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APPENDIX
In Romans 8:10, Paul reveals an important fact about those who are saved, that is, about those who have Christ in them. (To have the Spirit of God, who is also the Spirit of Christ, is to have Christ in them.)
“But if Christ is in you, on the one hand the body is dead because of sin but on the other hand the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” (Rom. 8:10).
Paul here is referring to the two parts of the saved individual: his or her body and his or her spirit. The Greek word, soma, translated here “body,” refers to the physical body and it is not a synonym for “you.” And the Greek word, pneuma, translated here “spirit”, refers to the human spirit and not the Spirit of God. Paul here reveals that the physical body is dead. He is not referring to physical death, which is the separation of man’s spirit from his physical body, but to spiritual death. The body is spiritually dead when the human spirit is unable to completely control the physical body. This spiritual death along with physical death was received from Adam ( Rom. 5:12, 15, 17; I Cor. 15:22-23). The body is dead because of Adam’s sin, not because of man’s personal sins. It is true that physical death may result from personal sins; but that is not what Paul is referring to here. He is talking about the desires of the flesh (=body) not being under the control of human spirit (Gal. 5:17). Every man has a spirit (Gen. 2:7; I Cor. 2:10; 5:5; 7:34) which is alive and active; the human spirit makes the body physically alive and apart from the human spirit, the body is physically dead (James 2:26). The human spirit of the unbeliever is alive but it is not spiritually alive; that is, the unbeliever’s spirit is not in a personal relationship to God. But the human spirit of the believer is not only alive, it is also spiritually alive; that is, it is in a personal relationship to God. And the human spirit of the believer is spiritually alive “because of righteousness”. Not by their own personal righteous acts, but by the righteous act of God in Christ putting them into right personal relationship with God Himself, by the righteousness of God. The righteousness of faith is a right personal relationship to God and God has put the believer into this right personal relationship to God Himself through Christ’s death and resurrection. But the body of the believer is spiritually dead, not under the complete control of his spirit.
“But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom. 8:11)
In this verse, Paul explains how God resolves the paradox of the previous verse: the believer’s body is spiritually dead and his spirit is spiritually alive. God through His Spirit will make spiritually alive the spiritually dead body. This does not refer to the future resurrection of the believer’s body when Christ comes for His own (I Thess. 4:13-17), but to the present work of the indwelling Holy Spirit who makes alive the believer’s spiritually dead body; through the indwelling Spirit, God makes the desires of flesh to be controlled by the believer’s human spirit. Because of legalistic teaching that Romans 7 is the normal Christian life, many believers have never experienced or expect to experience this work of the indwelling Spirit in their lives. Paul is not here teaching Spirit-empowered law-keeping which leaves the believer under law and enslaved to sin. The believer is not under law but under grace and not under the slavery of sin ( Rom. 6:14). The Holy Spirit sets the believer free from being under law and from the slavery of sin. Paul here in this verse (Rom. 8:11) is teaching that the believer is under the grace of God who makes alive their mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in them. And since their mortal bodies are alive through the Spirit of God who dwells in them, the desires of the flesh can be controlled by the Spirit of God. This is not by walking “according to the flesh” (Rom. 8:4), by human self-effort, but is by walking “according to the Spirit” by faith, which Paul explains in the next verse 12.
“8:12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — 8:13 for if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” (Rom. 8:12-13)
In verse 12 and in the next verse 13, Paul exhorts his readers to apply the teaching of the previous seven verses. His exhortation has a negative and positive aspect. In verse 12 and the first part of verse 13, he gives the negative exhortation. On the basis of what God has provided by His Spirit they are debtors to God, “not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.” They are not obligated to do the desires of the flesh, to live according to the flesh. The believer has been set free from the law of sin and of death by the law of Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2). The believer is no longer a slave of sin and is not obligated to do what sin wants him to do. If he does, the end is eternal death. “For if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die;” (Rom. 8:13a). The wages of the slavemaster sin is eternal death (Rom. 6:23). The Christian does not have to die, but if he remains in the slavery to sin he will.
In the last part of verse 13, Paul gives the positive exhortation. “But if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” Here, Paul applies the teaching in verse 11 to the believer. The believer by the Spirit must put to death the practices of the body, that is, the doing of the desires of the flesh. He is to reckon himself dead to sin (Rom. 6:11) and stop letting sin reign in his spiritually dead body, so that he obeys its desires (Rom. 6:12). God through His indwelling Spirit will make alive the believer’s spiritually dead body, enabling the believer to say “No” to the desires of the flesh.
“For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14).
In this verse, Paul provides the basis for the positive exhortation in the previous verse. The basis for them doing that exhortation is their personal relationship to God; they are sons of God. And the evidence of that relationship is that they are lead by the Spirit of God. Being lead by the Spirit of God, they can by the Spirit put to death the practices of the body and live.
“For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:15)
In this verse, Paul explains the basis for the statement in the previous verse. He explains why being lead by the Spirit of God means that they are the sons of God. Paul’s explanation has both a negative and positive side. Negatively, they “have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear.” Paul is here referring to the slavery of the law (Rom. 7:25b) and the fear that it creates. Those under the law are also under the slavery of sin and under the condemnation of sin by the law which creates fear. The spirit that they have received does not put them under law but under grace. The grace of God puts them into the position of Sons. Instead of a spirit of slavery they have received a spirit of adoption as sons. The Greek word, huiothesia, here translated “adoption as sons” means “the placing of a child as a son” and refers to the act of placing a minor child into the place or the status of an adult son. The translation “adoption” gives the wrong impression; the Greek word does not refer to the taking of a child, not born as one’s own, into one’s family legally to raise him as one’s own, but it here refers to the placing of a child in the status of a son, who had the status of an adolescence child. Here Paul is saying that the believer under grace has the status as a son, in contrast to the status of a child under law (Gal. 4:5). Being lead by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God, not children under law, because the Spirit that they have received is a spirit of adoption of sons, not a spirit of slavery under the law. It is by the presence and witness of the Spirit that causes them to cry, “Abba, Father!” (Gal. 4:6).
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God,” (Rom. 8:16)
In this verse, Paul tells how the believer knows that he is a child of God. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.” Paul is here saying that the Spirit of God bears witness, not to the truth of the Scripture, but to the believers’ personal relationship to God, that they are the children of God. The witness of the Spirit is to their spirits of their personal relationship to God as their Father and they as His children. It is because of this witness that believer cries, “Abba, Father!”
“and if children, heirs also, heirs of God on the one hand and joint-heirs with Christ on the other, since we will suffer with him, in order that we might be glorified with him.” (Rom.8:17)
In this verse, Paul shows what is the implications of this relationship. “And if children, then heirs also.” The Greek word, kleronomos, translated here “heir”, means “one who receives an inheritance.” As children, they will receive an inheritance. Paul does not here say what is that inheritance. But he goes on to show the twofold character of this heirship. “Heirs of God on the one hand, joint-heirs with Christ on the other.” First, the heirship comes from God and, second, it is a joint-heirship with Christ. We share it with Christ just as we share His sufferings and His glory. In the next section (Rom. 8:18-25), Paul explains how we share His sufferings.
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; “Being made sin” or “a curse” does not mean paying the penalty of sin. 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 (Eph. 2:8-9), 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).
Adam acting as a representative brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ acting as our representative, on our behalf, 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).
“15:21 For since by man came death, 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 KJV)
Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, that is, God has brought us into fellowship with Himself.
“5:18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ … 5:19 to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself ….” (II Cor. 5:18-19; see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).
This representative work of Christ should be understood, not as a vicarious act, instead of another, but as a participation, an act of sharing in the condition of another. Christ took part or shared in our situation. He entered, not only into our existence as a man, but also into our condition of spiritual and physical death.
“2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him that has the power of death, that is the devil, 2:15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.” (Heb. 2:14-15)
On the cross, Jesus died not only physically but also spiritually (“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matt. 27:46), sharing in our spiritual death. We are reconciled to God through the death of Christ (Rom. 5:10) because He shared in our death (Heb. 2:9). But He was raised from the dead, and that on behalf of all men (II Cor. 5:15). He was raised from the dead so that we might participate and share in His resurrection and be made alive with Him.
“2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 2:5 even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus;” (Eph. 2:4-6 ERS).
His resurrection is our resurrection. He was raised from dead for us so that we might participate in His resurrection and have life, both spiritual and physical. Thus the representative work of Christ is a participation, an act of sharing in the condition of another. He participated in our death so that we could participate in His life.
Since spiritual death is no fellowship with God (it is the opposite of spiritual life which is fellowship with God), then being made alive with Christ we are brought into fellowship with God. Hence we are reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:17-19). The Greek word katallage, which is translated “reconciliation” in our English versions, means a “thorough or complete change.” Hence it refers to a complete change in the personal relationship between man and God. Because man is dead, he has no personal relationship with God, no fellowship with God. When a man is made alive to God with Christ, he is brought into a personal relationship with God, into fellowship with God. His personal relationship to God is completely changed, changed from death to life. Reconciliation can, therefore, be defined as that aspect of salvation whereby man is delivered from death to life. And the source of this act of reconciliation is the love of God. It is a legalistic misunderstanding of reconciliation to say that God was reconciled to man. The Scriptures never say that God is reconciled to man but that man is reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:18-19). The problem is not in God but in man. Man is dead and needs to be made alive. Man is the enemy of God; God is not the enemy of man. God loves man, and out of His great love He has acted to reconcile man to Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is true that God in His wrath opposes man’s sin and in His grace has provided a means by which His wrath may be turned away. But this aspect of salvation is propitiation, not reconciliation. Reconciliation should not be confused with propitiation. God in reconciling man to Himself has saved man from death, the cause of sin, and hence He has removed sin, the cause of His wrath – no sin, no wrath. Christ’s death is a propitiation because it is a redemption and it is a redemption because it is a reconciliation, salvation from death to life.
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 the Scriptures (John 10:10; Eph. 2:4-5; Heb. 2:14-15; I John 4:9; etc.) clearly shows that the answer to this question is that man needs to be saved because he is dead.
“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 offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS; see Rom. 6:8).
By His grace, God has saved us from death to life. Man is separated and alienated from God (Eph. 4:8). He is spiritually dead. He does not know God personally, and because he does not know the true God, he turns to false gods – to those things which are not God – and makes those into his gods.
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods.” (Gal. 4:8)
The basic sin is idolatry (Ex. 20:2; Rom. 1:25), and man sins (chooses these false gods as his god) because he is spiritually dead – separated from the true God. That is, all men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12 [ERS]: “because of which [death] all sinned.” Spiritual death which “spread to all men” from Adam 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 this spiritual death. He received that death from Adam, from his first parents. The historical origin of sin is the fall of Adam – the sin of the first man. Adam’s sin brought death – both spiritual and physical – on all his descendants ( Rom. 5:12, 15, 17). This spiritual death inherited from Adam is the personal, contemporary origin of each man’s sin. Because he is spiritually dead, not knowing the true 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, the righteousness of faith. 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, sin and 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 together 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 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.
The Biblical concept of the righteousness of God must be carefully distinguished from the Greek-Roman concept justice. The righteousness of God in the Scriptures is not an attribute of God whereby He must render to each what he has merited nor a quantity of merit which God gives, but is the act or activity of God whereby He puts or sets right that which is wrong. Righteousness is misunderstood as merits and the righteousness of God as the justice of God. The idea that the righteousness of God is the justice of God, that is, that attribute of God which requires that God punish all sin and reward all meritorious works is a legalistic misunderstanding of the righteousness of God. This legalistic misunderstanding reduces and equates righteousness of God to justice, that is, the giving to each that which is his due with a strict and impartial regard to merit (as in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics). It it this concept of righteousness that gave Luther so much trouble.
The Biblical concept of the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God whereby He puts or sets right that which is wrong. Very often in the Old Testament it 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. Parallelism is 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: He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.” (Psa. 98:2 NAS)
“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 saith the Lord, ‘Do judgment and righteousness: for my salvation is about to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.'” (Isa. 56:1 ERS) (See also Psa. 71:1-2, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 61:10; 62:1)
From these verses it is clear that righteousness of God is a synonym for the salvation or deliverance of God. 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; and 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 RSV, NAS, NIV) and “the Lord our righteousness” (Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16).
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 is 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.)
God expresses His love as righteousness in the activity by which He saves His people from their sins. In His wrath, God opposes the sin that would destroy man whom He loves. In His grace, He removes the sin. The grace of God is the love of God in action to bring salvation (Titus 2:11; Eph. 2:8). Thus the grace of God may properly be called the righteousness of God. For in His righteousness, God acts to deliver His people from their sins, setting them right with Himself.
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; and 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). This righteousness of God has been manifested, that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets;
3:22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;”
(Rom. 3:21-22 NAS).
The righteousness of God, as we have just seen, is God acting in love to set man right with God Himself and is synonymous with salvation. Now this righteousness of God has been manifested (phaneroo), that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God was active in the death and resurrection of Christ for man’s salvation. And because He is this act of God for man’s salvation, Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God (I Cor. 1:30). And since the gospel or good news is about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He did (Rom. 1:3-4; I Cor. 15:3-4), it is about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. The gospel tells us about God’s act of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ; the gospel is the gospel of our salvation (Eph. 1:13).
But the gospel is not only about the righteousness of God manifested in the past on our behalf, but in the preaching of the gospel the righteousness of God is being continually revealed (apokalupto) in the present.
“For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith unto faith” (Rom. 1:17a ERS).
The revelation that is spoken of in this verse is not just a disclosure of truth to be understood by the mind, but it is a working that makes effective and actual that which is revealed. Hence, the revelation of the righteousness of God is that working of God that makes effective and actual that which is revealed, that is, the righteousness of God. When the gospel is preached, God is acting to set man right with Himself. The result of God’s activity of righteousness is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:13), the righteousness from God (Phil. 3:9), since it has been received from God by faith.
The revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17) is also called justification (Rom. 3:24). As we have just 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 it 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 Greek words translated “justification” and “righteousness” have the same roots, not two different roots as do the two English words.
This Biblical concept of the righteousness of God must be carefully distinguished from the Greek-Roman concept of justice. The righteousness of God in the Scriptures is not an attribute of God whereby He must render to each what he has merited nor a quantity of merit which God gives, but God acting to set man right with God Himself. Luther’s apparent identification of the righteousness of God with the righteousness from God lead eventually to the equating of the righteousness from God with Christ’s righteousness, that is, the merits of Christ, which Christ earned by His active obedience before He died on the cross and is imputed to the believer’s account. Righteousness is misunderstood as merits and the righteousness of God as the justice of God. The idea that the righteousness of God is the justice of God, that is, that attribute of God which requires that God punish all sin and reward all meritorious works, is a legalistic misunderstanding of 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 that which is his 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.
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.
It was this legalistic concept of justice that gave Martin Luther so much trouble. Martin Luther rediscovered the meaning of the righteousness of God in Paul’s letter to the Romans. After a long and troubled search, Martin Luther recovered the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God and of the justification by faith. But his followers obscured this understanding of these concepts by the legalism of their theology and legalistic understanding of righteousness and justification. 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. But the righteousness from God is not the righteousness of God. These are different though related ideas and must be carefully distinguished. The righteousness from God is the righteousness of faith (Phil. 3:9), because God reckons faith as righteousness ( Rom. 4:3-5). That is, the righteousness of faith is not merit placed to the account of the believer, but the right relationship of the believer to God by faith. And this righteousness of faith is the righteousness from God. The righteousness of faith is the act or choice of a man to trust God and the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God to set a man right with God Himself by faith. Since this act of faith by a man is possible only when God acts to set a man right with God Himself, the righteousness of faith is the righteousness from God. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians,
“3:8b For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, in order that I may gain Christ 3:9 and 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).
This 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). To trust in God is to be righteous (Rom. 4:5). Paul writes in his letter to the Romans,
“4:3 For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ 4:4 Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. 4:5 And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness …. 4:13 The 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)
Luther’s apparent identification of the righteousness of God with the righteousness from God led eventually lead to the equating of the righteousness from God with Christ’s righteousness, that is, the merits earned by Christ’s active obedience under law and is imputed to the believer’s account when he believes. And the righteousness of God was then equated with the justice of God, that is, that attribute of God which requires that God punish all sin and reward all meritorious works.
And this legalism not only affected theology but the whole life of the church. The result of this legalism was dead orthodoxy and a cold, unloving Christianity. To correct these effects there arose in the church various movements such as pietism, the evangelical awakening, revivalism, etc. None of these movements went to the source of the deadness, coldness and unlovableness but just reinforced the cause — legalism.
The great outpouring of the Spirit starting at the beginning of the twentieth century has been hindered and limited by the constant relapses into the same legalism. And the source of this legalism in practice is the legalism of the theology. The theological legalism produces the practical legalism. The answer to the legalism of the theology is not no theology, but a non-legalistic theology, a Biblical theology. With the present move of the Spirit, the time has come to clear the legalism out of our theology and again recover the Biblical understanding of the righteousness of God and justification by faith. The examination of the Biblical doctrine of salvation and the need for salvation in this book, From Death to Life, is an attempt to make a beginning of this theological renewal.