Counted Righteous in Christ? E-Book

John Piper

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2002

Seitenzahl: 210

Beschreibung

Are Christians merely forgiven, or do they possess the righteousness of Christ? Recently the time-honored understanding of the doctrine of justification has come under attack. Many question how-or if-we receive the full righteousness of Christ. Martin Luther said that if we understand justification "we are in the clearest light; if we do not know it, we dwell in the densest darkness." And now, in this new and important book, John Piper accepts Luther's challenge. He points out that we need to see ourselves as having been recipients of the imputation of Christ's righteousness and therefore enjoy full acceptance with God and the everlasting inheritance of life and joy. Piper writes as both a pastor and a scholar. His pastor's heart is shown in his zeal for the welfare of the church. His careful scholarship is evident in each explanation and undergirds each conclusion.

Leseprobe

Counted Righteous in Christ

Copyright © 2002 by Desiring God Foundation

Published by Crossway Books a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Liita Forsyth

First printing, 2002

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are the author’s own translation.

Also quoted in this book:

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.Used by permission. All rights reserved.

New American Standard Bible (NASB) copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Piper, John, 1946Counted righteous in Christ : should we abandon the imputation of Christ’s righteousness? / John Piper.p. cm.Includes index.ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-447-9 (tpb : alk. paper) ISBN 10: 1-58134-447-3 1. Justification—Biblical teaching. 2. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.BS2655.J8 P54     2002 234'.7—dc21

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To MATT PERMAN DUSTIN SHRAMEK GARY STEWARD JUSTIN TAYLOR TODD WILSON STEPHEN WITMER

The first class of THE BETHLEHEM INSTITUTE without whose careful biblical queries this book would not exist

CONTENTS

PREFACE

FULL OUTLINE OF THE ARGUMENT

CHAPTER ONE

THE SETTING IN FAMILY, CHURCH, CULTURE, AND NATIONS

CHAPTER TWO

THE CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGE

CHAPTER THREE

AN EXEGETICAL RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

NOTE ON RESOURCES: DESIRING GOD MINISTRIES

PREFACE

As I have preached through the first eight chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans in the last four years, I have found my mind and heart moving toward Luther’s estimation of the doctrine of justification, and particularly the imputation of Christ’s righteousness as the precious foundation of our full acceptance and everlasting inheritance of life and joy.

[Justification is] the chief article of Christian doctrine. To him who understands how great its usefulness and majesty are, everything else will seem slight and turn to nothing. For what is Peter? What is Paul? What is an angel from heaven? What are all creatures in comparison with the article of justification? For if we know this article, we are in the clearest light; if we do not know it, we dwell in the densest darkness. Therefore if you see this article impugned or imperiled, do not hesitate to resist Peter or an angel from heaven; for it cannot be sufficiently extollede1

I do believe that the article is “impugned [and] imperiled” in our day. And while I would rather glory in it than argue for it, sometimes resistance is a form of rejoicing. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven . . . a time to break down, and a time to build up . . . a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak . . . a time for war, and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, ESV). A time to delight in the truth and a time to defend the truth. For the sake of delight.

Chapter One will explain why I have invested so much energy in this controversy. For now, I would simply say that the glory of Christ is the most precious reality in the universe, and it is obscured when the doctrine of justification is lost or blurred for the people of God and the mission of the church. I pray that this small effort will help preserve the “usefulness and majesty” of this truth. I offer it as a fallible act of worship in the hope that “Christ for righteousness” (Romans 10:4) will be more “sufficiently extolled.”

I hope that thinking laypeople, pastors, and scholars will read this book. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 are, I believe, readable and hope-giving to the ordinary layperson. Chapter 3 is a rigorous and demanding exegetical argument. But disciplined minds can follow the argument without advanced theological training or foreign languages. In fact I would encourage the effort. Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves. Digging is hard, but you might find gold.

I have dedicated the book to the first class of The Bethlehem Institute because their questions for two years drove me back to the texts again and again to see things more clearly. I thank God for my comrade Tom Steller, whose challenges focused my energies on the crucial issues. I thank God for the Council of Elders of Bethlehem Baptist Church who freed me at least three times to do this work, because they really believe that it matters for the church and the cause of Christ in the world. And I thank God for the partnership of Lane Dennis and the team at Crossway Books for sharing the burden I have in this book.

Justin Taylor and Matt Perman deserve special thanks because of the extraordinary assistance they gave in helping conceive and assemble this final version of the book. Matt also provided the subject index, and Carol Steinbach, with her usual excellence, provided the text and person indexes. As always, my wife Noël read it all, and caught mistakes that others didn’t. Finally, thanks to Robert Gundry for his perhaps unwitting assistance in bringing it all to a crisis for me, so that my thinking moved from brain to book. He graciously read my exegetical arguments against his view and allowed me to quote his correspondence. He is not persuaded. May God give us light and move all his people toward the fullest understanding and enjoyment of Christ, our righteousness.

1 From his exposition of Galatians 2:11 in What Luther Says: An Anthology, Vol. 2, ed. Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), p. 705, entry 2200. Luther clarifies the nature of justification in terms of imputation of Christ’s righteousness: “Christ is promised, who is your perfect and everlasting Righteousness” (p. 668, entry 2071). “If we believe in Christ, we are considered absolutely just for His sake, in faith. Later, after the death of his flesh, in the other life, we shall attain perfect righteousness and have within us the abso-lute righteousness which we now have only by imputation through the merit of Christ. . .”

FULL OUTLINE OF THE ARGUMENT

CHAPTER ONE:

THE SETTING IN FAMILY, CHURCH, CULTURE, AND NATIONS

CHAPTER TWO:

THE CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGE

§1. Definition and aim.

§2. Three things have moved me to write.

§2.1. Preaching through Romans.

§2.2. Controversy and awakenings.

§2.3. A blast from Books and Culture.

§3. Summary of the challenge to historic Protestant teaching.

§3.1. Our righteousness consists of faith.

§3.2. There is no imputation of divine righteousness.

§3.3. Justification has to do with liberation from sin’s mastery.

§3.4. Abandonment of the imputation of Christ as unbiblical.

§4. Defending imputation is not a rearguard action.

§4.1 Central Reformation battles were not in vain.

§4.2 The distinction between justification and sanctification matters.

§4.3 The glory of Christ and the care of souls are at stake.

CHAPTER THREE:

AN EXEGETICAL RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE

§1. The evidence that the righteousness imputed to us is external and not our faith.

§1.1. Paul thinks of justification in terms of “imputing” or “crediting.”

§1.2. The context of imputation is one of crediting in a book-keeping metaphor.

§1.3. Confirmation from the connection between Romans 4:5 and 4:6.

§1.3.1. The parallel between apart from works in verse 6 and the ungodly in verse 5.

§1.3.2. The parallel between God’s justifying in verse 5 and God’s imputing righteousness in verse 6.

§1.4. A confirming parallel between Romans 4:6 and Romans 3:28.

§1.5. The evidence from how Paul’s thought flows in Romans 4:9-11.

§1.6. Confirming evidence from Romans 10:10.

§1.7. Evidence from Philippians 3:8-9.

§1.8. A clarifying analogy for “faith imputed for righteousness.”

§1.9. Conclusion: Our imputed righteousness does not consist of faith but is received by faith.

§2. The external righteousness credited to us is God’s.

§2.1. The flow of thought from Romans 3:20 to 4:6.

§2.1.1. God’s righteousness witnessed by the law connects with Romans 4:3.

§2.1.2. Imputed righteousness is “the righteousness of God through faith.”

§2.2. The evidence for imputed divine righteousness in 2 Corinthians 5:21.

§2.3. Conclusion: God imputes his righteousness to us through faith.

§3. Justification is not liberation from sin’s mastery.

§3.1. A controlling biblical-theological paradigm?

§3.2. Does the new paradigm do justice to Romans 3:24-26?

§3.3. How the new paradigm mishandles justification in Romans 6:6-7.

§3.3.1. The meaning of “justified from sin” in Romans 6:7.

§3.3.2. Another way to understand Romans 6:6-7.

§3.3.2.1. The structure of Romans: Justification is the prior basis of sanctification.

§3.3.2.2. The bondage of guilt makes justification a necessary ground for liberation.

§3.4. The flow of thought in Romans 8:3-4.

§3.5. Conclusion: Justification is not liberation from sin’s mastery.

§4. Is the divine righteousness imputed to believers the righteousness of Christ?

§4.1. The evidence from 2 Corinthians 5:21.

§4.2. The evidence from Philippians 3:9.

§4.3. The evidence from 1 Corinthians 1:30.

§4.4. The evidence from Romans 10:4.

§4.5. The evidence from Romans 5:12-19.

§4.5.1. The incomplete sentence of Romans 5:12.

§4.5.2. The clarification of “all sinned” (verse 12) in Romans 5:13-14.

§4.5.2.1. How Paul deals with possible objections.

§4.5.2.1.1. The principle of no transgressions where there is no law.

§4.5.2.1.2. Absence of law raises the legal issue of the death sen-tence for all men.

§4.5.2.2. Why did Paul introduce the Adam-Christ connection at this place?

§4.5.3. The contrast between Adam and Christ in Romans 5:15-17.

§4.5.4. The crucial contrasts of Romans 5:18-19.

§4.5.5. Does Christ’s “one act of righteousness” refer to his life of obedience?

§5. The relationship between Christ’s “blood and righteousness.”

§5.1. The meaning of “justify” (dikaiovw, dikaioo).

§5.2. Texts pointing to the imputation of righteousness.

§5.3. Justification and forgiveness in relation to the use of Psalm 32 in Romans 4.

CHAPTER FOUR:

CONCLUSION

1

THE SETTING IN FAMILY, CHURCH, CULTURE, AND NATIONS

Why would a pressured pastor with a family to care for, a flock to shepherd, weekly messages to prepare, a personal concern for wayward children, a love for biblical counseling, a burden for racial justice, a commitment to see abortion become unthinkable, a zeal for world evangelization, a focus on local church planting, and a life-goal of spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ devote so much time and energy to the controversy over the imputation of Christ’s righteousness?1 And why should schoolteachers, engineers, accountants, firemen, computer programmers, and homemakers take the time to work through a book like this?

MY LIMITS

I will try to answer that question in this chapter. My answer moves from the general to the specific. That is, from reasons for caring about doctrine to reasons for caring about justification by faith to reasons for caring about the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. Implicit in my question is a disclaimer. I do not have the time or the heart to read as widely as scholars in academia do and should. So my focus is limited2 —but, I hope, not shallow or exegetically flimsy. A fuller treatment of the breadth and variety of issues surrounding the doctrine of justification today can be found in many places.3 With that said, I ask again, Why does a pastor—or why should you—take up a complex doctrinal controversy on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness?

GROWING A CHURCH WITHOUT A HEART FOR DOCTRINE

To begin with, the older I get, the less impressed I am with flashy successes and enthusiasms that are not truth-based. Everybody knows that with the right personality, the right music, the right location, and the right schedule you can grow a church without anybody really knowing what doctrinal commitments sustain it, if any. Church-planting specialists generally downplay biblical doctrine in the core values of what makes a church “successful.” The long-term effect of this ethos is a weakening of the church that is concealed as long as the crowds are large, the band is loud, the tragedies are few, and persecution is still at the level of preferences.

But more and more this doctrinally-diluted brew of music, drama, life-tips, and marketing seems out of touch with real life in this world—not to mention the next. It tastes like watered-down gruel, not a nourishing meal. It simply isn’t serious enough. It’s too playful and chatty and casual. Its joy just doesn’t feel deep enough or heartbroken or well-rooted. The injustice and persecution and suffering and hellish realities in the world today are so many and so large and so close that I can’t help but think that, deep inside, people are longing for something weighty and massive and rooted and stable and eternal. So it seems to me that the trifling with silly little sketches and breezy welcome-to-the-den styles on Sunday morning are just out of touch with what matters in life.

Of course, it works. Sort of. Because, in the name of felt needs, it resonates with people’s impulse to run from what is most serious and weighty and what makes them most human and what might open the depths of God to their souls. The design is noble. Silliness is a stepping-stone to substance. But it’s an odd path. And evidence is not ample that many are willing to move beyond fun and simplicity. So the price of minimizing truth-based joy and maximizing atmosphere-based comfort is high. More and more, it seems to me, the end might be in view. I doubt that a religious ethos with such a feel of entertainment can really survive as Christian for too many more decades. Crises reveal the cracks.

WHAT SEPTEMBER 11 REVEALED

The terrorism of September 11, 2001, released a brief tidal wave of compassion and cowardice in the Christian Church. It brought out the tender love of thousands and the terrible loss of theological nerve. “Ground Zero” became a place of agonizing comfort as Christians wept with those who wept, while radio talk shows and Muslim-Christian ecumenical gatherings became places of compromise as leaders minimized Christ and clouded the nature of Islam with vague words about “one God.”

The tension between strong Christian love and weak Christological cowardice will not survive indefinitely. If the root is cut, the fruit will die—sooner or later. The reluctance to pray publicly in the majestic name of Jesus Christ; the disinclination to make clear distinctions between Allah and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;4 the fear of drawing attention to the fact that Islam consciously rejects the entire foundation of Christian salvation, namely, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus5 —this loss of conviction and courage will in the end undermine the very love and joy it aims to advance.

A DIAGNOSIS FROM WILLIAM WILBERFORCE

What we saw more clearly in the brief moment of realism following September 11 was the hidden habit of doctrinal indifference and the sad exposure of triumphant pragmatism. Surprisingly a British, evangelical politician from two hundred years ago analyzed our situation well and has helped me get my bearings in this new century. William Wilberforce is famous for his lifelong, and finally successful, battle against the African slave trade. It stunned me, when I recently read his one major book, A Practical View of Christianity, that his diagnosis of the moral weakness of Britain was doctrinal.

The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and nutriment.6

Even more stunning was the fact that Wilberforce made the doctrine of justification the linchpin in his plea for moral reform in the nation. He said that all the spiritual and practical errors of the nominal Christians of his age . . .

. . . RESULT FROM THE MISTAKEN CONCEPTION ENTERTAINED OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY. They consider not that Christianity is a scheme “for justifying the ungodly ” [Romans 4:5], by Christ’s dying for them “when yet sinners ” [Romans 5:6-8], a scheme “for reconciling us to God—when enemies” [Romans 5:10]; and for making the fruits of holiness the effects, not the cause, of our being justified and reconciled.7

It is a remarkable thing that a politician, and a man with no formal theological education, should not only know the workings of God in justification and sanctification, but consider them utterly essential for Christian piety and public virtue. Many public people say that changing society requires changing people, but few show the depth of understanding Wilberforce does concerning how that comes about. For him the right grasp of the central doctrine of justification and its relation to sanctification—an emerging Christlikeness in private and public—were essential for the reformation of the morals of England.8

WITHOUT PASTORAL STUDY, WE LIVE ON BORROWED FAITH

If Wilberforce is right—I think he is profoundly right—it will be less of a mystery why a pastor with a burden for racial justice and the sanctity of life9 and the moral transformation of our cultural landscape would be gripped by the doctrine of justification by faith. There are deeper and more connections than most of us realize between the grasp of doctrine and the good of people and churches and societies. The book of Romans is not prominent in the Bible for nothing. Its massive arguments are to be labored over until understood. And not just by scholars. What a tragedy that that this labor is regarded as wasted effort by so many who are giving trusted counsel in the church today.

Thousands are living on borrowed faith. We are living off the dividends, as it were, of intellectual and doctrinal investments made by pastors and church leaders from centuries ago. But the “central bank” of the Bible was not meant to fund future generations merely on the investments of the past. They are precious, and I draw on them daily. Everyone does, even those who don’t know it. But without our own investments of energy in the task of understanding, the Bank will close—as it has in many churches. I had lunch with a pastor not long ago—of one of the most liberal churches in Minnesota (as he described it)—who remarked that his people would be happy if he took his text from Emily Dickinson.

ANSWERING THE DETAILS OF THE FIRST QUESTION: WHY DEFEND JUSTIFICATION?

So what about all those other burdens and longings I expressed in the first sentence of this chapter? Why would a pastor with all those devote so much attention to the doctrine of justification?

FOR THE SAKE OF MY FAMILY: MARRIAGE

I have a family to care for. The marriage must survive and thrive for the good of the children and the glory of Christ. God designed marriage to display the holy mercy of Christ and the happy sub-mission of his church (Ephesians 5:21-25). My own experience has been that the doctrine of justification by faith, and the imputed righteousness of Christ, is a great marriage saver and sweetener.

What makes marriage almost impossible at times is that both partners feel so self-justified in their expectations that are not being fulfilled. There is a horrible emotional dead-end street in the words, “But it’s just plain wrong for you to act that way,” followed by, “That’s your perfectionistic perspective,” or “Do you think you do everything right?,” or hopeless, resigned silence. The cycle of self-justified self-pity and anger seems unbreakable.

But what if one or both of the partners becomes overwhelmed with the truth of justification by faith alone, and with the particular truth that in Christ Jesus God credits me, for Christ’s sake, as fulfilling all his expectations? What would happen if this doctrine so mastered our souls that we began to bend it from the vertical to the horizontal? What if we applied it to our marriages?

In our own imperfect efforts in this regard, there have been breakthroughs that seemed at times impossible. It is possible, for Christ’s sake, to simply say, “I will no longer think merely in terms of whether my expectations are met in practice. I will, for Christ’s sake, regard my wife (or husband) the way God regards me—complete and accepted in Christ—and to be helped and blessed and nurtured and cherished, even if in practice there are shortcomings.” I know my wife treats me this way. And surely this is part of what Paul was calling for when he said that we should forgive “one another . . . as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32, ESV). I believe there is more healing for marriage in the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness than many of us have even begun to discover.

FOR THE SAKE OF MY FAMILY: CHILDREN

Then there are the children. Four sons are grown and out of the house. But they are not out of our lives. In person and on the phone every week there are major personal, relational, vocational, theological issues to deal with. In every case the root issue comes back to: What are the great truths revealed in Scripture that can give stability and guidance here? Listening and affection are crucial. But if my words lack biblical substance, my counsel is hollow. Touchy-feely affirmation won’t cut it. Too much is at stake. These young men want rock under their feet.

My daughter, Talitha, is six years old. Recently she and my wife and I were reading through Romans together. This was her choice after we finished Acts. She is just learning to read, and I was putting my finger on each word. She stopped me in mid-sentence at the beginning of chapter 5 and asked, “What does ‘justified’ mean?” What do you say to a six-year-old? Do you say, “There are more important things to think about, so just trust Jesus and be a good girl”? Or do you say that it is very complex and even adults are not able to understand it fully, so you can wait and deal with it when you are older? Or do we say that it simply means that Jesus died in our place so that all our sins might be forgiven?

Or do we tell a story (which is what I did), made up on the spot, about two accused criminals, one guilty and one not guilty (one did the bad thing, and one did not do it)? The one who did not do the bad thing is shown, by all those who saw the crime, to be innocent. So the judge “justifies” him; that is, he tells him he is a law-abiding person and did not do the crime and can go free. But the other accused criminal, who really did the bad thing, is shown to be guilty, because all the people who saw the crime saw him do it. But then, guess what! The judge “justifies” him too and says, “I regard you as a law-abiding citizen with full rights in our country” (not just a forgiven criminal who may not be trusted or fully free in the country). At this point Talitha looks at me puzzled.