Thread: Imputed Righteousness: The Evangelical Doctrine
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Imputed Righteousness: The Evangelical Doctrine
Posted : 9 Aug, 2011 06:53 PM
Imputed Righteousness:
The Evangelical Doctrine
by: R.C. Sproul
At the heart of the controversy between Roman Catholic and Reformation theology is the nature of justification itself. It is a debate not merely about how or when or by what means a person is justified, but about the very meaning of justification itself.
Reformed theology insists that the biblical doctrine of justification is forensic in nature. What does this mean? In the popular jargon of religion, the word forensic is used infrequently. The word is not foreign, however, to ordinary language. It appears daily in the news media, particularly with reference to criminal investigations and trials. We hear of "forensic evidence" and "forensic medicine" as we listen to the reports of criminologists, coroners, and pathologists. Here the term forensic refers to the judicial system and judicial proceedings.
The term forensic is also used to describe events connected with public speaking. Schools hold forensic contests or events that feature formal debates or the delivery of speeches.
The link between these ordinary usages of forensic and its theological use is that justification has to do with a legal or judicial matter involving some type of declaration. We can reduce its meaning to the concept of legal declaration.
The doctrine of justification involves a legal matter of the highest order. Indeed it is the legal issue on which the sinner stands or falls: his status before the supreme tribunal of God.
When we are summoned to appear before the bar of God's judgment, we face a judgment based on perfect justice. The presiding Judge is himself perfectly just. He is also omniscient, fully aware of our every deed, thought, inclination, and word. Measured by the standard of his canon of righteousness, we face the psalmist's rhetorical question that hints at despair: "If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, ...who could stand?" (Psalm 130:3 NKJV).
The obvious answer to this query is supplied by the Apostle Paul: "There is none righteous, no, not one...." (Romans 3:10).
God commands us to be holy. Our moral obligation coram Deo (before the face of God) is to live perfect lives. One sin mars that obligation and leaves us naked, exposed before divine justice. Once a person sins at all, a perfect record is impossible. Even if we could live perfectly after that one sin, we would still fail to achieve perfection. Our sin may be forgiven, but forgiveness does not undo the sin. The consequences of the sin may be removed or ameliorated, but the sin itself is not undone.
The Bible speaks figuratively about the sin being washed, cleansed, healed, and blotted out. The sin, which is scarlet, may become white as snow, the crimson may become like wool, in God's sight. The sin may be cast into the sea of forgetfulness or purged with hyssop. But these images describe an expiation for sin and divine forgiveness or remission of our sin. Our record does not change, but our guilt does. Hence Paul declares, "Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin" (Romans 4:8 NKJV).
In our redemptive forgiveness God does not charge us with what we owe. He does not count our sins against us. If he did, no one (except Jesus) would ever escape his just wrath. No one but Christ would be able to stand before God's judgment.
Again, God in his grace may regenerate us, sanctify us, and even glorify us. He might make us perfect in the future. He really does change the elect and will eventually make the justified totally and completely righteous. But even the perfected saint in heaven was once a sinner and has a track record that, apart from the grace of justification, would send him to hell.
Thus, where temporal creatures are concerned, everyone who is once imperfect is always imperfect with respect to the whole scope of the person's individual history. This is what Thomas Aquinas meant when he asserted that justification is always of the impious (iustificatio impii). Righteous people have no need of justification, even as the healthy have no need of a physician.
Both Roman Catholic and Reformation theology are concerned with the justification of sinners. Both sides recognize that the great human dilemma is how unjust sinners can ever hope to survive a judgment before the court of an absolutely holy and absolutely just God.
If we define forensic justification as a legal declaration by which God declares a person just and we leave it at that, we would have no dispute between Rome and Evangelicalism. Though Rome has an antipathy to the concept of forensic justification, this antipathy is directed against the Protestant view of it.
In chapter 7 of the sixth session of the Council of Trent, Rome declared: "...not only are we reputed but we are truly called and are just, receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure...."
Here Rome is jealous to distinguish between being reputed just and actually being just, yet it is still true that God calls the baptismally regenerated just. That is, for Rome justification is forensic in that justification involves God's legal declaration. A person is justified when God declares that person just. The reason or the ground of that declaration differs radically between Roman Catholic and Reformed theology. But both agree that a legal declaration by God is made.
Nor is it sufficient merely to say that Rome teaches that justification means "to make just," while Protestants teach that justification means "to declare just." For Rome God both makes just and declares just. For Protestants God both makes just and declares just -- but not in the same way. For Rome the declaration of justice follows the making inwardly just of the regenerate sinner. For the Reformation the declaration of justice follows the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the regenerated sinner.
R. C. Sproul is an author, chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and professor at the Orlando campus of Reformed Theological Seminary.
No, the Bible says that when God forgives, he throws that persons sins in the "sea of forgetfulness".
But staying on the topic of justification, it is a legal declaration.
Once a persons sins have been forgiven, by God, that is final.
This is WHY a Christian can have joy, because they ARE forgiven, and why a Christian CAN have assurance that they ARE truly saved.
The only way a Papist can have some type of assurance (according to Rome) is by going to confession, and immediately taking mass, and then walking straight outside and getting hit by a bus and being killed instantly.
Praise God that Papists no longer rule, and the Reformation happened!
In R. C. Sprouls words (and I believe it is what you believe)
"...For Rome the declaration of justice follows the making inwardly just of the regenerate sinner. For the Reformation the declaration of justice follows the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the regenerated sinner."
We Catholics believe that God
"makes us Inwardly Just (Regenerates The Soul...Cleanses it)"
while Reformers (Calvin) believe that Christ
"Imputes Justification" (a Legal Term).
It's like for a Catholic God Bathes us and Makes us CLEAN
while for Calvin
God leaves us dirty but
Gives Us a Certificate that says
'God Says I'm Clean!'
For Over 1500 years the former was and still is Believe and held as Doctrine from the day Christ Taught it to His Church.
The second does not make sense and has never made sense even when it was "voiced" in Apostolic Times.
Imputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology that proposes that the "righteousness of Christ ... is imputed to [believers] � that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith." [1]:106 It is on the basis of this "alien" (i.e. from the outside) righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification. Thus this doctrine is practically synonymous with justification by faith.
The teaching of imputed righteousness is a signature doctrine of the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Christianity.[2] There is some dispute as to the origin of the reformation era concept of imputed righteousness. Some modern Lutherans deny that Luther taught it before other reformers such as Melancthon. However, Luther did use the term in this sense as early as 1516.[3] In his seminal 1516 Novum Instrumentum omne (actually finished late in 1515 but printed in March of 1516), Erasmus rendered the Greek Logizomai (reckon) as "imputat" all eleven times it appears in Romans chapter four. The Vulgate Erasmus intended to "correct" usually rendered it "reputat" (repute). Erasmus was at this time famous and Luther almost unknown, leaving open the possibility that the concept itself did not originate with Luther, but rather, if not with Erasmus, then within the wider church reform movement.
One view (Protestant � Calvin) is that God�s Justification is �Imputed� � �merely given to Man as a��Sign��as a �Legal Document� (Certificate)�as a �Covering� (new Outward Clothes).
Because Man is Depraved and Can Never Be considered �Just� in God�s Eyes! Therefore when God �Justifies� man�He is Merely Making a �Declaration� that Man is �Just� and therefore is �Allowed� into Heaven.
Sounds like
�Sign here, but don�t read the small print�.
We Catholics Believe (and The Church did and has since�The BEGINNING) that when God Justifies Man�God LITERALLY Changes that man or woman! Through Sanctifying Grace that person�s Sins are �Removed���Blotted Away���Tossed into the Sea of Forgetfulness� (wasn�t that in �The Princess Bride?).
That person TRULLY becomes Worthy of Heaven�of which Scripture tells us
��no one enters with even the STAIN of Sin on them.�
Which makes more sense:
You enter Heaven with all of your Sins�merely �Covered� by Christ�s Blood and in effect �Hiding them from God� and you can Only Enter because God gave you a �Certificate� (that allows you to enter) or�
You Enter Heaven because God Justifies You and Cleanses you with The Blood of Christ which�Removes your Sins and makes you Worthy to Enter Heaven because of God�s Sanctifying Grace.
One�God cannot �see� your Sinful Depraved Nature because it is �Hidden� by Christ�s Blood and even though you �REEK� of SIN�you get to go to Heaven. Or
God (in His Infinite Power and Wisdom) deems you JUSTIFIED and with His Sanctifying Grace�CHANGES your sinful depraved nature and makes you Worthy of Heaven!
I don�t know about you but the God I have come to know and Love does not �Get fooled� by ANYTHING! There is Nothing that can be HIDDEN from Him.
"Grab my Cross" and Bear it. Everyday...every hour...every minute -- I work on My Salvation;
James replies:
Yes, and your works will never erase your sins, and you will never obey God's Law perfectly, so how do you think you will stand before God's standard of perfect Justice?
Arch said:
by doing The Will of God...by Obeying His Commandments...by being the best Christian that I can.
James replies:
So you believe in salvation by attempting to imitate Jesus?
Jesus said that "MANY" would come to Him on Judgment Day, and "Lord, we did many mighty works in your name."
And then Jesus said, "And I will say to them, Depart from me I never knew you..."
Who do you think these people are?
These people THOUGHT that their works would save them.
I do this as Paul said
"...in fearful Anticipation of Heaven"
If an Apostle waited "Fearfully" for Heaven...why should I think I am such a Good Christian as to be More Assured then Paul?
James replies:
Paul TAUGHT assurance!
Paul TAUGHT justification by faith alone!
Arch said:
When Christ Forgives me My Sins...they are GONE...WIPED AWAY...BLOTTED OUT.
James replies:
When a person repents and trusts in Jesus they are saved.
You are talking about future event, but the Bible speaks of being saved the moment a person believes.
You are speaking of salvation by works, and the Bible says that people can ONLY be saved by FAITH ALONE in Jesus.
Arch said:
If I should sin before I die I know that their is Purgatory where my Soul will be Refined with Fire and Purified as Gold and Silver is Purified.
James replies:
A lie from Hell. Look, Luther POINTED out to Rome that Purgatory, among many other things Rome taught, was NOT IN THE BIBLE.
Catholic theologians, caught publicly being challenged, scrambled, and found ONE verse in 2 Maccabees that alluded to praying for the dead. instantly the Pope decided to declare all of the apocrypha, to be included in the Canon of Scripture, and this was done simply to allow purgatory some legitimacy, but how CHEESY it was to CHANGE THE CANON over a THOUSAND YEARS after it was closed?!
There is NO SUCH THING AS PURGATORY, and it contradicts Scripture when it says:
Heb.9:27 "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,"
Arch said:
All this I believed as my Brothers and Sisters before me did since Christ gave His Church these Truths and Commanded Her to "...TEACH...".
James replies:
I agree with you that God gave us teachers, and that we SHOULD know church history, and what consensus is on doctrines, etc. However, WHEN any church or person CONTRADICTS Scripture, then we are to leave that body, or person.
The Bible comes BEFORE any church tradition, council, or church.
The Truth is, the Holy Catholic church, started accumulating false teachings by 500Ad, and by 1000AD became an apostate body.
The Reformation came, and THAT was light breaking in upon darkness. The Roman Catholic church, instead of repenting, dug in its heels, and the council of Trent forever sealed the fate of the Roman Catholic church as an apostate body.
Salvation by ceremony is a lie from the pit of Hell.
The mass re-crucifies Christ every time it is done, and bowing before statues is the most gross violation of the second commandment possible. the worship of Mary, and other saints is idolatry. The very idea of a Priest contradicts Scripture. And Rome today STILL sells indulgences! It is NOT Christianity, and the Reformation happened! If you are a member of the Roman Catholic church I would ask you why?
Do you not Know the Bible? Most Catholics don't so that would not be a surprise.
I would first advise you to read Romans. Paul literally teaches a course on HOW we are saved. He starts out saying that no one has ever been saved EXCEPT BY FAITH ALONE. He goes on to give examples of people in the Old Testament and he shows that they all were saved by faith alone. He literally teaches this concept for four chapters and then in Romans 5:1 he says:
"Therefore, being justified by faith we HAVE peace with God."
This is HOW you have assurance, is because you trust in something that JESUS already accomplished.
PJ, The word IMPUTED is scriptual, which means to ascribe to, or reckon. Which means Adam's sin was charged or ascribed or reckoned to our account. God did charge us with Adams's sin as in making us responsible for his sin, but he reckon or charged his sin debt to us because we are connected to Adam as his children as in human race he is the father of the human race so we all are guilty of sin through oru sin nature.
Therefore, just as God imputes(charges, ascribes, or reckons the sin of Adam to the human race, He also offers to do something about it through the righteousness of Christ. When we become born again, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to the account of a believer, in other words, He makes the person's record as good or perfect as that of Jesus Christ after we repnet of our sins when we become born again. We are innocent of sins, no more guilt, unless we continue to sin.
Imputed righteousness of Christ is the only remedy for imputed sin.
For it is written: Romans Choater 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned---To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone�s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God�s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man�s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
17. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God�s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
18. Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21. so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
CORRECTIONS... THIS SHOULD READ: PJ, The word IMPUTED is scriptual, which means to ascribe to, or reckon. Which means Adam's sin was charged or ascribed or reckoned to our account. God did NOT charge us with Adams's sin as in making us responsible for his sin, but he ...
