The Superior Covenant

By Stephen Kring

Newness is centrally important to the New Testament. That is why the New Testament is called the "new testament" or "covenant" (Gk. kaine diatheke). This radical newness is the reason why the teaching of Jesus has been rejected (even though it is new) by so many and why many wish to diminish that newness. - Carl B. Hoch, Jr. 

We are sometimes in danger of treating God's Word as if it were a collection of loose, unclassified gems. The Bible then becomes a mere source-book of "precious thoughts." When it is handled in this way, many important things are lost to view: the historical development of God's redemptive purposes; his people's increased theological understanding as he progressively reveals himself and his ways; the literary structure which binds together a book or a discourse into coherent themes and sub-themes. On the other hand, when these historical, theological, and literary themes are properly considered, they contribute in important ways to our understanding of each part of the Bible. - Donald A. Carson   

It would be an understatement to acknowledge that Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians is not the easiest of his epistles to understand. And the third chapter is surely not the easiest chapter in the letter. Commentator/scholar Carol Stockhausen quotes the famous A. T. Hanson as saying that 2 Corinthians 3:18 is "the Mount Everest of Pauline texts as far as difficulty is concerned." [1] She later adds that "Paul is not in a mess in 2 Corinthians 3, although an exegete easily might be." [2] But, although cautioned and humbled by these reminders, it is with glad anticipation that we approach a passage that our God, with good reason, has graciously given to us, His children.

Context 

Second Corinthians reveals to us the heart of the apostle Paul. [3] His Christian character, [4] his apostleship [5] and his weaknesses [6] have been the subjects of attack by satanically inspired "super-apostles" in ancient Corinth. Paul's children there have begun to listen to these opponents. His aim is to regain their lost love and esteem in the Lord. [7]

It is crucial for the church that this be accomplished, not simply because Paul would feel hurt otherwise, but because of the apostolic ministry Paul was called by God to exercise in the church of Christ. His ministry was one of foundation-laying. The church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the corner stone" (Eph. 2:20). In the early church "they [i.e., the growing believers] were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching" (Acts 2:42). Paul writes elsewhere that "According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation" (1 Cor. 3:10a).

If the Corinthian believers turned their backs on Paul, they would be departing from the only solid foundation that a true church can have. Paul had the "mind of Christ." He spoke "God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory" (1 Cor. 2:7,16). Therefore, being well aware of the importance of his own calling and apostolic gifts, Paul writes 2 Corinthians.

Second Corinthians 3 is part of a larger section of the letter, beginning at 2:14 and extending through 7:4. If this section were not so long, we might call it a parenthesis, since 2:14 speaks of hoping to hear news from Corinth via Titus, and 7:5ff. resumes this train of thought by describing Paul's great rejoicing at the good news Titus brought to him in Macedonia. [8] It may be that, as Paul thinks back on the joy that he experienced upon the reception of this good news, his soul overflows with gratitude at the ministry God has given him (cf. 2:14). This overflow of gratitude results in this extended passage (2:14-7:4) which describes the nature and purpose of Paul's ministry. [9]

Theme and Outline of Chapter 3 

Paul's overall emphasis in 2 Corinthians 3 is that the ministry he has been given by the Spirit is superior to that of Moses. It is a ministry that fulfills the prophetic Scriptures (vv. 1-6) as well as one whose glory of necessity must be greater than that of Moses (vv. 7-11). And it is a ministry characterized by a wondrous openness of revelation of the glory of God (vv. 12-18). In this chapter, J. Munck profoundly observes that "The greatest man in the history of Israel is put beneath the traveling tent-maker." [10]

Exposition of 3:1-6 

A preliminary observation might be helpful before we consider the text more particularly. There has been considerable discussion regarding who Paul is referring to in 2 Corinthians by the pronoun "we." Is he speaking of himself and his fellow-workers (perhaps Timothy [1:1])? Does he mean all apostles? Or all believers? Or perhaps (and this view I strongly lean toward) this is an "authorial" plural, referring quite simply to Paul himself? [11] Quite obviously, there could be several ways in which Paul uses the first person pronoun in 2 Corinthians, but what seems clear is that it is Paul who is personally under attack, and thus many passages in this epistle become much easier to understand when we mentally insert "I" instead of "we." Try this approach as you read chapter three.

What is clear is that from verse 1 the setting of this chapter is not one of a classroom in theology where Paul is calmly holding forth on the superiority of the new covenant over the old. This setting is, if nothing else, very polemical. Paul is denying the need for self-commendation or for specific letters of commendation to validate his ministry. The false apostles apparently possessed such letters and demanded Paul produce the same.

In verse 2 Paul indicates his ministry is supported by a far superior letter of recommendation - the Corinthian believers themselves, with their transformed lives. This kind of living letter is what Paul highly treasured. Like the names of the tribes on the breastplate of Aaron, the Corinthians are engraved on Paul's heart. [12] In addition, unlike the secretiveness that must characterize Paul's crafty opponents (cf. 4:2), everyone can know and read [13] Paul's letter. He has nothing to hide. But while the Corinthian saints are his letter and the fruit of his ministry, Paul hastens to add in verse 3 that all glory for this wondrous transformation belongs to the triune God. Note the unforced, natural reference to the Trinity. The believers are an epistle of Christ. They are written by the Spirit of the living God. Clearly, an indestructible letter of validation written by God Himself makes any fading, ink-written letter quite insignificant.

At the end of verse 3 Paul tells us where God does this writing which is now carried out through Paul's ministry. God writes on the hearts of men, on soft tablets of flesh, on human hearts changed and made receptive by the Spirit. Paul contrasts this writing, not to papyrus or parchment on which you write with ink, but to tablets of stone. There is no doubt here that he is clearly referring to God's writing of the law on stone at Mount Sinai. At this point we see that Paul's train of thought is clearly influenced by something more than what naturally comes to mind in comparing papyrus letters with the hearts of people.

Verse 3 is the product of a careful and prayerful examination of a complex of Old Testament passages which Paul is declaring to be fulfilled through his ministry. [14] The following texts are relevant in this regard:

"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer. 31:31-34). 

And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God (Ezek. 11:19-20). 

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God (Ezek. 36:26-28). 

And they shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good, and for the good of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me (Jer. 32:38-40). 

Paul, then, is very bold in saying that the changed lives of the Corinthians, with their fear of God, their knowledge of Him, and their love for His will is clear evidence that the Spirit of God is at work in such a way that all should be able to see that the promised new covenant is here! The old has been superseded. He, Paul, is a minister not of the old, but of that new covenant.

In verse 4 Paul simply and humbly states his confidence that he is indeed a minister of such a glorious covenant. However, his competence, his sufficiency for such a task is not innate. In this respect he is like Moses of old, the minister of the old covenant, who protested that he was not up to the task to which God had called him (Ex. 4:10). Here the Septuagint has "I am not worthy." [15] This is the same word that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 2:16b, twice in 3:5, and again in 3:6. [16] Paul, like Moses centuries before, was overwhelmed when he realized the role God had called him to in the fulfillment of His covenant promises. But, while Paul knew that by himself he was not up to this ministry, he understood that God had made him competent (v. 5), even from the very beginning with his call and commission on the Damascus Road. [17]

Unlike Moses, however, Paul is privileged to be the minister of a covenant that has the power to impart life to dead sinners. "For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (3:6b). The old covenant commanded, and what it commanded was good, but because it was weak through the flesh (Rom. 8:3), "the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death" (Rom. 7:5). The will of God was never written on hearts as a feature of the old covenant. It could result only in condemnation and death (cf. Rom. 3:19-20; 4:15; 6:20; Gal. 3:10).

But, "the Spirit gives life!" [18] The promised Holy Spirit makes all the difference. Following Ezekiel's promise of the Spirit in chapter 36 are interpretive statements in Ezekiel 37:6, 10, and 14 concerning the Valley of Dry Bones. In verse 14 God says to the prophet, "I will put My Spirit in you, and you will come to life and I will place you on your own land." Yes, there is a physical returning to the land after the Babylonian captivity, but this is the minor point in the prophecy compared with the great restoration to life for sinners under the new covenant. And this is exactly what has happened in the Corinthian believers' lives, as Paul reminds them here. Romans 8:1-11 is now their experience. Paul has been their minister to this end. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-6 Paul is pointing this truth out, as a competent minister of the new covenant. He is amazed, and yet confident in his declaration, that he has been chosen of God to be involved in the fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures with regard to the new covenant. This surely should give the Corinthians "occasion to be proud of us" on Paul's behalf (5:12).

Exposition of 3:7-11

The main point of these verses is also very clear. The old covenant had a definite glory. The new covenant is superior and therefore the glory of the new covenant is greater than that of the old. Therefore Paul's ministry, being a new covenant ministry, is indeed a glorious one, in spite of what his opponents are saying about him.

No one questioned the fact that the old covenant came with glory. [19] As evidence of that glory, Paul refers to the shining of Moses' face after coming from the presence of God, having received the tablets of the covenant. This is a clear reference to Exodus 34:29-35. Since this will also be Paul's point of reference in verses 12-18, we include it in its entirety:

And it came about that Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hands as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. And afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him (Ex. 34:29-35).

The old covenant, because it came from the hand of God Himself, was therefore glorious. In fact, it was so glorious that the Israelites could not continue to look at that glory as it was reflected in the face of Moses.

Paul now proceeds to present a series of three arguments from the lesser to the greater (vv. 7-8, 9-10, 11). If the old covenant ministry had glory, then the new covenant must exceed it in glory. First, (vv. 7-8), the old covenant was a ministry of death, since the law was only externally written. Further, although the radiance on Moses' face symbolized the glory of the old covenant, it was plainly a fading, transient radiance. (Paul asserts this in spite of Jewish rabbinical tradition which claimed that "the glory continued to shine unabated from Moses' face up till the day of his death and ever after death in his tomb"). [20] How much more glorious, then, must the ministry of the Spirit be?

Second, (vv. 9-10), the old covenant was a ministry which, because of man's weak and sinful nature, resulted in condemnation. If it still possessed glory, then how much more will the new covenant, which brings justification, excel in glory? In fact, if you compare the glory of the new covenant with that of the old, the new so far outshines it that the old ends up with no glory at all, relatively speaking. It's like holding a penlight up to the sun itself.

Third, (v. 11), Paul refers again to the temporary duration of the old covenant. As he states in Gal. 3:19, "It was added ... until the seed should come." But the new covenant remains. It is permanent. As we saw above in Jeremiah 32:40, God promises, "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good." Hebrews 13:20 speaks of "the blood of the eternal covenant." The conclusion is again inevitable. If the old, temporary covenant had glory, how much more the new permanent one!

None of Paul's opponents would have questioned the glory of Moses' ministry. But in verses 7-11 Paul has clearly shown that his ministry is far more glorious than Moses' could ever be, because of the superiority of the covenant he administers. This is true even though no outward glow radiates from Paul's face.

Exposition of 3:12-18 

Paul now draws a striking contrast between his ministry and that of Moses, showing that his new covenant ministry is characterized by a wondrous openness of revelation of the glory of God. This theme is developed by expounding the significance of the veiling of Moses' face.

Verse 12 is transitional. Since Paul was certain that he was the minister of a glorious new covenant, and that this new covenant would never pass away like the old, he knew he could speak the truth openly, with great boldness, without fear, holding nothing back.

Moses' ministry could not be characterized by this kind of openness. He had to hide the glory of God reflected in his face from the children of Israel. They could glimpse only a bit of the glory for a short time, then Moses would put on the veil. (The Authorized Version is misleading in Exodus 34:33 where it reads, "and till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face." It should read, "And when ....") Israel could look on the glory, but not continuously, not eis to telos, not "right on to the end" of even a fading glory (v. 13). [21]

This raises the question of why this was so. Why couldn't Israel look continuously on this glory? Exodus 32 provides the answer. Even as Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the covenant, the Israelites were breaking that covenant. God's laws were never written on their minds and hearts. They were a rebellious nation whose eyes could not behold the glory of God as could Moses. The veil speaks loudly of Israel's lost opportunities and lost glory. It is "an eloquent commentary upon the history of Israel in the Old Testament." [22] Second Corinthians 3:14 begins, "But their minds were hardened ...." Even in Isaiah's day, while he was allowed to see something of God's glory, he was told, "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed" (Isa. 6:10). John brings this prophecy up to date in John 12:37-41 when he says concerning Jesus in verses 37-38, "But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled." Jesus goes on to quote Isaiah 6:10. Paul surely has this in mind. He knows that Moses' veil is a symbol of the ongoing judicial hardening of Israel even in his day. They read Moses in their synagogues, but they still cannot see the glory of God, because the glory of God is seen "in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6), whom they deny. As Jesus so clearly states, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life .... For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me" (John 5:39-40, 46). The veil, once literally on Moses' face, now lies on the hearts of the old covenant people when they read Moses. They still cannot see in Paul's day (v. 15).

But there is hope! Verse 16 takes us back again to Exodus 34:34. "But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil." Likewise, Paul says, today, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, in the sense of being converted, then they too can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The veil is removed from their Satan-blinded eyes (4:3-4).

In verse 17, Paul looks back to verse 16 and the allusion made to Moses' turning to the Lord and interprets it for us. "The Lord" of Exodus 34:34 "is" for us "the Spirit." What ought to come flooding into our minds are all those references to the new covenant and the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in taking the things of Christ and revealing them to us, in regenerating us, in freeing us from the law of sin and death, in helping us to put to death the deeds of the body and therefore live, in enabling us to cry "Abba, Father." Israel may have been free from Egyptian bondage, but as a nation they remained slaves of sin. The one who truly is free is the one who has, by the Spirit, heard and believed the message of the new covenant, promised in the old, the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now for the finale. Under the ministration of death in Exodus 34, only Moses entered into God's presence. Only he had no veil between himself and God's glory. But under the ministry of the Spirit, all who are in the new covenant are privileged to continuously behold [23] the glory of the Lord! Their veil has been taken away permanently. [24]

But, what does "beholding as in a mirror" mean? There are many suggestions. Some say it refers to how clearly we can see, just like looking in a mirror. Others think it is a reminder that we do not yet see God's glory perfectly. Metal mirrors did not produce perfect reflections. Still others would try to tell us what the mirror represents. Is it Christ? Is it the Word of God? Is it the gospel? A fourth approach is to translate it as "reflecting" rather than "beholding." My view, without being dogmatic, is that Paul is saying that a new covenant believer looks at the glory of God like a person looks at himself in a mirror. Exactly how do people look at themselves? In ancient custom, when mirrors were a luxury item, you would take full advantage of the opportunity and take a good, long look. It would not be a brief glance. You would look very carefully, from this angle and from the other. So also the believer, who takes a good long look! Now, we all can, with unveiled face, gaze intently and uninterruptedly at our great and glorious God as He reveals Himself to us by the Spirit in His Son Jesus Christ.

What happens when we do this? The Spirit of God transforms us into the image of the Christ whom we behold. We go from one degree of glory to a higher degree of glory. Like Moses, we reflect in our lives the glory of the one whom we are beholding. Then, as John reminds us, "It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2). Praise God!

Therefore Paul is very bold in revealing to the Corinthians the whole counsel of God. Wright sums up Paul's attitude this way:

The reason we have boldness is this: you, unlike the Israelites before whom the glory (even of the O.C.) had to be veiled, possess the Spirit because you are within the N.C., and you are therefore able to bear the bold, direct revelation of God's glory. [25] 

"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him," yet "to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God" (1 Cor. 2:9-10). Paul holds nothing back. What he hears in secret he preaches on the housetops, for this is the ministry of the new covenant.

Summary 

Paul has certainly given the Corinthians reason to glory in their apostle. His ministry is greater than that of Moses. It is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Because of the superior nature of the covenant he administers, Paul's ministry has a glory that makes the glory of the old covenant fade into insignificance. He, unlike Moses, does not need to veil anything from the true Israel of God. They can all continuously gaze upon the full revelation of God's glory. Paul, therefore, can use great boldness of speech.

Paul himself is greatly encouraged by all of these thoughts, and he certainly hopes his children at Corinth are as well. As he states in 4:1, "Therefore since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart."

Some Points for Reflection 

Having spent some time considering the exegesis of 2 Corinthians 3, what are the areas of truth this passage puts before us? What contributions does this particular text make to our living, by the Spirit, under the new covenant?

In the field of pastoral theology, verses 1-3 remind us of how important the changed lives of our people really are. We must earnestly pray that through our labors God will produce living letters. As Paul states, "For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy" (1 Thess. 2:19-20). Is God writing on the hearts of saints and sinners through your ministry?

In the whole area of Pauline studies, we can plainly see how Paul compares himself to Moses. His ministry is greater than that of Moses. Peter R. Jones goes even further and suggests that Paul is the "second Moses to the New Covenant community." [26] Just as it was Moses' task to receive and establish in written form and practice the Sinaitic Covenant between Yahweh and His people, so Paul is claiming as much for himself under the new covenant. [27] Jones demonstrates how the Scriptures refer to "planting" and "founding" to describe

1. creation, [28]
2. the establishment and later restoration of IsraeI, [29] and 
3. the establishment of the church, which, Jones asserts, was accomplished by Paul. [30] 

Is Jones right? Is Paul the second Moses? My initial assessment is that while Jones is correct in ascribing to Paul an eschatological and foundational role, he needs to broaden the base to include the entire apostolic (and prophetic) band as Ephesians 2:20 reminds us. Jesus' words to Peter in Matthew 16:18f must also be considered. Paul did receive an abundance of revelation. He "labored even more than all of them" (1 Cor. 15:10), but he was not alone, as was Moses. Also, while Paul does compare himself to Moses, we must never forget that it is Christ Himself who is the one greater than Moses (cf. John 1:17; Heb. 3:2-6).

In the realm of the theology of the covenants, this passage also has something to contribute. While we who are preachers of God's word will and must preach from the Old Testament Scriptures, yet we, like Paul, are very definitely ministers of the new covenant and not of the old covenant. It is important that we understand and carefully work out this distinction. The intention of this issue of Reformation & Revival Journal is to assist church leaders toward this end.

Also, we need to consider what is specifically written on the hearts of new covenant believers by the Spirit of God. The Ten Commandments were written by God on tablets of stone on Mount Sinai. Jeremiah 31:33 promises that God's law will be written on the heart under the new covenant. Philip Hughes notes, "It is most important to realize that it is the selfsame law which was graven on tables of stone at Sinai that in this age of the new covenant is graven on the tables of the human heart by the Holy Spirit." [31] In all honesty the exegesis of 2 Corinthians 3 compels us to ask, "But is he right?" Is this how we best understand Jeremiah's prophecy? If it is the "selfsame law," then are Seventh-day Baptists (there is a long-standing, very tiny, group for whom this is their major distinctive from other Baptist brethren) more consistent than Baptists who worship on the first day of the week? If it is the "selfsame law," then does Hughes feel that the form in which God gave His law at Sinai was its final form and that Jesus contributed nothing new or deeper? Surely both the Sermon on the Mount and John 13:34 suggest otherwise.

Another related area that needs exploring is what it means that God's law is written on our hearts. Does this mean that we need no further instruction as to what God expects of us? Surely not. Otherwise there would be no need for many of the exhortations in the epistles. Or, does it mean that God gives us a deep desire to obey Him, whatever His commands may be?

Further, in this area of the covenants, we may need to clarify for many people how Israelites were saved while living under the old covenant. If this covenant killed and was a ministry of death and condemnation, then how could anyone be saved? We must show how God graciously pointed believers within Israel ahead, beyond the old covenant, to the coming seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, the suffering servant, the prophet like Moses, and the priest like Melchizedek, who would redeem Israel from all their iniquities. They were not saved by being in the old covenant, but by being in it they were recipients of God's revelation concerning the new covenant, and by faith in God's promises and provisions those who believed were saved.

In the realm of sanctification, verse 18 has its own rich contribution. When are we and our people transformed? As we behold the glory of God! Our preaching must be God-centered, not man-centered. Where do we behold the glory of God? "In the face of Jesus Christ" (4: 6). Our preaching must be Christocentric. We must determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. From the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, from the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles to the book of Revelation, we must preach Him who is the very image of the invisible God, so that unveiled new covenant believers will be transformed more and more into the same likeness!

For Pastors Who Want the Pauline Spirit 

Can we enter into the Pauline spirit which breathes throughout 2 Corinthians 3? If we are going to, then it must begin with the humble cry to God, "Who is sufficient for these things?" If Moses felt unworthy to be the minister of God's old covenant, can we dare be brash and self-confident in grabbing hold of new covenant ministry? God forbid! We can only undertake such a high and holy ministry if our sufficiency is from God.

Then, if God has indeed gifted and chosen us for such ministry, may we never forget how glorious it is. Through us, in fulfillment of His prophetic word, God will write on sinners' hearts in such a way that they will delight in His commands, fear Him, and truly live. It is the work of Christ by the Spirit. May we ever seek Him for this blessing.

The glory of Sinai and that on Moses' face was a visible one. But we must never forget that the glory that pertains to our ministry is far greater and more lasting than any old covenant glory could ever be. We must magnify our ministry.

Moses could not reveal to the people all the glory he saw. Their hearts were hardened. But under the new covenant we must hold nothing back from our people, those who have soft hearts of flesh, those who all know the Lord, "from the least to the greatest of them" (Heb. 8:11). The more of Christ we can show them the better! For as they gaze on Him, they will be transformed into His image from glory unto glory. What a calling! To give ourselves to seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and with great boldness to tell all we see in faithfulness to God's revelation in His holy Word.

We cannot quit. We cannot slacken our labors. We must not allow any opponent, incited by Satan, to turn us from our new covenant ministry. Why not? Because, when we see our ministry as Paul saw it, we will say, "Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart" (4:1).

Author 

Rev. Stephen Kring is pastor of Bethesda Baptist Church, Delhi, Ontario. He originally presented this article as a formal paper to the Fellowship for Reformation and Pastoral Studies (FRPS) in Ontario, Canada, in December 1993.

Endnotes 

1. Stockhausen, 32. 
2. Ibid., 35. 
3. Cf. 6:11-13 - "Our mouth has spoken freely to you, 0 Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. How in like exchange - I speak as to children - open wide to us also." 
4. Cf. 1:17 - "Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? On that which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yes, yes and no, no at the same time?" 
5. Cf. 12:11-12 - "I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles." 
6. Cf. 12:10 - "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." 
7. Cf. 1:13b-14 - "I hope you will understand until the end; just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus." 
8. Cf. 7:6-7 - "But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more." 
9. Carson, 261.
10. Munck, as quoted by Peter Jones in God's Inerrant Word, 233. 
11. Montgomery, 237. 
12. The Greek participle for "written" is the same in the LXX (Ex. 36:21; Eng. - Ex. 39:14) as in 2 Corinthians 3:2 (eggegrammena/eggegrammene) 
13. Note the interesting play on words in the Greek (ginoskomene kai anaginoskomene). 
14. Stockhausen, 43ff.
15. Greek: hikanos. 
16. Greek: hikanos - hikanoi - hikanotes - hikanosen. 
17. Greek aorist tense - completed action in the past - hikanosen. 
18. Origen, followed by others, misinterpreted this statement as justification for an allegorical method of interpretation and an argument against a literal interpretation of Scripture. 
19. Cf. Deuteronomy 4:33-36; Hebrews 12:18-21. 
20. Hughes, 110. 
21. There is much discussion concerning the meaning of eis to telos. Some feel it refers to the new covenant. Christ is the goal, the telos of the law. The Israelites could not see Him. Others suggest that Moses veiled his face to hide from the Israelites the fact that the glory of the old covenant was fading. They must not know this. This interpretation, however, suggests deception on Moses' part, which cannot be maintained. I think the answer is much simpler. With Hughes (p. 109), I feel that all Paul is saying is that the Israelites were limited in the amount of time they could look at the glory of God reflected in Moses' face. 
22. Dumbrell, 109. 
23. The Greek participle is in the present tense, indicating continuous action (katotriz menoi). 
24. The Greek participle is in the perfect tense, indicating completed action in the past, but with continuous results in the present (anakekalumeno).  
25. Wright, 144.
26. Montgomery, 219. 
27. Ibid., 225. 
28. Cf. Isaiah 51:16; Proverbs 3:19. 
29. Cf. Exodus 15:17; Jeremiah 11:17; 24:6. 
30. Cf. 1 Corinthians 3:6, 10. This is developed in Montgomery, 220-21. 
31. Hughes, 90.

Bibliography

• Carson, D.A., Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris. An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992). 
• Dumbrell, William. The End of the Beginning: Revelation 21- 22 and the Old Testament (Australia: Lancer Books, 1985). Guthrie, William. New Testament Introduction (Revised ed.). Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1990). 
• Hodge, Charles. Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950). 
• Hughes, Philip E. Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962). 
• Martin, Ralph P. 2 Corinthians. Word Biblical Commentary (Milton Keynes, England: Word Publishing, 1986). 
• Montgomery, John Warwick. God's Inerrant Word: An International Symposium on the Trustworthiness of Scripture. (Chapter 10 - "The Apostle Paul: Second Moses to the New Covenant Community," Peter R. Jones, 219-41) J.W. Montgomery, ed. (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1974). 
• Plummer, Alfred. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. The International Critical Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915). 
• Stockhausen, Carol. Moses' Veil and the Glory of the New Covenant (Analecta Biblica: Investigationes Scientificae in Res Biblicas, 116.) (Rome: Editrice Pontificio Instituto Biblico, 1989). 
• Wright, N. T. The Glory of Christ in the New Testament: Studies in Christology in Memory of George Bradford Caird. (Chapter 10- "Reflected Glory: 2 Corinthians 3:18," N. T. Wright, 139-50) L. D. Hurst and N. T. Wright (eds.) (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

Justification: The Status of the Christian

By Steven A. Hein

When we lack the peace of God, we should turn to our peace with God. - Robert Horn 

God does not justify us because we are worthy, but justifying us makes us worthy. - Thomas Watson 

Nobody has understood Christianity who does not understand ... the word "justified." - John R. W. Stott  

If the call of God can be seen as a journey to our final heavenly home, it ought also be seen as a journey that continually traverses the agony and the ecstasy of the cross of Christ. Our sojourn through life involves a continual tension between what we experience in daily living about who and what we are, and what we understand by faith. It is the tension between the dual realities of sin and grace: between living as a sin-corrupted citizen of this fallen creation, yet a righteous member of the kingdom of God. Faith requires a vision by which we might become reconciled to the experiences of living in a fallen creation. And in the cross of Christ, that vision can be found.

Our vision of the manner in which God is redemptively at work in the world and in our life can be helpfully described by the idea of  "Salvific worldliness" as best seen and climaxed in the cross of Christ. The world of our experience takes in the shame, agony and seeming abandonment of God in the cross. We see evil openly at work producing its fruit of injustice and suffering in the One who hangs between two thieves. Yet, to faith is given a vision of the merciful Creator who turns the tables on the powers of evil to accomplish His saving purpose. Oddly, we notice, however, that He does not banish evil. Rather, He uses it to accomplish its own defeat. An incredible exchange is made. God places the world's evil on the righteous Jesus, and His righteousness is imputed to us. A sham atonement for trumped-up sins becomes a real atonement for the sins of the world. Through the world's greatest injustice, God justifies the world.

God's Word provides for us a saving picture of the cross, and faith receives it. It also bestows the righteousness of the cross - and faith receives that as well. Our sense experience of the cross tells us one thing, our faith another. Our vision of the cross embraces the tension of both. And what corresponds to tension for us, is method for God. Salvific worldliness is not simply the mystery of an infinite God at work with finite means, it is the tension of a holy and gracious God accomplishing His saving purposes in a fallen creation enlisting even corrupted means.

As God's supreme call of His Son to the cross presents us a vision with a tension between what is open to experience and what must be held by faith, so also does living in God's call as His adopted sons and daughters. Christian life in the old creation is God's call to the full range of possible experiences one can encounter from being in the world together with the full inheritance of God's salvation. But neither our old world experiences of our fallen existence nor the blessings of Christ given to faith cancel the other out. Perhaps Luther's "in, with and under" language may be appropriate here. We hold our divine citizenship and all of God's blessings of salvation in, with and under our temporal citizenship and all that its fallen character can bring us. What flows from our temporal citizenship is fully given to our senses, but what flows from our divine citizenship is given to faith. The life of Christ climaxed in the cross is the ultimate expression of this tension. As we have been called to live in Christ, that tension which is penultimate frames out the big picture of Christian life.

Two things must be clarified, however, about our vision of Christian life in the cross of Christ. First, we must keep in mind that the life we are describing is temporary and provisional. Life in the cross is lived with an Easter faith in the One who suffered and died, rose again and ascended to the glory of the Father. The suffering servant is not the exalted Lord who is poised to crash our experience with the full splendor of our inheritance. The empty tomb anchors our faith with confidence about a better day that is coming when the inheritance of faith becomes the life of experience. Salvation for God's children who are living in the cross is now, and not yet. Second, the tension between the life of worldly experience and the truth of faith is encountered in the daily living of the believer by oscillating back and forth between them. Sometimes we are captivated by the impact of living as citizens of this fallen world, only then to be thrown back onto the promises of faith.

Christian Self-Identity

How do the contours of salvific worldliness in the cross of Christ reveal who and what we are in Christ? Each of us is a unique person, created in the image of God, yet corrupted by sin inherited from the fall of Adam. To inquire about Christian self-identity is to explore that self that Christ has recreated by His death and resurrection through our baptism. Christ has carried out saving work for us, to us and in us - saving work that has profoundly affected our identity.

There are two basic questions that anyone can ask about self-identity, and most people begin asking them during adolescence, that time of increased self-awareness. Nevertheless, they continually press for satisfactory answers throughout life. Our sense of self-identity is tied to our answers of these questions:

1. Who am I? and 
2. What am I? 

The answers to these questions form the basic or foundational features of our identity. If we have no answers, we may well develop an identity crisis. If we do not have satisfactory answers, we definitely have an identity problem that must be solved for life to have positive meaning. For the Christian, the question of self-identity is tied to God's address in His Word. His answers provide the meaning for what it means to be a child of God and a member of Christ's body, the church. Christian life revolves around God's work to integrate His redemptive work into our self-identity. He intends to weave the fabric of His saving purpose in Christ into all of the individual characteristics that make each of us unique.

With this in mind, Luther combined the above two self-identity questions and paradoxically described the Christian self as a simultaneous sinner/saint. Thus "a Christian man is righteous and a sinner at the same time, holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God." [1] In this article I want to probe the rich significance of this paradox and what it reveals about the kind of people we are as God's children in Christ.

The "Who am I" question addresses the issue of our status. It is an inquiry about our acceptability and place in community. Am I a person who counts? Do I have standing? Can I be loved and accepted just as I am? Are my places and acceptability secure or, if not, what does it take to make them secure? These questions are very important. Our God is a multi-personal God who in Himself exists in personal relationship. He created us as a reflection of Himself, personal beings designed to live in significant relationship and community with Himself and other similar created beings. As God is a community of love in Himself, He created us to be joyfully fulfilled by community in love relationships, dependent and grounded in His infinite love. Human beings are fundamentally relational creatures reflecting a relational God.

The person who sincerely asks, "Who am I" knows on the gut-feeling level how important this question is. It addresses our deepest, most crucial, need to belong; to belong significantly and securely in relationships where we may be accepted as we are and have meaningful personal impact. To have such a status is truly to have life. Without such a status we just exist - fragmented, cut off and alone. As fallen image bearers in rebellion against our Maker, people are bent upon finding or achieving acceptable status in every quarter except where it may be found. None seek after God, the One to whom we were made to belong. And, in a sense, no wonder! He is a holy and righteous God, and we are corrupted sinners who cannot stand or belong under the demands of His Justice. Moreover, our sinful self wants nothing of a dependent community under His lordship. Amazingly, however, Christ has sought us out, made us His own, and we now bear His name.

So who am I, as a Christian? Luther said that we all have the status of saints. The word saint literally means "a holy or righteous one." Luther's point was that all who have been brought by the Spirit into a saving faith relationship with Christ have a righteous, blameless standing with God. Christians have become citizens of the kingdom of God, members of the body of Christ, adopted sons and daughters in the family of God. God has given us full standing in the economy of His redemptive community. We have secured status, for we now belong to God.

Justified Sainthood 

This standing or status is ours because we have received God's full and complete justification through faith in Christ. We are justified because Christ has fully paid for the guilt of our sin on the cross. Though our status was that of a guilty sinner, Christ canceled our debt and, therefore, God declared us to be holy, innocent and righteous for the sake of Christ's atonement. God has declared us to be innocent. Christians have received this gift (grace) through a Spirit wrought faith in baptism, or in the preaching of this Word of grace. We have a holy and just status: we are saints of God.

Perhaps God's work of justification by which we have saintly status can be clarified in the following manner. The Scriptures address our justification from three important vantage points. First, and most importantly, justification is described from the perspective of its appropriation by God. In this context, the significance of Christ's universal atonement is the focus. God reconciled the whole world of sinners to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Cor. 5:19). He has declared all sinners to be innocent and righteous, forgiven for the sake of Christ's all-sufficient death for the penalty of sin. God has appropriated the status of sainthood, perfect righteousness and acceptability for the whole world in Christ's saving death and resurrection.

Second, we encounter God's justification in the context of its revelation and bestowal upon people. Justification - saintly status - is revealed and brought to specific individual sinners through the proclaimed gospel and the administered sacraments. We have no direct access by our own reasoning or perceptual capacities to the drama of the cross. The events of Calvary took place almost two thousand years ago, and we were not there. Moreover, even if we had personally witnessed them, all we would have seen was the shame and agony of One dying an ugly criminal's death, seemingly abandoned by God. With the powers of reason and perception, the cross seems like another pathetic picture of the silence and abandonment of God. The cross simply looks like another example of the stranglehold that evil has on the old fallen creation. The enormous battle with the powers of sin and death was hidden. The great exchange where Jesus took on our sin and we are reckoned with His righteousness took place on the other side of the interface with eternity. If we are to know anything about this event as the saving event that rescues our destiny from death and destruction, then God must crash our existence with such a disclosure. And in the gospel He has and He does.

The gospel is God's power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). Through this saving Word, God declares sinners forgiven, holy saints, loved and accepted just as they are, on account of Christ's atonement. The gospel brings us to the cross of Christ over time and eternity and we hear God's voice speaking to us: "Sinner, I declare that you are forgiven, holy, innocent and righteous. I love you and accept you just as you are. You are totally secure in My unconditional love, now and forever for the sake of the perfect sacrifice of My Son. You belong to Me and My family as My child forever."

The gospel is always God's announcement of His already existing acceptance and forgiveness of the sinner. Justification is not presented in the gospel as a future possibility or bargain that can be ours if we will fulfill certain conditions. It is not mere information about some "exciting offer" that God has for us as if we can take advantage of it by acting fast and doing something'to make it a reality. There is no "small print" connected with God's forgiveness in the cross of Christ which presents the "catch" about all the conditions we must first meet. It is His pronouncement of unconditional acceptance and righteousness from and on the basis of the atonement of Christ, coming to individual sinners in every age and place. Strictly speaking, the gospel does not present the offer or the possibility of forgiveness; it unconditionally proclaims it as an already given reality and bestows it on the sinner. God says, "You are forgiven!" Period! There are no "ifs," "ands" or "buts" that first require us to do something to make it so. We do not have to make a commitment, say a sincere prayer, give our heart to Jesus or clean up our lives. Nothing! "But, isn't this cheap grace?" some might ask. No, it is not cheap grace - it's absolutely, unconditionally free!

"Ah!" we may think. We get it now. We receive God's forgiveness and acceptance without conditions, but now that we have it, we must clean up our lives and bring forth good works to keep it. Is that it? No! The gospel presents God's forgiveness as an unconditional promise that He shall be gracious to us now and forever for the sake of Christ. He will never count our trespasses against us and will unconditionally accept us as His righteous and innocent child forever. He promises. The gospel announces and applies the righteousness of Christ to us for eternity. There are no conditions attached to His forgiveness and acceptance - not now, not ever! The gospel is the end of all works of the law and conditional thinking about God.

Also of crucial importance, the Scriptures explain how we can receive God's saving gift of justification. In this context, the Scriptures proclaim that we are justified through faith apart from all works or human initiative (Rom. 3:28). Such a faith that merely trusts in the verdict of the cross is itself a gift, created and preserved by the Holy Spirit through the gospel (1 Cor. 12:3). Through faith we personally grasp and cling to our innocent forgiven standing and live in it. Faith does not create this status, it receives it. We should not look upon faith as a meritorious virtue that God has demanded in order to be forgiven - as if God were saying, "I have some forgiveness for those who can muster some good believing in me. Have you got what it takes?" Faith is not our side of a bargain that then will bring us forgiveness and a God who will be gracious to us. Moreover, saving faith is not the same thing as making a commitment. God is not demanding faith as if to say, "If you will commit yourself to Me, I will commit Myself and My forgiveness to you." Faith is not committing to Christ, it is receiving His gracious commitment to us. Moreover, faith itself is the product of God's work and commitment to us through His Word of the gospel.

The gospel is not potentially saving information that we can take advantage of if we make the right decision or commitment. "It is the power of God for salvation" (Rom. 1:16). "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). The cross of Christ appropriated our righteousness before God; the gospel reveals. and bestows it; and through a Spirit-wrought faith, we personally receive and make it our own. Moreover, all this saving work (appropriation, revelation and bestowal, and reception) is God's activity. We are merely the recipients.

The Paradox of Faith 

Christians are sometimes confused about saving faith and how we come to possess it. The biblical record seems to confront the reader with a paradox. On the one hand, the Scriptures often treat the subject of faith from the standpoint of its necessity, In answer to his question, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul responded to the jailer at Philippi, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved. (Acts 16:31)." Here as elsewhere in Scripture, faith is commanded as something' for us to do. On the other hand, when the question is how can we so believe and trust in the promises of the gospel, Paul explains that it is "by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8). How do we reconcile the biblical command to believe with the gift character of faith as a blessing from God?

The solution lies in the power of God's saving word. Here God speaks to the sinner His gracious word of forgiveness and acceptance and exhorts us to believe. Indeed, He commands it, as if to say, "Let there be faith!" And through His word and command, God creates what He commands when, where, and as He chooses. The Holy Spirit engenders our faith through the power of His word of forgiveness. God's love and forgiveness, which are bestowed upon us in the gospel, create the trust, the faith by which we receive and live in them.

"So faith comes from the hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). No one comes to Christ and embraces His gift of righteousness but by God's drawing power.

Some Christians erroneously conclude that since God commands us to believe, that implies some ability on our part to respond accordingly. Such reasoning does not accord with the biblical witness. In Genesis we read that God created human beings by His word and command. This did not imply that somehow lifeless dust of the ground had an ability to become a human child of God. God did not come up to some piece of ground and ask if it would like to become a human being, nor did He present lifeless clay with all the exciting possibilities of what life could be like as a personal being and then extend an invitation for a commitment or decision to actualize the possibility. He simply said, "Let us make man ..." and it was so (Gen. 1:26). As it was with the old creation, so also with new life in Christ. The spiritually-lifeless sinner has no more ability to self-transform into a new creation in Christ than the dust had in the beginning to become a human being. Both instances provide examples of the awesome creative power of God's word when it is sent forth to accomplish His life-giving purposes.

In the very same way, He continually nourishes and builds up our trusting faith through the gospel in the word and sacrament as we feed on them. As with God's old creation, so also with new life in Christ. God creates and preserves through His Word. That Word is both the eternal Son of God and His creative command - "Let there be ..." or "Believe!" As with all gifts of God, they flow from His will and work, not ours. What God commands, He creates, and what He demands, He gives. He demands perfect righteousness to be His child and He freely gives that status in His gospel; and He commands faith in this promise and then creates it through His saving word.

Perhaps we can focus the genesis of faith in another way. The gospel can be thought of as the message of God's dying love and acceptance in the cross of Christ. Through His saving word He courts rebellious sinners who are alienated from Him and His love. It's something like the old story of John and Marsha. John loves Marsha and he is determined to have her. as his wife. She, however, thinks he is an absolute nerd and will have nothing to do with him. This does not faze John in the least, and he continues to shower her with loving actions and words. Then something mysterious happens in the story as it often does in real life; she "falls in love" with him. She did not plan on this happening. Moreover, no conscious decision was made on her part. Indeed, her discovery that she now does in fact love John comes as an incredible surprise to her. She is totally dumbfounded by the whole turn of events! We are not.

We, of course, know what happened to Marsha. It was the power of love at work that transformed her. It happens every day. In the magic of interpersonal relations, love has the power to beget love. No coercion or compulsion was present, but certainly no decision was involved either. Marsha's love was nurtured and brought forth by John. Moreover, it was no surprise to him; he intended that to happen right from the beginning. In the same way our Creator God, the gracious Lover of sinners, comes to rebellious humans through the gospel and woos them with His saving work and words of dying love and forgiveness. By the mysterious power of His Spirit through His loving Word, sinners "fall in trust" with their Creator/Redeemer, a trusting faith that then blossoms into a returning love. Marsha became John's wife in the story, and we rebellious sinners who have fallen into faith with the gracious God have become the bride of Christ. And as with John, our loving God intended it all from the beginning - yes, even before the beginning. Before the foundation of the world, he chose us to be blameless in His sight and by His predestining love He adopted us to be His children in Christ (Eph. 1 :4-5).

Personal Security in Justification 

The gospel proclaims God's fulfillment of the sinner's need for status through the saving work of Christ. At its essential core, the gospel proclaims our justification. This reality comprises the foundation for all aspects of Christian life and Christian living. It is the saving reality that defines who we are as the people of God. Nothing is more crucial to a confident and growing Christian walk than an ever deepening and trusted awareness of its foundation for what we are and do as the people of God. The justified life of the believer comprises the continual zenith of our fellowship with God in this life. The essence of the Christian's walk with God is simply to grow and live more completely in the reality that we are His holy, forgiven and loved children just as we are for the sake of the cross of Christ. Christian life is the call to express it, grow in it and get used to it. The core of life with God in the old creation is getting used to being holy and righteous saints as the unconditional gift of the gracious God. With this vision for now, we await the resurrected life in the world to come.

What an incredibly wonderful and liberating thing our saintly status is! One of the most crucial human needs we have as sinful beings is the need for personal security. We need to have status or standing as people who are loved and accepted, just as we are. We need someone who will always be there for us and not forsake us. We ache for a place among others to belong, really belong as a part of a community. Community and acceptability are simply necessary for life to have fulfillment and meaning. Think of all of the ways that we insecure, sinful humans are trying to achieve, bargain for, or manipulate others with power, wealth and our own affection to acquire such a secure status. And it all ends in frustrating, bitter failure. Sooner or later we come to the painful realization that other humans are just as frail and needy as we are and thus are not up to delivering such security and unconditional love. Rather, they are simply looking for the same thing for themselves. We rest secure and unconditionally loved in the cross of Christ, or there is no rest or security for us at all.

When God created Adam and Eve, our first parents, community, acceptability and real security were attributes of their very existence. They had no relational needs, as God created them holy and righteous in nature and they lived in a community of total harmony with Himself at the center of their existence. If someone could have met Adam in the garden ("pre-apple'') and told him about the crucial human: needs of security and Significance for personal well-being, he probably would have replied with a baffled "Huh?" Total well-being was simply a nonreflected given to human existence. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve had no needs. But, as sin destroyed their righteous nature and brought alienation to the core of human existence, what was once a given has now become a lack. As sons and daughters of Adam, dead in our trespasses, we desperately need now what we lack. The presence of needs always signals a deficit, a void that ultimately only God's saving work in all of its fullness can permanently fill. Sin has rendered us very needy persons. We need self-worth and a sense of well-being for life to be worth living. God has demonstrated our inestimable self-worth in that "while we were sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). His saving work brings the only true well-being that is now and forever. The need for security so crucial for well-being is met eternally in our justified status as saints through Christ's saving work; it is seen on the cross, revealed and bestowed in the gospel and received by faith.

Sinfulness: The Character of the Christian

Often non-Christians become quite confused about what believers mean when they witness about being saved and receiving salvation from Christ. Our post-Christian culture has brought with it a general ignorance not only about Christianity but also about the meaning of many of the terms and concepts by which the faith has been communicated in Scripture and in the history of the church. How might we effectively communicate what we mean by salvation to the nonbeliever when we try to explain that only God in Christ can truly deliver it? One Christian thinker has expressed it this way. "Salvation is complete personal well-being, now and forever. And that is only possible with a restored relationship with our Creator through His Son, Jesus Christ."

Working with this understanding, can we Christians claim that we have already been saved? Perhaps we must best answer with a definite "yes" and "no." From the standpoint of a secure status of being forgiven and thus loved and accepted just as we are - a crucial need for personal well-being - we can definitely say, "Yes, we are already saved through faith in Christ." We can say, "I am justified; I am now a child of God, a full-status saint in His kingdom, now and forever." But must we not also admit that sometimes we don't think, act or feel very secure in God's love? We cling to our saintly status by faith and we trust God's promise that it shall be forever. All the while we are worthy subjects each day to pray, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief." We claim our justification in this life by faith, not by sight and it is often a fragile faith that is in the "needs improvement" category. And is it not true that much of our sinful and selfish behavior is in the service of attempting to acquire status and security from people and the things of this world?

Much to our own dismay and embarrassment, we Christians must admit that we do not· act very secure in God's love nor do we return that love very easily. Our often weak, impoverished faith and love serve well to remind us that although our status in Christ is holy and righteous, our character is not. And this brings us to the other half of Luther's Christian identity paradox. Who am I? I am a saint. But what am I? I am a sinner in my character. The corrupt sinful condition that we inherited from Adam's fall is still  ours in the Christian life. We groan with the rest of creation awaiting the final deliverance from all the devastating effects of evil in the world and in our own lives. In this sense, salvation, the realization of full and complete well-being, is still yet to come.

The word sin is a technical term that the Scriptures use to describe the problem of evil that afflicts all of humanity. Literally, it means "missing the mark." To be sinful is to miss the mark of God's creative purpose and design. Both believers and nonbelievers are quite aware of the problem of evil as it afflicts the body. It is plagued by all forms of pathological conditions-disease, degeneration and eventually death. Modern medicine has done much to postpone these, but is powerless to overcome them. Our hope as Christians lies in the fullness of salvation and the resurrection of the body, a certain inheritance that we see and celebrate in the resurrection of Christ. But what of the effects of sin upon the spiritual or personal dimensions of human nature-what we might call the functioning capacities of personhood? Perhaps we can get a good picture by observing Eve's demise in the Garden as she yields to Satan's temptation in Genesis three. First, let's briefly sketch what these capacities of personhood entail.

Functioning Capacities of Personhood 

To be a human person means to be begotten by the sovereign Creator, born of human parents and addressed by God. Our personhood derives from our Maker and is sealed and guaranteed by Him, not by some capacities that we are able to develop or exercise. Moreover, humans are persons, not because we can address God or others, but that He addresses us and calls us into fellowship and life with Him. In both creation and redemption, God's initiative establishes our dignity and anchors our self-worth. As we address functioning capacities of personhood, we must recognize that these and our individual personalities express and disclose human personhood; they do not, however, establish or define it. [2] The fetus, infant, and severely impaired person may have no (or diminished) functioning of these human capacities, but nevertheless are still fully human persons. This must not be forgotten in the following discussion. We are entering into a consideration of how we express our personhood ultimately for interpersonal relationships (knowing and being known) according to God's creative design, not what makes us human persons.

God has endowed human beings with a mind that is continually active, supplying meaning and evaluating the significance of the events and experiences of everyday life. We are rational beings. With the mind, we make sense out of the data of experience with broad interpretive beliefs that provide intelligible focus and understanding. All humans have an assumptive system of basic beliefs about the nature of reality that are used to classify, evaluate and render intelligible what the mind receives from experience. We could call this assumptive set of basic beliefs about the nature of reality a "world view" or "web" of beliefs by which we capture or view meaning and understanding of the data of experience. Experiential data do not come to us with meaning attached to them, our God-given minds perform this duty.

Without entering into the debate as to what extent our interpretive beliefs are inherited or acquired by our contact with others as we grow and mature, it is safe to say that our "world views" or interpretive beliefs are not coerced, determined or merely instinctual. God created us as volitional beings. We can develop and change our beliefs by willful choice. In the final analysis, our convictions and assumptions about the meaning and value of things are chosen. We believe what we choose to believe.

The human mind is continually active in other ways beyond interpreting and evaluating. It also can engage in imaginative and creative thought. We also acquire attitude and desires. And some of these on the heart level may be quite deep-seated and subconscious. For example, with our minds we know that it is an orange that we see, and we may believe that it is good to eat. We might even have a deep craving for oranges. Quite consciously, we want the orange and desire to eat it. The desire is willed, but very much influenced by what we believe. If we thought the orange poisonous or if we believed that we are allergic to oranges, we probably would not desire it at all. However, with the belief that oranges are good tasting and good for our health, the orange is desired for eating and we are motivated to eat it.

Our behavior follows from our chosen motive, highly influenced by our beliefs and attitudes (wants and desires). The human character is continually active with willful internal behavior that is conscious and subconscious. It involves a complex interplay of our beliefs, attitudes and motives which receive outward expression in what we do and say. And involuntarily flowing from our experiences impacted by our beliefs, attitudes, motives and behavior, emotional reactions and responses involuntarily come forth. We feel quite content and happy eating the orange.

But now, what effect has sin had upon this dynamic functioning of the human person that God originally created in His own image? Perhaps we can best see the devastating effects of sin and how the human character can indeed change, by examining the sinful corruption of Eve described in Genesis three. Prior to her demise under Satan's influence, Eve had a functioning set of beliefs and attitudes that were good and righteous - fully in accord with God's creative will. Her motives were pure and her behavior and emotional life were accented with goodness, contentment and joy. Total well-being permeated her character and existence.

The Fall Revisited 

Eve began her encounter with Satan with a faulty belief about God's will for her life. She believed that God prohibited her from touching the forbidden fruit, in addition to not eating it. God, however, did not forbid her from touching (see Gen. 2:17), only partaking of the fruit. Eve had a legalistic understanding of God's will for her life in the Garden. She chose to take the matter of her security into her own hands and "improve" on God's security provision over against the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She doubted God's word and was determined to trust in her own measures rather than her Creator. Now Satan had his toe-hold in her mind and heart, and he would press for further corruption. He would see if her lack of trust could be turned into a thoroughgoing rebellion. At his suggestion, Eve chose to believe that she could further improve her well-being by becoming a fully independent person like God. Like God, she could be in control of her own life and destiny. She believed that this was within her power, and partaking of the forbidden fruit was seen as good for food and able to give wisdom that would elevate her to the stature of God (Gen. 3:5-6a). She believed that she would not die. Believing now as she did, deep personal desires in her heart became depraved. She longed to be independent like God, and the forbidden fruit was desired to that end. And motivated to accomplish her rebellious and perverted goal, she behaved accordingly, partaking of the forbidden fruit. As Adam partakes with her, together their emotional life becomes corrupted by the feelings of guilt and shame.

Notice how Genesis three portrays the fall into sin as· a progressive, corruptive process of Eve's functioning personal capacities, beginning with her beliefs, values and goals, and proceeding then to her attitudes and desires. As these become false and perverted by her own volition, she becomes motivated to rebel against God in her behavior and suffers the emotional consequences of guilt and shame. The fall into sin and the loss of the image of God did not begin with external behavior. It flowed progressively through the inner self, the mind and heart, through chosen sinful beliefs, attitudes and motives. Sinful external behavior then followed from the corruption of the functioning inner character. Sin as rebellion against God flows from a lack of trust in the inner being to the external self. The account of the Fall gives. us a glimpse, albeit a tragic negative one, of how effective change in the human person can take place.

We have seen Satan use some quite effective strategies to bring about dramatic and profound change in Eve's character and behavior. Satan understood the human person well as God created it, and he understood its potential for change. The change that he orchestrated tarnished the image of God in us terribly and, morally speaking, destroyed it.

The Root of the Problem 

Luther continually observed that the root of sin is a rebellion against the First Commandment. At its core, it is a rebellion against positioning the self and its existence around a trust in the Creator God for self well-being. From the fall of Adam and Eve, all of humanity has been brought into the world with a compulsive rebellion against trust in God. We would have any other ultimate concern in life but Him for our own well-being. Our alienation from Him has created the crucial need for the status of unconditional acceptance and the drive to find meaningful significant impact in living. The consequences of sin have alienated us from both secure status and Significance as the people of God, and we are separated from the center and source of all that we need, our Creator God. It has brought us death-a death of alienation, loneliness, moral and spiritual bankruptcy, loss of identity and meaningless existence. It has imprisoned us within a slavish all-consuming love of ourselves as our greatest concern and object of trust. Our sinful condition does not mean that we cannot love or do anything right. Rather it means that we are incapable of ordering our life and loves around an all-embracing fear, love and trust in God. Our loves have become disordered and now flow from selfish human pride that places the self at the center of reality. As Eve desired, we would be like God, but know we are not. Sinfully bent love and pride have us in their prison of death.

All sons and daughters of Adam seek personal well-being and deliverance from the problems that evil creates for existence, but with the rebellious commitment and determination to work these out for oneself independent from a fear, love and trust in God. What we are suggesting is that everyone has a plan or hoped-for plan for personal salvation and a god, even if oneself, to secure it. Like Eve, today's sinners are committed to the belief that well-being (salvation) is needed desperately, but it is a desire divorced from a trust and dependence on God. We would be like Him, as Eve thought she could be, beings who on the fundamental levels of existence can autonomously take care of ourselves and secure the good life and a happy forever. In this sense there are no atheists in the world and everyone is dying for salvation. The only options are to die to sin and self in the cross of Christ and live as a new creation in His righteousness and resurrection, or to struggle through existence curved in on the self and remain damned to prison of self-centered, lonely love-dead forever!

The gospel proclaims that only our Creator has a plan that can truly deliver us from all aspects of evil that would otherwise overwhelm us. It also proclaims that in the cross and resurrection of Christ, He has. Christians have received salvation and well-being in the righteousness of Christ given to faith. Our saintly secure status as adopted children of is held in faith. About us and within us is still the corruption of the old fallen sinful order of paradise lost. We are saints by pronouncement and gift - a holy standing that shall be ours for eternity. But for now, we are still sinful in all aspects of our physical and personal dimensions of self. All of this corruption is fully evident to all our senses and reasoning. Simultaneously sinners and saints! We hold the reality of both in tension until the final transformation in the resurrected life when our Lord returns in the fullness of His glory.

Author 

Dr. Steven A. Hein is professor of theology at Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois, where he has taught since 1975. He is a contributing editor of Logia - A Journal of Lutheran Theology, and is married with four sons. This is his first contribution to Reformation & Revival Journal.

Endnotes

1. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann, eds., Martin Luther, "Lectures on Galatians - 1535," Luther's Works (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia and Fortress Press, 1955-72), 232. 
2. Gilbert Meilaender, Faith and Faithfulness (Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press, 1991), 4446.

Four Aspects of Divine Righteousness

By Fred G. Zaspel

Psalm 97:2 declares that God dwells in "righteousness and justice" (tsedek and mishpat). That is to say, He is Himself right and true. He is morally and ethically right, and He acts according to what is proper. This, the psalmist affirms, is God's very "habitation." Righteousness is no accident to Him, no incidental quality. It is essential to His very being and always characterizes everything that He does. He is and does only what is right and just.

This theme is common in Scripture. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?" (Gen. 18:25). He is a "righteous Judge" (2 Tim. 4:8). "He will judge the world in righteousness" (Ps. 9:8; Acts 17:31). The Father is the "righteous Father" (John 17:25), the Son is the righteous Advocate (1 John 2:1), and the Spirit was sent to convict the world concerning righteousness (John 16:8, 10). God is righteous, and He always acts only in keeping with what is just.

But what is that righteousness which is so characteristic of God? How shall we understand this attribute? The primary words which the biblical writers use (tsedek and dikaiosune) denote, in a physical sense, "being straight," or in a moral sense, "being right," and hence, "conformity to an ethical or moral standard," [1] being and doing what is right. One who is righteous "lives up" to expected obligations; he acts in accordance with what should be done. A righteous man is one who is right and who does what is suitable, one who maintains a "right relation with" [2] what is expected.

For this reason; theologians have described God's righteousness as the ethical dimension of His holiness, or as His "transitive holiness," [3] or as a "mode" of His holiness. [4] It is that aspect of His holiness which distinguishes Him as consistent with His own moral demands.

But then what is that rule, that standard of moral rectitude to which God is conformed? What law is it that obligates Him? We must be careful at this point not to imply that is bound to some abstract rule external to Himself. To subject Him to any rule outside of Himself would be to make Him something less than God. No, He does not conform to anyone or to anything. He conforms only to Himself. That "rightness" to which He is obligated is nothing other than His own nature and will. It is His nature and will that determine right from wrong. And when Scripture declares that God does what is right, it affirms merely that He faithfully adheres to His own perfections. He acts only and always according to the very highest principle of justice: Himself.

In other words, righteousness is determined by lordship. Divine sovereignty makes no concessions here. "Who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?" (Rom. 11:35). "The right, therefore, which God hath to act his righteousness or to act righteously towards others, is supreme and sovereign, arising naturally and necessarily from the relation of all things unto himself." [5] "In this respect God is wholly arbitrary, and hath no other rule but his own will; he doth not will things because they are just, but therefore they are just because God wills them." [6]

Interestingly, Plato rather blindly grappled at some length with this question. In his dialogue with Euthyphro he appears frustrated at his inability to come to any certain conclusion as to "whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods." For him, the answer was illusive. "For somehow or other our arguments, on whatever ground we rest them, seem to turn around and walk away from us." [7] In light of the unpredictability and inconsistencies and the disagreements among Plato's many gods, [8] and given his nonbiblical frame of reference, his frustration is understandable! But viewing the question from the vantage point of monotheistic special revelation, the answer is not at all speculative: God is sovereign, and as such it is His nature and will that constitute the very essence of righteousness. In the words of Mastrict, "God is proto-, in fact auto-dikaion." [9]

For this reason John Piper is certainly correct in emphasizing that Paul "conceive[s] of God's righteousness as his unswerving faithfulness always to preserve and display the glory of his name." [10] God is ever concerned to glorify Himself in all that He does, and His "righteousness" is no less designed to that end also. This is why man's "unrighteousness" (adikia, Rom. 1:18) is described in terms of "not glorifying God as God" (v. 21). Righteousness consists in glorifying God and nothing less. The law to which men are bound is His law in every respect. The law is "not above Him" but "within Him." [11] And this standard, being nothing other than the nature and will of God, is the standard to which the immutable God has bound Himself.

This is a truth about God which we are glad to know! It is one thing to know that He is sovereign and so rules the world by His own will. But it is something more indeed to know that He rules in righteousness. For all the apparent inequities of life, for all the favors He shows the wicked, and for all the afflictions that fall upon the righteous, it is necessary indeed that we know that God is just and that He will do what is right - however difficult it may be for us to see it at the moment. Or again, it is one thing to know that He is the Judge of all the world. But it is something much more to know that He judges according to what is right and in a way that is consistent with Himself, that He will not condemn the innocent or clear the guilty. Unlike the "gods" of the heathen, the true God is not whimsical or capricious. He is righteous. Immutably righteous. "Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?" (Gen. 18:25). "The Lord is righteous within her; He will do no injustice" (Zeph. 3:5).

But there is more to God's righteousness than this. This is but the larger, more general picture. God's righteousness expresses itself in various ways, and so as theologians (particularly the older theologians) studied the ways in which God's righteousness is presented in Scripture, they tended to speak of it in various theological categories. These categories are very helpful as we seek to understand this very basic and important attribute of God.

Rectoral Righteousness

God's "rectoral" righteousness is that aspect of His nature which demands or requires righteousness of all His creatures. This is perhaps what we normally think of when we speak of God's righteousness. It has to do with the imposition of laws and standards. It is "the rectitude which God manifests as the Ruler of both the good and the evil. In virtue of this He institutes a moral government in the world, and imposes a just law upon man, with promises of reward for the obedient and threats of punishment for the disobedient." [12] God is not only righteous in Himself; He requires the same of all His creatures. Vos calls this "the righteousness of cognizance .... By this we mean that Jehovah is held to take notice and keep account of all moral conduct. ... All conduct falls under the divine jurisdiction." [13]

One important word in this connection is the word "law-giver." [14] God is the One who imposes laws. He determines right from wrong, and He legislates accordingly. In fact, Scripture speaks of God as the ultimate source of all justice. "And the strength of the King loves justice; Thou hast established equity" (Ps. 99:4). Any given device designed to promote fairness in business - weights, scales - is from God (Prov. 16:11). And so "A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight" (Prov. 11:1). So also God abhors any who "justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous" (Prov. 17:15). He despises those who steal or defraud others, not because this is a violation of some abstract standard, but because it is contrary and an affront to God Himself Whose very nature demands what is true and right.

Furthermore, all the things that God requires of us are themselves just. "Thy testimonies are righteous forever" (Ps. 119:144). They are not unfair; they are right and necessary as expressions of the righteousness of His own nature.

For this reason, theologians have emphasized that this aspect of divine righteousness is a necessary one. God is God, and we are His creatures. It would be unrighteous, inconsistent with His own being, were He not to require us to live to glorify Him. Just as it is "necessary" for God Himself to maintain His righteousness, so it is necessary for Him to require it of man made in His image; this rises "naturally and necessarily from the relation of all things unto himself .... [I]t followeth naturally and necessarily, not as a new thing in God, but as a natural and necessary respect which his nature and being hath unto all creatures upon their production." [15] "Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor" (Hab. 1:13).

So God is Himself righteous. As such He imposes laws. Those laws are righteous. And His laws are binding, for all are accountable to Him as the righteous Judge.

This, of course, is what our society despises about God. Our society wants a God who conforms to its standards. This is precisely the indictment on the world by the apostle Paul in Romans 1:18ff. What men have known they have suppressed. Their problem, their wickedness, lies not in an ignorance of God's law; it lies in their rebellion against it and the one who gave it. They "disapproved God" (edokimasan ton theon, v. 28). Natural man violently refuses any idea of a God who dares impose His will on others. This is our generation's cry for "freedom." A God who would be more cooperative, more flexible, they would have, but not a God who imposes His law. But this is the true God, and His very nature demands that we live to glorify Him. And no denial of Him can alter the reality that He is the righteous Lawgiver and Judge.

Retributive Righteousness 

God's "retributive" righteousness is that aspect of His nature which inflicts punishment for all unrighteousness in His creatures. It is variously referred to as His "punitive" or "vindictive" or "avenging justice." It has to do with the infliction of penalties for failure to conform to His righteousness. It was first expressed in the Garden of Eden: "In the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). It is reiterated in the law: "Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" (Deut. 27:26). It is echoed in the writings: "He will judge the world with righteousness" (Ps. 96:13). It is echoed again in the prophets: "The soul who sins will die" (Ezek. 18:4). It is reaffirmed in the epistles: "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Rom. 12:19). In reference to sin and sinners, "God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). These are familiar notes to anyone who reads the Bible. Nor is it merely threatened. From the Garden to the flood to Babel to Sodom and Gomorrah to Egypt to the Canaanites to the captivity to Ananias and Sapphira this threat has proven to be a real one. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. 1:18), and has been so since the beginning.

Neither is reformation or rehabilitation the only intended goal. God's acts of retribution may well have this effect at times (Ezra 9:15; Lam. 1:18), and this is always good. But the goal of God's vindictive righteousness is not that of reclaiming the offender or reshaping his character. It is on this score that Vos criticizes Ritschl who denied the idea of God's righteousness as punishment anywhere in the Old Testament. According to Ritschl, God's purpose in exercising His righteousness was a benevolent one, "safeguarding the structure of society." Vos rightly points out that this is but a part of the whole, and he rests his case on Amos 5:24: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Against the backdrop of Israel's apostasy this is hardly a call to abundant expressions of goodness on Israel's part; it is a call for retribution against sin, and this "from the supreme motive of giving free sway to the infinite force of His ethical indignation." [16] The idea is that of punishment or retribution, and the goal is the vindication and demonstration of the righteousness of God (Rom. 3:5), "the maintenance of right and justice." [17] The perspective is not forward but backward, to the evil that has been done. "Its first object is requital." [18] This is the purpose of the casting down of the angels who sinned, the flood of Noah's day, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and so on. And when John speaks of the awful sight of the wicked being cast into the lake of fire to "be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Rev. 20:10-14; 14:10-11), the only possible object in view is just retribution upon sinners. It is the "punishment [19] of eternal fire" (Jude 7).

Again, this is a necessary and essential aspect of God's  righteousness. [20] "[V]indicatory justice is the very rectitude and perfection of the Deity .... For if such a law were not made necessarily, it might be possible that God should lose his natural. right and dominion over his creatures, and thus  he would not be God." [21] It would be impossible for God not to punish sin. Without it, justice would not be maintained. It would be a denial of His veracity to impose a law with threats against disobedience and not follow through. "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind" (ps. 110:4). "He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished" (Ex. 34:7). Moreover, it would be wrong, a denial of God's own nature, to treat lawbreakers as if they were lawkeepers. He cannot do it. "Indifference to sin is a moral blemish." [22] "Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor" (Hab. 1:13). "It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you" (2 Thess. 1:6); that is to say, this vengeance upon the wicked is necessary to the satisfying of God's justice. Punishment of sin is "just recompense" (endikon misthapodosian, Heb. 2:2). "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished" (Nah. 1:3). In short, every sin must be punished.

In fact, so necessary is it that each sin be punished, and justly so, that Scripture goes further to speak of the punishment of sin in degrees. "Few" or "many lashes" will be given according to knowledge and responsibility (Luke 12:47-48). It will be worse in the day of judgment for that city which rejects the gospel than for Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 10:15; cf. 11:20-24; Heb. 10:29-31). "Every careless word" will be taken into account and justly punished (Matt. 12:36). Men by their many sins "are storing up wrath" for themselves (Rom. 2:5) in that day when God will judge "according to their deeds" (Rev. 20:12). Every sin must be punished and that with appropriate severity.

Wicked men want very much to discount God's retributive justice, and understandably so! But many professing  believers seem embarrassed by it also, [23] thinking it unworthy of God. But both must recall that "it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you" (2 Thess. 1:6). The punishment is a just and necessary outworking of God's own righteous nature. It is one essential aspect of His glorious being which He has determined to "demonstrate" (endeixasthai, Rom. 9:22) and for which all the saints, with one great voice, will at the last say "Hallelujah!" (Rev. 19:1-6).

Now our society may refuse the idea of God's rectoral righteousness, but this idea of retributive righteousness they despise still more. But the one very naturally flows from the other. We are accountable to God to act in keeping with His righteousness, and any failure to do so demands retribution (cf. Gal. 3:10). If there is a God and if He is righteous, then all unrighteousness will one day be punished. Indeed the knowledge of this aspect of divine righteousness is innate in every man. Though they deny it, still they "recognize [epignontes] the righteous judgment [dikaioma] of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death" (Rom. 1:32). No denial of the facts will alter their reality. Knowing it they hate it, and hating it they deny it, but only to become more culpable. It is one horrible prospect that awaits the sinner.

Redemptive Righteousness 

But all this presents a very real problem. God reveals Himself as a righteous God Who demands the same of us all and condemns all who do not conform. He will "by no means leave the guilty unpunished" (Ex. 34:7). The problem is obvious: how can any of us ever escape God's wrath? How may any of us ever enjoy any blessing from God at all? There is that aspect of God's righteousness which causes Him to faithfully reward all righteousness on the part of His creatures; and we will see that in a moment. But how can that be a realistically happy thought to any of us? Even if we could turn over a new leaf and from here on live in perfect conformity to God's law, we still stand condemned for our past sins. If God must condemn sinners, there is, it would seem, no hope at all.

In this sense our justification is (if we can use such language) a kind of moral dilemma for God also. We cannot imagine that God will in the end somehow merely overlook our sins. This is the idea most seem to have about God, that He will eventually let bygones be bygones and all will be well. But God is righteous, and if salvation is to come at all we may be sure that it will only be in such a way that this righteousness is satisfied. This is His very nature, and He cannot deny Himself.

So here is our predicament. God demands righteousness and will surely punish all unrighteousness. He cannot do less. We have neither produced righteousness nor could we by doing so pay the penalty for past sins. By ourselves we stand hopelessly condemned before a just God.

It is here that we come to learn of God's "redemptive" righteousness - that aspect of His righteousness by which He provides righteousness for His offending creatures.

It is a curious thing that in the Old Testament God's righteousness began to be spoken of as the source and ground of salvation. "In Thy righteousness deliver me" (Ps. 71:2). "With righteousness He will judge the poor" (Isa. 11:4). "There is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior" (Isa. 45:21). "My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not wane" (Isa. 51:6). "Every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me, declares the Lord" (Isa. 54:17). "I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness" (Isa. 61:10). David's forgiveness resulted in his singing aloud of God's righteousness (Ps. 51:14).

Perhaps more surprising, the inspired apostle describes the Christian gospel as the revelation of "the righteousness of God" (Rom. 1:17). We might expect that a message of salvation should be a message of leniency or of mercy or a waiving of the sentence. Never would we expect a message of Divine righteousness to be "good news"! How can God be "faithful and righteous to forgive us our sin" (1 John 1:9)?

This is precisely the beauty of the gospel. God will not and cannot relax His justice. Nor can He abolish it. His righteousness will not allow that. But He can, if He would so choose, provide a substitute. And herein lies the necessity and design of Christ's death. God must punish sin - every sin. He cannot let one evil go without retribution. But freely choosing to save, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32), and in Him the punishment of sin for all His people is fully meted out. Those for whom He died receive all its attending benefits (Rom. 8:32) and so cannot be condemned (Rom. 8:34). We go free not by a sidestepping of justice but on the ground of a full satisfaction of justice. Our sin is punished and we go free! "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross" (1 Peter 2:24) and thereby satisfied the demands of justice against us. God has "made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fallon Him" (Isa. 53:6).

We cannot speak of God's redemptive righteousness, then, unless we also speak of His retributive righteousness. Indeed, the nature and redemptive value of Christ's death on the cross cannot be rightly understood apart from an appreciation of God's retributive justice.

In the whole matter of salvation by the Mediator, God-man, there is no excellence of God, no essential property, no attribute of his nature, the glory of which is the chief end of all his works, that he hath more clearly and eminently displayed than this punitory justice. [24]

God must punish all sin, and in saving His people He makes no exception. He will not compromise Himself. But instead, He Himself becomes responsible for us and bears the judgment of His own wrath. God the Son, forsaken of God the Father, suffering as a sinner under His condemnation. Jesus Christ, the sinner's substitute, bearing the sin of many.

Still there is more. There is an exchange. He not only takes our sin, but in exchange He gives us His righteousness. In dying for us He satisfies God's righteous demand for punishment. But He goes still further. He was not only "made to be sin on our behalf" (2 Cor. 5:21); He "became to us ... righteousness" (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ is "the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6). He pays the penalty of our sin and provides us with His own perfections. Our record becomes His, and so He dies. But His record becomes ours, and so we live.

This is what has often been referred to as Christ's "active and passive" obedience. "Born under the law" (Gal. 4:4) He actively performed for us all that was our responsibility to perform, and in our place He suffered the full penalty due us for our sin. He is "the end of the law for righteousness" (Rom. 10:4). We are "found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil. 3:9). Christ, the substitute sinner, provides a substitute righteousness.

It is in this way that God's righteousness is revealed in the gospel. God has not sidestepped His justice. He has not saved us by overlooking our sin. He has saved us by doing for us all that was required of us. His righteousness is perfectly upheld. So righteous is God that He would not spare even His own Son as He took the sinner's place; the punishment was administered fully. And righteousness is freely provided. God, then, is both "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26).

It is this that makes the notion of salvation by human merit so blasphemous. It is to say that Christ's righteousness is not enough. It is to say that His death was not sufficient payment for sin. It is to say that "Christ died needlessly" (Gal. 2:21). And this is why the Scriptures make so much of justification "by faith" (e.g., Rom. 5:1). God cannot pronounce us righteous on the basis of our own merit, for we have not merited enough. "All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment" (Isa. 64:6). To approach God on the basis of what we have done is to sidestep Jesus Christ who alone has done enough. We can only approach God on the basis of faith in His Son, acknowledging. and trusting Him as the only Savior. "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'But the righteous man shall live by faith'" (Rom. 1:17). It is the revelation of a righteous God who demands perfection and punishes all sin. But it is also the revelation of the righteous God who in mercy saves sinners by doing for them what He requires of them.

Ironically, this is where Paul's opponents who were so zealous for the law fell so short of it. How could a man be righteous apart from the law? they wondered. It is the law that defines righteousness! How can a man be righteous without conformity to it? But in arguing so, they missed the obvious fact that no one has ever kept the law sufficiently for justification. To claim to be right before God on the basis of one's own merit is to alter the standard of God's righteousness and make it something less. But in this message of justification by faith in Jesus Christ, who kept the law perfectly and satisfied its every demand, Paul says, "we establish the law!" (Rom. 3:31). Yes, we admit our failure to keep the law, but still we claim to be acquitted by it, for we have as our own the perfect record of our righteous substitute who bore in our place the punishment of our sin.

It is only in "having been justified by faith," therefore, that "we have peace with God" (Rom. 5:1). Peace judicially and peace of conscience. If we were to attempt to be justified by our works, we would always wonder if we had worked enough. We could never be sure. Our every sin would cause such anxiety as to make us doubt that we could ever be saved. But if God comes to us beforehand and gives us His Son and tells us ahead of time that if we will but trust Him to be for us all that God requires of us, and if we do believe on Him so, then our conscience may be at rest. We feel safe, not for what righteousness we have of our own but for Christ's very righteousness which has been made ours. We will rest in His righteousness and not in our own, and this we do "not for curiosity, nor contention sake; but for conscience sake; that it might be quiet." [25]

We must say, then, that the gospel reveals much more than God's righteousness. It also reveals His grace. God is righteous, uncompromisingly righteous. But He is not only righteous. He is also gracious. Through the merits and works of Jesus Christ received by faith, His righteousness becomes ours.

Remunerative Righteousness 

God's "remunerative" righteousness is that aspect of His righteousness by which He rewards His creatures for the righteousness which they have done. It has to do with the distribution of rewards according to justice. "God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name" (Heb. 6:10). "Whatever good thing each one does, he will receive back from the Lord" (Eph. 6:8). This point is at issue also in several of our Lord's parables. [26] God rewards righteousness.

Strong seems to miss this point entirely. He contends that God's bestowal of reward has not to do with His justice but His goodness. [27] Now it is plainly evident that these rewards do stem from God's goodness. But as just noted, God deems it an act of His righteousness also; it is something He must do.

Now this aspect of divine righteousness is perhaps more startling than any. That God would be so gracious as to provide righteousness for the undeserving and that at His own expense is grace enough. But why go any further? What need is there to then reward us for the good we have done? Indeed, the good that we have done is but our duty (Luke 17:10). We are what we are "by the grace of God" (1 Cor. 15:10), and what good we do comes only as a result of His workings in us (Phil. 2:13). It is not necessary to God's righteousness to reward anyone for anything. David recognized this when he said, "But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee" (1 Chron. 29:14).

But that is not the point. The point is not that God is obligated to us, but that He has obligated Himself by promise (cf. James 1:12).

It is part of his justice to make good his word; by promise God hath made himself a debtor .... It is just with God to pay what he oweth, and God oweth what he hath promised; and so it is a crown of righteousness which God the righteous Judge will give us at that day. [28] 

Though no primary and original obligation rests upon the Creator, to reward a creature made from nothing, and continually upheld and helped in the service which he renders, yet he can constitute a secondary and relative obligation. He can promise to reward the creature's service; and having bound himself to reward obedience, his own word establishes a species of claim. . . . In the words of Witsius (Covenants, I. i. iv.), "God by his promise, has made himself a debtor to men." [29] 

Now think about this. Imagine looking back over your life and measuring up whatever degree of faithfulness there has been, and then marching into God's presence and expecting repayment. The whole idea is so wrong! We know that we are deserving of only punishment and that the righteousness we possess is only by grace. But still, God has said it is a righteous thing for Him to do this. He has pledged Himself to it, and He will perform it.

Perhaps I can illustrate this better than I can explain it. Christmas at our house is a very happy time. We go all out. Gifts are exchanged in the extreme. One Christmas when my daughter was very young, we were opening our presents, and she just couldn't wait for me to open her gift to me. I waited until I thought she might burst and then picked up the package and read, "To Daddy, From Gina." Taking my time, I began to guess. "Is it a new car?" "No, Daddy!" "Is it a new motorcycle?" ""No!" "A new house?" "No. Now Daddy, open it!" "Okay." So I unwrapped the gift slowly, and when finally it was open I found a nice new pair of gloves. "Do you like them, Daddy?" she asked. I took her up in my arms, assured her that I did, gave her a big hug and kiss, and thanked her many times over for what she had given me. And I told her, in terms she could understand, how good it was to have such a wonderful and generous daughter.

Now I have a question: who do you think paid for those gloves? Where did she get the money? Curious, isn't it, there I was rewarding her for the things that my own money had purchased.

In a way much like that God has promised to reward us, His servants, for the very thing that He has purchased and freely provided. No wonder we find the twenty-four elders in heaven removing their crowns and throwing them back at Jesus' feet and saying, "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and God" (Rev. 4: 11). And no wonder the prophet asks in searching challenge, "Who is a God like Thee" (Mic. 7:18).

The truth of God's righteousness is a frightening one for sinners. But when this righteousness is wedded to His grace (Ps. 85:10), it is a happy truth indeed.

Author 

Fred G. Zaspel is pastor of Word of Life Baptist Church, Pottsville, Pennsylvania. This is his second contribution to Reformation & Revival Journal.

Endnotes 

1. Harold G. Stigers, tsadeq in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (IWOT), R. Laird Harris, ed. (Chicago: Moody, 1980), 2:752. For discussions see TWOT, 752-55; Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, James D. Ernest, transl. (peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 1:318-61; Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), 1:452-53, 744-45; Colin Brown, "Righteousness" in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Colin Brown, ed. (Grand Rapids: Regency Reference Library, Zondervan, 1986), 3:352-73. Related words in this semantic field include "right," "righteous," righteousness," "uprightness," "just," "justice," "justify," "justification," and "judgment." 
2. Louw and Nida, 452. 
3. Augustus H. Strong, Systematic Theology (1907; reprint, Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1979), 290. 
4. William G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology (1889; reprint, Minneapolis: Klock & Klock Christian Publishers, 1979), 364. 
5. John Owen, The Works of John Owen, W H. Goold, ed. (reprint; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1862), 19:100. 
6. Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton (reprint; London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 8:438. Some care should be given here, for this often has been misunderstood to imply that God has "arbitrarily decided," willy-nilly, certain things to be right or wrong, and that if He had so "decided," lying, e.g., would be proper. As Anselm aptly said, this would be like speaking of "dry water" or "moist fire," for God is a God of truth (Cur Deus Homo in Saint Anselm: Basic Writings, S. N. Deane, transl. [reprint; LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Co., 1962], 205). No, God's "arbitrariness" is not of that kind. By "arbitrary" Manton means only to say that God's moral demands are determined by none but His own being. "The law was not made according to arbitrary fiat, it is a righteous law, because conforming to the divine nature, higher than which there is and can be no norm" (Vos, op. cit., 251).
7. Euthyphro, in The Works of Plato, Irwin Edman, ed. (reprint; New York: The Modern Library, 1956), 46, 48.
8. A problem which Plato acknowledges, ibid., 40, 44-45, etc.
9. Quoted in Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics (1861; reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), 97.
10. John Piper, The Justification of God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 100.
11. Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology (1948; reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 251.
12. Louis Berkhof, Manual of Christian Doctrine (1933; reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 68-69.
13. Vos, op. cit., 251.
14. Cf. Manton, who called this aspect of divine righteousness "God's legislative justice" (op. cit., 440).
15. Owen, 19:99-101.
16. Vos, op. cit., 252-53.
17. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (1938; reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 76.
18. Shedd, op. cit., 381.
19. Diken. Dike has in the New Testament only this meaning of "the punishment reserved for sinners." Spicq, op. cit., 320.
20. Several fuller treatments of this are available. See John Gill, Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity (1795; reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 156-57; Thomas Manton, op. cit., 442ff.; James P. Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology (1887; reprint, n.d.), 105-106; John Owen, The Works of John Owen, W. H. Goold, ed. (reprint; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1862), 10:505ff., 522ft., 554ft; 19:101ff.
21. Owen, 10:505,509.
22. Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in the Godhead (reprint; Chicago: Moody, 1979), 76.
23. Often to the point of denying the eternality of hell.
24. Owen, 10:547.
25. Augustus Toplady, The Works of Augustus Toplady (1794; reprint, Harrisonburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 1987), 164.
26. E.g., Luke 19:11-27.
27. Strong, op. cit., 293.
28. Manton, op. cit., 441.
29. Shedd, op. cit., 368.