17) is also called justification ( Rom. 3:24). As we have seen the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God whereby God sets man right with God Himself. Hence the revelation of the righteousness of God is this act of setting right, and this act of setting right is called justification. Justification is not just a pronouncement about something but is an act that brings about something; it is not just a declaration that a man is righteous before God but is a setting of a man right with God: a bringing him into a right relationship with God. Justification is then essentially salvation: to justify is to save (Isa. 45:25; 53:11; see Rom. 6:7 where dikaioo is translated "freed" in RSV). This close relationship between these two concepts is more obvious in the Greek because the words translated "justification" and "righteousness" have the same roots, not two different roots as do the two English words. See my Word Study on "righteousness".

JUSTIFICATION FROM SIN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

There is a difference between justification in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament justification is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God justifies, that is, vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. Justification in the Old Testament requires a real righteousness of the people on whose part it is done. In Isa. 51:7 the promise of deliverance is addressed to those "who know righteousness, the people in whose hearts is my law." Similarly, in order to share in the promised vindication, the wicked must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord (Isa. 55:7). But in the New Testament justification is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed but also a deliverance of the people from their own sins. Thus, Paul says that God is He "that justifies the ungodly" (Rom. 4:5). In the New Testament, justification is not just a vindication of the righteous who has been wronged (this view is in Jesus' teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but justification is also the salvation of the ungodly who are delivered from their ungodliness and unrighteousness. But justification not only saves the ungodly from their sins, it also brings them into the righteousness of faith. To be set right with God is to have faith in God.

"Abraham believed God,
and it [his faith] was reckoned unto him for righteousness"
(Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3, 9; cf. Rom. 10:9; Phil. 3:9).
Justification as God's act of setting man right with Himself brings man into faith, which is to be set right with God. Thus justification is through faith (dia pisteos, Rom. 3:30; Gal. 2:16) and out of or from faith (ek pisteos, Rom. 3:26, 30; Gal. 2:16; 3:8, 24).

JUSTIFICATION FROM WRATH TO PEACE

But justification as salvation is not only the deliverance from sin to righteousness but also the deliverance from wrath to peace and from death to life. Justification as deliverance from wrath to peace is set forth by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:24-25:

"3:24 Being justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
3:25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood."
(Rom. 3:24-25 ERS; see also Isa. 32:17).
Here Paul connects justification with the two other aspects of salvation, redemption and propitiation. Redemption is the deliverance from sin by the payment of a price called a ransom which is the death of Jesus Christ. And propitiation is the deliverance from the wrath by the sacrifical death of Jesus ("His blood") which turns away or averts the wrath of God through faith in that sacrifice ("through faith in His blood"). Christ's death as a propitiation turns away God's wrath from the one who has faith in that sacrifice. The wrath is turned away because the sin has been taken away ("forgiveness") by the death of Christ as a ransom, by which a man is redeemed or set free, delivered from sin. When sin has been removed there is no cause for God's wrath. No sin, no wrath. Man is saved from wrath because he is saved from sin.
"Being justified freely by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1).

"Much more then, being justified by His blood,
we shall be saved through Him from the wrath of God."
(Rom. 5:9).

JUSTIFICATION FROM DEATH TO LIFE

Justification is also deliverance from death to life. Man is delivered from sin to the righteousness of faith because he is delivered from death to life. As sinners, we were enemies of God, but through the death of God's Son, we have been reconciled to God and are now no longer enemies. To be reconciled to God means we have passed from death to life and we are saved in His resurrected life ("having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. 5:10; see II Cor. 5:17-21). We are delivered from death by being "made alive together with Him" in His resurrection (Eph. 2:5). He was "raised for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). Thus justification is "justification of life" (Rom. 5:18 KJV). To be set right with God is to enter into fellowship with God. And this right relationship to God is life. Justification puts us into this right relationship to God and hence is a justification of life. Fellowship with God is established when God reveals Himself to man and man responds to that revelation in faith. Life is a personal relationship between God and man that results from this revelation and the faith response to it. Apart from this revelation the response of faith is not possible, and this revelation is the offer of life and the possibility of faith. But life is not actual unless man responds in faith to the revelation of God Himself. Life is received in the decision of faith. Since God's act of revelation is first, and man's response in faith is second and depends upon God's revelation, life results in the righteousness of faith and man is righteous because of life. Justification as the revelation of the righteousness of God brings about life and hence the righteousness of faith. Thus justification is salvation from death to life,

JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE

Justification is the free act of God's grace ( Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:7).
The source of justification is the love of God.
And the love of God in action to bring man salvation is the grace of God.

"2:4 But God who is rich in mercy,
out of the great love with which he loved us,
2:5 even when we were dead in our failures,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved)" (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
According to these verses, the grace of God is God's love in action.
God's grace is more than just His favor;
it is His love acting to do something good for us.
The parallelism between the phrase in last part of verse 5
"(by grace you have been saved)"
and the phrase in verse 4 and in the first part of verse 5,
"God...out of the great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our failures,
made us alive together with Christ",
shows that the grace of God by which we are saved is God's love acting to make us alive together with Christ.
That is, this salvation by the grace of God is salvation from death to life.
And since this salvation from death to life is by the love of God,
then the grace of God that saves us is God's love in action to save us.
Now since God's love in action to save us is more than His favor,
then the grace of God is more than just His favor.
That is, the grace of God is God's love in action, not just His favor.
And because He loves us, God has acted to save us from death to life by His grace.

Since justification is salvation from death to life, justification is the true expression of the grace of God, the act of the love of God; justification is a gift of God's love. And because justification is a gift ( Rom. 3:24; 5:15-17), justification is free and is not something that can be earned (Rom. 4:4; 11:6). Being a free act of God's grace, justification has nothing to do with the works of the law (Rom. 3:20, 28; 4:6; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; see also Eph. 2:2-9; Phil. 3:9; II Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5).

THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

The whole legalistic theology is a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God and of justification by faith, and is therefore unbiblical and false. The Scripture nowhere speaks of the righteousness or merits of Christ and of justification as an imputation of the merits of Christ to our account. The introduction of such a legalistic righteousness, even if it means the merits of Christ, into the discussion of the righteousness of God and of the justification by faith obscures the grace of God and misunderstands the law as well as the gospel of the grace of God. In principle, the grace of God has nothing to do with legal righteousness and merits. God does not give man His grace by faith so that he can earn merits to gain eternal life nor to declare that he is legally righteous before God. Jesus Christ did not satisfy in our place the demands of the law, either in precept or penalty. Neither did Christ earn for us eternal life by fulfilling the law. Christ fulfilled the law (Matt. 5:17), but not for us. Nowhere in the Scripture does it say that Christ fulfilled the law for us. Neither did he fulfill it legalistically to earn anything. Not because Christ was not able to do it but because God does not in His love and grace operate on the basis of law or legal righteousness. Christ fulfilled it by love, for "love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:8, 10).

Legalism misinterprets the righteousness of God as justice, that is, as that principle of God's being that requires and demands the reward of good works (comformity to the Law) because of their intrinsic merit (remunerative justice) and the punishment of every transgression of the law with a proportionate punishment because of its own intrinsic demerit (retributive justice). According to this view, for God to do otherwise He would be unrighteous and unjust. Absolute justice, which according to this legalistic point of view is the eternal being of God, is said to require and demand, of necessity, the reward of meritorious good works and the punishment of sin.

It was this legalistic concept of justice that gave Martin Luther so much trouble. But Luther's use of the scholastic distinction between active and passive righteousness tended to obscure the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God. Luther obviously rejected the active sense; but the Lutheran protestant scholastics interpreted Luther as accepting both senses. Because their explanation of the death of Christ was still grounded in the legalistic concept of justice, that is, that Christ died to pay the penalty for man's sin which the justice of God requires to be paid before God can save man, they had to retain the active sense also. Thus Luther's discovery of the Biblical understanding of the righteousness of God was obscured and eventually lost. By identifying the righteousness of God with the passive sense, Luther gave the impression that the righeousness of God is the righteousness from God, that is, the righteousness man receives from God through faith (Phil. 3:9). The righteousness of God ia not the righteousness from God. These are different though related ideas and must be carefully distinguished from each other. The righteousness from God is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:11) which is that right personal relationship to God that results from faith in the true God (Rom. 4:3). The righteousness of God, on the other hand, is God acting to set man right with God Himself and is synonymous with salvation (Psa. 98:2; 71:1-2, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 46:13; 51:5; 56:1; 61:10; 62:1). Luther's apparent identification of the righteousness of God with the righteousness from God led eventually to the equating of the righteousness from God with Christ's righteousness, that is, the merit's of Christ, which is imputed to the believer's account when he believes, and the righteousness of God with the justice of God, that is, that attribute of God which requires that God punish all sin and reward all meritorious works.

From the legalistic point of view, man needs to be saved because he is guilty of breaking the law. Salvation is accordingly conceived of as a removal of that guilt. Justice requires that the penalty be paid before the guilt can be removed. It cannot be forgiven freely but only can be taken away by the paying of the penalty which alone can satisfy justice. Because of the enormity of the guilt - it is against an infinite moral being - finite man himself can never pay the penalty and go free. From this legalistic point of view, man's sin demands an eternal punishment, and being finite man cannot meet the infinite demand of justice. If he is to be saved at all, he must be saved by another - one who is man like himself but without sin, but also one who is God who alone can meet the infinite demand of justice. Where is such a one to be found? Only God can provide the one, and God has provided the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty by sending His Son to become man. His death is the perfect sacrifice. It can remove the guilt by paying the penalty. In His death he endured the eternal punishment due to man's sin.

But from this legalistic point of view, it is not enough just to be declared not guilty; man must also have a righteousness which merits eternal life. He must not only have no guilt, no demerits, but he must also have a positive righteousness, merits placed to his account. Since man cannot earn this righteousness (merits) himself because of his sinful nature (he is not able not to sin and not able to do righteousness - good works which merit eternal life as a reward), someone must earn this for him. According to this legalistic theology, salvation is not only a vicarious satisfaction of the demands of justice and the law, but it is also vicarious law-keeping. Christ's life of active obedience under the law provides the righteousness (merits) we need; Christ earned for us eternal life by His active obedience to the law. And by His passive obedience of death on the cross He paid for us (vicariously) the penalty of our sins. Therefore, the one who receives in faith Christ's work for him is declared not guilty, and Christ's righteousness (the merits of Christ) is imputed to his account. He is justified because Christ has satisfied the demands of justice and of the law against him. He is legally entitled to eternal life if he receives it from Christ who earned it for him. Thus salvation is understood legalistically. It is a legal transaction - a fire insurance policy that another paid for and is given freely to man if he will take it.

This is a consistent and logical explanation of salvation by Christ. There is only one difficulty with it - it is not true. Yes, Christ died for man to take away his sin. The fact of Christ - who He is and what He did - is true, but the explanation is wrong - it is legalistic. Salvation is not by meritorious works, even though another - even God - performs them. God is not the kind of God that the legalist thinks He is. He is not a God of law and of justice but He is a God of love. Yes, God is just, that is, fair, but not in a legalistic sense. God is fair because he loves all men alike and therefore treats them impartially, without regard to their merit (Matt. 5:45). The problem solved by Christ's death was not in God but in man. God did not have to be reconciled and His justice satisfied before man could be saved. On the contrary, it is man who needs to be reconciled to God; it is man who needs to be changed. Man is dead and he needs to be made alive. The problem is in man - he is dead and he needs life. Man does not need a lawyer; he needs someone to raise him from dead. And only God can do that, and He has done it through His Son's death and resurrection. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself" (II Cor. 5:18, 19; see also Rom. 5:10-11) - not reconciling God to the world. And since man sins because he is dead ( Rom. 5:12d, "because of which [death] all sinned" ERS), by making him alive God saves him from sin to righteousness. God saves man not just from the guilt of sin but from sin itself. And He saves him not just from breaking the law but from trusting in false gods. God saves man to trust in God Himself - the only real righteousness. Legal righteousness (merits) is not enough. For the real law wants faith, trust in and love of God - "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul and mind." And since death is what hinders this, God removed this hindrance and barrier by the death and resurrection of His Son. He entered into our death so that we could enter into His life - through His resurrection. Being made alive with Him to God we can now trust, love, and worship Him. So then as sin flows out of death, righteousness flows out of life - out of Jesus Christ who is the life. Life is not some thing; it is a person - Jesus Christ - and to know Him and God through Him is to be alive (John 17:3). And to know Him and His love is to trust Him.

WHY CHRIST DIED

Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that Christ died to pay the penalty of man's sin and satisfy God's justice. Not in the three passages ( Rom. 3:24-25; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13) usually cited to support this doctrine does it say explicitly that Christ paid the penalty of sin or satisfied the justice of God. In the Rom. 3:24-25 passage, propitiation is not the satisfaction of God's justice; neither is redemption the paying the penality of sin.

"3:24 Being justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
3:25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood...."
(Rom. 3:24-25 ERS; see also Isa. 32:17).
The redemption that is in Christ (Rom. 3:24) is deliverance from sin by the payment of a price, a ransom, which is the blood of Christ, that is, His sacrificial death. The price is not the payment of a penalty but it is the means by which the redemption from sin is accomplished.
"1:18Knowing that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, like silver or gold,
from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;
1:19but with the precious blood,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
even the blood of Christ."
(I Pet. 1:18-19 ERS; see also Heb. 9:14-15).
Redemption is deliverance from sin as a slave master by means of the death of Christ [His blood] as the price or ransom.
"In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the deliverance from our offences,
according the riches of His grace..." (Eph. 1:7 ERS).

"In whom we have redemption,
the deliverance from sins. (Col. 1:14 ERS).

According to the English translations of Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14, redemption is made equivalent to forgiveness of sins.
"In Him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according the riches of his grace..." (Eph. 1:7 RSV).

"In whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:14 RSV).

But the basic meaning of the Greek word aphesis here translated "forgiveness" is "the sending off or away." Hence to redeem from sins is to send them away, to deliver from sin. Jesus "was manifested in order to take away sins" (I John 3:5 ERS). He is "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

Salvation is not just forgiveness. It is more than forgiveness of sins; salvation is also deliverance from death; it is the resurrection of the dead. Forgiveness of sins is not enough; man needs to be made alive to God because he is spiritually dead. And he is dead, not because of his own sins, but because of the sin of another, Adam. So the forgiveness of a man's sins does not take away spiritual death because the spiritual death was not caused by that man's sins. Thus forgiveness of sins does not remove spiritual death. But the removing of spiritual death does removes sins. Salvation as the resurrection from the dead is also salvation from sin and thus it is also the forgiveness of sins. Thus to be made alive to God means that sins are forgiven.

This redemption from sin was accomplished by the death of Jesus Christ because His death is also the means by which we were delivered from death, the cause of sin. Since spiritual death leads to sin ( Rom. 5:12d ERS), sin reigns in the sphere of death's reign (Rom. 5:21). And since Christ's death is the end of the reign of death for those who died with Christ, it is also the end of the reign of sin over them. They are no longer slaves of sin, serving false gods. Sin is a slave master (Rom. 6:16-18) and this slave master is the false god in which the sinner trusts. We were all slaves of sin once, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing Him personally. But we were set free from this slavery to sin through the death of Christ. For when Christ died for us, He died to sin (Rom. 6:10a) as a slave master. Sin no longer has dominion or lordship over Him. For he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:7). That is, when a slaves dies, he is no longer in slavery, death frees him from slavery. Since Christ "has died for all, then all have died" (II Cor. 5:14). His death is our death. Since we have died with Him and He has died to sin, then we have died to sin. We are freed from the slavery of sin and are no longer enslaved to it (Rom. 6:6-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we are made alive to God in Him. His resurrection is our resurrection. "But the life He lives He lives to God" (Rom. 6:10b). This is the life of righteousness, the righteousness of faith. And so we, who are now alive to God in Him, are to live to righteousness. For just as death produces sin, so life produces righteousness.

"And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross,
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds you were healed." (I Pet. 2:24).
Christ bore our sins to take them away (to redeem us from sin) so that we might die to sin with Christ and be made alive to righteousness in His resurrection. Having been redeemed from the slavery of sin through the death of Christ, we who are now alive in Him have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18), that is, slaves of Christ who is our righteousness (I Cor. 1:30). Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.

Since in those days of the Old and New Testament, slaves were also sold at the market, to buy a slave at the slave market could also be called "redemption." The context of the verbs translate "to redeem" is not the law court but the slave market and has nothing to do with "paying the penalty." The purchase price or ransom is not the penalty for breaking the law but is the means by which the purchase is accomplished. A ransom is given instead or in place of those who are to be redeemed or delivered; it has nothing to do with a substitute paying the penalty of sin to satisfy the justice of God. The context of the words translated "to redeem" or "redemption" is not the law or the courtroom but slavery and the slavemarket. The redemption of Israel from bondage in Egypt has nothing to do with a substitute paying the penalty of sin; and neither does the redemption in Christ Jesus by His death [His blood] have to do with a substitute paying the penalty of sin, but with delivering us from bondage and freeing us from the slavery of sin.

In the II Cor. 5:21 and Gal. 3:13 passages, "made to be sin" or "a curse" does not mean paying the penalty of sin.
In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul writes,

"He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
(II Cor. 5:21 ERS).
Historically, there has been three interpretations of the phrase in II Cor. 5:21 "made to be sin":
  1. When Christ in His incarnation took on human nature, which is "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3), God made Him to be sin.
  2. Christ in becoming a sacrifice for sin was made to be sin, the word "sin" (harmartia) meaning a "sacrifice for sin" ( Augustine and the NIV margin "be a sin offering").
  3. Christ is treated as if He were a sinner, and as such Christ became the object of God's wrath and bore the penalty and the guilt of sin
    (the traditional Protestant interpretation).
In the first interpretation, it is assumed that Christ's death is a participation, on the behalf of and for the sakes of sinful humanity.
And in the second interpretation, the basic concept is sacrifice, but this sacrifice has been been usually assumed to be a substitution, not as a participation.
In the last interpretation, it is assumed that Christ's death is a vicarious act, a substitution in the stead of sinful humanity.
But this substitution interpretation must here be rejected because it is contrary to the explicit statement in the verse that he was made sin for us, that is, "on our behalf" (huper hemos, NAS; see verses 14-15, and 20 in II Cor. 5). The Greek preposition huper does not mean "instead of" but "on the behalf of" or "for the sake of". Thus Chirst died on the behalf of all men, not instead of them;
"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,
that one died for all [huper panton, on the behalf of all],
therefore all have died," (II Cor. 5:14).
that is, in Christ who represents all.
"And he died for all [huper panton, on the behalf of all],
that those who live might live no longer for themselves
but for him who for their sake [huper auton, on the behalf of them]
died and was raised." (II Cor. 5:15).
Christ was made to be a sin-sacrifice for us to save us from sin, to take away our sin (John 1:29). And Christ was made a sin sacrifice to take away our sin "in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." That is, that we might be set right with God in the risen Christ. As we have already seen, the righteousness of God is the activity of God to set us right with God; that is, to save us from sin (trust in false god) to righteousness (trust in the true God). Christ was made a sin-scarifice for us, He participated in our spiritual death to save us from sin (trust in a false god), so that we could participate in the risen Christ, being saved from death to life and hence being saved from sin to righteousness (trust in the true God). Thus "we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (II Cor. 5:21b ERS). That is, that we might be saved ("the righteousness of God") in the risen Christ.

The substitution interpretation of Christ's sacrifice does not understand this participation and just assumes a legalistic substitution interpretation of Christ's death as a paying the penalty of sin for us. This misintrepretation of this Scripture is based on a legalistic misunderstanding of the righteousness of God as the justice of God. But as we saw above, this justice is not the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God. This legalistic misunderstanding reduces and equates the righteousness of God to justice, that is, the giving to each of that which is due to them with a strict and impartial regard to merit (as in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics). It is this concept of righteousness that gave Luther so much trouble.

Martin Luther rediscovered the meaning of the righteousness of God in Paul's letter to the Romans. But Luther, using the scholastic distinction between the active and passive righteousness, rejected the equation of the righteousness of God to the active righteousness, whereby God proves Himself to be righteous by punishing the sinners and the unjust. But Luther equated the righteousness of God to the passive righteousness, whereby God gives righteousness to the one that is passive, does no works to receive it, but receives it by faith. That is, Luther gave the impression that the righteousness of God is the righteousness from God.

Now Luther's discovery of the righteousnes of God was lost by those who came after him, the Protestant scholastics. Luther's use of the scholastic distinction of active and passive righteousness tended to obscure the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God. Luther obviously rejected the active sense; but the later Lutheran Protestant Scholastics interpreted Luther as accepting both senses. They also accepted the active righteousness interpreting the righteousness of God as the justice of God that was satisfied by the passive obedience of Christ on the cross paying the penalty for man's sin that the justice of God required before man's sins can be forgiven. Because their explanation of the death of Christ was still grounded in the legalistic concept of justice, that is, that Christ died to pay the penalty for man's sin which the justice of God requires to be paid before God can save man, they had to retain the active sense also. Thus Luther's discovery of the Biblical understanding of the righteousness of God was obscured and eventually lost.

But as we have already seen, the righteousness of God is the activity of God to set us right with God; that is, to save us from sin (trust in false god) to righteousness (trust in the true God). As Christ was made a sin-scarifice for us, He participated in our spiritual death to save us from sin (trust in a false god), so that we could participate in the risen Christ, being saved from death to life and hence being saved from sin to righteousness (trust in the true God). Thus "we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (II Cor. 5:21b ERS). That is, that we might be saved ("the righteousness of God") in the risen Christ.

And when Apostle Paul writes to the Galations,

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law,
having become a curse for us -- for it is written,
'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Gal. 3:13),
Paul does not mean that Christ paid the penalty of sin as our substitute, but that Christ's death was to deliever us ("redeemed") from our sins and save us from the wrath of God ("the curse of the Law", see Gal. 3:10). And Christ being made a curse for us, does not mean that Christ died as a substitute, in our place, paying the penalty of our sins, but that Christ's death was "for us", on our behalf (huper hemos); the Scripture that Paul here quotes (Deut. 21:23) does not mean that being made a curse was for another sins but because he was being hung on a tree for his own sins (Deut. 21:22). And since Christ was hanging on the tree (the cross) was not because of His own sins (He was without sin - II Cor. 5:21), but was on our behalf to redeem us from our sins and from God's wrath against our sins (Rom. 1:18). Paul does not say that Christ took our curse but that He became a curse to redeem us from the curse of the law. Christ's death sets us free from the law and from its curse.

The introduction of these legalistic concepts into the interpretation of these passages has obscured their meaning and interpretation. Apart from the clear and explicit statement of Scripture, it cannot be assumed that this is what these verses mean. Since this legalism is contrary to the clear and explicit statements of Scripture, any interpretation employing these legalistic concepts is suspect. In fact the Scripture explicitly rejects the principle of vicarious penal sacrifice upon which this interpretation depends.

"The person who sins will die.
The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity,
nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity;
the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself,
and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."
(Ezekiel 18:20 NAS; see also Deut. 24:16; Jer. 31:30).

If Christ did not die to pay the penalty for man's sin and satisfy God's justice, then why did Christ have to die to save man? Why then do men need to be saved? An examination of Scripture (John 10:10; Eph. 2:4-5; Heb. 2:14-15; I John 4:9; etc. See also the later sections entitled " Death" and " Death and Sin".) clearly shows that the answer to this question is that man needs to be saved because he is dead. Man is separated and alienated from God (Eph. 4:8). He does not know the true God personally, and because he does not know God - he turns to false gods - to those things which are not God - and makes those into his gods (Gal. 4:8). The basic sin is idolatry (Ex. 20:2; Rom. 1:25), and man sins (chooses these false gods) because he is spiritually dead - separated from the true God.

All men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12: "because of which [death] all sinned." Spiritual death which "spread to all men" along with physical death is not the result of each man's own personal sins. On the contrary, a man sins as a result of spiritual death. He received this death from Adam, from his first parents. According to Romans 5:12-14, all men have received spiritual and physical death from Adam.

"5:12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world,
and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men,
because of which all sinned: -
5:13 For until the law sin was in the world;
but sin is not imputed where there is no law.
5:14 But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who had not sinned
after the likeness of the transgression of Adam,
who is a type of Him who was to come." (Rom. 5:12-14 ERS).
The historical origin of sin is the fall of Adam - the sin of the first man. Adam's sin brought death - spiritual and physical - on all his descendants (Rom. 5:12, 15, 17). This death inherited from Adam is the personal, contemporary origin of each man's sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS). Because he is spiritually dead, not knowing God personally, he chooses something other than the true God as his God; he thus sins.

This is why a man needs to be saved. He is dead spiritually and dying physically. Man needs life - he needs to be made alive - to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, if he is made alive to God, death which leads to sin is removed. And if death which leads to sin is removed, then man will be saved from sin. Thus salvation must be understood to be primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness. And since God's wrath - God's "no" or opposition to sin - is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18), the removal of sin brings with it also the removal of wrath. No sin, no wrath. Salvation is then thirdly from wrath to peace with God ( Rom. 5:1).

This salvation (from death, from sin and from wrath) is exactly what God accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. This is why Christ died, that He might be raised from the dead. Jesus entered into our spiritual death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive in and with Him (Eph. 2:5). And by saving us from spiritual death, Christ saves us from sin. It is by taking away the spiritual death which leads to our sin that God takes away our sin. Jesus died for our sins - literally - to take them away (John 1:29). What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do (Heb. 10:1-4) the death of Christ has done. The blood of Jesus (His death) cleanses us from our sins (I John 1:7). We are delivered from sin itself. We were saved from our trust in false gods when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and the true God who sent Him. We "turned from idols to serve the living and true God" (I Thess. 1:9). When we were spiritually dead, we trusted in and served those things that are not God - money, power, sex, education, popularity, pleasure, etc. But when we turned to the risen Christ, we entered into life, leaving behind those false gods. The risen Jesus Christ is now our Lord and our God (John 20:28).

The death and resurrection of Jesus was the means by which God removed death - the barrier to us knowing God personally and knowing His love. In the preaching of the Gospel, God reveals Himself to us making us spiritually alive to Himself when we receive Jesus Christ who is the life (John 14:6; I John 5:12). To be spiritually alive is to know God personally, and to know God personally is to trust Him. For God is love (I John 4:8, 16) and love begets trust. The trust that God's love invokes in us is righteousness (Rom. 4:5, 9); it relates us rightly to God. Thus by making us alive to Himself, God sets us right with Himself through faith. Life produces righteousness just as death produces sin.

This is what the law cannot do; it cannot make men alive. As Paul says in Gal. 3:21.

"...for if there had been a law given which could make alive,
verily righteousness would have been by the law." (Gal. 3:21).
And since the law cannot make alive, salvation cannot be by the law. The righteousness of the law, the merits earned by keeping the law, is a false righteousness (Phil. 3:7-9; Rom. 10:3-4), dirty filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). Just as trust in a false god is sin, so trust in the true God is righteousness (Rom. 4:3-5). And just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life. The law cannot give life. And because the law cannot remove death, it also cannot remove sin. And since it cannot make alive, the law cannot produce real righteousness.

THREE ASPECTS OF SALVATION

Because God loves us, He has acted in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of man from death, sin and wrath. Since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin by death ( Rom. 5:12d ERS), salvation is basically from death to life and then from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God.
Thus there are three aspects of salvation.
(1) propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace;
(2) redemption, is salvation from sin to righteousness; and
(3) Reconciliation is salvation from death to life.
These three aspects of salvation are accomplished in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ's death is a propitiation because it is a redemption; and it is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God.

"3:24 Being set right by his grace as a gift
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
3:25 whom God set forth as a propitiation
through faith in his blood....
(Rom. 3:24-25; ERS);

"For if while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son,
much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
(Rom. 5:10 (NAS);

"5:18 Now all these things are from God,
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ,
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God were entreating through us;
we beg us on the behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God."
(II Cor. 5:18-20 NAS); see also I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3). 


                 THREE ASPECTS OF SALVATION               

In Adam                                          In Christ

<B>From</B>------------------SALVATION---------------------><B>To</B>

WRATH---------------PROPITIATION------------------> PEACE     

because of                                       because of  

 SIN------------------REDEMPTION---------------> RIGHTEOUSNESS

because of                                       because of  

DEATH---------------RECONCILIATION-----------------> LIFE

Propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of His work,
redemption is the liberation aspect of His work, and
reconciliation is the representative aspect of His work of salvation.
The Gospel tells us about this act of God for our salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:3-4). And in the preaching of the Gospel, God exerts His power for the salvation of men by bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16).

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END NOTES

[1] W. Gutbrod, "anomia", in
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament,
ed. Gerhard Kittel, translator, Geoffrey W. Bromiley
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1967), Vol. IV, p.1086.