BEING PUT RIGHT WITH GOD
We, too, have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be put right with God through our faith in Christ, and not by doing what the Law requires. For no one is put right with God by doing what the Law requires. Gal. 2:16, T.E.V.
Ever since the Reformation, scholars have been debating the exact meaning of a New Testament word that is translated in its various forms both as "righteousness" and as "justification." They all agree that it has something to do with the center of the plan of salvation, but they fall into two general camps as to how that is done.
Broadly speaking, the Lutherans have taken the position that justification is declared righteousness--that it is God's act of imputing, or crediting, the perfect righteousness of Christ to the record of the sinner, so that God views the repentant sinner as if he were righteous, even though he may still do sinful acts. They speak of it as "an alien righteousness" from the sinner's point of view; it does not arise from within him, lest he have grounds either for boasting or for endless despairing.
By contrast, the Catholic tradition has seen the word as implying a caused righteousness--that God works in the sinner's life, causing his behavior to become good enough to warrant it being regarded as righteous by God. (This righteousness, however, is not adequate in itself for one's salvation, and additional sources of merit must be added for that purpose.) But the idea of completely substitutionary righteousness would be regarded as "legal fiction" by many Catholics.
Both traditions, however, do share some common ground. Both of them apparently accept the assumption that God is the kind of person who needs to have merit presented to Him before He will decide to bless the sinner with eternal life. The Lutherans suggest that this merit is found only in Christ; the Catholics say it comes from Christ's work in the believer. But in either case God must be appeased or satisfied with a certain amount of merit.
But what if merit simply isn't the issue? What if we see the sin problem not as a shortage of merit but as a shattered relationship? To solve the problem, then, is to bring us back into a right relationship with God. As we read in today's text, the Today's English Version has chosen to translate the word in question as "put right with God." Beyond juggling of merits, it focuses on the real issue: our personal union with the Father!
We, too, have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be put right with God through our faith in Christ, and not by doing what the Law requires. For no one is put right with God by doing what the Law requires. Gal. 2:16, T.E.V.
Ever since the Reformation, scholars have been debating the exact meaning of a New Testament word that is translated in its various forms both as "righteousness" and as "justification." They all agree that it has something to do with the center of the plan of salvation, but they fall into two general camps as to how that is done.
Broadly speaking, the Lutherans have taken the position that justification is declared righteousness--that it is God's act of imputing, or crediting, the perfect righteousness of Christ to the record of the sinner, so that God views the repentant sinner as if he were righteous, even though he may still do sinful acts. They speak of it as "an alien righteousness" from the sinner's point of view; it does not arise from within him, lest he have grounds either for boasting or for endless despairing.
By contrast, the Catholic tradition has seen the word as implying a caused righteousness--that God works in the sinner's life, causing his behavior to become good enough to warrant it being regarded as righteous by God. (This righteousness, however, is not adequate in itself for one's salvation, and additional sources of merit must be added for that purpose.) But the idea of completely substitutionary righteousness would be regarded as "legal fiction" by many Catholics.
Both traditions, however, do share some common ground. Both of them apparently accept the assumption that God is the kind of person who needs to have merit presented to Him before He will decide to bless the sinner with eternal life. The Lutherans suggest that this merit is found only in Christ; the Catholics say it comes from Christ's work in the believer. But in either case God must be appeased or satisfied with a certain amount of merit.
But what if merit simply isn't the issue? What if we see the sin problem not as a shortage of merit but as a shattered relationship? To solve the problem, then, is to bring us back into a right relationship with God. As we read in today's text, the Today's English Version has chosen to translate the word in question as "put right with God." Beyond juggling of merits, it focuses on the real issue: our personal union with the Father!
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