So, What are we justified for?
Each month, I write an article for my home church back in Michigan. I used the article this month to think through some of the things I have been learning this semester. It's a mix of Pauline exegesis, Confessional theology, mission strategies and putting 2 + 2 together.
[Paul speaking to Peter] But we have always known that no person is justified by works of the law, if not through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And even we have faith in Christ Jesus so that we are justified by Christ’s faithfulness and not through works of the Law because of works of law no one will be justified. – Galatians 2:16
One of the wonderful experiences here at the Lutheran Theological Seminary is when the subjects we are studying in one course spills and blends over into others. The doctrine of justification by grace through faith is one doctrine that has been soaking up all of my courses. Three courses in particular: the Lutheran Confessions, Studies of the Epistles and Mission Strategies, have covered different aspects of this doctrine. I would like to share some of what I’ve learned about this doctrine.
In the Augsburg Confession, the document which first spelled out the core beliefs of the Reformation movement that later became the Lutheran tradition, the key article is article four, on justification. Phillip Melanchthon wrote “human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits or works. But they are justified as a gift on account of Christ through faith.” It is on this article, upon this doctrine, that our entire tradition is based. We cannot be justified; we cannot be forgiven for our sins by anything we do. We cannot be good enough. We cannot be kind enough. We cannot love God enough. We are sinful beings and will be rightly condemned for our sins. But we are given a gift of grace, a gift that we did not deserve and did nothing to earn.
We receive this gift of grace because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Jesus was obedient to God’s plan of salvation, created even before Creation. Jesus was wiling to become fully human. Jesus was willing to endure humiliation, suffering, torture and death on the Cross. It is on the Cross that we learn how much God loves us. God shows the divine love for us by Jesus being faithful to the salvific plan, even unto death.
One of the questions I had before coming to the LTS was about justification by grace through faith. I knew we were given the gift of grace out of love and mercy from God. But I wondered about the condition at the end of the statement “justification by grace through faith.” I worried about my faith. Was I faithful enough? Was I devout enough? I knew we couldn’t earn our salvation; there was no work that we could do that would make us righteous before God. But wasn’t my faith a work?
Now I am about to answer one of the other deep questions I was asked before I came to the LTS, “What do you need to learn Greek for?” Well, the phrase εκ πιστεως Ιησου Χριστου has traditionally been translated as “through faith in Jesus Christ“ (NRSV) [By the way, the translation at the top of this article is mine.] But that is if faith (πιστεως) is translated as an objective genitive. The objective genitive case, as we all remember from our elementary English grammar classes, means the noun (faith) is the object of the phrase and the other term (Jesus Christ) describes the noun, so it is “faith in Jesus.” But if it is translated in the subjective genitive case, where the noun has the other phrase denote it’s origin, and thus “faith of Jesus.” There is no way in the Greek to tell one way or the other. But if the phrase is translated as the subjective, it does not matter how strong (or weak) our faith is. Our faith isn’t the issue; it is the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. That further shows our salvation is not dependant upon us, because it isn’t our works or our faith. It is just grace and mercy from God out of love for humanity. This view of Christ’s faithfulness pervades this entire letter (see Galatians 2:20, 3:13, 4:5, and 6:14.)
But now that we know we have been given salvation, that our sins will be justified, what are we to do. The Lutheran tradition has such an aversion to “works righteousness,” making sure we know we can’t earn our salvation, that we have a tendency to not to try to do any good. One of the lecturers in my Mission Strategies class told us a story. When she was younger, her parents one day bought her a new bike. It wasn’t her birthday and she hadn’t done anything remarkable in school or around the house. But they just gave her a gift. Would she have shown how much she appreciated the gift by just leaving it in the garage? Or would she show how thankful she was by taking that bike around the neighborhood? Knowing we have this gift and not doing anything with it has been called “cheap grace.” The great German theologian of the 1940’s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer addressed this concern in his book The Cost of Discipleship. He called for us to seek costly grace which is “the costly pearl, for whose price the merchant sells all that he has; it is Christ’s sovereignty, for the sake of which you will tear out an eye if it causes you to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ which causes a disciple to love and follow him.”
We are not called to serve our neighbor, to tend to the least of these in order to win God’s love or earn God’s favor. We have already received God’s love and Grace. We are called to serve our neighbor, to tend to the least of these to show God our love or express our gratitude. Doing something good for someone, being charitable with your time, talents and possessions is the best way of giving thanks to God for all that God has given to you.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
[Paul speaking to Peter] But we have always known that no person is justified by works of the law, if not through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And even we have faith in Christ Jesus so that we are justified by Christ’s faithfulness and not through works of the Law because of works of law no one will be justified. – Galatians 2:16
One of the wonderful experiences here at the Lutheran Theological Seminary is when the subjects we are studying in one course spills and blends over into others. The doctrine of justification by grace through faith is one doctrine that has been soaking up all of my courses. Three courses in particular: the Lutheran Confessions, Studies of the Epistles and Mission Strategies, have covered different aspects of this doctrine. I would like to share some of what I’ve learned about this doctrine.
In the Augsburg Confession, the document which first spelled out the core beliefs of the Reformation movement that later became the Lutheran tradition, the key article is article four, on justification. Phillip Melanchthon wrote “human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits or works. But they are justified as a gift on account of Christ through faith.” It is on this article, upon this doctrine, that our entire tradition is based. We cannot be justified; we cannot be forgiven for our sins by anything we do. We cannot be good enough. We cannot be kind enough. We cannot love God enough. We are sinful beings and will be rightly condemned for our sins. But we are given a gift of grace, a gift that we did not deserve and did nothing to earn.
We receive this gift of grace because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Jesus was obedient to God’s plan of salvation, created even before Creation. Jesus was wiling to become fully human. Jesus was willing to endure humiliation, suffering, torture and death on the Cross. It is on the Cross that we learn how much God loves us. God shows the divine love for us by Jesus being faithful to the salvific plan, even unto death.
One of the questions I had before coming to the LTS was about justification by grace through faith. I knew we were given the gift of grace out of love and mercy from God. But I wondered about the condition at the end of the statement “justification by grace through faith.” I worried about my faith. Was I faithful enough? Was I devout enough? I knew we couldn’t earn our salvation; there was no work that we could do that would make us righteous before God. But wasn’t my faith a work?
Now I am about to answer one of the other deep questions I was asked before I came to the LTS, “What do you need to learn Greek for?” Well, the phrase εκ πιστεως Ιησου Χριστου has traditionally been translated as “through faith in Jesus Christ“ (NRSV) [By the way, the translation at the top of this article is mine.] But that is if faith (πιστεως) is translated as an objective genitive. The objective genitive case, as we all remember from our elementary English grammar classes, means the noun (faith) is the object of the phrase and the other term (Jesus Christ) describes the noun, so it is “faith in Jesus.” But if it is translated in the subjective genitive case, where the noun has the other phrase denote it’s origin, and thus “faith of Jesus.” There is no way in the Greek to tell one way or the other. But if the phrase is translated as the subjective, it does not matter how strong (or weak) our faith is. Our faith isn’t the issue; it is the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. That further shows our salvation is not dependant upon us, because it isn’t our works or our faith. It is just grace and mercy from God out of love for humanity. This view of Christ’s faithfulness pervades this entire letter (see Galatians 2:20, 3:13, 4:5, and 6:14.)
But now that we know we have been given salvation, that our sins will be justified, what are we to do. The Lutheran tradition has such an aversion to “works righteousness,” making sure we know we can’t earn our salvation, that we have a tendency to not to try to do any good. One of the lecturers in my Mission Strategies class told us a story. When she was younger, her parents one day bought her a new bike. It wasn’t her birthday and she hadn’t done anything remarkable in school or around the house. But they just gave her a gift. Would she have shown how much she appreciated the gift by just leaving it in the garage? Or would she show how thankful she was by taking that bike around the neighborhood? Knowing we have this gift and not doing anything with it has been called “cheap grace.” The great German theologian of the 1940’s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer addressed this concern in his book The Cost of Discipleship. He called for us to seek costly grace which is “the costly pearl, for whose price the merchant sells all that he has; it is Christ’s sovereignty, for the sake of which you will tear out an eye if it causes you to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ which causes a disciple to love and follow him.”
We are not called to serve our neighbor, to tend to the least of these in order to win God’s love or earn God’s favor. We have already received God’s love and Grace. We are called to serve our neighbor, to tend to the least of these to show God our love or express our gratitude. Doing something good for someone, being charitable with your time, talents and possessions is the best way of giving thanks to God for all that God has given to you.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
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