Justification is not an end in itself. Neither is the forgiveness of sins or the imputation of righteousness. Neither is escape from hell or entrance into heaven or freedom from disease or liberation from bondage or eternal life or justice or mercy or the beauties of a pain-free world. None of these facets of the gospel-diamond is the chief good or highest goal of the gospel. Only one thing is: seeing and savoring God himself, being changed into the image of his Son so that more and more we delight in and display God’s infinite beauty and worth.
Consider an illustration of what I am trying to say. Suppose I get up in the morning and as I am walking to the bathroom I trip over some of my wife’s laundry that she left lying on the hall floor. Instead of simply moving the laundry myself and assuming the best in her, I react in a way that is all out of proportion to the situation and say something very harsh to my wife just as she is waking up. She gets up, puts the laundry away, and walks downstairs ahead of me. I can tell by the silence and from my own conscience that our relationship is in serious trouble.
As I go downstairs my conscience is condemning me. Yes, the laundry should not have been there. Yes, I might have broken my neck. But those thoughts are mainly the self-defending flesh talking. The truth is that my words were way out of line. Not only was the emotional harshness out of proportion to the seriousness of the fault, but the Bible tells me to overlook the fault. “Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” (1 Cor. 6:7).
So as I enter the kitchen there is ice in the air, and her back is blatantly toward me as she works at the kitchen counter. What needs to happen here? The answer is plain: I need to apologize and ask for forgiveness. That would be the right thing to do. But here’s the analogy: Why do I want her forgiveness? So that she will make my favorite breakfast? So that my guilt feelings will go away and I will be able to concentrate at work today? So there will be good sex tonight? So the kids won’t see us at odds? So that she will finally admit the laundry shouldn’t have been there?
It may be that every one of those desires would come true. But they are all defective motives for wanting her forgiveness. What’s missing is this: I want to be forgiven so that I will have the sweet fellowship of my wife back. She is the reason I want to be forgiven. I want the relationship restored. Forgiveness is simply a way of getting obstacles out of the way so that we can look at each other again with joy.
From God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself
1 comment:
Nick,
Thank you for your patience for my response as I was out of town over the holiday last week and have been catching up this week.
Normally, as this blog is primarily for my church family and friends, I wouldn't even respond to a comment from someone that has dropped by to take a post in a completely different direction.
But let's go to one of the texts you cited, Romans 4:4.
Romans 4:2-5
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
Paul has just finished talking about how we "are justified by his grace as a gift" in 3:24. Now in chapter 4, he makes a contrast between what is given as an obligation, because it was earned (by works), and what is given as a gift, because it is not earned (by faith, not works). Remember, he has said our justification is received as a gift, not as an obligation.
You conclude: "So when the text plainly says 'faith is logizomai as righteousness,' I must read that as ‘faith is reckoned as a truly righteous act’." And I must disagree, because then you have made faith into a work, which would make Romans 4:4 not make sense. God would then be obligated to justify me, because i have had faith that was the equivalent of "a righteousness act." Rather, the whole point of Romans in these early chapters is that "no one is righteous" (3:10) and that we need the righteousness from God received by faith (3:22). Faith is just holding out empty hands to receive what only God can give by grace.
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