What Is Biblical Imputation? Think about It and Take it on Credit
Related MediaThe term imputation has undergone some debate. Scholars have reached the conclusion that it is not very important in the Bible. The evidence suggests it is very important.
Let’s get started.
If readers would like to see the verses in various translations, they may go to Lumina.Bible.org and type in the references.
Basic Definitions
Linguistic Meanings
The Hebrew verb ḥāšab and the Greek verb logizomai both have the basic meaning of “thinking” and “considering.” They denote mental activities, but they are verbs nonetheless.
Sometimes in this study, however, we look at the concept behind the verbs even though they do not appear in a passage of Scripture.
Another basic definition of the verbs is seen in a business context: credit, reckon, or calculate. However, the main uses are when people think or consider.
We will discover the two basic meanings (thinking and commercial crediting) as we go along.
Sources: TWOT 330; TDNT, vol. 4, 284.
Theological Meanings
The OT and NT put theological meanings to the verbs.
Reformed Theologian Charles Hodge writes about imputation:
In the juridical and theological sense of the word, to impute is to attribute anything to a person or persons, upon adequate grounds, as the judicial or meritorious reason of reward or punishment, i.e., of the bestowment of good or the infliction of evil. … To impute is to reckon to, or to lay to one’s account. So far as the meaning of the word is concerned, it makes no difference whether the thing imputed be sin or righteousness; whether it is our own personally, or the sin or righteousness of another. (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 2, 194, Logos Research Systems, orig. pub. 1871-73)
So according to Hodge God can lay or charge or reckon to our account either righteousness or sin. God’s thought makes it so. He is the ultimate arbiter of the universe, and he controls spiritual reality as well. So when he imputes Christ’s righteousness to us, for example, it belongs to us.
A more succinct definition (and I believe a better one), with two examples, is offered by Wayne Grudem.
To impute is:
To think of as belonging to someone, and therefore to cause it to belong to that person. God “thinks of” Adam’s sin as belonging to us, and it therefore belongs to us, and in justification he thinks of Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us and so relates to us on this basis (Systematic Theology, 1244, Zondervan, 1994)
As noted, when God thinks of us as righteous in Christ, his righteousness belongs to us, in his sight. Therefore, what God thinks matters, as the Biblical texts affirm (see below). Our personal feelings of righteousness one day and unrighteousness the next do not matter. And that is a blessing to us because everything flows from God through Christ; everything is based on them, not us. Now we are secure in our salvation.
When God thinks or imputes something, then that matters in his sight (Rom. 2:13; Rom. 3:20; Rom. 4:17; 1 Cor. 1:29).
8 ”For my thoughts are not your thoughts … 9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:8-9)
Let’s look at some Biblical passages to see how the Hebrew and Greek verbs are used in various contexts.
The Old Testament
The NT is rooted in the OT and grows organically out of it. However, the New Covenant often redefines or recasts the concepts, so we must be judicious in how we use the OT.
1. God Honors Faith: Genesis 15:6
God called Abram (his name will be changed later to Abraham in Gen. 17:5), out of the blue, so to speak (Gen. 12:1-3). He required him to leave his family behind and go to a land the Lord would show him, which turned out to be Canaan (Gen. 13:14-17). Then God makes a covenant of promise to childless Abram. God will grant him a son (Gen 15:1-5). Abram simply believed God and then a blessing ensued.
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:6)
God honors faith. Abram did not have to work to get this righteousness. God thought of Abraham as righteous, and it was so. This credit to his account took place before his circumcision (Gen. 17:9-14, Gen. 17:23-27). This gift was bestowed on him 400+ years before the law of Moses was thundered from on high on Mt. Sinai. In fact he had misled the Pharaoh earlier, which broke the moral law (Gen. 12:10-20). “Misled” is a euphemism for “lied.” And after that, he did not learn his lesson, for he “misled” Abimelek, the king of Gerar, and told him that Sarah was his sister (Gen. 20), which was partly true (Gen. 20:12). Nonetheless, Abraham passed the most difficult test of his life, (nearly) sacrificing his son Isaac (Gen. 22).
Therefore this gift of righteousness was not based on his own character or inner righteousness or the good or bad that he did. It was based on faith and God’s grace in granting his righteousness.
All of this agrees with Paul’s basic theology. God credits us with righteousness, even though we may not feel righteous. Nonetheless, he imputes it to us by faith alone, regarding it as ours, and therefore it is (Rom. 3:21-26; Rom. 4:1-25). God thinks of us as righteous in Christ, and therefore this righteousness belongs to us. We are righteous in his sight.
It is God’s sight that matters most.
2. Foreigners: Genesis 31:14-15
Jacob was a trickster, but his father-in-law Laban was more than a match for him. But God blessed Jacob with prosperity to make up for the conniving of Laban. Finally, the Lord called Jacob to return to his homeland, and his two wives were glad to go, for their father had manipulated them as well.
14 Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? 15 Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. (Gen. 31:14-15)
Rachel and Leah really were Laban’s daughters, but he regarded them as foreigners by his behavior towards them. So in his sight it is as if they were foreigners, even though they never went through an inner transformation or a legal proceeding to be disowned. Laban thought of them as foreign, and so they were in his sight.
3. No Credit Accepted: Leviticus 7:18
In the context of the fellowship or peace offering, one must eat the meat on the first or second day; otherwise, the offering will not be credited to the person.
18 If any meat of the fellowship offering is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted. It will not be credited to the one who offered it, for it is impure; the person who eats any of it will be held responsible. (Lev. 7:18)
So God did not count or impute or think that the benefit that accrued from the offering belonged to the person who offered it. And so it was, in his sight or opinion.
4. Carrying by Imputing. Wait. What? Leviticus 16:22
On the day of atonement, Aaron (or the high priest) is to keep one goat alive, lay hands on it, confess all the sins of Israel, put their sins on it, and send it into the wilderness under the supervision of someone appointed to the task. Since the goat was leaving or “escaping” from the people, it was called the scapegoat.
22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place. (Lev. 16:22)
The verb “carry” (nāśā’) in Hebrew is not the typical verb for “impute,” but the concept is the same in this context. The goat did not commit the sins of the people. It was not a moral sinner by inner transformation. How could it be? Yet God thinks of the goat as carrying their sins, and therefore it does. Thus, the sins belong to the goat by imputation or reckoning, from God’s point of view.
This “carrying” or “bearing” is exactly what Jesus did. The same verb nāśā’ is in italics font:
4 Surely he took up our infirmities … (Is. 53:4)
12 For he bore the sin of many … (Is. 53:12; 1 Peter 2:24)
Jesus did not actually commit our sins, and he did not actually have our infirmities. He had none at all. He was not a moral sinner by inner transformation or by being infused with a sin nature. While on the cross, he did not get the flu or cancer. Yet he carries and takes up our sin and infirmity. How? Because God thinks of Jesus as carrying and taking them up them and therefore he does in God’s sight or opinion. Thus Jesus carries or bears them only by imputation or reckoning.
5. Considered Guilty: Leviticus 17:4
The ancient Israelites were forbidden to religiously sacrifice an animal in private because they might follow after the gods of the Canaanites in their pagan rituals and thus get corrupted (which eventually happened for many). Instead, the people of God were required to sacrifice at the tent of meeting, where they could be supervised by the priest.
3 Any Israelite who sacrifices an ox, a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside of it 4 instead of bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord—that man shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood and must be cut off from his people. (Lev. 17:3-4)
If the Israelite does not obey the command, he is considered or counted or charged with shedding the blood of a human, even though the disobedient Israelite actually did not shed human blood. Nonetheless, bloodguilt was imputed or charged to him because God thought as much, and therefore the bloodguilt belonged to the disobedient Israelite in God’s sight or opinion. The Israelite was therefore to be cut off from the people.
6. What’s Yours Is Mine: Numbers 18:20, 25-27, 31
This illustration is physical (grain and wine), so we should not take it too far. But it does yield some interesting insights.
The priests and Levites were not to have the share of the land; that is, they were not farmers.
20 The Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. (Num. 18:20)
They were not to sow the crops or plant the vineyards; they were not to harvest the grain or pick the grapes from the vine. They were not to thresh the grains or press the grapes into wine. Instead, their sustenance was to come from the offerings that the Israelites gave them.
However, when the crops were offered to the priests and Levites, they were to give a tenth as the Lord’s offering. That tenth was then to be credited or counted or reckoned to them as grains from the threshing floor and juice from the winepress.
25 The Lord said to Moses, 26 “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering. 27 Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. … 30 “Say to the Levites: ‘When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor or the winepress.” (Num. 18:25-27, Num. 18:30)
Thus, this context is a business calculation. The priests and Levites get credit for the grain and juice. This reckoning or imputation does not come from any practical act that the priests and Levites did. They did not actually thresh the grains or press the grapes into juice. But the fruit of the land is counted or imputed as theirs, “as the product of the threshing floor or the winepress.”
But let’s not overlook the basic meaning of thinking, either. In God’s mind the work it took to get the finished product and the product itself (threshed grain and pressed juice) are considered as belonging to the priests and Levites, and therefore the labor and finished product do belong to them. They present it as an offering to God. But this physical example should not be taken too far.
7. Counted Forgiven: Psalm 32:1-2
David had a sense of sin, but he said it was blessed when anyone was forgiven.
1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him. (Ps. 32:1-2)
The sin and transgression are not counted or imputed or charged against the person; therefore, forgiveness belongs to him. God thinks of us as forgiven as well. He imputes forgiveness to us through Christ, and therefore it belongs to us. But David kept on sinning in his life, and so do we. But he was forgiven, and so are we.
8. Sheepish Qualities: Psalm 44:22
This is another physical illustration that we should not take too far. Believers are considered as sheep.
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. (Ps. 44:22)
Believers are not real sheep. They have not been transformed into sheep or infused with the entire nature of sheep. They do not have to live like them or do their “work,” like giving wool or milk. They don’t have to bleat like sheep either.
Rather, they are counted or reckoned or considered as sheep. This is done by imputation both in God’s sight or way of thinking, and in the sight of humans who watch God’s people go through extreme difficulties (see Acts 8:32 and Rom. 8:36).
9. Feel the Zeal: Psalm 106:28-31
These verses credit righteousness by a zealous act – or so it seems at first glance. So we need to spend more time here, since it is appears to be at odds with Gen. 15:6 and Paul’s theology in Romans. But is it really?
Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, intervened to stop God’s plague of judgment against sinful Israel that had followed another god.
28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; 29 they provoked the Lord to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. 31 This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come. (Ps. 106:28-31)
Verse 31 is the same language used of Abraham in Gen. 15:6, which says Abram’s faith was credited as righteousness. Is there a contradiction?
Background
In the original context, the children of Israel yoked themselves to the god Baal (Num. 25). An Israelite man brought a Midianite woman before the tent of meeting and began “weeping” before it. One scholar suggests the word “weeping” is a euphemism for committing some kind of sexual act.
He writes:
It seems likely to me, however, that the subject of the verb “weeping” is not Moses and the congregation but the sinning Israelite and his Midianite partner. The focus of action in the verse is on them, not Moses. What they did was before Moses, in his presence – under his nose! And what they did was to engage in a sexual embrace in the manner of Baal worship – right at the entrance of the holy Tent of God! (Ronald B. Allen, Numbers, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 2, 919, Zondervan, 1990)
He explains the reason for the euphemism:
The scribes, I suggest, have made a deliberate substitution of an opposite word, “weeping,” to connote “caressing,” an unusual form of euphemism to stress the heightened enormity of this act. They are not weeping; they are laughing – that is, engaged in delirious love-making (cf. Gen 26:8; Exod 32:6). Just as to say “curse God” is for the godly scribe too much; so “bless God” is stated when “curse God” is intended (see 1 Kings 21:10, 13; Job 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9; Ps 10:3); here, to “cry” in the sacred precincts (as in a cry of remorse) is used to present the antithetical meaning, “to laugh in sexual pleasure” – at the opening of the sacred tent. (ibid.)
He describes the monstrosity of the act:
The audacious action of this Israelite man is unparalleled and totally unexpected. The contempt for the holy things and the word of the Lord shown by Zimri and his Midianite lover, Cozbi (v.15), is unimaginable. This is a climax to the first section of the Book of Numbers; here is Israel at her very worst. This provides an unhappy justification for the ways of the Lord; it also provides a theodicy of his judgment of the entire first generation. (ibid)
In the Old Covenant, a blasphemer had to die (Lev. 24:10-23). The scholar again explains why the ancients used a euphemism or hid the meaning in code for some enormities.
The man is a blasphemer in the strongest sense. His sin is a deliberate provocateur of the wrath of the Lord, flaunting and taunting holiness in an almost unbelievable crudity. The issue was so blatant, so outrageous, so unspeakable – I suggest – that the ancients had to hide the meaning somewhat in code words. Those who read the text today find between the words that stand (which are awful enough) something that is truly an outrage against Majesty that is nearly unbelievable. (ibid)
But this background does not explain how Phinehas’ zeal would be credited to him as righteousness. As noted, this is the same language used of Abram, whose faith, not zeal, was credited to him as righteousness. So now we turn to classical commentaries.
Classical Commentaries
The older commentators say Phinehas was already justified by faith first, so God, out of pure benevolence, imputes or counts or credits an act as righteousness.
John Calvin in his commentary on the Psalms writes about 106:31:
First of all, let us examine, whether or not Phinehas was justified on account of this deed alone, Verily, the law, though it could justify, by no means promises salvation to any one work, but makes justification to consist in the perfect observance of all the commandments. It remains, therefore, that we affirm that the work of Phinehas was imputed to him for righteousness, in the same way as God imputes the works of the faithful to them for righteousness, not in consequence of any intrinsic merit which they possess, but of his own free and unmerited grace. And as it thus appears that the perfect observance of the law alone (which is done nowhere) constitutes righteousness, all men must prostrate themselves with confusion of face before God’s judgment-seat. Besides, were our works strictly examined, they would be found to be mingled with much imperfection. We have, therefore, no other source than to flee for refuge to the free unmerited mercy of God. And not only do we receive righteousness by grace through faith, but as the moon borrows her light from the sun, so does the same faith render our works righteous, because our corruptions being mortified, they are reckoned to us for righteousness. In short, faith alone, and not human merit, procures both for persons and for works the character of righteousness. … (John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, trans. James Anderson, vol. 4, 232-33, Eerdmans, with minor mechanical adjustments)
What Calvin is doing here is interpreting the OT by the NT, a legitimate hermeneutical method. Phinehas had to have been already justified by faith alone, and that is his deepest source of righteousness.
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown say another way of translating v. 31 is that Phinehas’ intervention was counted as a righteous act, which was rewarded with a perpetual priesthood.
That was counted to his credit as a righteous act, to be rewarded by God with His “covenant of peace … even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood because he was zealous for His God and made atonement for the children of Israel.” No act of man could be counted as righteousness, justifying him before God unto eternal life. Phinehas already was justified by faith. Now his good work obtains from God, who recompenses all men according to their works, a reward of grace viz., the continual priesthood, in contrast to the other descendants of Aaron, from whom it passed away (Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, vol. 3, 335, Eerdmans, orig. pub. 1871)
They add that “credited to him as righteousness” means “a just and rewardable action.” …
Here it was a particular act, not faith, nor its object Christ; and what was procured was not justifying righteousness, or what was to be rewarded with eternal life; for no one act of man’s can be taken for complete obedience. But it was that which God approved and rewarded with a perpetual priesthood to him and his descendants … (ibid, electronic version)
So Phinehas was already justified by faith, and his righteous act is rewarded through his descendants with a perpetual priesthood, not eternal life. And this reward was an act of grace from God.
Finally, these two classical commentators write that Phinehas already had constant faith and proved it with his work or action:
This accounting of a work for righteousness is only apparently contradictory to Gen. 15:5f.: it was indeed an act which sprang from a constancy in faith, and one which obtained for him the acceptation of a righteous man for the sake of this upon which it was based, by proving him to be such. (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 5, 671, Hendrickson, orig. pub. 1866-91)
Those commentaries set up these elements in sequence:
(1) Phinehas already had saving faith – (2) his priesthood is by grace and election – (3) therefore he was already righteous – (4) his zeal again counts as righteousness or a righteous act – (5) he is rewarded with perpetual priesthood through his descendants
Phinehas had already received saving faith and right standing with God. His priesthood was an act of grace to begin with. He demonstrated his righteous standing with a zealous work, which counted as righteousness or a righteous act. His reward, also delivered by God’s grace, is an everlasting covenant of priesthood.
This sequence is no different from Paul’s doctrine that begins with saving faith. We are called by God’s grace to this saving faith through Christ (Rom. 3:21-26). This faith is credited to us for righteousness (Rom. 4). Then we demonstrate our salvation by behaving righteously (Rom. 6-7). We have the priestly duty to proclaim the gospel (Rom. 15:16).
However, there’s a simpler explanation to Phinehas’s action, and it’s found in Paul’s idea that the law brings wrath (Rom. 4:15). Phinehas was acting within that context. He was a priest after, all. He was expected to maintain the law. The law was given in Ex. 19, and only after that point in the Bible does God’s wrath increase exponentially. I mean exponentially.
Therefore we need to be careful about seeing justification within this legal, priestly context. Using Ps. 106:26-31 against justification is to be overly skeptical, using an exception to disprove the whole flow of Scripture. (There’s a whole Western epistemology, related to Descartes, behind this tactic, but that’s another topic entirely.)
See the Wrath of God in the Old Testament for more explanations and evidence.
The New Testament
We stay with Paul’s epistles, except one passage from James.
1. You Are Circumcised (whether you know it or not): Romans 2:26
This verse is conditional (if).
26 If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? (Rom. 2:26)
Hypothetically, if someone could keep the law, then he would be regarded or considered or thought of as circumcised in God’s thoughts and sight, and circumcision would belong to the person’s heart, despite the outward appearance. It is those who are circumcised in the heart who belong to God, Paul goes on to say (Rom. 2:28-29; cf. Deut. 10:16; Deut. 30:6). Circumcision has been imputed to him by faith. He doesn’t need to be circumcised physically.
2. Abraham Again: Various Passages
A Free Gift
Paul uses logizomai three times in these verses, quoting Gen. 15:6 and using a business accounting image:
2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. (Rom. 4:2-5)
We have already discussed Gen. 15:6, above. Now we can turn to the business metaphor.
When a man works at a company, the employer is required or obligated to pay him. That’s the law. It’s not a donation or gift. Then Paul switches up the metaphor in midstream and says when someone who does not work trusts God, his faith or trust is credited (donation) to him as righteousness (payment). If his boss were to credit or deposit money into a man’s account who is not working for him, that’s a gift. And that gift belongs to the man.
Apart from Works
In Paul’s days some Jews converted to Christ, just as he did. They looked around at the Gentile converts and concluded they needed to keep some portions of the law, particularly circumcision, which was the sign or seal of being part of the people of God in the Old Testament. However, Paul reasoned that Abraham was credited with righteousness by faith (Gen. 15:6) before circumcision was commanded (Gen. 17:9-14, Gen. 17:23-27). The fifteenth chapter of Genesis comes before the seventeenth chapter.
Paul writes:
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Rom. 4:9-12)
That is, righteousness by faith was imputed or credited before circumcision; therefore Gentiles did not have to be circumcised in order to be credited with righteousness. Abraham is the father both the circumcised who believe in Christ (Messianic Jews) and the uncircumcised who believe in Christ (Gentile Christians). They are one family (Rom. 9, Rom. 10, Rom. 11).
Promise and Resurrection
Paul observes from Genesis that Abraham’s and Sarah’s bodies were as good as dead, but God was able to work a miracle and energize their bodies, just as God raised Christ from the dead.
20 Yet he [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Rom. 4:20-25)
When we believe in Christ and his resurrection, we will have justification – a legal declaration that we are righteous. So now we have come to the climax of Paul’s thought about Abraham in Romans. When we have the faith of Abraham who believed God could work a miracle in his and Sarah’s dead bodies, and when we believe that God raised Christ from the dead, our faith is credited to us as righteousness and we are justified (declared legally righteous). God thinks of us as righteous, and therefore we are in his sight.
Who Are God’s Children?
Paul clarifies:
8 In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. (Rom. 9:8)
This reinforces the theme that Gentiles (and Jews) who have faith in Christ are counted or thought of or considered the children of God. Therefore that status belongs to them, from his point of view, even though Gentiles do not biologically descend from Abraham. They descend from him by faith and promise, fulfilled in Christ.
The Man of Faith
In this passage Paul puts a slightly different twist on the faith of Abraham.
6 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” [Gen. 12:3; Gen. 18:18; Gen. 22:18] 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Gal. 3:6-9)
Isaac was the child of promise, and through this offspring of Abraham, all nations would be blessed. “Nations” speaks of Gentiles. When they have the same faith as Abraham’s, they too are included in the promise of righteousness or justification (legal declaration that we are righteous in Christ). The promised child and the subsequent blessing to the nations were all triggered by Abraham’s faith. “So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Gal. 3:9). To repeat, Gentiles are not biologically the offspring of Abraham, but are considered as having that status by imputation. God considers that they are Abraham’s offspring by their faith or believing in the promise of Christ.
Abraham’s Good Works
James takes the example of Abraham in a different direction.
20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. (Jas. 2:20-23)
Abraham (nearly) sacrificed Isaac (Gen. 22) long after God credited righteousness to him by faith (Gen 15). The fifteenth chapter of Genesis comes before the twenty-second chapter.
So this fits Paul’s distinctives. (1) God declare us righteous; that’s imputed righteousness. We receive it by faith, not by works. We don’t earn it by our own merits. (2) Then we walk in God’s imparted righteousness; that’s sanctification or God’s Spirit dealing with us and leading us to live a righteous life.
Imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness are worked out in love. Justification (a legal declaration that we are righteous) is by faith alone, not faith that is alone or by itself or solitary. Good works done for God come after justification by faith.
3. David Again: Romans 4:6-8
Paul quotes from Ps. 32:1-2:
6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 ”Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” (Rom. 4:6-8)
God does not count or regard or impute or charge our sins against us; therefore his forgiveness belongs to us, all the days of our life, every moment, every second. Note that God credits righteousness (Rom. 4:6). Righteousness is the direct object of crediting. When God considers such a thing, it is a reality, not a fiction. We are righteous through God’s action of imputing his righteousness, not from our own righteousness. It’s a wonderful gift from God, not from ourselves.
4. First consider yourself dead to sin, and then live like it: Romans 6:8-14
The key verses are 11 and 14. We got to get the sequence down.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Rom. 6:8-14)
First, Christ conquered death by his resurrection (“raised from the dead”). Second, he also conquered sin (“He died to sin once for all”). Third, “he lives to God.”
Now Paul applies this to our life. First, we count or consider ourselves dead to sin. This is imputation. We are not actually sinless; we have not achieved moral perfection in our behavior. Second, we live in sanctification or practice holiness. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body.” “Sin shall not be our master, because … we are under grace.”
But Christ’s victory over death is absolute, while our victory over sin is relative or partial (Rom. 7:7-25). So we must not stretch the comparison too far. Then what is Paul saying here?
Paul’s main point is that sin not mastering us is not the same as our actual moral perfection every minute of every day. Rather, sin not dominating us means we don’t have to allow its lordship over us. We have a new lord – the Lord.
But Paul’s big point: First imputation of righteousness (declared righteousness) and then impartation of righteousness (sanctification). That’s the proper sequence.
5. Sheep to Be Slaughtered: Romans 8:36
Paul quoted Ps. 44:22 (see above):
36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Rom. 8:36)
We are not actual or literal sheep, so this passage is metaphorical. We do not undergo an inner transformation to become sheep. We are considered or counted as being them while we are “slaughtered” by tough times and persecution, possibly leading to literal death.
6. Food for Thought: Romans 14:14
In the context of food, Paul writes:
14 As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. (Rom 14:14)
This is a clear verse about logizomai and imputing. We are so free in Christ, and we have so much of his authority in him that our thoughts can determine the uncleanness of food, and for us it is so. This quality of uncleanness belongs to the food in an imputed sense according to the point of view of the person who imputes. But food is actually morally neutral in its physical makeup: “No food is unclean in itself” (food is a pile of chemicals and cells). It does not go through an inner moral transformation that renders it unclean in itself.
The best illustration of kosher food laws that change is found in Acts 10:9-23, especially Acts 10:15, though logizomai isn’t used. God simply declared unkosher foods kosher. The food did not undergo an inner, chemical transformation. (See Mark 7:19.)
7. Can God Count? 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
God reconciles the world to himself.
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. (2 Cor. 5:18-19)
These verses are very much like Ps. 32:1-2 and Paul’s quotation of them in Rom. 4:6-8. As noted, God was not counting or reckoning or regarding people’s sins against them in Ps. 32:1-2. Therefore, reconciliation and forgiveness belong to them. The same is true in 2 Cor. 5:18-19. So God can count, but sometimes he judicially chooses not to do so (see point no. 11, below).
8. Desertion and Forgiveness: 2 Timothy 4:16
Paul’s friends deserted him during his first trial.
16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. (2 Tim. 4:16)
Paul asks God not to count, charge, impute or consider his friends’ desertion and hold it against them. This is like David’s thought about God’s forgiveness. Blessed is the man when God does not count his sin and transgression against him (Ps. 32:1-2). Paul also expressed forgiveness. As it turns out, his friends joined him later (vv. 9-11). Forgiveness often brings restoration.
9. Send Me the Bill: Philemon 1:18-19
In this passage a cognate verb of logizomai is used: ellogaô (note the log- stem), but it still conveys the same concept.
Philemon was a slave owner, and Onesimus was his runaway slave who possibly stole something. However, he ran away into the arms of Jesus. That is, Paul preached the gospel to Onesimus, and he got saved. Paul says to Philemon that if Onesimus has done anything wrong, then Philemon should charge (ellogaô) it to Paul.
18 If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back—not to mention that you owe me your very self. (Phm. 1:18-19)
This is clearly a business context. Paul says to send him the bill or put it on his account. Then he will pay it back – except he reminds Philemon that he owes Paul his life, meaning Philemon also got saved under Paul’s ministry. So he implies the account is now even. Paul uses the spiritual to balance out the material. Think of us as even, and it is so – by calculation.
10. Counted Guilty: Romans 5:13-14
Now we get into complications. Theologians teach that we inherit a corrupt nature from Adam’s sin at the Fall. We don’t need to get into the details of the various theories: Realism (in the first sin man became corrupt and guilty, and this was transmitted to Adam’s descendants; humans co-sinned with Adam); federalism (Adam acted as the representative of all humanity, so his guilt was imputed to humanity); corporate personality (God see humanity as a collective in solidarity, so Adam’s sin was imputed) on that basis.
Instead of deciding on any of those theories or a middle position, which theologians have not settled, we look at the verb used in one passage.
Once again ellogeô is used, conveying the same idea as logizomai (note the same log- stem)
13 For before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. (Rom. 5:13-14)
Sin is not taken into account (as an infraction of the law) where there is no law. In the logic of those two verses, the sin of Adam brought death, and people died, even though humans did not break a specific command as Adam did. Those two verses imply that God thinks of Adam’s sin and guilt as belonging to his descendants, including us, and therefore they do.
Some argue that the parallel between Adam’s sin and Christ’s righteousness, which we discuss next, is not exact. The imputation of Adam’s sin to us is personal and inherent, while the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us is a legal (forensic) status.
We should leave it at this: Adam’s sin and guilt is imputed to us (the scope of this study, but only in one Greek word, ellogeô). And they are passed on to us inherently and personally (beyond the scope of this study). Theologians get this latter idea throughout Rom. 5, not just the one Greek verb.
Now we can focus on the good news. Best of all, we get his righteousness in exchange – the next point.
11. The Blessed, Divine Exchange (what’s his is ours and what ours is his): Romans 4:6 and 2 Corinthians 5:21
Our sins and guilt were imputed to Christ, and that’s good news in itself. However, we need something more. We need God’s gift of righteousness. But how do we get it? Do we work for it? We could never measure up to God’s infinite holiness. We sin daily. So how then do we get it? It’s out of our price range. We can’t afford it.
The greatest news of all is that God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us. Christ – the sinless one – obeyed the law and so he accrued or compiled all the merits we will ever need. He took the penalty of our law breaking on himself, and he fulfilled the positive demands of the law that we could not do.
We also get his righteousness as his gift to us.
New Legal Credit Rating
We already saw that Abraham believed God, and Abraham’s faith was credited to him for righteousness. If it’s good enough for him in the OT; it’s certainly good enough for us in the NT.
Paul also says God credits righteousness to us.
6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works ... (Rom. 4:6)
Righteousness is the direct object of the crediting or imputing. God thinks of this righteousness as ours, and therefore it belongs to us in his sight or opinion. It is a legal status, declared and bestowed by God, coming out of his heavenly courtroom.
New Legal Status
In the next verse we see a perfect description of imputation and the Blessed, Divine Exchange.
21 God made him [Christ] who had no sin [to be] sin for us, so that in him [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)
Perhaps Paul had this verse in Deut. in mind:
25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness [Hebrew tsdaqah; LXX oddly translates it as eleêmosunê “mercy”] (Deut. 6:25, NASB).
Obedience to the law is the ancient Israelite’s righteousness. Not so for the believer in Christ, Paul would argue. Christ is our righteousness.
In any case, here’s the context of 2 Cor. 5:21:
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. (v. 19)
The word logizomai in 2 Cor. 5:19 is translated as “counting” (see point no. 7, above). God does not think or reckon or consider that those who are being reconciled to him should be held accountable to sin, since the believer is a new creation (v. 17) and because of what is said in v. 21.
Because imputation was on Paul’s mind, 2 Cor. 5:21 says Christ did not know sin, but God made him sin, a noun, not a verb (“to be” is not in Greek). This “making” can only be done by imputation.
The second word “sin” in v. 21 could be translated – so some scholars argue – as “sin offering,” which is described in detail in Lev. 4 and Lev. 6:24-30. The animal’s carrying people’s sins was done only by imputation because it cannot rightly be said that the animal sinned morally as humans do. And how is imputation done? God thinks of the animal as carrying the sins of the people, and it is so, in God’s sight or from his point of view (cf. Lev. 16:21-22).
In a similar way, Christ is our sin offering. Just as the sins of the people were imputed to the sacrificial animal, so our sins are imputed to Christ. But it cannot be said that Christ is literally a moral sinner. So, again, how is this “making” done? Only by imputation, for Christ is not transformed inwardly by sin or infused with sin. Rather, God imputes sin to him, and so this status belongs to him, but this new status is alien or foreign to him. It comes from the outside by imputation. It is legal or forensic, emerging out of God’s heavenly courtroom.
In a parallel way, God’s righteousness comes from the outside of us. It is alien or foreign to us. It is God’s righteousness in Christ, and God imputes it to us, and therefore it belongs to us. It becomes ours, in God’s sight. And to keep the parallel to Christ and sin in the first half of the verse, God’s righteousness is not a transformation of us or an infusion into us. It is a status or position by imputation. It is legal or forensic, emerging out of God’s heavenly courtroom.
Conclusion
Imputation is an important doctrine in the Bible. By it God considers or regards something physical – humans, animals, grain and so on – as having a different or new status.
For example, God thinks of animals as carrying the sins of people, and therefore they do – by imputation. God considers Christ as carrying our sins, and therefore he does – by imputation. God thinks of Adam’s sin as belonging us, and it does – by imputation. God accepts or rejects certain offerings because he regards them as acceptable or not – by imputation. God imputes righteousness to Abraham by his faith. God imputes righteousness to us.
All of this is done in the sight or opinion of God. It is not necessary that the object or human go through an inner moral transformation. Specifically, the animals that carry the sins of the ancient people do not have to become inwardly and morally sinful. How could an animal be sinful in the way humans are? Rather, animals have the status of bearing humans’ sins. God considers the animals as doing this, and therefore it is so. People’s sins now belong to the animals – by imputation. When Christ took on the sins of the world, he did not go through an immoral inner transformation, and sin was not infused into him. He took on the sins by imputation.
Humans can impute as well. Laban considered his daughters as though they were foreigners (but they really were not). Humans regard some foods as clean or unclean, even though the food does not go through an inner moral transformation; it is not subjectively changed. Food in itself is neutral, but its status changes when humans regard it as clean or unclean.
The reason for this mystery of a changed status by imputation finds its roots in the Hebrew verb ḥāšab and the Greek verb logizomai; both have the basic meaning of “thinking” and “considering.” They express mental activities. When God considers something as having a status, then in his sight it has that status. If God considers us as righteous, then we have the legal status of righteousness, even though we may not feel righteous from one day to the next.
8 ”For my thoughts are not your thoughts … 9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:8-9)
We now turn to Paul’s theology.
Someone had to pay for our sins. Either we do it or someone else does. If we pay for our own sins, we won’t survive God’s judgment, for he is infinitely holy. Paying for our own sins is out of our price range. We can’t afford it. Therefore, for the same reason, someone else who does it cannot be just any person, like your wife or brother. He has to be God’s best. He has to be divine. He has to be from heaven. Most of all, he cannot be part of God’s created order or universe. He cannot be created, for creation suffers from decay and groans (Rom. 8:21-22). Only one person fits that description: Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son.
The deepest part of our sin problem originates long before we were born. Humans die, and death is the result or wage of sin. Why are we born to die? When God imputes Adam’s sin and guilt to us, God considers it as belonging to us, and so it does, even though we did not sin in the specific way Adam did.
But the good news of a solution: when God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us, God considers it as belonging to us and so it does, even though we have not done any works of righteousness in ourselves that merit or earn God’s free and loving gift of righteousness. It is our new legal status before God, bestowed by him. It was declared in God’s heavenly courtroom.
God’s declaring us righteous, and his imputing righteousness to us does not depend on our inner moral transformation; it depends on him and his opinion. And his thinking or imputing depends on his grace and love for his Son. It would be inconsistent for God to send his Son as an atoning sacrifice and then withdraw its reality. God is perfectly consistent. Therefore the efficacy (getting the job done) of Christ’s death is like unshakeable bedrock. Now we are secure because we don’t depend on our own faith, which sometimes can become a new kind of work.
While it is true that my faith wavers and fluctuates, God’s gift does not. Once we exercise this saving faith, which was energized by the Spirit in the first place, God imputes or credits his righteousness to us as a free and once-and-for-all gift. So now it is not sustained by my faith, which might be weak one day or strong the next. Rather, it is sustained by God’s grace and love – for his Son first and then for us. Therefore we are secure in our walk with him.
God is a living person, not an abstract principle. He will help us stand in faith, as he sees us through the atoning work of his Son, a work that God initiated before the beginning of time. So it does not depend on the man who runs or the man who wills, but on God who has mercy (Rom. 9:16).
That’s God’s radical love and grace. And that’s the good news of the Gospel. By it the church stands or falls – and stand she will, if she remains in God’s grace alone apart from works.
To Be Justified in Paul’s Epistles
Related MediaI’m a radical believer in God’s radical grace. So I need to explore being justified in Paul’s epistle because I interpret him as a radical believer. And being justified is how I get there.
We have at least two ways to interpret the Greek verb dikaioō: it means being put right with God in a covenant context, or it is mainly (but not exclusively) a legal term, meaning to acquit or declare not guilty in a forensic or courtroom setting.
Let’s see if we can solve the dilemma or find out if the two interpretations can work together.
An interesting thing to look for is that the Greek word is almost always in the passive mood; that is, something is done to or on us.
If you would like to see the verses in various translations, you may go to Lumina.Bible.org and type in the references.
Passages
1. To be justified is to be vindicated in the face of accusations from enemies.
Rom. 3:4; Ps. 51:4
Rom. 8:33
1 Cor. 4:3-5
1 Tim. 3:16
2. Paul speaks about the standards of God and implies from the rest of Romans that humans can’t meet them.
Rom. 2:12-13, Rom. 2:16
3. God justifies us apart from the law (our law keeping).
Rom. 3:19-20
Rom. 3:28
Gal. 3:11
Gal. 5:2-4
4. God justifies us apart from our works and works of the law.
Rom. 3:26-28
Rom. 4:1-5
Gal. 2:15-17
5. God justifies us freely by grace and faith.
Rom. 3:23-24
Rom. 3:26, 29-31
Rom. 5:1
Gal. 3:24
Ti. 3:7
Rom. 3:21-24
6. The Spirit Himself justifies us.
1 Cor. 6:11
7. God justifies us by Christ’s sacrificial blood.
Rom. 3:23-25
Rom. 5:9
8. We are freed and acquitted from sin (sin accusing us).
Rom. 6:7
9. God calls us to be justified and then he has glorified us.
Rom. 8:30
Summary and Conclusion
* We can take out of the discussion 1 Tim 3:16, which is a hymn about Christ. Vindication is the right translation. Though taken out, it does put things in the context of God’s evaluation or judgment of Christ’s work during his life and death; God saw that Jesus had fulfilled his mission and vindicated him in the presence of his enemies and the whole world.
* Nearly all the occurrences of dikaioō are in the passive. Justification happens to a human. It is an act of God on him or her. He or she is justified.
* Faith is how we appropriate being justified. It is faith in God.
* Being justified is a free gift (free to us) by the grace of God.
* God justifies us by Christ’s atoning blood and sacrifice.
* God does not acquit the guilty (Exod. 23:7), for that would be unjust based on a narrow set of facts against the guilty party. However, God includes and evaluates a broader set of facts, the atoning sacrifice of Christ. He takes the punishment.
* Even the Spirit justifies us.
* Being justified is not done by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ.
* Being justified stands in opposition to condemnation by the law as the standard and when our sin fails to meet the law’s requirement.
* Being put right with God in the New Covenant can apply to all occurrences.
* But a subset of those passages refer specifically to a judgment or forensic or courtroom setting (Rom. 2:13, Rom. 3:4, Rom. 3:25-26, Rom. 8:30; 1 Cor. 4:3-5). The forensic setting is sometimes down here on earth (Rom. 8:33, 1 Cor. 4:3-5) and at least one other passage is about the Last Judgment (Rom. 2:12-13, Rom. 2:16).
Now we can look at the dilemma between being put right with God in a covenant and declared acquittal in a forensic setting. Can the two interpretations work together?
* The law by definition entails the forensic element. So every passage that has dikaioō or being put right with God and has the law nearby is placed squarely in the legal or courtroom setting.
* This is certainly true of Romans in which the law is mentioned eighty-six times (and the vast majority is in 2-10). Galatians records law thirty-two times.
*Romans and Galatians are where the vast majority of diakioō appears: fifteen times in Romans (mainly 2-8) and eight times in Galatians. (The other epistles have four occurrences.)
* See points 3 and 4, above.
* The law has legal rights over everyone and accuses everyone: “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law” (Rom. 2:12). Even the Gentiles, who have the moral law and conscience, are not let off the hook (2:14-15).
* How do we escape from the law, the prosecuting attorney, named Mr. Law, who represents the legal system that accuses us?
* We can obey the law, and Mr. Law is happy and satisfied. We don’t have to appear in court at all. Unfortunately, he discovers that we get dragged back into court every day. We break the law in small or big ways. “You again!” he says with a scowl.
* The compassionate judge, Mr. Divine (God), also sees something is wrong with us. We can’t keep the law. Judge Divine, a special judge, can see into our hearts and concludes we’re bound by our own nature; it tends towards law breaking, like water flows downward.
* Jesus, our defense attorney, steps in and pays the fine for us. He even takes our just, deserved punishment for us.
* Since Jesus paid the fine and also volunteered to take the punishment in our place, Judge Divine declares us “not guilty!” So we are now acquitted or declared righteous by an act of his divine grace.
* This declaration of acquittal in a judgment or forensic setting puts us right with God in the New Covenant.
* So the forensic setting and being put right with God in a covenant context can work together.
Additional Discussion
Zech. 3:1-10 talks about Joshua the High Priest in the heavenly court. He was standing next to an angel. But Satan was also there accusing him. God orders the angel to take off Joshua’s unclean robes and put the “pure” vestments. Though the words “declared righteous” as such do not occur in Zech. 3, it is a beautiful image of God evaluating (judging) Joshua and calling him and putting a new garment on him. (See also about a robe of righteousness: Job 29:14; Ps. 132:9; Is. 11:5, Is. 59:17, Is. 61:10.)
Imagine if we had a custom in our courts that involved having an armoire in which a stock of white robes is kept. Call them the White Robes of Acquittal or the White Robes of Being Declared Righteous or (to please everyone) the White Robes of Being Put Right. When the accused is acquitted and put right, it would be a beautiful ceremony in our legal system if the judge told the court clerk to get a white robe and put it on the acquitted. As he walked out of the courtroom, the white robe could tell the world, with cameras flashing and videos rolling, that he is not guilty. All charges have been dismissed and expunged from the records.
God the Judge really does have such a heavenly courtroom. After he acquits us, declaring us not guilty and putting us right, he tells an angel to get the white robe and put it on us. We now walk around with the White Robe of Acquittal on – invisible to us and onlookers in the natural realm, but quite visible to angels and demons in the supernatural realm. Most importantly, God sees it and smiles. Jesus sees it and beams. He put us right, and now we’re in his New Covenant that he paid for and ratified by his blood.
Related Topics: Regeneration, Justification
The Language of Law in Paul
Related MediaAt this website that is all about God’s love and grace, I need to deal with the law of God in Paul’s letters. If I don’t, some readers may accuse me (wrongly) of not understanding the law.
This study, I hope, will help me better understand the law, as opposed to grace.
My method was simple enough. I looked up the major passages where law, nomos, appears and quoted them, but I also look at gramma, which means written code or letter (of the law), entolê, commandment, and graphō or “it is written” (= Scripture in many contexts).
Most of the verses refer to the Law of Moses. Then I saw the patterns or categories that come up again and again. I trust I got them right, though some may quibble here and there about them.
For whatever purpose Paul uses the law, he surely does not put the New Covenant people of God under the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, the law was inseparably linked to the covenant. It is true that people had a relationship with God by his grace, but they had to know how that worked out in daily life. This is when the Law of Moses comes in. People were righteous when they kept the law, unrighteous when they did not. They maintained their grace and relationship when they obeyed the old Law of Moses and were circumcised as a sign of the covenant..
In the New Covenant, Paul’s ultimate goal and the very best for his fellow believers is to walk in the Spirit. He delinks the old Law of Moses from the New. And he certainly put broad daylight between life in the Spirit and circumcision. If all of that is antinomianism (underemphasizing the law; the –nom- root means law), then that’s a term with more than one definition, depending on who’s throwing it around. Maybe the critics of Paul’s radical grace and Spirit-filled living are hypernomians – they overemphasize and misuse the law.
Let’s get started to see what the delinking and the New Covenant looks like.
If you would like to see the verses in various translations, you may go to Lumina.Bible.org and type in the references.
Passages and Categories of the Law
1. The law is holy, righteous, good, and spiritual and is upheld.
Rom. 3:31
Comment: the law is upheld because of nos. 4 and 5, below.
Rom. 7:12
Rom. 7:14, Rom. 7:16
Rom. 8:4
1 Tim. 1:8
2. The Gentiles without the Law of Moses have natural law written on their hearts.
Rom. 2:12, Rom. 2:14-15
3. The Law of Moses subjects Jews to strict requirements and judgment.
Rom. 2:12-13
Rom. 2:17-24
Rom. 9:31
4. The law restrains societal sin
1 Tim. 1:9-10
5. However, the law increases or heightens sin and brings wrath.
Rom 3:19-20
Rom. 4:15 (See the Wrath of God in the OT.)
Rom. 5:13-14
Rom. 5:20
Rom. 7:5
Rom. 7:7-11
Rom. 7:21-25
Rom. 8:1-2
Rom. 8:7
1 Cor. 15:56
Gal. 3:19, Gal. 3:22-25
6. We are released from the law because we died to the law.
Rom. 7:1-6
Gal. 2:19-21
7. Circumcision, a ritual under the law, is useless without keeping the law.
Rom. 2:25-29
Rom. 4:10-12
1 Cor. 7:19
Gal. 5:1-6
Gal. 6:13-15
8. Righteousness and justification come apart from the law, and by faith in Christ and by God’s grace, for Jew and Gentile.
Rom 3:20
Gal 2:16
Rom. 3:21-22
Rom. 4:13-15
Rom 3:27-29
Rom. 6:14
Rom. 6:15
Gal. 2:14-16
Gal. 3:6-12
Gal. 3:15-18
Rom. 4:16
Eph. 2:11-18
Php. 3:9
9. The “law” of the Spirit and Christ is contrasted with the old law.
Rom. 7:6
Rom. 10:4-10
1 Cor. 9:21
2 Cor. 3:2-18
Gal. 3:2-5
Gal. 3:13-14
Gal. 4:21-23
Gal. 4:21-27
Gal. 5:16-18
Gal. 5:22-23
Gal. 6:13-15
Gal. 6:2
Php. 3:5-8
10. Christ redeemed us from the law and its curse.
Gal. 3:13-14
Gal. 4:4-5
11. Christ is the end or culmination of the law for everyone who believes.
Rom. 10:4
Gal. 4:3-11
Eph. 2:13-15
Col. 2:8-23
12. Paul uses the law to win those under the law.
1 Cor. 9:20-21
13. Christian love fulfills the law.
Rom. 13:8-10
Gal. 5:14
14. Paul uses the law as a source of wisdom and to clarify church issues and confusion.
1 Cor. 9:8-10
1 Cor. 10:1-11
1 Cor. 14:21-22
1 Cor. 14:33-35
Eph. 6:2-3
1 Tim. 1:9, 1 Tim. 1:11
15. The law serves to teach the church who lives in the New Covenant.
Rom. 15:4
1 Cor. 10:11
16. The law refers to Scripture as such.
Rom. 3:21
1 Cor. 14:21-22
Summary
In most of these passages the law is the Law of Moses. It is contrasted with faith and the Spirit. We receive a certain glory by the law, but we go from glory to glory in the Spirit who gives liberty and freedom. He is Liberty and Freedom. The old law, on the other hand, restricts the follower to his own efforts. He focuses on his obedience. The law demands; the Spirit supplies. Therefore, for whatever purpose Paul uses the law (see below), he never puts the New Covenant people of God under the Old Covenant.
The “law” of the Spirit and of Christ is another species; no, it’s another genus, a different kind. Paul is not exactly using irony, but we could put the word in quotation marks (“law”) in these verses: Rom. 8:2; 1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2, for he is transforming the word law to mean a new kind of life of obedience that comes from the Spirit living in us daily and powerfully. Holiness does not come from kosher food laws and animal sacrifices and circumcision and following the Holiness Code in Leviticus, but from following the Holy Spirit by faith.
Nonetheless, the old law is holy and good (no. 6) and serves three major purposes:
1. The law shows our sin and our need for Christ and for the gospel of grace (nos. 2, 4, 7, and 9);
2. It restrains societal sin (nos. 1 and 5);
3. It offers wisdom and clarifies the will of God for Christians or church issues (nos. 13, 14, and 15).
So the Reformers were right about those three purposes.
But the law has other functions too, some of which we are free from.
Circumcision is useless if one does not keep the whole law, which no one can do. It is not the sign of the New Covenant (no. 3).
We are released from the law as we follow the Spirit (no. 8).
Christ redeems us from the law and its curse (no. 10). He is the end or culmination of the law. He fulfills it, as does love.
Paul uses the law to win those under the law, so this purpose is outreach, not church governance or policy (no. 12).
One minor purpose is that the law can refer to all of Scripture (no. 16).
Paul does not bring back the sacrificial system and other the ritual aspects. Christ fulfilled them by his death on the cross. And Paul does not re-institute the death penalty for sins like adultery and homosexuality. Christ took these sins and their penalty on himself while he was on the cross.
Walking in God’s love and grace and in the Spirit takes priority over the law.
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. … 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Gal. 5:16-18, Gal. 5:22-25)
I omitted the verses about works of the flesh because Paul’s emphasis is about life in the Spirit. However, people don’t always walk in the Spirit or his love. In that case, the law can offer wisdom, as long as we don’t use it to impose on them the old and obsolete covenant that forms the foundation of the law.
See the companion article The Old Testament in Paul. See also the OT in Romans.
Related Topics: Law
The Old Testament in Romans
Related MediaI’m a radical believer in God’s radical grace. So I have to deal with Paul’s use of the Old Testament in the king of his epistles: Romans. Does he put people under the Old Covenant, by referring to its Scriptures? If not, then why borrow from them in the first place?
How do they relate to his radical grace message?
Citing the OT Scriptures – Paul’s only ones – has multiple purposes, but they all support radical grace and teach people how to walk in wisdom. They promise victory in our daily life in Christ.
If you would like to see the verses in various translations, you may go to Lumina.Bible.org and type in the references.
The Gospel
It all starts here for Paul. He got it by revelation and devoted his life to it. It centers on Christ.
1. Call on his name: “Jesus is Lord”. Rom. 10:8-13
2. The message must go forth. Rom. 10:8-15
3. Paul was ambitious to preach in uncharted territory. Rom. 15:20-22
Sin and Righteousness
One purpose Paul has in telling us about sin and righteousness is to show us prophecies and promises about Jesus Christ. He is the coming Messiah, and he is here now. Now we depend on his grace to free us from sin and give us the free gift of righteousness.
Introduction
1. Righteousness comes on the basis of faith. Rom. 1:17
Law and Sin
1. God will be proven faithful and just. Rom. 3:4
2. The law brings out sin in us. Rom. 7:7
3. Certain Jews don’t live up to the law’s holy standards. Rom. 2:24
4. Jews and Gentiles are under the dominion of sin. Rom. 3:9-20
4. God will judge the world’s sin. Rom. 2:5-6
Justification and Righteousness
1. Jewish righteousness by the law (which was not accomplished), Gentile righteousness by faith. Rom. 9:30-33; cf. 1 Pet. 2:6-8
2. Righteousness by faith contrasted with righteousness by works. Rom. 10:5-13
3. Abraham is the example of justification by faith. Rom. 4:2-3, Rom. 4:16-18, Rom. 4:22-25
4. David is an example of being counted forgiven. Rom. 4:6-8
One Family
God wants the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile to be torn down. Paul uses Scripture – the OT – as prophecy for the coming Messiah, who for Paul came in Jesus. This is outworking of the gospel and justification by grace and through faith.
Israel and God
1. Isaac and Jacob are the promised line. Rom. 9:6-13
2. God is sovereign in his election. Rom. 9:19-21
3. God has not rejected his people, a remnant by grace. Rom. 11:2-6
4. Israel’s partial, temporary hardening. Rom. 11:25-27
Israel and Gentiles: One Family
1. Israel and the remnant, and the Gentiles’ acceptance. Rom. 9:22-29
2. The gospel is for Israel and Gentiles. Rom. 10:15-21
3. Israel rejecting the gospel opens doors to Gentiles. Rom. 11:7-10
4. Gentiles are welcome into God’s family through Christ. Rom. 15:8-13
5. Doxology about God and His One Family. Rom. 11:33-36
Church Life
The church needs wisdom, and Paul refers to the OT to get it.
Relationships
1. Love fulfills the law. Rom. 13:8-10
2. Repay evil with good, for vengeance belongs to God. Rom. 12:17-21
3. Each one will give an account before God. Rom. 14:10-12
5. We should not please ourselves. Rom. 15:1-4
Victory through Christ in Hardships
1. Christians are more than conquerors through hardships. Rom. 8:35-37
Summary
I started this study claiming that Paul’s use of the OT in Romans confirms radical grace. That claim has been confirmed.
The gospel is all about grace as opposed to the law. Paul uses the OT to show the Messiah was promised. It prophesies about him. He ushers in a new era of radical grace that is not dependent on the Old Covenant and its old law ushered in by Moses.
For law and sin, these passages support radical grace because they show how much we need God’s free gift (grace) of righteousness. Through the law we become conscious of sin, ad then we become conscious of our need for grace.
We are justified or declared righteous in a forensic setting and put right in the New Covenant by faith. That definitely supports radical grace.
Jew and Gentile are brought together by God’s grace and free gift of righteousness; the wall of separation is torn down. The Law of Moses, so righteous and holy, and circumcision do not matter compared with the Spirit living in everyone who asks and who have been circumcised in the heart by the Spirit and who have the Spirit writing on the tables of the heart.
Paul uses the OT for the promises of God about the coming Messiah. With him comes grace.
In church life, after we experience the free gift of God’s grace and righteousness, we still need wisdom becomes sometimes we don’t walk in righteousness. We get confused. We mess up. We sin. Paul draws from the OT to teach wisdom. For example, walk in love and you will fulfill the law. And through Christ and his grace flowing to and through us, we have victory, both down here in our daily life, and ultimately this victory is finalized in heaven.
This article has two related articles: The Language of Law in Paul and the Old Testament in Paul.
The Old Testament in Paul
Related MediaThis study looks at the OT passages that Paul quotes in his writings, and then it places them in categories. We have to limit ourselves to the actual quotations and not include summaries or basic principles he gets from the OT, but does not quote (1 Cor. 10:2).
The summary and conclusions will also give some basic data.
If you would like to see the verses in various translations, you may go to Lumina.Bible.org and type in the references.
The Gospel Message
This is the most important category of them all. It all begins here.
The Message of the Cross and Wisdom
1. Where is the wise person? 1 Cor. 1:18-21 and 1 Cor. 1:30-31
2. The message of wisdom is for the mature. 1 Cor. 2:6-10
3. The wise v. the foolish. 1 Cor. 3:18-23
4. We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus as Lord. 2 Cor. 4:3-6
The Message of the Gospel Must Be Proclaimed
1. Call on his name: “Jesus is Lord.” Rom. 10:8-13
2. The message must go forth. Rom. 10:8-15
3. Paul was ambitious to preach in uncharted territory. Rom. 15:20-22
4. We speak because God will raise us from the dead. 2 Cor. 4:13-15
5. Now is the time to receive the gospel. 2 Cor. 6:1-2
Sin and Righteousness
This broad topic or category is very important in Paul’s writings. It shows us our need for the gospel. What does righteousness mean? How does sin take away from it? How do we solve the sin problem and keep righteousness, even though we still have the sin problem? Or do we have a sin problem, after we “get” righteous?
Law and Sin
1. God will be proven faithful and just. Rom. 3:4
2. The law brings out sin in us. Rom. 7:7
3. Jews and their witness about God are summarized. Rom. 2:24
4. The law brings out a curse, but we have been redeemed. Gal. 3:10-14
5. Jews and Gentiles are under the dominion of sin. Rom. 3:9-20
6. God will judge stubbornness and unrepentance. Rom. 2:5-6
Justification and Righteousness
1. Righteousness comes on the basis of faith, not the law. Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11
2. Israel’s righteousness by the law is contrasted with Gentile righteousness by faith. Rom. 9:30-33
3. Righteousness by faith is contrasted with righteousness by the law. Rom. 10:5-13
4. Abraham is the example of justification by faith. Rom. 4:2-3, Rom. 4:16-18, Rom. 4:22-25, Gal. 3:6-9
4. David is an example of being counted forgiven. Rom. 4:6-8
5. Sarah and Isaac, not Hagar and her son, are the examples of Christian freedom. Gal. 4:24-31
Jews and Gentiles: One Family
The next major category is the problem of Jewish identity and Gentile exclusion. As Paul scanned the entire sweep on Israel’s history as recorded in the OT and the oral traditions of which he was well aware, he observed that God was reaching out to the Gentiles long before the Messiah came. But how does God still favor his Chosen People, as he reached out to Gentiles? Does this identity of his Chosen People still matter? Does the Messiah break down Gentile ethnic exclusion, and can Jews still enjoy God’s Favorite People status? Can Gentiles enjoy that too?
Israel and God
1. Isaac and Jacob are the promised line. Rom. 9:6-13
2. God is sovereign in his election. Rom. 9:19-21
3. God has not rejected his people, a remnant, by grace. Rom. 11:2-6
4. Israel’s partial, temporary hardening and their eventual salvation are described. Rom. 11:25-27
Israel, Gentiles, and God
1. Israel and the remnant mean the Gentiles’ acceptance. Rom. 9:22-29
2. Christ destroys the barrier between Jew and Gentile. Eph. 2:14-18
3. The gospel is for Israel and Gentiles. Rom. 10:15-21
4. Israel rejecting the gospel opens doors for Gentiles. Rom. 11:7-10
5. Gentiles are welcome into God’s family through Christ. Rom. 15:8-13
Doxology about God and His One Family
1. God’s ways are unfathomable, ultimately. Rom. 11:33-36
Church Life
Paul wrote many of his letters to explain his theology and gospel, but he also wrote them to solve church problems. How are Christians supposed to live? How does the OT relate to the Christian life? If believers are no longer under the Law of Moses, can they still use it? If so, for what purpose? What about the rest of the OT?
Relationships
1. Love fulfills the law. Gal. 5:13-15, Rom. 13:8-10
2. Repay evil with good, for vengeance belongs to God. Rom. 12:17-21
3. We should not please ourselves. Rom. 15:1-4
4. Be careful about being yoked with unbelievers. 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1
5. Christ speaking through Paul is not weak, to bring correction. 2 Cor. 13:1-3
6. Paul boasts in Christ. 2 Cor. 10:14-18
How to Judge in Different Contexts
1. Each one will give an account before God. Rom. 14:10-12
2. The spiritual person can judge wisely. 1 Cor. 2:15-16
3. Judging those outside the church. 1 Cor. 5:12-13
4. Speak truthfully, and don’t let anger rule. Eph. 4:25-27
Christians and Sex
1. Christians should not unite with prostitutes. 1 Cor. 6:14-17
2. Christians should listen to Old Testament examples and not commit sexual immorality. 1 Cor. 10:1-10
Christian Families
1. Husbands should love their wives. Eph. 5:28-32
2. Parents shouldn’t exasperate their children, and children should honor their parents. Eph. 6:1-4
Church and Money
1. Give what you can, according to your prosperity. 2 Cor. 8:13-15
2. Give generously. 2 Cor. 9:8-11
3. Leaders have the right to be supported. 1 Tim. 5:17-18
Christian Gatherings
1. Christians should be free but sensitive towards the weak. 1 Cor. 10:23-32
2. Worship service should be orderly. 1 Cor. 14:20-22
Victory
Paul’s gospel is eschatological; that is, it moves from one obsolete era to the new one, and it moves towards a culmination or ending, summed up in Christ. The new era brings victory in the Christian life today. But the new era will be transformed at the very Last Day, when death is destroyed and everyone will have to confess that Jesus is Lord.
Victory for the Believer Right Now through Christ
1. Through God who loves believers, they are more than conquerors in hardships. Rom. 8:35-37
2. Christians must put on the full armor of God to have victory. Eph. 6:14-18
Victory over Death
1. There will be a resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:29-32
2. The body will be spiritual. 1 Cor. 15:44-45
3. Death will be destroyed. 1 Cor. 15:54-57
Victory in Christ’s Ascension
1. Christ ascended higher than all the heavens and fills the universe. Eph. 4:7-10
2. Every knee shall bow to Christ. Php. 2:9-10
Summary
We can boil down Paul’s use of the OT thus:
1. Paul uses the OT to find the gospel revealed in it all along.
2. He uses it for wisdom about church life, without coming under the Old Covenant.
3. He uses it for the promises and prophecies about the Messiah.
4. He uses it to break down ethnic barriers between Jew and Gentile; no, God has not given up on his Chosen People, and they have been replaced, even obliterated, by the gospel or church, but they do need salvation, just like everyone else.
5. He uses it to figure out and solve the sin problem in all of humanity; we are no longer in bondage to sin or Satan, but have freedom and authority.
6. He uses it to explain the gift of righteousness and being put right with God.
7. He uses it to explain how the law-as-attached to the Old Covenant is no longer relevant, unless Christian believers sin or get confused; then it is used for wisdom and clarity, but not to impose the Old Covenant on them (see no. 1); that use can be divided into such areas as money, relationships, family, and so on.
8. He uses it to explain Christian victory today, now, down here on earth.
9. He uses it to reveal God’s ultimate victory summed up in Christ, at the Last Day.
Conclusion
All of the quotations from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) or Old Testament reveal that Paul was a practical theologian. He was an apostle who planted churches. He was concerned with their spiritual growth.
First, the gospel message was extremely important for Paul; it was his life’s work, his very life even. The gospel expresses the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of the age. Why did Jesus have to be crucified? It had to be proclaimed throughout the known world. Wise Greeks rejected it because the cross seemed like folly. The God-man dying a criminal’s death? The Jews rejected it because it was a stumbling block. The Messiah dying on the criminal’s cross, the Roman way of execution? The cross outshines the wisdom of unbelievers and devout Jews. But to those who believe in the gospel, it is the power of God leading to salvation. People could obtain righteousness by faith, if they believe Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead.
Second, he needed to ensure that his churches understood that the whole world was under sin, and somebody had to pay for the penalty. It could not go unpunished. How would that be just? Either the payment for the sins and crimes would be the sinners – those who actually committed the sin – or someone else. Sinners could not pay for it on their own. They would end up experiencing the just wrath, righteous judgment, and everlasting damnation of God. Paul’s theology teaches that the volunteer, so to speak, was Christ. He became the atoning sacrifice who propitiated or turned away God’s wrath and satisfied the penalty, thus solving the sin problem and its just penalty. The consequences of people’s sins were fully paid for at the cross of Christ.
Third, faith triggers the whole chain of events in people’s lives. Faith activated the benefits that flow from cavalry. Abraham was the primary example of the man of faith who had a promise of God to beget a child. He believed God and this faith was credited to him as righteousness, four hundred-plus years before the law as thundered down from on high on Mt. Sinai. Abraham was counted forgiven. Sarah and Hagar symbolized those who are under grace and promise (Sarah) and those under law (Hagar). Isaac and Jacob are the promised line. Circumcision was the sign of being in the old people of God and eventually it became the sign of the Sinai covenant. This ritual no longer applied to the growing church in the Gentile world.
Fourth, yet Paul was reluctant to give up on his fellow Jews. They had the fathers, prophets, oracles, and law. Was God finished with them? How could he deny his promises? Israel is under a temporary hardening until the full measure of the Gentiles enters into the same promises. Israel’s rejection of the gospel and the Messiah opens the door to blessings for the Gentiles. Eventually God will work a miracle, and Jews and Gentiles would be one family. In the meantime, Messianic Jews and believing Gentile already constituted one family. Christ has torn down the wall separating them.
Fifth, Paul quotes from the Old Testament to clarify church issues and problems. He uses it for wisdom. Apparently Christians were quick to judge each other. He told them not to do this or to do it wisely if they had to set up a court of arbitration, so to speak. Further, Christians should not behave as the world does and engage in illicit sex. In family life, the members were to get along. Husbands were to love their wives, and children were to honor their parents. Leaders had the right to be supported, and the poor fellow-believers also had the right to financial gifts. Finally, the gatherings of all believers were to be orderly.
Sixth, Paul quotes the Old Testament to prove that Christ brings victory. Believers in God can experience victory through hardships and trials. They will overcome the first death by living forever. Christ’s ascension into heaven cleared the way and effected victory over death itself. Christ ascended on high and fills the universe. Every knee will bow to him.
But what does Paul not do with the OT? How does he ignore – even reject or repudiate – parts of it? Paul does not bring forward the old rituals like animal sacrifices and circumcision. Faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice eliminated the need for animal sacrifices. Circumcision is no longer needed as the sign of the New Covenant. Baptism is the sign now. Another area that Paul does not bring forward is the harsh penalties for, e.g. adultery and homosexuality, which the OT treated as capital crimes. Christ paid the penalties for these sins (not crimes), which are no longer punishable by death, but forgivable by love. He does not bring forward the curses that were built into the law and slammed down on people’s heads by their disobedience.
Finally, the main reason Paul quoted from Scripture is the same reason we do today: to cite a divine authority. The Word has authoritative divine energy that produces faith in the hearers. They respond by believing it. They get saved or rescued from the world and themselves, their sins. The words of the gospel bring life, unlike the letter of the law.
See the companion article the Language of Law in Paul. See also the OT in Romans.
Data
Paul quotes from the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament) 45 times. The prophets are quoted 53 times, with Isaiah taking the lead at 36 times. Psalms are quoted 23 times. And other books are cited 10 times. It is clear Paul liked Isaiah with its many promises of Jews and Gentiles being forged into one family, and he liked the Psalms for Jesus the Messiah and the doctrine of forgiveness, but he also liked the Torah.
Torah
Genesis: 15
Exodus: 7
Leviticus: 5
Deuteronomy: 18
Subtotal: 45
Prophets
Isaiah: 36
Jeremiah: 4
Hosea: 4
Habakkuk: 3
Ezekiel: 2
Joel: 2
Malachi: 1
Zechariah: 1
Subtotal: 53
Psalms
Psalms: 23
Subtotal: 23
Other
Ecclesiastes: 1
Proverbs: 2
I Kings: 2
2 Samuel: 2
Job: 2
1 Chronicles: 1
Subtotal: 10
TOTAL: 131
The Language of Righteousness in Paul’s Epistles
Related MediaI’m a radical believer in God’s radical grace. So I’ve got to deal with righteousness because, it seems to me, a lot of confusion and guesswork have dominated discussions about the righteousness of God and our righteousness. Maybe if we looked at the verses, clarity can be achieved.
Is righteousness imputed? (Yes). Is it imparted? (Yes). Can it mean vindication? (Yes). Justice? (Yes). Holiness? (Yes). Declared not guilty in a forensic or courtroom setting? (Yes). Putting things right in a covenant context? (Yes).
The same word righteousness and its cognates mean all those things, depending on the context.
Together let’s discover how they’re worked out in this study.
English has to deal with righteousness and justice as if they come from two different stems in Greek, but they do not. In English, right has Germanic origins (cf. recht); justice has Latin roots (cf. iustitia).
However, both righteousness and justice come from the dik- stem in Greek. In fact, here are the other related words that also share the dik- stem. “Righteousness” or “justice” is dikaiosynê; “justification” is dikaiôsis; “to justify” or “pronounce righteous” is dikaioô; righteous deed or regulation is dikaiôma; also, dikaiokrisis is “righteous judgment”; endikos is “just”; and “punishment” or “penalty” is dikê. Antonyms: adikia “unrighteousness”; adikos “unrighteous.”
In this article, however, we look at the verb dikaioô (to justify, declare righteous in Paul) and the noun dikaiosunê (righteousness) and dikaiôsis (justification). We simply don’t have the time to include the adjective dikaios (righteous).
If you would like to see the verses in various translations, you may go to Lumina.Bible.org and type in the references.
Justified or Declared Righteous (dikaioô)
This section uses the ESV.
1. To be justified is to be vindicated in the face of accusations from enemies.
4 Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.” (Rom 3:4; cf. Ps. 51:4)
33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. (Rom. 8:33)
3 So for me, it is a minor matter that I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not acquitted because of this. The one who judges me is the Lord. (1 Cor. 4:3-5)
16 And we all agree, our religion contains amazing revelation:
He was revealed in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory. (1 Tim. 3:16)
2. Paul speaks about the standards of God and implies from the rest of Romans that humans can’t meet them.
12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. … 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom. 2:12-13, Rom. 2:16)
3. God justifies us apart from the law (our law keeping).
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Rom. 3:19-20)
28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Rom. 3:28)
11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Gal. 3:11)
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Gal. 5:2-4)
4. God justifies us apart from our works and works of the law.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Rom. 3:26-28)
1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:1-5)
15 We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. 17 But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages sin? Absolutely not! (Gal. 2:15-17)
5. God justifies us freely by grace and faith.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 3:23-24)
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. … 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one – who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Rom. 3:26, Rom. 3:29-31)
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:1)
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. (Gal. 3:24)
7 And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.” (Titus 3:7)
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed – 22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 3:21-24)
6. The Spirit Himself justifies us.
11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:11)
7. God justifies us by Christ’s sacrificial blood.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Rom. 3:23-25)
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Rom. 5:9, ESV)
8. We are freed and acquitted from sin (sin accusing us).
7 For someone who has died has been freed from sin. (Rom. 6:7, NET; ESV notes: has been justified)
9. God calls us to be justified and then he has glorified us.
And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. (Rom. 8:30)
Righteousness (dikaiosunê) And Justification (dikaiôsis)
Paul surely has these all of the main OT ideas in his mind when he writes about the righteousness of God. But now all their OT meanings are fulfilled in Christ. Therefore his theology is much more personal and Spirit-based. He is writing to Spirit-filled, small communities. It should be noted that the Reformers distinguished between God’s own righteousness, and his free gift of righteousness that he provides to all who believe in Christ. It is this latter meaning that is intended by “God’s righteousness” (see the list that follows).
This section uses the NET, unless otherwise noted.
1. God’s righteousness implies that no one is righteous by his absolute standards.
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? … 10 There is no one righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:5, 10, citing Pss. 14:1-3; 53:13, NIV)
2. God’s righteousness is apart from the law and comes through faith in Christ and saves us.
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed – 22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. (Rom. 3:21-22)
25 God presented him [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Rom. 3:25-26, NIV)
23 But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham’s sake, 24 but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification. (Rom. 4:23-25)
30 What shall we say then? – that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, 31 but Israel even though pursuing a law of righteousness did not attain it. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. (Rom. 9:30-32)
3 Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. … 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom. 10:3-4, Rom. 10:8-13, NIV)
In that long passage in Rom. 10:3-4, Rom. 10:8-13 God saves or rescues us through our faith energized by the gospel.
9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious [law of Moses], how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness [the gospel of Christ]! (2 Cor. 3:9, NIV)
21 I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing! (Gal. 2:21)
21 Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But the scripture imprisoned everything and everyone under sin so that the promise could be given – because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – to those who believe. (Gal. 3:21-22)
4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. (Gal. 5:4-5, NIV)
9 … not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. (Php. 3:9)
3. God’s righteousness is built into the gospel, from faith to faith.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.” (Rom. 1:16-17)
4. Abraham shows God’s righteousness can be credited or imputed to our account.
1 We say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works … 10 We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. (Rom. 4:1-6, 10, NIV)
That previous long passage clarifies that when we work, we earn money. The employer owes it to us. When we don’t work, but get money anyway, that’s a gift. It has been freely credited to our account.
23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Rom. 4:23-24, NIV)
6 Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, 7 so then, understand that those who believe are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” 9 So then those who believe are blessed along with Abraham the believer. (Gal. 3:6-9)
5. God’s righteousness is therefore a gift by grace.
17 … How much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:17, NIV)
5 He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:5, NIV)
6. God’s righteousness means grace reigns and brings eternal life through Christ.
18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people. (Rom. 5:18)
21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 5:21)
7. God’s righteousness means that Christ is our righteousness.
30 He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30)
21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)
Imparted Righteousness
The context of these verses helps us distinguish between the two meanings of justification and imparted righteousness or sanctification.
Now that we have received the gift of righteousness, the Spirit can work it out in our lives. This process is known as sanctification or growing up in Christ.
To be clear, righteousness is imputed. That’s our legal standing. And righteousness is imparted. That’s what we apply in our living. Righteousness affects our conduct.
Both imputation and impartation can happen at the same time. In fact they should happen at the same time.
This section uses the NET, unless otherwise noted.
1. Righteousness means we can offer our body, our whole person, as instruments or even slaves of righteousness.
13 and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Rom. 6:13-14, NIV)
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Rom. 6:16, NIV)
18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. (Rom. 6:18-19, NIV)
10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Rom. 8:10, NIV)
24 And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:24, NIV)
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. (Eph. 5:8-10, NIV)
2. Pursue righteousness and other virtues, and compete for the faith.
11 But you, as a person dedicated to God, keep away from all that. Instead pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. 12 Compete well for the faith and lay hold of that eternal life you were called for and made your good confession for in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Tim. 6:11-12)
22 But keep away from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, in company with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart.(2 Tim. 2:22)
3. Righteousness can become our weapons and armor.
4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: … 7 with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left … (2 Cor. 6:4, 7, NIV)
14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness (Eph. 6:14)
4. Righteousness is not compatible with wickedness.
14 Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14)
13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will correspond to their actions. (2 Cor. 11:13-15)
8 For you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – 9 for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth – 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Eph. 5:8-11)
5. Righteousness can lead to a harvest of righteousness or good deeds.
9 Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow. (2 Cor. 9:10)
9 And this is my prayer: that [you may be] … 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Php. 1:9, 11, NIV)
6. The kingdom of God is righteousness, as we serve others.
17 For the kingdom of God does not consist of food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For the one who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by people. (Rom. 14:17-18)
7. A crown of righteousness awaits us.
5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness. (Gal. 5:5)
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Tim. 4:6-8, NIV)
Summary
Putting things right in a covenant context and being declared righteous or acquitted in a forensic (law court) setting do not need to conflict. When God declares you not-guilty or acquits you and yes, puts a robe of righteousness on you, you are put right in the New Covenant.
After (or at the same time) you are acquitted in the divine court of law, God expects you to walk like a free person, declared not guilty. He expects you to behave yourself, to walk in righteousness. That’s called sanctification. Since all analogies are weak, the human judge cannot send his spirit into you to sanctify you. But God is the heavenly judge. He can and does send his Spirit into you. He is called the Holy Spirit. He leads you towards holiness.
After that big-picture overview, now let’s turn to a summary of the biblical data.
People are declared righteous or just, not because of their good behavior, but because of their faith in Jesus Christ and Christ’s faithfulness and righteousness. So God sees the bad behavior of the sinner. But God notes that the sinner has turned in repentance and faith in Christ who forgives the sinner. Christ pays his debt. Then God declares the sinner righteous and not guilty. The man or woman is no longer a debtor because his debt of sin has been paid in full, by Christ.
Now we can study Paul’s doctrine of righteousness and justification.
His epistles are much, much shorter than the OT. But he packs a lot of theology into them. He takes over some themes from the OT, but clearly goes in new directions. After all, the Messiah had come and the Spirit was given. They account for some huge differences between the two covenants.
Justified, Righteousness, and Justification
All three words have the same Greek stem dik-.
In the big picture, the Messiah came. Paul met him in revelations. How does the Messiah match up with the OT standard of righteousness? Would he reestablish the Law of Moses in its entirety? Partially?
One more piece of the big picture: The Spirit came. Paul experienced him. So how does he work with righteousness? How does the Spirit relate to the law of Moses? Now Israel was not the only chosen people; Gentiles were chosen too.
Paul is ambiguous about the Law of Moses. The law brings wrath and exposes or intensifies sin. Both Jews and Gentiles need to be rescued or saved from God’s judgment and wrath.
Righteousness and justification has to go in a different direction from law keeping.
Paul zeroes in on Abraham’s faith, who was the father of faith 400+ years before the Law of Moses. Abraham was credited with righteousness before he was circumcised, even though circumcision was the sign of being in a covenant, now an old covenant. Keying off Abraham, both Jews and Gentiles can be credited with righteousness by faith. Paul teaches that faith apart from works of the law puts the legal declaration (to justify) in motion.
The Spirit and grace work in a person (even if he does not realize it). To be justified by grace is to be declared righteous apart from doing the law. This declaration has to come through the Messiah and the Spirit, not the Law of Moses.
Vindication has to go in a different direction from a narrow restoration of one nation. In fact, vindication is a minor theme in Paul. If anyone is vindicated, it is God, who had foretold he would establish a new covenant; and, having established it, he is not proven untrue. Only after the legal declaration of righteousness (justification) can a believer be considered “vindicated.” But this is different from ancient Israel’s vindication. Israel had been attacked, defeated and exiled, and the nations of the known world had heard about it. When a remnant of Israel had been restored, national vindication was accomplished.
Paul goes way beyond national vindication and is concerned with righteousness before God and his judgment. Christ’s sacrificial blood is the foundation of justification, because the demands of the law have been met. The punishment for our law breaking has been paid in full. To justify is to declare the person just or righteous, so that the ground of punishment no longer exists. Justification is the opposite of condemnation. To condemn does not make the character bad, and to justify does not make the character good. Justification is as much a legal and declarative act as condemnation is.
Some additional thoughts:
Law keeping does not bring righteousness. Only faith in Christ brings God’s freely given righteousness. To be declared righteous in God’s sight and to be justified are the same.
To justify is to impute righteousness. Righteousness is a free gift by grace and faith.
To impute is to reckon, calculate, consider, or regard it. The Greek logizomai – which is the verb that translates as “impute” – has the basic meaning of “thinking” or “considering.” God thinks of us as righteous because of Christ; therefore, his righteousness belongs to us. It is not a “legal fiction.” Therefore, after being justified, man can survive the judgment before an infinitely holy and righteous God.
To be justified or legally declared righteous is not an inner act, any more than a judge can make the acquitted be just or righteous on the inside. To be justified does not change the person’s character. Justification is not the same as sanctification (see next).
Justification and Imparted Righteousness or Sanctification
Justification and sanctification are inseparable, but distinct. Sanctification literally means “the process or act of making holy.” Only the Holy Spirit leads the believer to live a righteous life. From the status of declared righteousness (justification), he can live out a righteous life. Righteousness has been imputed (justification), so now it can be imparted (sanctification).
From the declared legal status of righteousness flows the activity of righteousness. We are no longer slaves of unrighteousness, but slaves of righteousness. Righteousness and wickedness are incompatible. Righteousness can produce a harvest of good or righteous deeds. The legally declared status of righteousness can lead us to put on the breastplate of righteousness. The legally declared status of righteousness can now lead us to take up weapons of lived-out righteousness.
We can pursue righteousness. This pursuit is the perfect illustration of the difference between justification and sanctification. Paul believes righteousness is a free gift by grace alone and faith alone – from faith to faith, apart from works of the law or our works, period. Yet we can pursue righteousness. If we’re not careful, our pursuit turns into our works. We might believe we have to earn righteousness. But why pursue something we already have as a gift in the first place? This is the confusion that comes from not understanding the difference between justification and sanctification.
Paul would tell us that we receive righteousness as a gift by a legal declaration. That’s imputed righteousness. That’s justification. Then our ethical conduct is affected. That’s imparted righteousness from the Spirit. We then pursue righteous living by following the Spirit. That’s sanctification. Then, one day, we will wear a crown of righteousness, after we die.
Though the declaration of righteousness or acquittal and sanctification are unified, we need to understand the distinctions. (1) God justifies or legally declares us righteous (justification). We have a righteous standing or status before God’s tribunal. We are put right in the New Covenant. We are acquitted. (2) That legal righteousness and being put right is worked out in our walk or growth in him by the power of the Spirit (sanctification). (3) Our day-to-day growth in righteousness comes together and is completed in heaven.
The free gift of righteousness impacts our living and behavior. We can now live righteously. We do this by walking in the Spirit.
Thus, justification and sanctification are inseparable, but distinct.
If we wrongly believe that God first has to sanctify us before he can declare us not guilty, we will never know for sure if our sanctification has progressed far enough. Are we holy enough before God can declare us righteous? Have we purged out enough sin so that God can then justify us (legally declare us righteous)? Though I’m cooperating with the Spirit in the sanctification process, is my personal cooperation and righteousness good enough?
This wrong way makes God’s legal declaration or justification too dependent on us. This backwards belief puts too much pressure on us. How is this pressure and self-dependency good news? It isn’t.
The answer: imputation and justification (legal declaration of righteousness) being put right in the New Covenant (new position in Christ) and impartation and sanctification (personal growth in righteousness in the Spirit).
New Testament Textual Criticism
Related Topics: Textual Criticism
Lesson 99: The Cross and Our Commitment (John 19:31-42)
Related MediaAugust 9, 2015
A hen and a pig saw a church sign announcing the sermon: “What Can We Do to Help the Poor?” The hen suggested that they feed them bacon and eggs. The pig thought about it and replied, “There’s one thing wrong with your idea: for you it requires only a contribution, but for me it requires total commitment!”
When I saw the photos a few months ago of the 21 Egyptian Christians who were beheaded on the beach in Libya or when I read stories about our brothers and sisters who are asked by Muslim extremists on threat of death, “Are you a Christian?” I wonder, “What would I do?” Perhaps we can never know for sure in advance how we would respond if we were faced with martyrdom. God would have to give special grace at that moment. But we all should be concerned about how we can deepen our commitment to Christ now so that we can be faithful to Him in this increasingly hostile world. Two minor characters in John’s Gospel, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, offer a lesson on how to deepen our commitment to Christ.
When I was in college, there was an ad for Clairol hair-coloring that had the tag line, “Only her hairdresser knows for sure.” You couldn’t tell by looking whether she dyed her hair or not. So we used to refer to certain Christians, who were quiet about their faith, as “Clairol Christians,” because only God knew for sure that they were believers.
Up to this point, both Joseph and Nicodemus had been “Clairol Christians.” Nobody except God knew that they were followers of Jesus. John (19:38) says that Joseph was “a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews.” From the other gospels, we learn that he was a prominent member of the Council (the Sanhedrin) who was waiting for the kingdom of God and that he had to gather up courage to ask Pilate for Jesus’ body (Mark 15:42). Luke (23:50-51) adds that he was a good and righteous man who had not consented to their plan and action to crucify Jesus.
We have encountered Nicodemus twice before in John’s gospel. In John 3, he visited Jesus by night, acknowledging that He was a teacher who had come from God as evidenced by His many miracles. Jesus startled Nicodemus, a Pharisee and “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10), by saying (John 3:3), “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” All of Nicodemus’ religious activities and scrupulous obedience to the Law of Moses would not qualify him for God’s kingdom. Rather, he must be born of the Spirit.
We don’t know how Nicodemus responded to that meeting with Jesus. But in John 7, after the Pharisees were frustrated because their officers had not arrested Jesus, they scornfully ask (John 7:48), “No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?” Nicodemus weakly defended Jesus by stating (John 7:51), “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” His colleagues put him down by replying (John 7:52), “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” Both Joseph and Nicodemus may have been among those whom John 12:42-43 negatively refers to: “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”
But now, after Jesus has been crucified, Nicodemus joins Joseph in giving Jesus a proper burial. Joseph went to Pilate to ask for the body, while Nicodemus provided about 65-70 pounds of myrrh and aloes to fold in with the linen wrappings to offset the stench of the decomposing corpse. The two men took Jesus’ body from the cross, prepared Him for burial, and laid Him in Joseph’s personal new tomb, a cave near Golgotha hewn out of the rock, where no other bodies had yet been placed (Matt. 27:60; Luke 23:53; John 19:41).
So you have this odd situation where the disciples, who had followed Jesus when He was alive, and had expressed their willingness to die with Him (John 11:16; 13:37), all fled when He was arrested and crucified. It seems that only John dared to come back to the scene at the cross. But Joseph and Nicodemus, who had hesitated to confess Christ publicly when He was alive, now risk their positions on the Sanhedrin and take this bold, open stand for Christ after He has died. Although a few commentators question whether these two men came to saving faith on the grounds that John never directly states this, it seems to me that the fruit of their bold actions here testifies to their underlying faith.
So you have to ask, “Why the change?” Why did these men now come out boldly for Christ when they easily could have reasoned, “He must not have been the Messiah or He would not have been crucified”? Why risk the wrath of Pilate and rejection from their fellow members on the Council now to join what seemed to be a lost cause? Why didn’t they just shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh well, I hope that His disciples give Him a decent burial”?
I believe that the answer lies in the way that John juxtaposes the final scene at the cross (John 19:31-37) with the actions of these two men (John 19:38-42). These men had watched Jesus die and it deeply affected them. Seeing Christ crucified solidified their commitment to Him. Thanks to them, Jesus’ body was not thrown on the ash heap where they burned the bodies of other crucified men. Of course, God could have raised Jesus from the dead even if He had been burned to ashes. But then we wouldn’t have the evidence of the empty tomb, which had been secured by the Roman guard. So God used these two men’s late, but costly, commitment. The application for us is:
Looking on the crucified Christ deepens our commitment to Him.
First, let’s look at the crucified Christ; then we’ll look on the commitment that results from looking to Him.
1. A look at the crucified Christ: He died to provide a full salvation in fulfillment of prophecy.
Note three things:
A. Jesus died.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, duh! Of course He died!” But that seemingly obvious fact has been denied down through the centuries. Late in the first century, Docetists denied that Jesus was truly a man. They asserted that He only seemed to be a man. Thus it only seemed that He died. Mohammed, whose knowledge of Christianity came through Docetist sources, wrote in the Quran (Sura 4.156), “They did not kill him, neither did they crucify him; it only seemed to be so.” (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans/Apollos], pp. 623-624, footnote 3) Note the devastating impact of false teaching, with over a billion Muslims today believing that fatal error! More recently there have been attempts, such as Hugh Schonfield’s, The Passover Plot, to revive the theory that Jesus didn’t die on the cross; He just swooned and was placed in the tomb, where the cool air revived Him.
But if Jesus didn’t die, then He didn’t atone for our sins. If He didn’t die, then He was not raised from the dead, which means that our faith is worthless and we are still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). If Jesus didn’t die, you have to throw out the entire gospel record, which is the only eyewitness testimony that we have about Jesus.
John establishes the fact of Jesus’ death in three ways. First, in John 19:31 he reports: “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” It was a “high Sabbath” because it immediately followed the Passover. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 states that if a man was condemned to death and hung upon a tree, his corpse should not hang on the tree overnight so as not to defile the land. So the Jews wanted these crucified men’s bodies removed from the cross so that they would not defile their land at the same time that they had crucified an innocent man who was, in fact, their Messiah!
So, Pilate gave the order to break the crucified men’s legs, which would result in quick death. If you’ve ever hit your shin hard on something, you know how painful it is. Well, after these men had already suffered for hours on the cross, the soldiers would come and shatter their shins with a heavy mallet, disabling them from using their legs to push up for another gasp of air. The shock and pain of the broken legs along with the lack of air would quickly result in death. So the soldiers smashed the legs of the two thieves, who were on either side of Jesus, but when they came to Jesus they saw that He was already dead and so they did not break His legs (John 19:33). They would not have ignored Pilate’s orders unless they were absolutely certain that Jesus was, in fact, dead.
The second way that John shows that Jesus was dead is that he reports how one of the soldiers, presumably to make sure that Jesus was dead, pierced His side with a spear, resulting in blood and water gushing out (John 19:34). Medical experts disagree on exactly what happened (Carson, p. 623, cites the two most common theories), but it’s obvious from the flow of blood and water that Jesus was dead before the spear thrust. But even if He hadn’t already died, this spear thrust would have finished the job. It wasn’t a minor puncture wound—it left a scar large enough to put your hand into (John 20:27)! John (19:35) underscores his eyewitness testimony of the truth of the piercing of Jesus’ side: “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.”
The third way that John proves that Jesus was dead is that Joseph and Nicodemus prepared Him for burial by wrapping His body with linen and spices (John 19:40). If there had been the slightest evidence of breath or of a pulse, they would not have continued with the process. So we can be certain that Jesus died and was buried, which are essential to the gospel we believe in and proclaim (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
B. Jesus’ death provided a full salvation.
Jesus’ death was unique among all human deaths that have ever occurred because Jesus was unique. As fully God, His death satisfied God’s righteous requirement. As fully man, His death atoned for human sins. He paid in full the debt for the sins of His people (Matt. 1:21). As He proclaimed just before He expired (John 19:30), “It is finished!” The Greek word means, “Paid in full.”
But also, John wants us to think about the significance of the flow of blood and water from Jesus’ side as it relates to our salvation. Through his eyewitness testimony to the truth of this event he wants us to believe (John 19:35). Beyond the fact that the flow of blood and water certify Jesus’ death, John, who loves symbolism, most likely wants us to think about the symbolic meaning of this. But the problem is, commentators differ on what it means. The most common suggestion from Chrysostom on has been that the water represents baptism and the blood represents the Lord’s table, but most modern commentators view that as reading something foreign into the text (Carson, p. 624).
It is more likely that the blood and water point to the eternal life and cleansing that flow from Jesus’ death (ibid.). J. C. Ryle (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], p. 331) believed that John had in mind Zechariah 13:1, “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” That verse occurs just five verses after Zechariah 12:10, which John (19:37) quotes with reference to the piercing of Jesus’ side. So the blood refers to the fact that Jesus’ blood cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). The water also pictures cleansing, as well as eternal life and the Holy Spirit (John 4:14; 7:37-39; Carson, p. 624). Several beloved old hymns express this. William Cowper wrote,
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.”
Augustus Toplady’s “Rock of Ages” put it:
“Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.”
Fanny Crosby sings,
“Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.”
The important thing is that you don’t just say, “That’s interesting,” and move on without being moved. Jesus’ death on the cross should be real and personal for you! John testifies that he saw the blood and water flow from Jesus’ side, and he reports it “so that you also may believe.” Through the blood of Jesus there is a full pardon for all the sins of everyone who puts his or her trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Before we move on, there is one more thing to note in looking at the crucified Christ:
C. Jesus’ death and burial uniquely fulfilled prophecy.
Although Jesus’ crucifixion must have been a horrifying sight, especially for those who knew Him and loved Him, John wants us to know that God sovereignly ordained it. He uses even the wicked to fulfill His purposes (Acts 4:27-28). John has already shown this in his narration of Jesus’ crucifixion (see my previous message), but he continues to drive home this point.
First, he writes (John 19:36), “For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, ‘Not a bone of Him shall be broken.’” John is probably combining three Old Testament Scriptures: Exodus 12:46 & Numbers 9:12, which prohibit breaking the bones of the Passover lamb; and, Psalm 34:20, which refers to God protecting the righteous man from his enemies breaking his bones (Andreas Kostenberger, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament [Baker Academic], ed. by G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, p. 503). It’s significant that these soldiers who were under orders to break the legs of the crucified men would skip Jesus, who was in the middle! Even when they saw that He was dead, it would have been normal for them to break His legs, too, so that they didn’t get in trouble. But God sovereignly prevented the soldiers from obeying their orders so that Jesus would fulfill Messianic prophecy!
Also, a soldier thrust his spear into Jesus’ side, probably to make sure that He was dead. He wasn’t under orders to do this; it was just something that he did on a whim. But John (19:37) points out that this fulfilled Zechariah 12:10, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” That prophecy will have its final fulfillment when Jesus returns (Rev. 1:7), but it had its initial fulfillment here. It also fulfills Isaiah 53:5, which says that the Suffering Servant “was pierced through for our transgressions.”
The third prophecy that Jesus’ burial fulfilled was Isaiah 53:9, “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, …” Normally, a crucified man’s body would be left on the cross until the vultures had eaten it and then taken down and thrown on the ash heap called Gehenna. But because God always accomplishes His purpose (Isa. 46:8-11), Jesus was buried in this rich man’s tomb. One writer (cited by J. C. Ryle, p. 344) observes that Jesus was rich twice: once at His birth, when the wise men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh; and again, at His death, when He was buried in the rich man’s tomb.
So looking at the crucified Christ should lead us to commitment because He died for our sins to provide a full salvation and He is the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promises. God planned every detail of His death and resurrection for our salvation. Let’s look briefly at …
2. The commitment which results: It costs you rejection, your religion, and your riches.
Salvation in Christ is free, but costly!
A. Commitment to Christ costs you rejection.
By burying Jesus, Joseph and Nicodemus would have incurred the wrath and rejection of the other Council members, who would have viewed them as traitors. Their reputation with the influential men of Jerusalem was ruined because they now identified with this despised, crucified Galilean.
Commitment to the crucified Christ will also cost you rejection. People don’t mind if you say that you admire Jesus as a great moral teacher. They’re okay if you say that He is a way to God. But when you say that Jesus was crucified for sinners and that He is the only way to God, you will feel their rejection: “Are you saying that I’m a sinner who needs a Savior?” That’s offensive! Prepare to be rejected.
B. Commitment to Christ costs your religion.
The Jewish leaders wouldn’t set foot in Pilate’s dwelling so as not to incur defilement for the Passover. They wouldn’t dare touch a dead body, especially during the Feast of Unleavened Bread! But Joseph walks into Pilate’s presence to ask for Jesus’ body and then he and Nicodemus defile themselves by preparing that body for burial. In so doing, they lost their religion, but they gained Christ!
By “religion,” I’m referring to those who are scrupulous about outward appearances, but don’t deal with God on the heart level (see Mark 7:1-23). Religious people are fastidious about cleaning the outside of the cup, while inwardly they are full of sinful self-indulgence (Matt. 23:25). Religious people do things to look good before people, but they don’t come to Christ as needy sinners to receive mercy and to live in holiness on the thought level. To be committed to Jesus Christ, you’ve got to give up religion and replace it with reality with God.
C. Commitment to Christ costs your riches.
Both Joseph and Nicodemus were fairly well off. To bury Jesus, Joseph had to give up his personal tomb (remember, he wasn’t expecting the resurrection!). Nicodemus supplied a lot of costly spices for Jesus’ burial. If both men later joined the early church in Jerusalem, they may have been among those who sold their properties to provide for the needy saints (Acts 4:34-35). Jesus made the radical claim (Luke 14:33), “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” God doesn’t just own a tenth of your income; He owns it all!
So commitment to Christ is costly. But, do you gain anything?
3. The gains of commitment to Christ: What you lose temporally you gain eternally.
Joseph and Nicodemus were rejected by the Jewish leaders, but by confessing Christ on earth they gained eternal acceptance in heaven (Matt. 10:32-33). They lost their rules-keeping religion, but they gained an eternal relationship with the risen Savior. They lost their earthly riches, but they gained treasures in heaven. Remember Jesus’ words (Matt. 16:25-26): “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Conclusion
Of course, there are also temporal benefits that accompany commitment to Christ. Peter said Jesus (Mark 10:28), “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus replied (Mark 10:29), “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.” There may be persecutions, but the Lord always takes care of His children!
So to deepen your commitment to Christ, meditate often on His death for you. Isaac Watts captured it well:
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Application Questions
- What is your biggest hindrance in seeking to be fully committed to Jesus Christ? How can you remove it?
- Consider the words of missionary C. T. Studd, who gave away a fortune to follow Christ: “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” What does the Lord want you to sacrifice for Him?
- Missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” If you haven’t done so, read Elisabeth Elliot’s, Shadow of the Almighty.
- Some Christians are needlessly abrasive and insensitive towards unbelievers. Where is the balance between tactfulness and boldness in our witness (see Col. 4:2-6)?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Christian Life, Discipleship
Lesson 100: The Evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection (John 20:1-10)
Related MediaAugust 16, 2015
I always am fascinated to watch footage of engineers taking down an old building by placing dynamite charges at strategic points so that the building implodes. By finding just those few load-bearing points in the foundation, the entire building collapses into a heap of rubble.
The entire Christian faith rests on one historically verifiable point: the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The apostle Paul says (1 Cor. 15:17), “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” Everything in the Christian faith rests on the historical truth that Jesus was raised from the dead. If you can explode that one truth, the Christian faith collapses.
But I need to clarify that we’re talking about objective truth. We live in an age that holds to a subjective, experience-oriented view of truth. But if Jesus was raised bodily from the dead, then He is the only truth and the only way to the Father (John 14:6). And this truth applies to every person. As Paul proclaimed to the Athenian philosophers, they should repent because (Acts 17:31), God “has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Jesus’ resurrection was at the center of the apostles’ witness. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached (Acts 2:32), “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.” He told the crowd that gathered after God used him and John to heal the lame man at the temple gate (Acts 3:14-15), “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.” When the apostles were dragged before the Jewish Sanhedrin, Peter boldly proclaimed (Acts 4:10), “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.” (See also, Acts 4:33; 5:30; 10:40; 13:32-37; 17:18, 31; 26:23).
The emphasis on Jesus’ resurrection led church historian Philip Schaff to conclude (History of the Christian Church [Eerdmans], 1:173, cited by Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict [Campus Crusade for Christ], p. 190), “The resurrection of Christ is therefore emphatically a test question upon which depends the truth or falsehood of the Christian religion. It is either the greatest miracle or the greatest delusion which history records.”
At the same time, we must acknowledge that there are some difficulties harmonizing the gospel accounts of the resurrection. John lacks stories that the other gospels have and he includes stories that they lack or do not report exactly as he does. For example, Luke 24:12 mentions Peter’s visit to the tomb, but doesn’t mention that John went with him. John tells of Mary Magdalene’s early morning visit to the tomb, but doesn’t mention the other women who accompanied her. More differences could be cited. But as Leon Morris explains (The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans], p. 828), “The differences between the Gospels amount to no more than a demonstration that here we have the spontaneous evidence of witnesses, not the stereotyped repetition of an official story.”
Eyewitnesses report what they have seen and heard, but different eyewitnesses to the same event can report seemingly contradictory details that still are all true. For example, the late theologian Kenneth Kantzer had a friend whose mother was killed. Kantzer first heard about her death through a trusted mutual friend who reported that the woman had been standing on the street corner, was hit by a bus, and died a few minutes later. Later he heard from the dead woman’s grandson that she was riding in a car that was in a collision, she was thrown from the car and killed instantly. The boy was quite certain of his facts. Which story was correct?
Dr. Kantzer later learned from the dead woman’s daughter that her mother had been waiting for a bus, was hit by another bus and critically injured. A passing motorist put her in his car and sped off to the hospital. En route, he was in a collision in which the injured woman was thrown from the car and killed instantly. Although the accounts seemed contradictory, both were true! (Christianity Today [10/7/88], p. 23.) So while there are harmonistic problems, we can trust the different resurrection accounts.
John’s purpose for writing what he saw concerning Jesus’ resurrection, as well as all of the other miracles he reports, is (John 20:31), “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” Thus,
The evidence for Jesus’ bodily resurrection should lead us to believe in Him as Savior and Lord.
So let’s consider five evidences in John’s Gospel for Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead.
1. The first evidence for Jesus’ resurrection: the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty.
John (20:1) reports that Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb “and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.” This was a large, round stone placed in a groove in front of the tomb to secure it from grave robbers. It would have taken several strong men to roll that stone out of the groove. The Jewish leaders feared that the disciples would come and steal Jesus’ body and claim that He was risen. So they went to Pilate and got a Roman guard to secure the tomb (Matt. 27:63-66). They set a seal on the stone and were there guarding the tomb when an angel came and rolled away the stone (Matt. 28:1-4)—not so that Jesus could get out, but so that the witnesses to the resurrection could get in to verify that the tomb was empty! The guards reported what had happened to the Jewish leaders, who gave them a large sum of money and told them to tell anyone who asked that the disciples came at night and stole Jesus’ body while the guards slept (Matt. 28:11-15).
There are several problems with that story. The Roman guards would have faced the death penalty if they had fallen asleep while on guard. Even if they had dozed off, the sound of a group of men moving the heavy stone would have awakened them. Besides, after the crucifixion, the disciples were too depressed and fearful to pull off a grave robbery. And even if they had stolen Jesus’ body or bribed the guards to take it away, they wouldn’t then have endured persecution and eventual martyrdom to proclaim what they knew to be a hoax.
In addition to the stone being rolled away, the tomb was empty. Mary Magdalene was not expecting the resurrection, but when she saw that the stone was rolled away, she assumed that somebody had taken Jesus’ body. She immediately ran to the disciples to report (John 20:2), “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” This caused Peter and John to run to the tomb to see for themselves. John outran Peter, but he hesitated to go into the tomb. He stooped and looked in, seeing the grave clothes. Typically impetuous Peter brushed past John and went in. Then John went into the tomb and they both confirmed that Jesus’ body was not there.
If the Jewish leaders knew where Jesus’ body was, they would have produced it the instant that the apostles began proclaiming the resurrection. So the stone rolled away and the empty tomb both bear witness to Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead.
2. The second evidence for Jesus’ resurrection: the grave clothes.
John goes into more detail concerning the grave clothes than the other gospels do. In telling the story, John uses three different Greek words meaning “to see.” When John first arrived at the tomb, he stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in (John 20:5). He uses the common Greek word that suggests nothing more than sight. But when Peter got there, he entered the tomb and saw the linen wrappings (John 20:6). Here the Greek word has the nuance of looking carefully or examining something. We get our word theater from it. Audiences at a theater watch carefully so as not to miss any part of the play. Finally, John went in, saw, and believed (John 20:8). Here John uses a word that means to see with understanding.
What did Peter and John see? Jewish burials involved wrapping the corpse with linen strips and tucking spices into the folds to offset the stench of the corpse. The head was wrapped separately. Peter and John saw the linen wrappings with the face cloth rolled up by itself in an orderly manner, but Jesus’ body was gone. Grave robbers would not have taken the time to remove the grave clothes at the scene, but would have grabbed the body with the grave clothes and left. Or, if they had removed them, they would have left them scattered in a disorderly fashion. D. A. Carson (The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans/Apollos], pp. 637-638) observes, “The description is powerful and vivid, not the sort of thing that would have been dreamed up; and the fact that two men saw it (v. 8) makes their evidence admissible in a Jewish court (Dt. 19:15).”
When Jesus raised Lazarus, he was raised in his old body which was still subject to disease and death. So Lazarus couldn’t pass through the grave clothes, but had to be unbound by bystanders (John 11:44). But Jesus was raised with a resurrection body that is no longer subject to death. That new body is physical, yet could pass through the grave clothes, leaving them lying there intact. He later could pass through closed doors without opening them, as well as appear and disappear suddenly at will (John 20:19, 26; Luke 24:15, 31).
3. The third evidence for Jesus’ resurrection: His post-resurrection appearances.
Here I’m looking ahead to the rest of John’s narrative. He cites four post-resurrection appearances of Jesus: To Mary Magdalene (20:11-18); to the disciples except Thomas (20:19-23); to the disciples, including Thomas (20:24-31); and, to seven of the disciples, by the Sea of Galilee (21:1-25). Paul mentions several other appearances, including one to over 500 people at one time, many of whom were still alive when he wrote (1 Cor. 15:6-8). The varied circumstances of the appearances and the different personalities of the witnesses militate against hallucinations or visions. Even Thomas, who at first was skeptical, became convinced when he saw the risen Lord (John 20:27).
John Warwick Montgomery (History and Christianity [IVP], p. 19, cited by McDowell, ibid., p. 233) commented:
Note that when the disciples of Jesus proclaimed the resurrection, they did so as eyewitnesses and they did so while people were still alive who had had contact with the events they spoke of…. It passes the bounds of credibility that the early Christians could have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who might easily have refuted it simply by producing the body of Jesus.
A skeptic might counter that the reports of Jesus’ resurrection are all given by believers. Why didn’t Jesus appear to any unbelievers so that they would come to faith? Peter alludes to this when he preached to the Gentiles gathered in Cornelius’ house (Acts 10:40-41): “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.”
But the risen Savior did later reveal Himself to one militant unbeliever: Saul of Tarsus, later known as the apostle Paul. The only way to explain Paul’s dramatic conversion is that he saw the risen Lord Jesus. But he was shown unusual grace. Normally, God doesn’t reveal Himself to proud skeptics, especially when they have already rejected the light that He has given them. The Jewish leaders had rejected many witnesses to Christ (John 5:31-40), so He did not show Himself to them after His resurrection, except through the witness of the apostles, which they also rejected. They refused to come to Jesus to receive life, so they were given over to judgment. But for those willing to submit to Jesus as Lord, His post-resurrection appearances are a strong evidence of His resurrection.
4. The fourth evidence for Jesus’ resurrection: the changed lives of the witnesses.
John shows that none of the witnesses was expecting a resurrection. Mary Magdalene thought that someone had taken Jesus’ body (John 20:2, 15). Neither John nor Peter at first understood the Scripture that Jesus must rise again from the dead (John 20:9). All the disciples were fearful and confused. Thomas was depressed and doubting. But all were transformed into the bold witnesses of the Book of Acts because they became convinced that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. They were so convinced that the resurrection was true that many of them went on to die as martyrs.
John calls attention here (John 20:8) to his own change of belief when he saw the empty tomb and the grave clothes: “So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.” John and the other apostles obviously had already believed in Jesus, as evidenced by their following Him. So what did John here believe? He believed in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (see John 20:25, 27, 29). Dr. Carson (p. 638) points out that most of the early witnesses came to believe the resurrection after they saw Jesus alive from the dead, but John came to such faith before he saw Jesus in resurrected form.
Also, John 20:9 explains, “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” The apostles’ understanding of the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus’ resurrection came later. What Scripture was John referring to? Isaiah 53:10-12 speaks of the Messiah alive and seeing His offspring after He has been led like a sheep to the slaughter. Psalm 22 describes Christ’s death by crucifixion, but in verse 22 the mood shifts abruptly as He proclaims, “I will tell of Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You.” And in Psalm 16:10 Messiah proclaims, “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” On the Day of Pentecost, Peter cited that verse and explained that it could not refer to the author, David, who was still in his tomb. Rather, it spoke of Jesus, whom God raised from the dead (Acts 2:25-32).
Also, there is another subtle change in the lives of the witnesses alluded to in our text. John 20:1 mentions that Mary came to the tomb on the first day of the week (Sunday). Church history affirms that the early church gathered for worship on Sunday, not on the Jewish Sabbath (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). Why would they change an institution that had been in place for centuries? They did it to proclaim and celebrate the Lord’s resurrection from the dead.
Thus the stone rolled away and the empty tomb; the grave clothes; the post resurrection appearances; and the changed lives of the witnesses, are all evidence that Jesus is risen. Finally,
5. The fifth evidence for Jesus’ resurrection: His unique Person and amazing claims.
Study the Gospel accounts of who Jesus was, what He taught, His astounding claims, the miracles He performed, and the prophecies He fulfilled. On more than one occasion He predicted His own death and resurrection (Matt. 16:21; Luke 9:22; John 2:19-22; 16:16-20, 28). His encounter with doubting Thomas shows that His purpose was to bring Thomas into a place of full faith in His deity. When Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus did not rebuke or correct him for overstating things. Rather, Jesus commended Thomas’ correct perception and faith (John 20:27-29). A merely good teacher, especially a devout Jewish rabbi, would never accept such worship from a follower.
Everything in the Gospel accounts about Jesus’ person and teaching argues against His being a charlatan or lunatic. The only sensible option is that He is who He claimed to be: the eternal Son of God in human flesh, the Messiah of Israel. He offered Himself for our sins and God raised Him bodily from the dead. He wants those of us who have not seen Him to believe in Him (John 20:29).
The British New Testament scholar, B. F. Westcott (cited by Josh McDowell, More Than a Carpenter [Living Books], pp. 96-97) said, “Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.” You may wonder, “If the evidence is so convincing, why don’t more people believe it?” The answer is: people refuse to believe in Jesus’ resurrection because it has personal implications that they do not want to face. If Jesus is risen, then He is the rightful Lord of all and I must turn from my sin and live under His lordship. Because people don’t want to do that, they refuse to believe in Jesus in spite of the evidence.
Conclusion
Here are four concluding applications:
1. Our faith in the risen Savior is grounded on solid historical evidence: Believe it and proclaim it!
Faith in Christ is not a blind leap in the dark. It is based on the apostolic witness, which is to say, the eyewitness testimony of credible men. I’ve always been bothered by the line in the hymn, “He Lives”: “You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart.” That is completely subjective. The reason I know He lives is that he predicted His resurrection and the apostles and many others saw Him after He arose.
Wilbur M. Smith concluded (Therefore Stand [Baker], p. 419, cited by McDowell, Evidence, p. 187): “If our Lord said, frequently, with great definiteness and detail, that after He went up to Jerusalem He would be put to death, but on the third day He would rise again from the grave, and this prediction came to pass, then it has always seemed to me that everything else that our Lord ever said must also be true.” When you tell people about Jesus, emphasize that they need to believe in Him because He truly is risen and He is coming again to judge the living and the dead.
2. Our faith in the risen Savior must include repentance and surrender to His lordship.
The demons believe that Jesus is risen from the dead, but such faith does them no good. Saving faith in the risen Savior means repenting from sin and bringing every area of life under His rightful lordship (Acts 17:30-31).
3. Be encouraged that the Lord does not cast us off when our faith is weak and our understanding is shallow, but He graciously leads us to deeper faith and understanding as we seek Him.
Mary did not yet expect the resurrection, but she loved the Lord and wanted to give Him a proper burial. Peter’s and John’s faith and understanding were very weak at this point, but the Lord graciously nurtured them along and later used them mightily. We serve a gracious and loving Savior who can sympathize with our weaknesses. Draw near to Him, especially when you’re confused or doubting (Heb. 4:15-16).
4. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the guarantee of our future bodily resurrection; so in your bodily weakness, hope in Him.
It is not news, especially to us who are getting up in years, that our bodies are subject to aging, sickness, and death. But the promise of Scripture is that since Jesus is risen, all who believe in Him will be raised and given new resurrection bodies that are not subject to sickness and death (1 Cor. 15:12-58; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 21:3-4).
The evangelist D. L. Moody told of a 15-year-old girl who was suddenly hit with an illness that left her paralyzed on one side and almost blind. As she lay in bed one day, she heard the family doctor say to her parents, “She has seen her best days, poor child.” But she was a believer and she quickly responded, “No, doctor, my best days are yet to come, when I shall see the King in His beauty.” (In James Boice, The Gospel of John [Zondervan], p. 1,400.) Her hope is your hope if your trust is in the risen Savior!
Application Questions
- Why is it important to affirm that our faith rests on the objectively true, historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection, not on subjective feelings?
- Why must genuine faith in Christ go beyond assent to the facts and include repentance and surrender to His lordship?
- Some describe faith as an irrational leap in the dark. Why is this erroneous and misleading?
- Go through the New Testament epistles and list as many practical ramifications of Christ’s resurrection that you can find (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:58; Col. 4:1-4; etc.).
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Resurrection
Lesson 101: From Sorrow to Hope (John 20:11-18)
Related MediaAugust 23, 2015
The current “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine tells about a 13-year-old Nigerian boy who was critically wounded during a January 28th attack on his village by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram. They slashed his head with a machete, hacked at his left arm, cut out his right eye, and cut off his genitals. Thankfully, he only remembers the first slash of the machete to his head. But although he is permanently disfigured and has to carry around a catheter bag that collects his urine, the boy is full of joy in the Lord. He wants others to know that Christ can get them through any trial if they will embrace God and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
That remarkable boy has the joy and hope in the midst of overwhelming trials that we all need, although few of us experience it. I confess that often I’m prone to complaining even about minor trials. So I need—we all need—joyous hope in the Lord to sustain us through our trials. We need hope that faces reality, not hope in wishful thinking or positive thinking. We need hope that sustains us in the most difficult times.
The news of Jesus’ resurrection brought hope to people who were overwhelmed by despair and grief. You can hear the deep disappointment in the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Concerning the crucified Jesus, they said (Luke 24:21), “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” “We were hoping ….” But their hopes had been dashed.
The disciples were engulfed by gloom. They had left everything to follow Jesus, pinning all of their hopes on Him as the Messiah. But now, He was dead. On top of the shock of watching Jesus’ grisly death on the cross, Peter was wrestling with his own failure in denying the Lord. All of the disciples were guilty of abandoning Him and fleeing in fear.
We also see grief and despair in the tears of Mary Magdalene. The Greek word used to describe her weeping means loud, uncontrollable wailing. She was despondent that not only had Jesus died, but now she thought they had taken away His body so that she could not give Him a proper burial.
It was to people overwhelmed by such a dark cloud of grief that the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection broke in with life-changing hope. The fact that Jesus is risen and ascended into heaven, soon to return for His own, can break into your life with genuine hope in the midst of your worst trials, if you will learn the lessons from this true story.
It’s significant that Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom Jesus revealed Himself after His resurrection (Mark 16:9). She was not an especially important person, and she was a woman. In that culture, women were not considered reliable witnesses in court. You would think that the Lord would have picked maybe Peter, James, or John as the first witnesses of His resurrection. Or if it was a woman, I would have thought that He would have picked His mother, Mary, or perhaps Mary of Bethany, who anointed Him just before His death. But Mary Magdalene was first.
That fact is even more arresting when you recall that Mary had a rather seamy past. Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2). Seven is the biblical number of perfection, so perhaps we are to understand that Mary was under the total domination of satanic power. While there is no biblical evidence for the commonly held notion that she had been a prostitute, we can surmise that a woman under demonic power did not have a squeaky clean past. Jesus had rescued her from a horrible life of sin.
The fact that the Lord revealed Himself first to Mary Magdalene shines a ray of hope for every person struggling with sin and guilt. If the Savior rescued this insignificant, demon-possessed woman from her life of sin and chose her to be the first witness of His resurrection, then He can save you from your sin and use you to serve Him! This story teaches us that…
Sorrows are turned to hope when we seek the risen Savior.
The background of the story is in verses 1-10. Mary had been to the tomb and discovered that the stone was taken away. She ran to Peter and John and excitedly reported (John 20:2), “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb. John got there first, but just looked in. In his usual blustery fashion, Peter entered the tomb and discovered the grave clothes without Jesus’ body. Then John went in, saw, and believed that Jesus was risen (John 20:8). But Peter went away still pondering what had happened (Luke 24:12). But neither man understood yet from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead (John 20:9). After viewing the empty tomb, both men returned home.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene had come back and she remained by the tomb, weeping. She wanted to find Jesus, although at this point she was just trying to find His corpse. In her thinking, someone had added insult to injury by robbing the grave.
In this state of confusion, she stooped and looked into the tomb, where she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet of where Jesus’ body had been lying. They asked Mary (John 20:13), “Woman, why are you weeping?” (Dr. S. Lewis Johnson observed that even angels are puzzled by women’s tears!) Jesus repeats the same question and adds another (John 20:15), “Whom do you seek?” Neither Jesus nor the angels asked those questions to gain information! Rather, they wanted Mary (and us) to think about the implications of those questions, because in doing so we will learn how seeking the risen Savior will turn our sorrows into hope. So let’s explore these questions:
“Why are you weeping?”
1. We weep because of sorrow, but we need to process these sorrows in light of Jesus’ resurrection.
The point of this repeated question was to get Mary to process her sorrow in light of the fact that Jesus was now risen. Yes, watching the crucifixion had been horrific. You have to work through the emotional shock of such an event. But, Mary was now weeping from sorrow because the tomb was empty, whereas that fact should have caused her to weep for joy! Mary’s experience reveals three reasons why we often go through sorrow, which we need to process in light of Jesus’ resurrection.
A. Disappointments and misunderstanding cause sorrow, but we must process them in light of Jesus’ resurrection.
Mary was deeply disappointed, first by the shock of the crucifixion, but now by the fact that she wanted to finish embalming Jesus’ body. She was thinking, “If only I knew where they laid Him, I could finish embalming His body!” But she didn’t understand the big picture, which included Jesus’ resurrection.
So often, we’re just like Mary. We’re disappointed because we don’t understand the big picture of what God is doing. We’re disappointed because God isn’t working as we think He needs to work. It seems that His promises aren’t true! But from God’s perspective, we’re asking the wrong questions and trying to accomplish the wrong tasks! We need to process our disappointments in light of the risen Savior’s love and care for us. We often don’t understand His sovereign perspective.
B. The evil deeds of evil men cause sorrow, but we must process these deeds in light of Jesus’ resurrection.
Mary thought that evil men had triumphed over God’s sovereign purposes. They had killed Jesus and now they had stolen His body. Twice she laments (John 20:2, 13), “they have taken away my Lord….” It’s an ironic complaint. If He is the Lord, no one could take Him anywhere without His consent! If God gives His angels charge to guard His Messiah in all His ways (Ps. 91:11-12; Luke 4:10-11), then surely God would not permit the crucifixion and then allow the body to be stolen against His sovereign will.
We often suffer needless sorrow because we forget that God is sovereign and that evil men can’t do anything to thwart His eternal purpose. I realize that some horrible atrocities take place. I’m not denying the emotional struggle of working through the aftermath of those atrocities if you or your loved ones are the victims. Often, we will not understand in this lifetime why God allowed such suffering to take place. But there is no comfort apart from the facts of God’s sovereignty and Jesus’ resurrection. If those facts are true, then someday God will work it all together for good (Rom. 8:28). Although evil men crucified Jesus, they were only inadvertently fulfilling God’s sovereign purposes (Acts 4:27-28).
C. The death of a loved one causes sorrow, but we must process it in light of Jesus’ resurrection.
Of course we grieve when we lose a loved one. In many cases, we will feel the loss every day for the rest of our lives. It’s not wrong to weep over such losses (John 16:20). But the Bible says that although we grieve, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). The hope that Jesus is risen and that He is coming again to take us to be with Him and with our loved ones who have died in Him, comforts us through our tears (1 Thess. 4:14-18). While we may never understand why God allowed a loved one to die, we can know that the risen Savior has a greater purpose and He sympathizes with us (John 11:1-15, 35). Whatever our loss, we must process our sorrow in light of the sure fact that Jesus is risen and thus His promises are true! Those promises give us hope in our sorrow.
Perhaps the risen Lord is asking you the same question that He asked Mary: “Why are you weeping?” Maybe, like Mary, you’re inclined to think, “That’s a dumb question! Lord, don’t You see what they have done? I’m weeping because they….” The Lord gently says, “Wait a minute! The tomb is empty because I have risen. Now, why are you weeping?”
But, there’s a second important question that the risen Lord asks Mary (John 20:15): “Whom are you seeking?” He asks it even before she has a chance to answer the first question, because the answer to why she is weeping is found in the answer of whom she is seeking.
2. If we will seek the crucified, risen, and ascended Savior, He turns our sorrows into hope.
Clearly, Mary was seeking a dead Lord (John 20:13, 15). Her love for Jesus is commendable, but really, what good would it have done for Mary to haul off Jesus’ dead body and add a few more embalming spices? A dead religion that dresses up the corpse of a dead prophet is worthless! Only a living Savior who has triumphed over the grave offers hope for our sorrows.
A. We seek the crucified Savior.
Mary knew that, of course. But she had forgotten that Messiah’s death was prophesied in the Scripture hundreds of years before He came. Isaiah 53 predicted in miraculous detail Jesus’ death as a lamb led to the slaughter. It says (Isa. 53:5-6), “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
David is equally explicit in Psalm 22, which begins with the haunting words that Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” It goes on to describe in detail death by crucifixion, hundreds of years before that was a known means of execution.
Jesus Himself said that He came to this world to lay down His life for His sheep (John 10:11-18). If you do not know Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins, you do not know Him at all. You must come to God as a guilty sinner and trust in Jesus as the only perfect sacrifice. If you trust in His shed blood, God will forgive your sins because of what Jesus did on the cross.
B. We seek the risen Savior.
Just as the Scriptures predicted that Jesus would die, so they predicted His resurrection. In Isaiah 53, the prophet goes on to tell of how the One who was pierced through for our transgressions would also divide the booty with the strong. A dead Messiah who stayed in the grave could not do that! Only a risen Savior could.
In Psalm 22:22, after describing death by crucifixion and talking of God’s deliverance, Messiah proclaims, “I will tell of Your name to my brethren.” Only a risen Savior could do that! Note Jesus’ words (John 20:17), “go to My brethren ….” It is significant that this is the first time Jesus refers to the disciples as His brethren. Why did He do that? Clearly, He said this to fulfill Psalm 22! He is telling Mary to proclaim to His brethren that God has not left Him in the tomb. He is risen and He will ascend to His Father!
C. We seek the ascended Savior.
Jesus told Mary (John 20:17), “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” This verse raises difficult questions that I can only touch on here: Why does Jesus ask Mary to stop clinging to Him, when He accepted the touch of the other women on resurrection morning (Matt. 28:9) and He invited Thomas to touch Him a week later (John 20:27)? Why does He mention His ascension? Merrill Tenney explains (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 9:191),
He was not refusing to be touched but was making clear that she did not need to detain him, for he had not yet ascended to the Father. He planned to remain with the disciples for a little while; she need not fear that he would vanish immediately. Ultimately he would return to God, and he urged her to tell the disciples that he would do so.
So He was signaling a new relationship with Mary and with His disciples: “After I ascend, you will have My presence spiritually, but not physically.” He didn’t leave the grave to stay with them on earth, but so that He could ascend to the Father where He would intercede for them and ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit. But the fact that Mary was clinging to Jesus shows that He was not a phantom. He was raised bodily from the dead and He ascended bodily into heaven, and He will return bodily in power and glory.
Note also that Jesus both links and yet distinguishes His relationship with the Father and theirs. Jesus by nature is eternally the Son of God, whereas we are only sons of God by adoption. By His incarnation as the Son of Man, Jesus could call the Father, “My God.” We can only do so by grace through faith in Christ as our Mediator. But, in our deepest sorrows, it is a great comfort that we have access to the Father through our risen Lord Jesus Christ!
These two questions, “Why are you weeping?” and “Whom are you seeking?” raise two further questions. First, “What results from seeking the risen Savior?” The answer to this question is stated in my second main heading, and so I include it here:
D. When we seek the risen Savior, He turns our sorrows into hope.
At first, Mary didn’t recognize Jesus, but mistook Him for the gardener. We aren’t told why she didn’t recognize Him. Perhaps, like the two on the Emmaus Road, God prevented her. Or, perhaps it was because she wasn’t expecting to see the risen Lord. But Mary’s gloom was turned to joy when the Lord spoke one word: “Mary!” Her eyes may not yet have recognized Jesus, but her ears knew that voice speaking her name! Jesus said that He is the good Shepherd, who calls His sheep by name. He knows each one and they know Him (John 10:3-5, 14, 27). He still seeks individuals. He still calls His sheep by name. You can take your sorrows to Him and have a private audience with the good Shepherd who knows your name. He can sympathize with all of your sorrow and pain!
And, He calls us His brethren! As I said, this is the first time Jesus has called the disciples His brethren (fulfilling Ps. 22:22). But it’s helpful to note that when He sent this word to them, they were still reeling from their failure and guilt. Peter had failed most prominently, but all the disciples had abandoned Jesus and fled in fear. Although Thomas is the most well-known for his doubting, all the disciples ridiculed the early reports from the women about the resurrection (Luke 24:11). Yet it was these men that had failed and sinned that Jesus calls brethren. When they heard that word from Mary, I can imagine them asking, “What did He call us?” When she affirmed it, their sorrow would have been turned to hope.
Perhaps in your sorrow, you have doubted or even denied the Lord. If you will seek Him as Mary did, you will hear Him call your name and your sorrow will turn to hope.
Finally, “How shall we seek the risen Savior?”
3. Seek the risen Savior honestly, diligently, personally, and obediently.
A. Seek the risen Savior honestly.
Don’t try to cover your tears or get yourself together first. Mary didn’t. Jesus knows your every struggle. Come to Him just as you are: misunderstanding, tears and all.
B. Seek the risen Savior diligently.
Mary was the first at the tomb and she stayed after everyone else had gone home. She diligently sought Jesus because she loved Him. The Savior rewarded her desire to find Him. Later, Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared, so he had to wait a week. Probably, he was too depressed to be around others, but he missed seeing the Savior. Maybe you’re depressed, but don’t let that keep you from showing up where you might find the Savior. Seek Him diligently and you will find Him.
C. Seek the risen Savior personally.
Note verse 13, “my Lord.” The closeness of Mary’s fellowship with Jesus comes through in the way she recognized Him the instant He spoke her name. The only way you will ever find hope in your sorrows is to seek Jesus personally. There is no group plan. Your mate’s seeking Him won’t do for you. You must seek Him yourself. You don’t have to be anyone special—maybe just a demon-possessed girl from an insignificant town—for Him to save you and turn your sorrow into hope.
D. Seek the risen Savior obediently.
He isn’t an Aladdin’s genie, to meet your every wish. He won’t necessarily solve all your problems the way that you think He should. He is the Lord. He commands and His servants must obey. When Jesus told Mary to stop clinging to Him and go to His brethren, I’m sure that she would rather have stayed right there with Jesus. We don’t know whether He vanished before she left, but if He didn’t, it would have been difficult to obey His command. Leave this encounter with the risen Savior to go to a bunch of depressed men who wouldn’t believe her anyway? But, Mary obeyed.
Often, when you seek the Lord, He will not grant your request directly. Instead, He will command you to do something you may not want to do at first. But as you obey Him, He will turn your sorrow into hope.
Conclusion
During World War II, a secret message got through to some American prisoners in a German concentration camp that the war was over. But it would be three more days before that word got to their German captors. During those three days, nothing changed in terms of their hardships in the prison. But their attitude changed from despair to hope. They knew that soon they would be released because the Allies had won the war.
Whatever your sorrows or trials today, you can have hope because Jesus won the victory over death. He has risen and He asks you the same questions that He asked Mary: “Why are you weeping?” “Whom are you seeking?” If through your tears, you will seek the risen Savior honestly, diligently, personally, and obediently, He will turn your sorrows into hope.
Application Questions
- How can we know whether our grieving is proper or excessive? Where are the limits (biblically)?
- Some attempt to comfort the grieving by saying that God was not sovereign over the tragedy. Why does this false teaching rob us of comfort, rather than give us comfort?
- Why does everything in the Christian faith rest on the bodily resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:12-19)?
- When we have failed the Lord badly, how can we be assured of His forgiveness and restoration?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
Related Topics: Christian Life, Resurrection, Suffering, Trials, Persecution