The 4th Sunday after Pentecost includes the following readings from Hosea 5:15-6:6; Romans 4:13-25 and Matthew 9:9-31. We will be looking at Romans 4:22, “And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’”
The phrase “forensic justification” or “imputed righteousness” is not well understood by most Christians even though it reflects a key point of the 16th century Reformation. The apostle Paul puts it this way, “and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” In this we have a unique perspective that only the Christian faith reveals.
Paul explains in this pericope that it was not because Abraham was so righteous from obeying God’s commandments that he received the promise of the Messiah through his son. No, for Abraham was not considered righteous by what he did but rather by what he believed.
Ask anyone you know if he or she is righteous enough to go to heaven. The answer will most often be “no.” And that is because for most people, being righteous is synonmous with being good. And who among us believe that we are good enough to merit heaven as a reward? While that is the teaching of every other religion in the world that speaks of a personal god, the Christian faith reveals that salvation is not through works but through faith.
The question then is how a person who is regarded as a sinner can be declared by God to be righteous in His sight? It is one thing for God to regard Adam and Eve as righteous before their Fall into sin because they were perfectly obedient to the will of God. But how can God regard anyone as righteous if sin continues each and every day?
Perhaps we need to look deeper into the concept of being righteous beyond being obedient to God’s Will. After creating the world out of nothing, God inspected His work and declared that “indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) What did that mean? It meant that everything was operating as God intended it so to do. The trees brought forth proper fruit; the weather was perfect and human beings were obedient.
But then came the Fall into sin. However, God made a promise that through the seed of Eve, One would come to declare sinners righteous. How is it possible if being righteous means being sinless? But in the Garden of Eden being obedient was not the essence of being righteous. The essence of being righteous was knowing not only the place of human beings in the work of creation but also the place of God.
In their desire to become like God, they became disobedient. Their righteousness was lost not because righteousness was replaced with disobedience but because Adam and Eve rejected the orders of creation God had instituted. They wanted to be like the true God.
It is true that when someone is saved he does not begin to be perfect in all he does. Instead, he is turned from his life of self-centeredness to one of praising God and giving Him the glory. In true repentance (sorrow over sin and faith in Jesus Christ) God again regards the believer as being good. For the believer has repented of his desire to become like God and is content to be like Adam.
True righteousness is a restoration back to again being human as God so intended. In repentance the believer recognizes the separation between himself and God in the sense that he is human and God alone is divine. That recognition is how a sinful creature can be regarded by God as good again. Because our new attitude flows from the faith that God has given to us in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God can indeed declare us to be righteous in His sight. For once more we are keeping the separation between human and divine. Righteousness is not equivalent to being obedient; it is equivalent to being human as God originally intended.
Name:Tom Baker
St. Thomas, righteous through the merits of Jesus, greetings!
Thank you for the helpful law and gospel comments on Romans 4:22. Isn’t it a tragedy that Adam and Eve in trying to become equal to God became less than human? The religions in the world continue to serve up a dismal recipe for restoration–commit again the sin of Adam and Eve in their ascent to God. That ascent led to descent not to mention the indecent. Because of that descent Jesus must descend to the lower depths upon the cross to cross out our sin and restore us through His righeousness. It is that latter gift we need to be truly human and not merely a old adam slave of the elemental teachings of the world. The most productive tree on the face of the earth remains the dead stump tree of Jesse’s greater Son and Lord, Jesus. God be praised!
all the best,
Peter,
California, Missouri
Tom,
Good stuff. I think the concept of Imputation has lost a lot of ground in the modern day Evangelical movement. I go to an Episcopal Church, so we read the same readings this week. As I was sitting there I read through the book of Hosea, from chapter 5 to about chapter 10 and I noticed the surrounding context was a stinging rebuke from God about the wickedness and idolatry of His people. I would assume that the Pharisees either had that section of Hosea that Jesus quoted memorized or they went back and looked it up. What they would find is a God that demanded obedience from the heart to all his commandments. Jesus was accusing them of sin by quoting that little verse from Hosea. Its as if Jesus were saying “Don’t you remember your own scriptures and what God said about our people (the Jewish people) back then? Do you think anything has changed?”
Therefore, Jesus was saying that all have sinned. This is a proposition that most people would accept, but if the solution is anything but the Imputation of a foreign and forensic Righteousness, then it is not the Gospel. Much of the Evangelical Church is Semi-Pelagian, meaning that God does his part in providing Love, The sacrifice of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and I must do my part in being faithful, repenting of all known sins, and loving my neighbor.
Jesus did not abolish the original way of being right with God (Obeying and Keeping the Law perfectly) instead He fulfilled it in his sinless life and subtitutionary death. And by virtue of His resurrection and Ascension he is able to give the gift of Righteousness to all who trust in Him.
Yes and amen to that, Pittsburgh Dave!
Jesus never abolished Himself, i.e., the Law of Righteousness, He simply came into this world through a body prepared, cf. Psalm 40 and became Himself in the Flesh so we could justifiably be guilty before both God and Man.
There are only two ways to Heaven. I lost out on the one way thanks to Adam, my oldest father. That does not leave me much hope in myself and now the Good News is really good news seeing the only other way to Heaven for me and you is through Christ and His Cross. It’s kinda a death way for me to be alive in Him dwelling in paradise forever!
1Co 15:21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
1Co 15:24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
Man alive, there is no other way out of this mess I find myself and you living in these days!
Michael
Eureka, Ca