Nonconformist Chronicles

New Perspective Challenges to the Protestant Theology of Righteousness

The “New Perspective on Paul” refers to interpretations of the apostle’s writings that challenge some long held Protestant views that were popularized by Martin Luther. While there is great diversity of viewpoints among New Perspective scholars, they generally agree that Luther was mistaken in his reading of Pauline literature as a corrective against Jewish legalism which impacted many of his conclusions.

New Perspective scholars reject the Protestant definition of the righteousness of God (or “from God”) as the moral virtue of Christ imputed to believers [1].  “Righteousness” is rather God’s own attribute which is not imputed to believers, but determines how God deals with them. What follows is my summary of the “New Perspective” in contrast to the “Lutheran” view that was outlined in my previous post. 

The term ‘righteousness,’ dikaiosune, whose various nuances include “justice” and “impartiality,” refers to one’s right treatment of others. James Dunn says, “People are righteous when they meet the claims which others have on them by virtue of their relationship.” [2]. We would have no claims on God had he not bound himself to the human race in his covenant with Abraham. God is righteous in that he keeps his oath to rescue Abraham’s family from their enemies, to forgive their sins, and to bless all nations through them.

God’s righteous acts in Scripture are synonymous with his restoring and sustaining his people in his faithfulness to this covenant.  Daniel’s prayer for Israel’s deliverance from exile is an appeal to the God who “keeps his covenant of love” (Dan. 9:4). This appeal cannot be made on behalf of Israel’s righteousness, but is in keeping with God’s righteousness by which he is faithful to the covenant (Dan. 9:16-18). As God was faithful to his covenant with Abraham in bringing about the Exodus, Daniel now prays for a second Exodus by which God will demonstrate his mercy to the people because of his covenant, not because they deserve it (Gen. 15:13-14).[3].

In other Scriptures, petitions for deliverance, vindication, and salvation are made in appeal to God’s righteousness (Psalm 31:1; 35:24; 51:14). Salvation and faithfulness to the house of Israel are equated with his righteousness (Psalm 143:11-12). Isaiah often links righteousness and salvation as parallel (Isa. 46:13; 51:5-6).[4].  So God’s righteousness is faithfulness to his covenant obligations toward Abraham’s descendants.   

Paul says that in the gospel the righteousness of God is being made known (Rom. 1:17). God’s righteousness is on display in regard to how he treats us—in regard to how he is faithful to his covenant with Abraham to bless those of all nations who follow in the footsteps of Abraham’s faith.

Because God is righteous, in keeping with his covenant, he declares those who have faith as being righteous. We are not righteous by imputation of moral virtue. Righteousness is the legal status of being in a right standing with the court, but it is not the legal fiction of having another’s moral virtue conferred upon those who aren’t morally virtuous.

It is righteous for God to consider those of faith as righteous which is consistent with his covenant faithfulness. The faith upon which our being right with God is based is not a “do-nothing, easy-believism,” but it is faithfulness. To have the faith of Abraham is to imitate the faithful entrusting of one’s life to God.

This righteousness of God, in Romans 3:21, is said to be “apart from law.” The righteousness of God, (or ‘from God,’ as some prefer), is the status God grants us. This occurs “apart from law.” Righteousness “apart from law” cannot mean apart from obedient surrender to the lordship of Jesus. It simply means apart from the works of the Law of Moses that had traditionally distinguished Jews from Gentiles.

The argument Paul makes is not in response to Jews (or Jewish Christians) who allegedly thought believers had to pull themselves up by their moral bootstraps to be saved.[5].  Paul’s argument is in response to those who think the real evidence of one’s righteousness is in Jewish identity markers such as circumcision, the Sabbath, food laws, and purity rituals.[6]. Paul argues that Gentiles are not recognized as part of God’s people on the basis of this Jewish distinctiveness, but only on the basis of faithfulness to the Messiah. 

Next, a word about “justification by faith.” Stay tuned. I hope not to take as long to post as last time.

 

 [1] N. T. Wright, Justification (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 90, 206, 213; What Saint Paul Really Said (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 101ff, 119.

[2] James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 Word Biblical Commentary, v. 38 (Nashville: Nelson, 1988), 41.

[3] N. T. Wright, Justification, 63.

[4] Scriptures suggested by Dunn.

[5] Wright. St. Paul, 19.

[6] N. T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press., 2015), 58; St. Paul, 132.  

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Righteousness in Protestant Theology II

In Protestant theology the “righteousness from God” in Romans 1:17 has been widely understood as the righteousness of Christ which God the judge imputes to a believer. This happens because of faith, defined as mere belief in terms of acceptance of Jesus as Savior. One simply believes the good news that Jesus died for our sins and was vindicated by his resurrection from the dead as having accomplished our salvation.

The righteousness imputed to us is not our own, but is the moral virtue of Christ which has now accomplished our perfection in the sight of God. God now sees us not as fallen sinners, but as righteous because we have put on Christ’s righteousness by faith.

We could not have achieved this perfectly virtuous standing before God on our own because we are simply not good enough to merit God’s acceptance. His acceptance of us is not performance based. Romans 1:18 through chapter 2 insists that all are sinners, objects of God’s wrath, since as 3:10 concludes “there is none righteous, not even one.” No one is morally virtuous enough to earn a right standing with God.

The only way to be made right with God is if we are justified by grace. The terms “righteousness” and “justified” are closely related in the Greek. While “righteousness” is the noun dikaiosune, “justified” is the verb dikaioo. While righteousness means “what is right,” referring to either a right standing or right behavior, to be justified refers to having been "put in the right." In a court of law the justified party is the party who has won the case. Any accusations against the justified party are dropped. The justified are those who have been vindicated or acquitted. 

While we are not justified in God’s sight on the basis of our own righteousness (because we’re all guilty) our only hope is to have the righteousness of an innocent party imputed to us. Since we cannot be justified (“put right”) in God’s court on the basis of our own righteous deeds (“moral virtue”) our only hope is if God will consider us righteous through some other means. He does so by providing us with the righteousness of his Son (which is in fact God’s own righteousness since Father and Son are one).

Romans 3:21 says, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law has been made known…” Protestants take the “apart from law” phrase to mean our right standing before God is not based on the keeping of rules, such as those making up any legal system. People could only be righteous on the basis of law if they could keep it perfectly, which no one does. A perfect God, however, can only accept perfection, which is why the imputed righteousness of Christ is the only way a sinner can be right in his sight.

Romans 3:22-24 says “This righteousness from God comes only through faith 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…” One only need faith to receive the imputed righteousness that comes from God. Whether one is Jew or Gentile, it’s all the same difference. All are equally sinners and none can make themselves righteous by doing any kind of works including even the works of the Jewish law. It’s often asserted that some Jewish Christians in Rome had sought to make themselves righteous by piling up moral virtue or ritualistic works based on Moses’ law. It is further asserted that Paul wrote Romans, at least in part, as a corrective against this type of “Jewish legalism.” Paul must show that all, both Jew and Gentile, are justified freely by God’s grace. Neither group can earn salvation by working, not even by doing the works prescribed by Moses.

Some Jews had allegedly turned the law into something it was never intended to be, a means of salvation—of making oneself righteous by works of law. Some went so far as to bind Jewish customs on Gentiles as a condition for being right with God. Circumcision was an especially controversial issue as Gentiles were pressured to accept it as a work which identifies them as being among the covenant people of God.

But Paul says, “No!” In Romans 4 he turns to Abraham as an example of one who had been justified (put right) before God on the basis of his faith and not his works (Rom. 4:1-5). Abraham’s mere belief in God’s Word resulted in God imputing righteousness to him. “Abraham believed God and it was credited (imputed) to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3).

The word “credited” is from the Greek word logizomai. Some take it to mean “imputed” in the sense of something alien, or outside one’s self, gifted to an individual from without. Paul goes on to explain that the righteousness imputed to Abraham because of his faith, even before circumcision, rules out any works as a basis for Abraham’s right standing before God (Rom. 4:9-15).

This Protestant theology of righteousness has been taken for granted as correct by many over the centuries since Luther who popularized it. More recent scholarship has challenged the view, suggesting a so-called “New Perspective” on Paul. But if the New Perspective actually succeeds at getting us back to Paul’s original teaching predating Luther’s influence, then the New Perspective is actually older than the “Lutheran” view. So while “new perspective” might be a misnomer, it certainly represents a view that is new to many who were only familiar with Paul as interpreted through Luther their entire lives.

So I’ll be biting off quite a bit starting next post as I attempt to offer an evaluation and critique of both perspectives against one another.  

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Righteousness in Protestant Theology

Protestant theology has historically held, as Luther stated, that there are two kinds of righteousness. The term “righteous” is understood to mean basically “what is right” or “right-ness.”

Righteousness has a forensic, or legal, sense as in being declared “in the right” by a judge in a lawcourt. The judge may render a verdict in favor of either the plaintiff or the defendant. He declares one party or the other as being “justified” which means put in a right standing with the court.

As sinners who stand before God, our judge, how might we be put into a right standing with him? A person is put into a right standing with God when one’s sins are forgiven. This means the sinner is reconciled to God since one’s sins no longer form a barrier that separates them from a God too holy to tolerate sin’s presence. Forgiveness means being saved from God’s wrath because of the sinner’s acknowledgement that the penalty for sins was paid by Christ.

While righteousness (“what is right”) can refer to a right standing before God it can also refer to right behavior in terms of moral virtue. God, who accepts nothing less than perfection, can only declare one righteous because the righteousness of Christ—his moral virtue—has been credited to one’s account. This changes a person’s status in God’s sight. He no longer sees the person as a sinner, but as a wholly righteous person.

We could never be right with God through our own moral efforts at doing right. Our righteous works could never contribute the slightest merit into our bankrupt account. Since God only accepts perfection, our works count for nothing. We can only depend upon the righteousness of Christ which he achieved by living the perfect life of moral virtue as the only person who ever kept God’s law perfectly.

Once we are made righteous, in the forensic sense of having been acquitted of all wrong and having been declared “in the right,” we are called to take on what Luther called “proper righteousness,” which might also be referred to as “ethical” or “moral” righteousness.  Having received an alien righteousness imputed to us from Christ’s account, this in turn motivates right living before God. The good works which flow from this righteousness have no bearing whatever upon whether we are saved or lost.

It is certain, however, that one whose life does not bear the fruit of righteousness is not saved. While good works are the evidence of a right standing before God, and the fruit of it, they are not the basis for it.

To understand the Protestant view that leads to this understanding, we must turn to the Book of Romans. We will do so in the next post.