On faith, reason, and theology.In this video, John Piper speaks into the justification debate raised by the New Perspective on Paul. He explains why a Christian’s zeal for doing mercy & justice must be rooted in a right view of justification by faith alone. In other words, we must not divorce our ‘kingdom work’ from the good news of how we came to be included in the kingdom.
The transcript of the video is found here.
Charles Hodge:
“It is good to know — especially when facing the next world — that for every time we have failed to conform to God’s will in thought, word, and deed, by actively sinning or failing to conform to his revealed will, his Son has fulfilled the obedience that we owe. By never once giving in to the lust, pride, sloth, greed, selfishness, and malice that are so often allowed space in our overcrowded hearts, Jesus Christ becomes our Savior not only in his atoning death but throughout his life.”
This message is just over an hour long but well worth a listen. I’ve heard many say this was one of the best messages they’ve heard from Piper. I’d agree!
The doctrine of justification by an alien righteousness was very precious to John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress. A right understanding of this doctrine was crucial in his conversion. Here is the oft-quoted account of his conversion in his own words:
“One day as I was passing into the field . . . this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with my eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants [=lacks] my righteousness, for that was just [in front of] him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, “The same yesterday, today, and forever.” . . .
Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God [e.g., Hebrews 12:16-17] that left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.”
This past Sunday I preached on the doctrine of justification by an imputed righteousness of Christ from Psalm 24. The main point was that God requires specific qualifications before anyone can approach him in worship and relationship. Qualifications that boil down to this: a holiness that perfectly reflects his own. This is bad news for sinners like us.
But the good news of the Gospel (and Psalm 24) is that God, in his grace, will bless those who seek his face with a righteousness that fulfills the qualifications, making us fit to stand in his holy presence. This righteousness given as a free gift of faith is called by theologians “the imputed righteousness of Christ”. Leon Morris, in his book The Cross in the New Testament, explains its necessity in a sinner’s salvation:
“The righteousness we have is not our own, it comes as God’s good gift in Christ. But we will be righteous. Notice that this means more than being pardoned. The pardoned criminal bears no penalty, but he bears a stigma. He is a criminal and he is known as a criminal, albeit an unpunished one. The justified sinner not only bears no penalty; he is righteous. He is not a man with his sins still about him.”
Christians are not simply pardoned. We are declared righteous…qualified. Not because we no longer sin (we certainly do) but because we’ve been given Jesus’ righteousness, which qualifies us in the eyes of God.