ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CUENet AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION DOGMATICS 2 LESSON 67 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 10 E. 22nd Street Suite 304 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> I want to hear more about this. Nick's questions are interesting. But I would also like to know what scripture passages present the doctrine of justification. I want to be able to share these clearly with my congregation. >> DR. DAVID MAXWELL: Oh, absolutely, Josh. That's -- and I think for the scripture passage to go to, we should go where Article IV of the Augsburg Confession directs us. And that's Romans 3 and 4. This is probably one with of the more central passages discussed in the doctrine of justification. And in Romans 3 Paul makes the point in a very dramatic way, that everyone is held captive to sin. He does this by stringing together a whole series of passages from the Psalms. That there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. No one who seeks God. This repetition of no one, no one, no one is righteous to make the point that the whole world is held captive to sin and held accountable to God. And after Paul makes this point, then he shifts his discussion to talk about law. And why is the law given? And we've already seen in the discussion that we've had previously that Lutheran theology and the doctrine of justification wants to exclude the law from justification. So that means we're not going to expect Paul to tell us that the law is given so that we may become righteous before God. That would be a confusion of law and Gospel. However, one might ask the question, "Well, if that's not the purpose of the law, what is the purpose of the law?" And for that, Paul is very straightforward. He tells us that no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law. Rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. So that's the purpose of the law, to make us conscious of sin. Not so that we can be justified. But so that we may become aware of sin. And that is what we Lutherans call the second use of the law or the theological use of the law. That it makes us conscious of our sin. Now, that means that when you think about doing good works, which of course is a good thing to do, you need to understand that your purpose in doing them is not that you become righteous. And anything you do, people can think this way: Like "I'm going to become a good Christian by reading my Bible. I'm going to become a good Christian by praying. I'm going to become a good Christian by telling others about Jesus." All of these things are good things to do. But they don't make you acceptable to God. They don't justify you. I mean, except perhaps in the case of reading your Bible, when you receive the Gospel that way, then that message justifies you. But consider it as a performance that you're doing. None of those things are going to justify you. So what does justify you? In the next verse Paul tells us quite specifically. "But not a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify." So he tells us that the origin of this righteousness is not from us. It is actually from God. So when it comes to conversion, when it comes to being transferred into a position where we are righteous before God, we do not take the initiative as we talked about before about it's not our invitation. But it's Jesus' invitation. So this righteousness is from God. And Paul notes also that it is a part from the law. And further that the law and the prophets testify to it. Now, this part I think is a little bit confusing in that the word law is used in two different senses. And I think it's important to pause here and just talk about that a little bit so that we understand the different ways in which the scriptures can use the word law. Because in dogmatic theology or systematic theology, we have certain ways that we use words that are derived from scripture. But they tend to be narrower and more specific than the scriptural language. So scripture tends to be more free in its use of words. So the word law will mean more things in the scripture than it would mean in systematic theology. And so here we have a familiar use I think to us that the righteousness is apart from law. That is it is apart from the commands that God gives us. So that would include things like the command to be circumcised in the Old Testament. That was a big issue in the early church as Paul himself mentioned in Romans and Galations. But it would also include things like the Ten Commandments. Or it would include things in the New Testament, too, by extension. That the commands that Jesus gives, as well, none of those commands are going to justify. But it's only Christ that justifies. But then Paul uses the term law in a different sense in the second half of Verse 21 where he notes that the law and the prophets testify to this righteousness. And here law is -- it's really more of a translation convention. Because law is often used to translate the word torah in Hebrew. The Hebrew word torah refers to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. And so taken together, law and the prophets then is simply a way to refer to the Old Testament. So you need to be aware of that possible use of law. That law can actually refer to the first five books of the Bible. Sort of the same way that the term Gospel can refer to the first four books of the New Testament, too. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are gospels. That's not to say that there's no law in them in a Lutheran dogmatic sense. It's just that's the term that is used for those books. And in the same way, just because the term law is used to translate to torah in the Old Testament, it doesn't mean there's no Gospel in the first five books of the Bible. Certainly not. But that's just the name for them. And that's a translation that became common when the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek. And that convention is still followed today. And the New Testament then of course is written in Greek. So the New Testament follows that translation convention, as well when it refers to the Old Testament. So we have Paul telling us that the Old Testament testifies to the righteousness which is from God. And that really directly relates to a topic that we brought up earlier. And that is when we speak of the law of Gospel distinction, we are not talking about an Old Testament/New Testament distinction. That it's not the case that the Old Testament is all law and the New Testament is all Gospel. And here we have that directly stated by Paul where he says that the Old Testament testifies to the righteousness which is from God. And so we would not expect then the view that the Old Testament teaches a salvation by works; whereas the New Testament teaches the salvation by faith. It doesn't work that way. The Old Testament, too, teaches a justification by faith. And Paul himself will provide us an example of Old Testament justification by faith in the person of Abraham in Chapter 4. But we'll get to that in just a second. So then we have a righteousness which is from God. And we might ask "Well, how do we receive that righteousness?" And Paul tells us that in the next two verses in Romans Chapter 3 where he says, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Now, we might notice here if you compare this to Article IV of the Augsburg Confession, you have all of the same elements in Roman 3:22 to 24. You have this righteousness -- the justification is freely by grace. And it comes through faith and it becomes on account of Christ. So it's through faith in Jesus Christ, according to the way that Paul puts it. Now, notice here -- and we'll talk more about faith a little later in this section of the course. But notice the way that faith comes up. The righteousness comes through faith. That means that faith is in an instrumental relationship you might say. Faith is not itself a good work that earns righteousness. But rather, faith is the means by which God delivers his righteousness to us. It's how that righteousness is received. And that's an important point. And I'll discuss that in more detail when we get to faith in this section of the course. But I just want to note that in passing as we cover the scriptural evidence for the doctrine of justification. Now, we continue with Paul in Verse 25. Paul says, "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood." Now, here Paul is referring to the Old Testament Day of Atonement in which atonement is made for the sins of the people. So I would like to refer back to this passage in the Old Testament. Because I think it will help us understand what it means to say that Christ is a sacrifice of atonement. And this is the account of the Day of Atonement, which happens once a year in which the high priest is to go into the Holy of Holies and make a sacrifice for the sins of the people. And this is from Leviticus Chapter 16. And I'll start in Verse 13. This is the way that God prescribes the Day of Atonement to take place. And it's referring to Aaron here. He, Aaron, is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the testimony MARK so that he will not die. He is to take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover. Then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover. He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did the bull's blood. He should sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the most holy place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. So here is the way that God prescribes atonement to occur in the Old Testament. And it has to do with the blood being put on this atonement cover. And so when Jesus is called the Sacrifice of Atonement, Paul is identifying him with that sacrifice and atonement cover where the blood is put before the Lord. And so Jesus is now the sacrifice that gives us peace with God. So this is how the righteousness comes about is through the sacrifice of Christ. Now, that is the end of Chapter 3. But Paul continues in Chapter 4 now to spell this out with particular examples from the Old Testament. You recall we said earlier that for Paul, the Old Testament actually testifies to this righteousness which is from God. And here is his first example. It's the person of Abraham. And if you think about it, this is a great move on Paul's part. That if you're going to pick a figure in the Old Testament to prove your point that the Old Testament is not about God's commands but it's about this righteousness from God that comes through grace by faith, then Abraham is the one to pick. Because he's not just any figure in the Old Testament. He is the patriarch. So he is one of the most important figures in the entire Old Testament. So what Paul is showing is that not only is his reading of the Old Testament true for some minor figure on the margins, that's not what he's showing at all. He's showing this is paradigmatic for the whole thing. Because this is the way that Abraham was saved. So this is the point that Paul is making. So he says in Chapter 4 "What shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about -- but not before God." So Paul is telling us that Abraham is going to be his example here. Paul continues, "What does scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." So this is the point at which Abraham was justified according to Paul. When Abraham believed God. And what Paul is referring to here is God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:6. That even though Abraham is childless at that point in the narrative, that God promises Abraham that his descendents will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham believes that promise. And the scriptures tell us in Genesis 15:6 that it was credited to him as righteousness. That's justification. Faith is credited by God as righteousness. So we might even say if you're looking for a biblical definition of the word justify or dikaioo in Greek, that this would be it. This would be the way Paul describes it, God crediting faith as righteousness. Now, I need to point out here that we are talking about something that happens in the heart of God. God considers Abraham's faith as righteousness. This is not an inner transformation in Abraham. Though certainly Christians want to speak of an inner transformation. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about -- when we're talking about justification, we're talking about something that takes place in the heart of God. Where God reckons Abraham's faith as righteousness or the word we sometimes say is God imputes righteousness to us. It's the same idea. Imputation means God considers it righteousness. Now, we might ask the question: Did Abraham believe in Christ? And we don't have any evidence in the Old Testament that Abraham would have been able to say the Nicene Creed or something like that. I don't think Christians need to claim anything like that. But what we do know is that Abraham believed God's promise to him, a promise of heirs. Now from our perspective in hindsight, we can look back and see that, in fact, God's promise of Abraham's descendants includes the Christ. So they are implicitly that Christ is included in God's promise. But as far as Abraham is concerned, it's not necessary for us to claim that Abraham new other details of God's plan of salvation. Only that Abraham is trusting in the promises of God. And it's through -- it's because of that trust or by means of that trust then that God considers him to be righteous. Now, Paul continues in Verse 4 just -- we're going verse by verse right through this. "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." Now, here Paul gives us something that I think that is very profound. And that is a contrast between wages and gift. And if we think through this, it has a direct bearing on how we think we relate to God. Do we think that we can place God under an obligation to us? Or do we think that God gives us gifts? And that our only role is a receptive role in receiving God's gifts? Because if you believe that the law is part of justification, that you are, in fact, justified by something that you do, then you're thinking in terms of wages. You're thinking in terms of obligation. And I think that this is incredibly attractive to people. Now, as Lutherans, we might say, "Well, it would be horrifying because then how do I know that I've done enough?" And I think that objection is absolutely true. But I think we also need to understand why it is attractive to people to think that they can contribute to their salvation. And it's because it gives them control. They can place God under an obligation. It fits very well in the American work ethic. And I just think of the comments that Dr. Scaer made about why Mormonism is appealing in an American culture. Because a religion in which your works are emphasized means that you get paid for that. You get a wage. You get to control God's response to you. And that's why Paul says, "We need the law." Because what the law will do is it will utterly annihilate that expectation of a reward. But it will show us there is no hope of placing God under an obligation. So the only hope we have then is to receive God's promises as a gift, not as a wage. And that is the whole point of Romans 3 and 4 is to make this point that God's righteousness to us is, in fact, a gift. It is not something that we're able to earn or to control even. We can only receive. Now, I would like to contrast Paul's view of justification and Luther's view with that of what Luther grew up with. Because I think it's very instructive. And it might help us to understand the Lutheran view of justification if we understand a little bit about what Luther was reacting against. When Luther became a monk, he would have learned his theology from a source -- an author named Gabriel Biel. Biel was a late medieval writer. And his theology goes something like this: You are saved when God's grace leads you to merit salvation. So he's not saying that you can do it all on your own. He's saying you need God's help. And when you have God's grace, that actually allows you to merit salvation by your works. Now, that's going to raise the question: Well, all right, how do I get God's grace? Well, the way you get God's grace according to Biel is do your best. The Latin motto here is translated "To him who does what is in him, God will not deny grace." So in a sense, the initiative is left up to you. And here again, this -- I believe this is a case of lowering the standard. Okay? It doesn't seem -- it's not that much, right? All you've got to do is do what you can. Do what you can. Do what's in you. And for most monks apparently that worked fine because who doesn't do their best? Who isn't able to do what they can? But see, the problem is, Luther was well aware that there was always more that he could do. There was never a time when Luther was able to claim before God "I have done my best. I have done what is in me." And so he was always in doubt about whether he could actually receive the grace which would enable him to merit salvation. So I think you can see that Biel's theology was essentially a wage system in which your efforts, even though the standard was reduced -- I mean, you don't have to be perfect. All you have to do is do your best. It's still a wage system. And it still put you in control. Because once you do your best, then God is obligated to reward you by giving you your grace. And then that grace will enable you to further do better works, will eventually merit salvation. Then God has to reward with you with salvation once you merit that. In a way, it's not all that different than our discussion about inviting Jesus into your heart. That it didn't seem like that much. Who couldn't do that? But see, it's still a wage system. It still puts God under obligation. And it still looks like God is then obliged to pay you, if you will, for the minimal effort that you are able to make. Now, if we contrast that with Luther's view of salvation, I think it's a night and day. Because in Luther's view, salvation is a gift. The burden is on Christ. It's not on us. Christ is the one who is going to save us. And it's not that we are going to be saved by measuring up to standards at all. Even minimal standards. It's that we will receive salvation as a gift. So that's -- that's just a small excursus on what Luther grew up with in the theology of Gabriel Biel. But to return to Paul then, so what we have so far in Romans 4 is that Paul gives us an example from the Old Testament of justification by faith. And that example is Abraham. Now, in Verse 6, the next verse in our reading, Paul moves on to a second Old Testament example. So it's not like Abraham is the only one here. Now he cites David as an example of someone who was justified by faith by saying, "David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." So you can see in this part of Romans 4, in the example of David, Paul is using the forgiveness of sins as synonomous with justification. How is David justified? He is justified by the fact that his sins are forgiven. And Paul is quoting Psalm 32 at that point. So we have then two different scriptural paraphrases, if you will, of what does dikaioo mean? What does justify mean? The first is the case of Abraham. God credits faith as righteousness. That he -- or as we say in our dogmatic terminology, he imputes righteousness to us. Or you can also say that just at this fashion is the forgiveness of sins according to the second example that Paul uses from David. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***