A Primer in Pauline Theology
There are many reasons to celebrate the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, but some of them have little to do with the message of the Reformers.
For example, it is said that the Reformation upheld freedom of conscience against the authority of a dictatorial church. Such an emphasis, however, is more properly associated with the Renaissance than with the Reformation.
Or, the Reformation is thought to have prepared the way for democracy. While this has some historical corroboration, the underlying motivation for that spiritual reform movement was quite different.
Again, it is alleged that the Reformation was basically a protest against the dismal state of morals in the church of that period. Although Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others did express their profound displeasure over the flagrant disregard of the commandments of God, especially among the clergy, that is not what finally impelled them to place their lives on the line against the principalities and powers of that age.
We do not adequately understand the Reformation apart from its rediscovery of the Pauline doctrine of the righteousness of faith. It is this doctrine that contained the seeds of the spiritual ferment that the church of Rome could not contain, and which it finally had to resist with all its power.
An Enduring Biblical Theme
The message of the Protestant Reformation, that we are accepted by God only on the basis of the righteousness of faith, is particularly evident in the Pauline epistles, but it is a recurring theme throughout the Bible. In Genesis 15 it is said of Abraham that he believed the word of the Lord, and God “reckoned it to him as righteousness” (v. 6). This does not mean that his faith as a human act was inherently righteous but that God through his free mercy regarded it as righteous. Jacob put the emphasis on the faithfulness of God, not on his own faithfulness, as a work of righteousness: “I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness which thou hast shown to thy servant” (Gen. 32:10). Daniel reflects this same attitude: “We do not present our supplications before thee on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of thy great mercy” (9:18).
In the Book of Isaiah, salvation is constantly portrayed not as an achievement of the righteous but as an act of God upon the sinner. The idea of the alien righteousness of God covering the sinfulness of the believer, a salient theme in Luther’s theology, was anticipated in Isaiah 61:10: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (cf. Isa. 12:1–2; Zech. 3:4–5).
In contrast to the righteousness of the law, Jesus upheld the spiritual righteousness of the kingdom whose source is the grace of God (Matt. 19:26; John 6:44). He consistently envisioned the kingdom of God as both a gift and a task but saw the former as having priority (Matt. 13:47; 22:1–14; Luke 7:36–50). The pathway into the kingdom is faith in the Son of man (Luke 18:6–8; John 6:28–29, 40). Although stressing human responsibility in his parables, Jesus was profoundly aware that our obedience does not render us worthy of grace: “When you have done all that is commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty’ ” (Luke 17:10).
It is only in the Pauline writings that the righteousness of faith is given systematic theological elaboration. Works-righteousness or legalism was the principal malady that the apostle Paul felt called to combat. He resolutely raised his voice not only against misunderstandings in Judaism but also against erroneous notions in the Christian community in which salvation was made contingent on adherence to the dictates of the Law. In formulating his theology of grace, particularly against those believers who sought to reappropriate the ceremonial laws of Judaism, Paul appealed to the witness of the Old Testament, since he believed that this witness, rightly interpreted, points beyond the Law to the free and unconditional grace of God.
Luther’S Evangelical Discovery
Just as Paul sought to combat those Christians who compromised the doctrine of free grace by requiring the observances of the laws and codes of Jewish tradition, so the Reformers tried to counter the works-righteousness that had penetrated Catholic popular devotion as well as Catholic theology. The prevailing view was that while the atoning work of Christ removed the eternal consequences of sin by means of sacramental baptism, temporal consequences remain for sins committed after baptism. Ordinary Christians—those who fail to reach the heights of sainthood—must still pay temporal penalties in this life and in the life to come (purgatory). It was commonly believed that by prescribing works of penance, the church could enable its erring children to make adequate reparation for their sins. People could avoid this painful process, however, by means of an indulgence, a partial or total remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, often granted in return for a special service to the church. When indulgences began to be offered for sale with the guarantee that the sufferings of purgatory could be curtailed or even cancelled, the gospel of free grace was virtually eclipsed. Tetzel, who aroused the ire of Luther, gave these false words of assurance: “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
The traffic in indulgences prepared the way for the Reformation protest, since it caused sensitive spirits to distrust the whole scheme of salvation offered by the church. The idea that an indulgence could take away purgatorial suffering must be seen as one aspect of a developing spirituality that placed a heavy emphasis on penitential disciplines as a pathway to salvation.
As a dedicated monk at Erfurt and then at Wittenberg, Luther sought to gain assurance of salvation through ascetic works or spiritual exercises. But to no avail: his soul was in constant torment. In an Augustinian cloister in Wittenberg, he began to pore over Paul’s epistle to the Romans; it gripped him as no other had. The passage that played a key role in his so-called evangelical discovery was Romans 1:16–17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ”
Previously Luther understood the righteousness of God as God’s punitive righteousness by which he chastises the sinner who has fallen short of the requirements of his Law. Now he saw that the righteousness of God basically means the righteousness by which God accepts sinners even while they are still in sin. One does not need to work his way into salvation; one needs only to receive salvation as a free gift by faith. Luther felt that he had been born again. Scripture took on an entirely new meaning for him.
Two Kinds Of Righteousness
The Pauline epistles as well as the wider biblical witness speak of two kinds of righteousness: that of law and that of faith. Paul makes this clear in Romans 3:21–22: “Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
In the Pauline and Reformation perspective, these two kinds of righteousness are qualitatively different and never to be confused. The righteousness of the Law is an inherent righteousness, one that can be claimed as one’s own. The righteousness of faith is, in Luther’s words, an “alien righteousness,” lying outside ourselves in Jesus Christ. The righteousness of the Law is intrinsic; the righteousness of faith is extrinsic. In the first case we are judged according to the measure that we live up to the Law of God. In the second case we are judged on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The first kind of righteousness, that of Law, condemns; the second type saves.
We could be saved by the Law if we were perfect. Yet Scripture makes clear that if we break the Law at one point, we are guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10). Moreover, we are told that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Therefore, if we are to be justified, it has to be by grace—the gift of the remission of sins that goes out to the undeserving sinner. Our responsibility is simply to accept and receive, to reach out to the hand that is outstretched to save us. Paul freely admits that he does not have a righteousness of his own based on law; instead he can only claim the righteousness of God that depends on faith (Phil. 3:9). Every born-again believer should boldly make the same confession.
The righteousness of God that is received by faith is not only extrinsic but eschatological: it will be revealed for all to see when earthly history is consummated in the kingdom of Christ (Rom. 8:18; 2 Thess. 1:7–8; 1 Pet. 1:5; 5:1). Paul says, “Through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness” (Gal. 5:5). Luther argued that we have this righteousness in spē (in hope), not in rē (in fact). As Christians, we are already righteous in faith and hope, since Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. But we will be righteous in fact when our entire being is transformed in his image on the last day. What God declares, he sets out to do. But this inward work of renewal is not completed until we are raised into glory.
The Cruciality Of The Cross
The righteousness of God on which our salvation depends was procured for us by the cross of Christ. Both Calvin and Luther adhered to a theory of penal redemption by which Jesus Christ is seen as a vicarious substitute for our sins. He is not only the revealer of divine righteousness, but the bearer of human sinfulness. In Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God took upon himself our sin and guilt so that we might be pardoned, so that we might be set free from the penalty of disobedience to God’s law—divine judgment and hell. This is why the doctrine of Atonement played such a decisive role in the thought of the Reformers. This is why Luther could refer to the true theology as “a theology of the cross.”
It was not only the death of Christ on the cross but his entire life that played a role in our redemption. Our righteousness is based on his doing, dying, and rising again. He, who obeyed the Law perfectly, can thus be our representative and vicarious substitute. The demands of the Law were not cancelled, but they were satisfied by the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Because of his sinless life and holy death, we can come before God as pardoned sinners so long as we stand on Christ’s righteousness and not our own.
Justification means to be pronounced righteous even while we are still in our sins. It means to be covered by the righteousness of Christ even though inwardly we remain unclean (though we are beginning to be cleansed). Luther referred to “the white robe” of the righteousness of Christ that we put on in faith. God now accounts us righteous because we are covered by the alien righteousness of Christ. The primary meaning of justification in the theology of both Luther and Calvin was forensic—having to do with a change in our legal status before God.
Whereas Catholic theologians were accustomed to speak of the justification of the righteous, the Reformers reaffirmed with Paul the justification of the ungodly. They frequently appealed to Romans 4:5: “To one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (cf. Rom. 5:6). Catholic theology regarded justification as conditional on our cooperation with prevenient grace; Reformation theology held that we are justified while we are still helpless. Our response of obedience in faith and love is the result of unconditional election, not the condition for our election and justification.
Christ, to be sure, does not leave us in our sins. He sends his Spirit into our lives not only to enable us to lay hold of the grace of justification, but also to remold us in the image of Christ. In addition to imputed righteousness or justification, the Reformers also spoke of imparted righteousness. Justification is God’s work upon man; sanctification or regeneration (the two terms were interchangeable in both Calvin and Luther) is God’s work within man. While justification refers to a change in our status before God, sanctification refers to a change in our being. Justification and sanctification are distinct, yet inseparable. They are so closely related that Calvin even referred to a “two-fold grace,” one act with two different sides. Yet all the Reformers were adamant that justification is logically prior to sanctification, even though the two occur simultaneously. This is because our justification is dependent not on our inward holiness but on the perfect holiness of Christ.
The Decisive Role Of Faith
According to the Reformers, faith is necessary not as the ground but as the instrument of our justification. Faith is not a human virtue for which we can claim merit, but only an empty vessel that holds the righteousness of Christ. As the Calvinist hymnwriter Augustus Toplady expressed it, “Nothing in my hand I bring, / Simply to Thy cross I cling.”
Faith is not only passive surrender, however; it is also trust, venture, and obedience. It is not only a divine creation within man, but also a human response. Our response to God’s gracious gift in Christ is not the prerequisite for, hut the sign of, our acceptance by God.
The Reformers often said that while we are justified by faith alone, faith does not remain alone but works through love (Gal. 5:6). It is accompanied by joy, hope, and assurance. If we have faith in Christ, we are sure of two things: our sins are forgiven and Christ will not let us go. We are safe in his hands (John 10:27–29).
The obedience of faith, or the works of love that flow from faith, was called by Luther “the righteousness of life.” This is an active righteousness, unlike the righteousness of faith, which is passive. The former is produced in us by the Spirit, whereas the latter is provided for us by Jesus Christ.
Insofar as it involves our own activity, the righteousness of life is similar to the righteousness of the Law. Yet unlike the righteousness of the Law, it is based on the illumination and empowering of the Holy Spirit. It is inherent in us, but it is not worked by our own power. The righteousness of life focuses upon the spirit rather than the letter of the Law. It is therefore a spiritual rather than a legal righteousness.
Like the righteousness of the Law, the righteousness of life is imperfect because it is mixed with egocentric motivations. It therefore does not justify us, but it is nonetheless the field of our sanctification—the arena in which the purifying work of the Holy Spirit is carried forward. It is a visible demonstration of both our justification and our sanctification.
The Reformers and their followers were most emphatic that we are made acceptable to God only by the righteousness of Christ apprehended in faith. Having undergone long periods of torment and doubt, John Bunyan gained inner freedom when he perceived that our righteousness is in heaven, since Christ is now at the right hand of God interceding for the faithful on earth.
When we believe this, we are released from the burden of the Law, which is guilt and fear. Then we are made free to obey and love as Christ commands us. Our motivation is not to earn our salvation (Christ has already taken care of this), but to show our gratitude for what God has done for us in Christ. Our desire is now to praise and glorify God in all we say and do.
The key to Christian freedom is the righteousness of faith. This is the doctrine that takes us out of ourselves, out of our hopes and fears, into the work of the kingdom. We come to know this righteousness only by humbling ourselves, by acknowledging with the prophet Isaiah that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” in the sight of God (Isa. 64:6, NIV). Then we are ready to hear the good news that the hope of salvation lies in the free grace of God revealed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is not until we hear this gospel that we come to know both the depth of our sin, and that our repentance ceases to be merely legal and becomes evangelical.
Doctrinal Confusion Today
The pulpit today speaks with an uncertain voice because of the confusion surrounding the central message of the Bible. Both liberals and conservatives refer frequently to the gospel, but for the most part they fail to see that the essence of the gospel is not what we do, but what God has done for us in Christ. The righteousness that is our hope and mainstay is not the righteousness that we can achieve on our own or even that which we can attain with the help of the Holy Spirit; instead, it is the righteousness of faith that comes to us as a gift from God apart from works of the Law (Rom. 4:4–6). The righteousness of faith is not the whole of the gospel, but it is the essence of the gospel. When we reduce the gospel to the teachings of Jesus, we make the gospel into a new law and thereby lose sight of the Pauline and Reformation doctrine of salvation by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8).
In some evangelical and charismatic circles today, the illusion is fostered that we are in God’s favor because of the quality of our religious experience or the depth of our religious devotion. Faith is an experience, to be sure, but it is more: it is union with Christ by the power of his Spirit. Experience is the medium but not the source of God’s justifying and sanctifying grace. Religious experience and devotion are the result of but not the condition for our justification. Christ alone is the basis of our justification and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). This is why the Reformation is associated not only with sola gratia (grace alone) and sola fide (faith alone), but also with solus Christus (Christ alone). Our experience, if it is indeed the experience of faith, will always point beyond itself to Jesus Christ, to his perfect sacrifice, to his sinless life and death.
Justification means to be placed in a right relationship with Christ. Its objective side is the righteousness of Christ; its subjective side is the awakening to faith worked within us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, too, plays a role in our justification as he brings us into contact with the righteousness of Christ.
Justification entails not only the forgiveness of our sins but the blotting out of our sins, since they are now covered by the blood of Christ. It is up to us to believe this and to live accordingly. A life of righteousness is the evidence and consequence of our justification. Through our deeds as well as our words we should strive to bear witness to this amazing grace, this wondrous love exemplified and communicated by the cross of Calvary.
Because Calvary covers all sins in the present and future as well as in the past, Reformation theology insists that we as Christians no longer need to make reparation for our sins. Because of our participation in the situation of sin, we will still suffer. But we no longer suffer penalties for sins, but rather disciplines that enable us to persevere in the midst of sin.
As evangelical Christians, our attention should always be centered on him who lived and died and rose again so that we might have life and have it abundantly. The Reformation signified a rediscovery of this glorious gospel that draws us outside ourselves into the service of the kingdom. Our focus should not be on the journey into the soul (as in mysticism) but on the journey into the depth of the world afflictions, mirrored in the agonizing death of Jesus Christ.
We should be intent not on uniting ourselves with God (we are already united with him in faith) but on radiating his glory among the spiritually destitute and physically oppressed. To share in the passion of Christ means to share in the burden he has for those who cry for deliverance. True piety means not detachment from the world but identification with the poor and despised of the world—refugees, derelicts, those in prison, those in bondage to various addictions—so that the riches of God’s grace might be manifest among them.
The church today, which is immersed in cultivating its own spirituality as well as expanding its influence in society, should take note: the gospel calls us to die to ourselves and to live wholly for Christ and his kingdom. By reappropriating the message of the Reformation, the modern church, both Protestant and Catholic, both liberal and conservative, may finally come to experience authentic renewal.
