What does justification mean?

There is a lot of talk these days about the Christian doctrine of justification. For what it’s worth, here is what I think (at least, this is my best shot).

Our justification has do with our being included in Jesus Christ’s exaltation. To be justified is to share in God’s judgment on Jesus in the resurrection and ascension. Jesus Christ has been exalted to the right hand of God—”vindicated” (edikaiôthê, 1 Tim. 3:16)—and because we are in Him, we are justified. This is why Saint Paul says that Christ “was handed over to death for our sins and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). To be justified is to share in God’s justification of Jesus.

We must be clear that this happens only through Christ’s death. It is only by His dying our death, dying in our place, that we can be made right with God: “we have been justified by his blood” (Romans 5:9). This is how our justification is achieved; but what it is to be justified is to be exalted with Christ. We may express it this way: Christ died our death, so that we could share in his life. Christ suffered our condemnation so that we could enjoy his exaltation, his right standing with God and life (justification).

This understanding allows a number of fruitful connections between theological ideas. For one thing, it links the doctrine of justification with Paul’s deep theology about being in Christ. Our justification is in Christ in the sense that we are lifted up and exalted in Him. This also clarifies what we mean by language of “Christ’s righteousness”. Talk of “Christ’s righteousness” can sound a bit funny when it’s like a quality He has which we get some of. Yet, we can sensibly speak of receiving Christ’s righteousness, because we are included, by grace, in God’s judgment on him as righteous. To be justified is to share in Christ’s righteousness.

I think this understanding of justification also frees us to better understand the questions of how and when we are justified. Because we are justified in Christ, we have been justified already, in his resurrection and exaltation—it is primarily a past event, something that has happened already and so we can be confident in; and yet, we are also waiting for this reality to be revealed, which will happen on the last day—there is a future element to our vindication in Christ (the final judgment).

And finally, we are justified through being united to Christ; and we are united to Christ by faith. Yet there is no way to be in Christ without being transformed in Him, without, that is, being made righteous, just as He is.

Isaiah for the new year

“Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, ‘Away with you!’ ” (Isaiah 30:19-22)

I love the way that, in this passage, it is the presence of the Lord, the Teacher, that makes all the difference. Though their life may still be hard, their Teacher’s guidance will lead to wonderful spiritual renewal as they cast away their idols. This passage, I believe, should be a great reminder of the glorious blessing of God’s presence with us in his Spirit, who will guide us into all truth (Jn 16:13), and speaks a tender word behind us: “This is the way; walk in it!”

Merry Christmas!

I’ll be away for a little bit, so don’t be surprised if the posts are a bit thin. I’ll be back in the new year, and I hope you will join me again!

“Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it.” (Proverbs 15:17)

A Poem for Christmas

Journey of the Magi
By T. S. Eliot

‘A cold coming we had of it,
just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high-prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

The Joy of Children’s Ministry

This week brought to an end two great years of teaching scripture at Haberfield Public School. I have taught years 2, 5, and 6, and have taught some kids for two years.
At times, this has been tiring and slightly frustrating; but in general it has been a wonderful, and unexpected joy. I have learnt a lot about my own faith, been challenged deeply, and seen God work, slowly, but surely, in young lives. This week I organised and ran the Christmas assembly, which involved all sorts of things, from a funny slideshow to a call and response rap version of lots of Christmas songs. I am full of thanks to God for giving me this great privilege of teaching scripture, for answering many prayers, and for awakening in me an unexpected love for children’s ministry.

“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

(Luke 18:16)

 

Picture: Joseph and Mary on their way to Jerusalem, with Donkey, by my year 2 class.

MOVEMBER – THE END

Well, Movember has come to an end.

Can I say a BIG thankyou to all who have supported me. I think we raised about $500. It’s a good cause. Cheers.

And perhaps other could get on board next year:) To take us out, here’s a poem.

 

 

Movember: A Reflection
I began without reluctance,
made my commitment with no regret,
I was a mere child back then –
I had no idea what I would get.

At the beginning it was a novelty,
A laugh for all sorts of folks.
Some would call it “designer stubble”,
And I would smile and join in the jokes.

But it wasn’t long till I realised,
that I’d bitten perhaps more than I thought.
My wife began to seek affection,
rather less than I felt she ought.

After all, my effort was herculean!
I was enduring constant disdain!
Mothers began to hide their daughters.
Old women muttered, “such a shame.”

My dreams of exuding toughness
And charm, I began to despise as phantoms.
When I saw my face in passing cars
I recoiled! But could I my word abandon?

Somehow the middle weeks passed
Without too much more sorrow,
And I found myself in the dying days,
The owner of some kind of mo.

It wasn’t really a handle-bar,
I could hardly call it a “boony”.
To be sure, there was something of the porn-star to it,
But it would hardly have passed in a movie.

In the end, it’s lucky it’s for charity,
because it still receives strange stares.
The plain fact of the thing is that,
There simply aren’t enough hairs!

“By the tender mercy
of our God,
the dawn from on high
will break upon us,
to give light
to those who sit in darkness
and in
the shadow of death,
to guide
our feet
into the way
of peace.”
(Luke 1:78-9)

 

Photo by Ian Sand

Ten thoughts on “works”

1. The question of the place of “works” in the Christian life is ultimately a question about the place of human action in salvation – it concerns the question “what then should we do?” At its broadest, the word “works” can refer to any or all human acts, so that salvation’s being “not by works” can mean there is no need for any active human response.

 

2. This idea is rightly criticised by James:
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (Js 2:14-17)

3. As Oliver O’Donovan helpfully explains, “James is conscious of a possible fissuring of man’s response to the gospel into a mere intellectual assent apart from existential commitment.” (Resurrection and Moral Order, 110) But in his opposition to salvation by works (e.g. Eph. 2:8), the apostle Paul was never advocating mere intellectual assent; instead, he sought to bring about “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5; 16:26), “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6), and the faith that issues in the good works of a new creation (Eph. 2:10). Both Paul and James, that is, knew that saving faith cannot be a mere affirmation of certain truths, which as James points out, even the demons can claims (Js 2:19). Human beings have a responsibility to act; there are works to be done.

4. What, then, is the problem with works, which clearly occupied so much thought for the apostle Paul? I believe that the problem comes when particular works come to be construed as requirements, when certain specific human acts are marked out as specially important and so take on the character of “the things that must be done”. These works are then no longer the fruit of grace, the love that flows from faith; but instead requirements for grace.

5. The key element here is particularization. Certain acts are marked out as specially important. These works become the crucial content of obedience. The paradigm example of this particularization is the Law of Israel. The Law, especially it seems in its first century interpretation, gave certain acts a special focus: circumcision, food laws, cleanliness rituals. These deeds were “prescribed by the Law” (Rom. 3:20). These particular acts became the special content of obedience, and as a result they took on the character of requirements.

6. It is “works” construed in this way that the apostle Paul opposed; because he saw that to see particular works as requirements was really to throw the burden of salvation onto human obedience. Works were transformed from the fruit of grace into the means to it. But as St Paul knew, “‘no human being will be justified in his sight’ by deeds prescribed by the Law, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20).

7. This was the problem with those who urged the necessity of doing “the works of the Law”. Yet the problem is not confined to these works. Any set of human actions can, through cultural forces, community law, or self-imposition, be particularized, specially marked out as the content of obedience; and when this happens they can easily take on the character of requirements.

8. Various “works” suggest themselves as potential candidates for this mis-construal. For some it is the daily quiet time, for others church attendance and participation in the sacraments, for others it is perhaps supporting Fair Trade and poverty relief. Any of these sets of actions can come to be singled out and construed as requirements, and so undermine the gospel by throwing the burden of salvation onto human obedience.

9. This is not to say, however, that there is no space for urging that actions, even particular actions, accompany gospel faith: this is exactly what James does when he speaks of the naked brother or sister whom the believer must help. Likewise the Lord Jesus commands his followers, very straightforwardly, to do certain, particular, things. Yet there is a tendency within the New Testament to broadness when it comes to defining the content of obedience: “love one another”. This broadness is perhaps a recognition of the fact that when particular acts are focussed on they can take on the character of requirements and undermine the integrity of the gospel of the God who saves by grace, creating people anew to do the good works he has prepared beforehand.

10. I am aware that these are disputed topics, and that to some, what I have written may seem remarkably naïve. All I can say is that I am not unaware of these debates, though no expert, but at the moment suspect that something along this line is the way forward. And so I write this in the hope of provoking debate. Please share your thoughts!

MOVEMBER! Week 2

After two weeks, things are getting a bit hairy. (Sorry about that).

Again, anyone desiring to donate to this project can email me. A big thanks to everyone who has got on board so far!

A painting I like

Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son.