Calvinism accepts the Augustinian doctrine of original sin. But the Augustinian doctrine of original sin is legalistic because it presupposes a legalistic understanding of sin and death. According to the legalistic point of view, all sin is a transgression of the law, a crime, and death is always the punishment for those crimes. Death is always the result of sin or, in legalistic terms, death is the penalty of sin; death is the just reward of our sins. But the Augustinian doctrine of original sin is also legalistic because it assumes a legalistic understanding of salvation. Augustine used the doctrine of original sin to establish the need for salvation. Why does man need to be saved? Augustine answered that man needs to be saved because he is a sinner by nature. By this he meant that man is not able not to sin and not able to do meritorious good works because he has inherited a sinful nature from Adam. Man needs the grace of God to enable him not to sin and to do good works by which he can earn eternal life as a reward for his meritorious good works. The doctrine of original sin was Augustine's answer to Pelagius's assertion that man was able not to sin and able to do good works to earn eternal life by natural grace. Augustine said that man needs special grace because he lost the natural grace and is now, since the fall, a sinner by nature. Although man needs this special grace to enable him to do good works, men are still saved by good works. Augustine nowhere questions this legalistic conception of salvation. He like Pelagius assumes that salvation must be earned, but since we are sinners by nature, Augustine said that we need God's special grace to enable us to do so. Thus salvation as well as the need for salvation were understood legalistically.
At the Reformation, the Protestant Reformers (Luther and Calvin) opposed the teaching of the Roman church which since the time of Augustine taught that by the grace of God, which is infused into man at baptism and renewed by the sacraments, a man is able to do good works to earn eternal life. The Reformers agreed with Augustine that man cannot earn eternal life because of his sinful nature but they rejected the idea that grace was something infused into a man to make it possible for him to earn eternal life. Grace, they said, is God's unmerited favor, and eternal life was a gift to be received by faith. But, they said, this gift of eternal life was earned by the active obedience of Christ during his life on earth. This "merits of Christ" is imputed to the believer's account when he first believes in Christ. Thus salvation was for them still ultimately and fundamentally by meritorious works. It is true that they said that salvation was not by our works and that eternal life was a gift to be received by faith. But salvation was still by works -- not our works but the meritorious works of another, Jesus Christ. It was a vicarious salvation by works. Thus salvation as well as the need for salvation were still understood legalistically.
This classical Protestant explanation of salvation,
like Augustine's and the Roman church's, mixes grace and works,
which the Apostle Paul says cannot be done or grace
will no longer be grace (
Rom. 11:6).
Paul very clearly teaches that salvation is not by works.
"2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;Salvation is by grace through faith, and not by works.
and that not of yourselves, it [salvation] is the gift of God,
2:9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
(Eph. 2:8-9 ERS; see also Titus 3:5).
"But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works;Thus salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works must not be mixed. The result of such a mixture is that the strong dynamic Biblical concept of God's grace as God's love in action is reduced in Augustine's and the Roman church's theology to the idea of something infused into man by the sacraments which makes it possible for him to earn eternal life or in Protestant theology to the weak idea of grace as unmerited favor. Grace is no longer grace in these theologies.
otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom. 11:6)
Salvation is not by meritorious works, not because a man is not able to do them, but because God does not deal with mankind on the basis of the merit scheme. As Jesus made clear in his parable of the householder (Matt. 20:1-16), God does not act toward us on the basis of our merit but on the basis of His generosity. And because God does not treat mankind according to their desserts, but according to His love, He often puts the least deserving before the more deserving. "The last will be first and the first last." (Matt. 20:16; 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30)
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 demands of justice. Where is such a one to be found? Only God can provide that 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.
This penal satisfaction theory of the death of Christ is clearly
legalistic. It assumes that the order of law and justice is absolute;
free forgiveness would be a violation of this absolute order; God's love must
be carefully limited lest it infringe on the demands of justice. Sin is a
crime against God and the penalty must be paid before forgiveness can become
available. According to this view, God's love is conditioned and limited by
His justice; that is, God cannot exercise His love to save man until His
righteousness (justice) is satisfied. Since God's justice requires that sin
be punished, God's love cannot save man until the penalty of sin has been
paid, satisfying His justice. God's love is set in opposition to His
righteousness, creating a tension and problem in God. How can God in His love
save man from sin when His righteousness demands the punishment of sin? This
is the problem that the death of Christ is supposed to solve. According to
this legalistic theology, this is why Christ needed to die; he died to pay
the penalty of man's sin and to satisfy the justice of God.
Redemption
is misinterpreted as paying the penalty of man's sin and
propitiation
is misinterpreted as the satisfaction of God's justice. And
reconciliation
is misinterpreted as as a vicarious act, instead of another, God
being reconciled to man by Christ's death paying the penalty of man's sin.
The necessity of the atonement is the necessity of satisfying the justice
of God; this necessity is in God rather than in man. And since this necessity
is in God, it is an absolute necessity. If God is to save man, God must
satisfy His justice before He can in love save man.
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. 3:25-26; 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. 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,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.
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).
"1:18Knowing that ye were not redeemedRedemption is deliverance from sin as a slave master by means of the death of Christ [His blood] as the price or ransom.
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).
"In Him we have redemption through His blood,According to the English translations of Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14, redemption is made equivalent to forgiveness of sins.
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).
"In Him we have redemption through his blood,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).
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).
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 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,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.
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds you were healed." (I Pet. 2:24).
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 exit 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, "to be made sin" or "a curse"
does not mean paying the penalty of our sins.
In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul writes,
"He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us,Historically, there has been three interpretations of the phrase "made to be sin" in II Cor. 5:21:
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (II Cor. 5:21 ERS)
And when Apostle Paul writes to the Galations,
"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law,he 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 to 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's 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 it 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 for us to redeem us from the curse of the law. Christ's death sets us free from the law and from its curse.
having become a curse for us -- for it is written,
'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Gal. 3:13),
"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).
The legalistic misunderstanding of salvation and the death of Christ is based on and grounded in a legalistic misunderstanding of God. Since legalism is basically an absolutizing the law, either by identifying God with law or making the law stand by itself apart from God and above God, legalism is fundamentally a misunderstanding of God. It conceives of God entirely in terms of the law. The will and mind of God are subject to the law, whether the law is conceived as existing externally apart from God and above Him or as the eternal and essential nature of God. The law is the eternal, objective order, lex aeterna, to which the will and mind of God conforms as the Lawgiver and Judge. In legalistic Christian theologies, the law is not external and above God but it is internal and in God, the very essential nature of God. The law is the essential being of God; God is Law. According to these theologies, God's will is immutably determined by His eternal and unchanging nature; it is the expression of His essential being. [1] God acts freely (?) in accordance with the inner law of His own essence. He does not will the good because it is good; for then the good would be above God. Neither is the good good because God wills it; for then the good would be arbitrary and changeable. God acts freely but not whimsically; He acts always in accordance with the inner law of His being. [2] Thus God's being is understood in terms of the law.
According to this understanding of God's being, the holiness and the righteousness of God is understood in terms of the law. The holiness of God is the eternal conformity of His will to His being which is law; it is the purity and moral perfection of God's being. [3] Holiness is accordingly the fundamental attribute or, more exactly, the consummate infinite moral perfection of all the attributes taken together. Each attribute has its own perfection; holiness is the infinite moral perfection of the whole together. It is not one attribute among others but is the total moral perfection of the Godhead that sets Him transcendently apart and above all the creatures. As such, holiness is the regulative principle of all of them. Accordingly God's love is holy love; His power is holy power; His will is a holy will.
"Love must have a norm or standard,In His eternal and essential nature, God is Holy.
and this norm or standard can be found only in Holiness." [4]
Righteousness is understood legalistically to consist in the conformity to the law of right and wrong. [5] The absolute righteousness of God is the infinite moral perfection of God and as such is equivalent to the holiness of God. In His eternal and essential nature, God is righteous. God is immutably determined by the law of His own being to act righteously in His relationships with man. This exercise of the divine will in relationship to man, determined by God's infinite righteous nature, has been called the relative righteousness of God. [6] God's righteous nature expresses itself in the form of the law and in all its essential principles of right and wrong, the law is an immutable transcript of the divine nature. This relative righteousness of God is called rectoral, when viewed as exercised in administering the affairs of His government, in providing for and governing His creatures. This relative righteousness of God is also called distributive,
"when viewed as exercised in giving unto each creature his exact proportionate due of rewards and punishments. It is called punitive or vindicatory when viewed as demanding and inflicting the adequate and proportionate punishment of all sin, because of its intrinsic ill deserts." [7]God, because of His own eternal and essential righteousness, must reward all good because of its own intrinsic merit (remunerative justice) and He likewise must visit every sin with a proportionate punishment because of its own intrinsic demerit (retributive justice). According to this legalistic theology, to do otherwise God would be unrighteous and unjust. Absolute justice which is the eternal being of God requires and demands the reward of good and the punishment of sin. As the Judge, God shows His righteousness by visiting divine retribution upon sin and unrighteousness. No evildoer can escape; all will receive what is due to them and the precise deserts of their evil. Because of the holiness of the divine nature, God hates sin with a holy revulsion and is impelled by the demands of His righteousness to pour out His wrath. God must display His righteousness in judging and punishing sin; not to do so would be a reflection on His righteousness. [8]
There is little place in this view of God for love, mercy, or grace. These were totally absent from the legalistic philosophy of the Greek and Roman philosophers and have little place in the legalistic Christian theologies. [9] In the definition of God in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the goodness of God is mentioned but the love, mercy, and grace of God are totally absent.
"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being,Where love is allowed a place in this legalistic view of God, it is reduced to an affection or emotion which must be subordinated to God's holiness and righteousness in order not to become sentimentalism, a sympathy which tolerates human imperfection. A. Hopkins Strong says in his Systematic Theology;
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth." [10]
"The rationality of his [God's] love involves moreover
a subordination of the emotional element to a higher law than itself,
namely, that of holiness. Even God's self-love must have
a reason and a norm in the perfections of his own being...
The immanent love of God is a rational and voluntary affection
grounded in perfect reason and deliberate choice...
Love is not rightfully independent of the other faculties
but is subject to regulation and control...
In true religion love forms a copartnership with reason...
God's love is no arbitrary, willful, passionate torrent of emotion...
And we become like God by bringing our emotions, sympathies,
affections under the dominion of reason and conscience...
Since God's love is rational, it involves a subordination
of the emotional element to a higher law than itself,
namely, that of truth and holiness...
Love requires a rule or standard for its regulation.
This rule or standard is the holiness of God." [11]
According to this legalistic theology, God's love is conditioned and limited by his justice; that is, God cannot exercise His love to save man until His righteousness (justice) is satisfied. Since God's justice requires that sin be punished, God's love cannot save man until the penalty of sin has been paid, satisfying His justice. God's love is set in opposition to His righteousness, creating a tension and problem in God. How can God in His love save man from sin when His righteousness demands the punishment of sin? This is the problem that the death of Christ is supposed to solve. According to this legalistic theology, this is why Christ needed to die; he died to pay the penalty of man's sin and to satisfy the justice of God. The necessity of the atonement is the necessity of satisfying the justice of God; this necessity is in God rather than in man. And since this necessity is in God, it is a absolute necessity. If God is to save man, God must satisfy His justice before He can in love save man.
It is not surprising that in the popular mind this abstract problem of the antinomy between love and justice in God is reduced to a concrete opposition between God the Father who wants to punish sin and God the Son who wants to forgive sin. That this is not true is clear from Scripture: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). But this is the way the popular mind has seen this abstract problem.
"God is love" (I John 4:8, 16). This love is not just an attribute of God; it is what God is in Himself. Before God ever created anything outside of Himself and thus created beings for Him to love outside of Himself, love existed in God. Since love is the choice of a person to do for another person that which is good for him, a person cannot love without another person to love. Love involves a relationship to another person. And since God has made Himself known as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there are other persons in God for them to love. These three persons of the Godhead love each other (John 3:35; 5:20; 15:9-10; 17:23-26; 14:31). And God is love in Himself because these three persons love each other. God created beings outside of Himself not because He needed objects for His love (these already existed within Himself) but because of the abundance of His love that existed within Himself. Love is creative and this is true in the supreme sense of God Himself. Creation and salvation are the overflow of the love of this triune personal God of love. When the first man, Adam, sinned and fell from the image of God, God provided a way to take away man's sin and to restore him to the image of God. This involved God sending His Son to become man to die for him. But God raised His Son from the dead. And in this resurrected God-man, Jesus Christ, the Son of man, who is the image of God, man is being and shall be restored to the image of God. God provided this salvation because He is love. This "so great salvation" (Heb. 2:3) is the outflow of His superabundant love.
"4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us,The love of God is the source of our salvation from death, from sin and from God's wrath.
that God sent his only Son into the world,
so that we might live through him.
4:10 In this is love,
not that we loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
(I John 4:9-10 ERS)
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 work (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.
But the righteousness of God in the Scriptures is not an attribute of God whereby He must render to each what is he has merited nor a quantity of merit which God gives, but is act or activity of God whereby He puts or sets right that which is wrong. [1] In the Old Testament, the righteousness of God is the action of God for the vindication and deliverance of His people; it is the activity in which God saves His people by rescuing them from their oppressors.
"In thee, O Lord, do I seek refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
in thy righteousness deliver me!" (Psa. 31:1)"In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline thy ear to me, and save me!" (Psa. 71:2)"143:11 For thy name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life!
In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble!
143:12 And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies.
and destroy all my adversaries,
for I am thy servant." (Psa. 143:11-12)
Thus the righteousness of God is often a synonym for the salvation or deliverance of God. In the Old Testament, this is clearly shown by the literary device of parallelism which is a characteristic of Hebrew poetry. [2] Parallelism may be defined as that Hebrew literary device in which the thought and idea in one clause is repeated and amplified in a ;second and following clause. This parallelism of Hebrew poetry clearly shows that Hebrew poets and prophets made the righteousness of God synonymous with divine salvation:
"The Lord hath made known His salvation:(See also Psa. 71:1-2, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 61:10; 62:1)
His righteousness hath he openly showed
in the sight of the heathen." (Psa. 98:2 KJV)"I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off,
and my salvation shall not tarry;
and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory."
(Isa. 46:13 KJV)"My righteousness is near,
my salvation is gone forth,
and mine arms shall judge the people;
the isles shall wait upon me,
and on mine arm shall they trust." (Isa. 51:5 KJV)"Thus says the Lord, Preserve justice [judgment],
and do righteousness:
For my salvation is near to come,
And my righteousness to be revealed." (Isa. 56:1 NAS)
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew noun, tsedeq and tsedaqah, is derived from the Hebrew verb, tsadaq. [3] Although it is usually translated "to be righteous" or "to be justified," the verb has the primary meaning "to be in the right" rather than "to be righteous." (Gen. 38:26; Job 11:2; 34:5) [4] The causative form of the verb (hitsdiq) generally translated "to justify" means not "to make righteous" nor "to declare righteous" but rather "to put in the right" or "to set right." (Ezekiel 16:51-55). Thus it very often has the meaning "to vindicate" or "to give redress to" a person who has suffered wrong. Thus the Hebrew noun (tsedeq) usually translated "righteousness" means an act of vindication or of giving redress. When applied to God, the righteousness of God is God acting to put right the wrong, hence to vindicate and to deliver the oppressed.
The righteous acts of the Lord, or more literally, the righteousnesses of the Lord, referred to in Judges 5:11; I Sam. 12:7-11; Micah 6:3-5; Psa. 103:6-8; Dan. 9:15-16 means the acts of vindication or deliverance which the Lord has done for His people, giving them victory over their enemies. It is in this sense that God is called "a righteous God and a Savior" (Isa. 45:21) and "the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16).
A judge or ruler is "righteous" in the Hebrew meaning of the word not because he observes and upholds an abstract standard of Justice, but rather because he comes to the assistance of the injured person and vindicates him. For example, in Psalm 82:2-4:
"82:2 How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked?
82:3 Vindicate the weak and fatherless;
Do justice [judgment] to the afflicted and destitute.
82:4 Rescue the weak and needy;
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked."
(Psalm 82:2-4 NAS. See also Psa. 72:4; 76:9; 103:6; 146:7; Isa. 1:17.)
For the judge to act this way is to show righteousness.
A judge in the Old Testament is not one whose business it is
to interpret the existing law or to give an impartial
verdict in accordance with the established law of the land,
but rather he is a deliverer and thus a leader and savior as
in the book of Judges (Judges 1:16-17; 3:9-10). His duty and
delight is to set things right, to right the wrong; his
"judgments" are not words but acts, not legal verdicts but
the very active use of God's right arm. The two functions
of a judge are given in Psalm 75:7:
"But God is the judge: he puts down one and exalts another."
Since this is a statement concerning God as a judge, it could be taken
as a general definition of a Biblical judge. In Psa. 72:1-4, these two
functions of Biblical judge are given to the king of Israel.
"72:1 Give the king thy judgment, O God,These same two functions are ascribed to the future ruler of Israel, the Messiah, according to Isaiah 11:3-5.
and thy righteousness to the royal son!
72:2 May he judge thy people with righteousness,
and thy poor with judgment!
72:3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
and give deiverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor!" (Psa. 72:1-4 ERS)
"11:3 And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.His righteousness is shown in the vindication of those who are the victims of evil, the poor and meek of the earth.
He shall not judge by what His eyes see,
or decide by what His ears hear;
11:4 but with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and He shall smite the earth with a rod of His mouth;
and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
11:5 Righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist
and faithfulness the girdle of His loins." (Isa. 11:3-5)
There is a difference between the righteousness of God in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the righteousness of God is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. In the Old Testament the righteousness of God 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). In the New Testament, the righteousness of God is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed (this view is in Jesus' teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but is also a deliverance of the people from their own sins; it is also the salvation of the ungodly who are delivered from their ungodliness (trust in a false god) and unrighteousness. The righteousness of God saves the unrighteous by setting them right with God Himself through faith (Rom. 1:17a).
The righteousness of God is not opposed to the love of God nor does it condition it. On the contrary, it is a part of and the proper expression of God's love. It is the activity of God's love to set right the wrong. In the Old Testament, this is shown by the parallelism between love and righteousness.
"But the steadfast love of the Lord isGod expresses His love as righteousness in the activity by which He saves His people from their sins. In His wrath, He opposes the sin that would destroy man whom He loves. In His grace, God removes the sin. The grace of God is the love of God in action to bring salvation unto all men.
from everlasting to everlasting
upon those who fear him,
and His righteousness to children's children."
(Psa. 103:17; See also Psa. 33:5; 36:5-6; 40:10; 89:14.)
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation unto to all men,"The grace of God may properly be called the righteousness of God. For in His love, God acts to deliver His people from their sins, setting them right with Himself.
(Titus 2:11 NAS)
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[1] Alan Richardson,
An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament,
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 79-83, 232-233.
[2] Edward J. Young, An Introduction to the Old Testament
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), pp. 281-282.
See also Gleason L. Archer, Jr.,
A Survey of Old Testament Introduction
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1964), pp. 418-420.
[3] C. H. Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans
(London and Glasgow: Fontana Books, 1959), p. 38.
[4] C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1964), p. 46.
The Protestant Reformation actually began, not when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses upon the door of the Wittenburg church on 31st of October, 1517, but when Martin Luther rediscovered the meaning of the righteousness of God in Paul's letter to the Romans. This discovery not only brought peace to Luther's troubled conscience but it was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Luther's protest against the errors of the Roman church stems from this discovery. But his discovery 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. 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 righteousness of God is the righteousness from God, that is, the righteousness that man receives from God through faith. But the righteousness from God is not the righteousness of God. These are different though related ideas and must be carefully distinguished. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians,
"3:8b For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,Thus the righteousness from God is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:13) which is that right personal relationship to God that results from faith in the true God (Rom. 4:3). Paul writes in his letter to the Romans,
in order that I may gain Christ
3:9and be found in him,
not having a righteousness of my own, based on law,
but that which is through faith,
the righteousness from [ek] God that depends upon [epi] faith,..."
(Phil. 3:8b-9).
"4:3 For what does the scripture say?Faith in God is reckoned as righteousness (Rom. 4:5). That is, to trust in God is to be righteous. And this is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:13) and the righteousness from God (Phil. 3:9). The righteousness of God, on the other hand, is God acting to set man right with God Himself and, as we have seen above, it is synonymous with salvation.
'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'
4:4Now to one who works,
his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due.
4:5And to the one who does not work
but trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned as righteousness....
4:13The promise to Abraham and his descendants,
that they should inherit the world,
did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith."
(Rom. 4:3-5, 13)
God is the source of salvation. "Salvation is of the Lord"
(Jonah 2:9 KJV. See also Genesis 49:18; Exodus 14:13; I Sam. 2:1;
I Chron. 16:23; II Chron. 20:17; Psa. 3:8; 9:14; 13:5, etc.).
This is so because God is a God of love
(Psa. 13:5; 85:7; 86:13; 98:3; 119:41).
And the grace of God is God's love in action;
it is His love acting to do something good for us, to save us.
Thus the grace of God brings salvation.
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men."What is salvation?
(Titus 2:11 NIV).
"2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy,In Eph. 2:4-5 just quoted, salvation is presented as deliverance from death to life. When we were dead in trespasses and sins, God has made us alive together with Christ. Salvation by the grace of God is first of all from death to life.
out of the great love with which He loved us,
2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved)."
(Eph. 2:4-5)
Death is more than just the end of physical life, the dissolution of the body, the cessation of physiological functions of this organism. Physical death is the separation of man's spirit from his body. In this state of physical death, he awaits the judgment (Heb. 9:27). But death is more than the physical separation of man's spirit from his body. It is also the spiritual separation, the alienation of man from God; this is spiritual death. It is the opposite of spiritual life which is fellowship and communion with God. Spiritual life is knowing God personally as a living reality (John 17:3); spiritual death is the absence of this life. In this state, man thinks and acts as if God doesn't exist, that God is dead. But it is not that God is dead; it is man himself that is dead.
Spiritual death is the present reign of death over man. King Death separates man from God. The reign of King Death is not only exercised in the inevitable physical death of man; King Death rules every moment of man's existence before the event of physical death. Spiritual death is the present reign of death which separates, alienates and isolates man from God. Just as man does not choose physical death, that is, whether he is going to die inevitably or not, so he does not choose spiritual death. Man is born into this world already spiritually dead. He is automatically under the reign of death. He has no choice about it. According to Romans 5:12, we receive death from our first parents, Adam and Eve. When they sinned, they died spiritually as well as physically. God said, when he gave them the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that in the day that they ate of it they would surely die (or literally, "dying, you will die", Gen. 2:17). Since they did not die physically on that day, they must have died spiritually on that day. And this is clearly what happened because they hid themselves from the presence of God (Gen. 3:8). Their fellowship or communion with God was broken and this is spiritual death. Later, after they were driven out of the garden away from the tree of life, lest they eat of it and live forever (Gen. 3:22-24), they eventually died physically (Gen. 5:5). And this death, both spiritual and physical, was passed onto the whole race of Adam's descendants, you and me. Because of Adam's sin, "death reigns over all men through that one man" (Rom. 5:17; see also Rom. 5:14).
Unless man is delivered from spiritual death, after physical death and the judgment, he will be eternally separated from God. This is eternal death, the second death (Rev. 20:14; 21:6-8).
But God has done something about this reign of death over the human race. In His love for us, He sent His Son to enter into our death so that He might deliver us from the reign of death. On the cross, Jesus died not only physically but spiritually. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46) He was forsaken for us; He died for us. He tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:9). But God raised Him from the dead. That is why He died; Jesus died so that He might be raised from the dead. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with Him (Eph. 2:5). Christ's death was our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection. We who have received Him are made alive with Him and in Him; we have passed from death into life (John 5:24); we have been raised from the dead spiritually (John 5:25). God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves; He has made us who were dead spiritually alive.
Jesus Christ acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sakes.
"For the love of Christ constraineth; because we thus judge,that is, in Christ, who represents all. Adam acting as a representative brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ acting as our representative brought a new creation in which those "who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life" (Rom. 5:17).
that one died for [huper, on the behalf of] all,
therefore all died" (II Cor. 5:14),
"15:21 For since by man came death,Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself in and through Christ; that is, God has brought us into fellowship with Himself.
by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
15:22 For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive"
(I Cor. 15:21-22)."Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new"
(II Cor. 5:17).Jesus said, "Because I live ye shall live also" (John 14:19).
"3:18 But all things are of God,Reconciliation is salvation from death to life.
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ...
3:19 to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself...."
(II Cor. 5:18-19; see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9)"1:1 That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and touched with our hands,
concerning the word of life --
1:2 the life was made manifest,
and we saw it, and testify to it,
and proclaim to you the eternal life
which was with the Father and was made manifest to us --
1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you,
so that you may have fellowship with us;
and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."
(I John 1:1-3).
Legalism has distorted the relationship of death to sin. Death is always the result of each man's own personal sins. The Biblical concept of sin as basically trust in a false god, idolatry, is misunderstood as basically a transgression of the law, the breaking of the rules and a falling short of the universal divine standard. According to legalism, sin is considered to be a crime against God, and the penalty for these crimes is spiritual, physical and eternal death. Until the penalty is executed at the last judgment, man is under the burden of an objective guilt or condemmation which must be satisfied by the execution of the penalty. And in addition to this objective guilt there is a subjective guilt of a bad conscience, which may or may not correspond to the objective guilt. This objective guilt has been conceived in terms of a debt which man owes and/or as demerit on man's record. Thus man needs to be saved because he is a guilty sinner.
This legalistic concept of death is a misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of death. In the Scriptures, death is not always the result of each man's own personal sins. According to Romans 5:12-14, all men have received spiritual and physical death from Adam but not eternal death.
"5:12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world,Since Adam, man is not responsible for being spiritually dead because he did not choose that state. He received spiritual death from Adam just as he received physical death from Adam. But man is responsible for the god he chooses. The true God has not left man without a knowledge about Himself.
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).
"1:19 Because that which is known of God is manifest in them;This knowledge about God leaves man without excuse for his idolatry. He knows that his false gods are phonies. But this knowledge does not save him because it is knowledge about the true God, and not a personal knowledge of the true God which is eternal life (John 17:3). But even though man is not responsible for being spiritually dead, he is responsible for remaining in the state of spiritual death when deliverance from it is offered to him in the person of Jesus Christ. If he refuses the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, he will receive the wages of his decision, eternal death (Rom. 6:23). If a man refuses the gift of spiritual and eternal life in Christ Jesus and continues to put his trust in a false god, remaining in spiritual death, then after he dies physically, at the last judgment he will receive the results of his wrong decision or sin, eternal death, separation from God for eternity.
for God manifested it to them.
1:20 For since the creation of the world
the invisible things of Him,
both His eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,
so that they are without excuse." (Rom. 1:19-20 ERS).
Romans 6:23 does not mean that sin must be punished and that death is the penalty of sin. The meaning of this verse must be determined by considering its context, the previous verses from 15 to 22. The context of this verse is not the law-court but slavery. Sin is personified as a slavemaster. Verse 14 says that sin will no longer have dominion or lordship (kurieusei) over the Christian, because he is now under grace. Verse 16 speaks of yielding oneself as a slave - either to sin or to obedience [to God]. Verse 17 speaks of having been slaves to sin but now (verse 18) being slaves of righteousness. Verses 20-21 asks what return did they get from the things that they did as slaves of sin. Paul says that the end of the slavery to sin is death. Verse 22 says that the end result of being a slave of God is eternal life. Then in verse 23 Paul summarizes his argument by saying that the wages of sin, that is, the wages paid by sin as a slavemaster, is death. But God does not pay wages, but gives a free gift, eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
It is very plain from verses Rom. 6:17 and 18 that the slavery of sin was
a past experience for the Christian. He has now changed masters. If he had
remained under his old master, sin, that master would have eventually paid
off in only one kind of coin, death. But since they have changed masters,
they are not now in a position to collect wages from the old master, sin.
And it does not say the they get wages from their new master, God.
But they get a free gift, something that could not be earned, eternal
life. What kind of death did they receive from their old master? Eternal
death, eternal separation from God. That eternal death is meant here is
clear from the second half this verse: "...but the gift of God is
eternal life..." Paul is not here talking about spiritual or physical
death but only about eternal death, the end result of the slavery of sin.
Romans 6:23 says nothing about the penalty of sin, that is, that sin
must be punished. True, the end result of the slavery of sin is
eternal death.
But that does not mean that sin must be punished before the sin can
be forgiven. If the sinner repents and turns from his idolatry and to the
true God in faith, he will be freely forgiven. If he does repent and
believe, he will not still be liable to be punished for his sins.
"18:21 But if a wicked man turns away from all his sinsHere is the error of legalistic understanding of death. It says that sin must always be punished even if the sinner repents and believes (trusts) God. This contradicts the plain and clear teaching of God's Word (Ezek. 18:21-23; 33:10-20; Lam. 3:31-33; Isa. 55:6-7; II Chron. 7:14; II Pet. 3:9). Do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not saying that God does not punish sin. He does. This is not the error. The error is to say that God cannot forgive sin before or until he has punished sin. The error is that God must always punish sin before sin can be forgiven. That is, that before God can in love forgive the sinner, He must of necessity punish the sin. This is false. Man needs to be forgiven but paying the penalty of sin is not forgiveness. When sin is punished, it is not freely forgiven. The punishment of sin is the execution of the results of sin; forgiveness is free dismissal of the results of sin. If sin is forgiven, it is not punished and if sin is punished, it is not forgiven. Forgiveness through punishment is a contradiction. The punishment of sin is not forgiveness of sin and forgivenss of sin is not its punishment.
which he has committed and keeps all my statues
and does what is lawful and right,
he shall live; he shall not die.
18:22 None of the transgressions
which he has committed shall be remembered against him;
for the righteousness which he has done he shall live.
18:23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,
says the Lord God,
and not rather he should turn from his way and live? ...
18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,
says the Lord God; so turn, and live."
(Ezek. 18:21-23,32; see also Ezek. 33:11).
According to this legalistic teaching, this necessity of punishment is grounded in the justice of God. This justice requires, it is said, that the penalty must be paid before guilt can be removed. The guilt of sin cannot be freely forgiven, but only can be taken away by paying the penalty, which alone can satisfy justice. Justice demands that sin must be always punished. According to this legalistic theology, God is not free to forgive the repentant sinner until the sin is punished. God's freedom is thus limited and his love is conditioned by his justice. As we have seen, this legalistic concept of justice is a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God.
The legalistic preoccupation in Christian theology with death as the necessary penalty of sin has distorted the Biblical concept of spiritual death as separation from God and of eternal death as eternal separation from God. Separation from God is far more serious than the penal consequences of sin as God is more important than the law. But not only is death misunderstood but life is also misunderstood as the reward for meritorious works. Life as fellowship and communion with God, that is, a personal relationship to God, is lost sight of in the legalistic preoccupation with the law and its meritorious observance.
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[1] Archibald Alexander Hodge, Outlines of Theology
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), p. 154
(question 60), p. 411 (question 13).
[2] Ibid., p. 153 (question 58).
See also Henry Clarence Thiessen,
Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), p. 129.
[3] A. A. Hodge, Outlines in Theology, p. 163.
[4] A. Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology
(Philadelphia: Judson, 1907), vol.1, p. x.
See also Carl F. H. Henry Notes on the Doctrine of God
(Boston: W. A. Wide Co., 1948), p. 113.
[5] James I. Packer, "Just, Justify, Justification," in
Baker's Dictionary of Theology, ed. Everett F. Harrison
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1960), p. 305.
[6] A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, pp. 153-4 (question 59).
[7] A. A. Hodge, Outline of Theology, p. 154, question 59 (underlining ERS).
[9] Note the brief treatments of the love of God in
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. 1871;
A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 1878;
A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, 1907;
Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, 1918.
[10] Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 54.
[11] Strong, Systematic Theology, pp. 264-265.
See also Henry, Notes on the Doctrine of God, chap. VIII.