An Unshakable Othodoxy: A Theology of the Cross (pt. 5)...the righteousness of God (Romans 3:25b-26a)

“This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time” (Romans 3:25b-26a).


6. The Cross Demonstrates the Righteousness of God
- substitution/imputation

This is the great and magnificent theme of the book of Romans: the righteousness of God. From the prophet Jeremiah where he says, "...the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6); to that which is punctuated by Paul himself in 1 Cor. 1:30, "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." The full orb of Scripture represents the One Triune God as being righteous--free from sin and its stain. He is perfect, holy, righteous and true.

And the miracle of miracles is this: that perfect righteousness; HIS righteousness; the righteousness of Jesus is imputed, or credited, to us. It is not an infused righteousness as the Romanists teach; but an imputed righteousness, given to us by faith in Jesus Christ the Lord that is essential in our justification.

My Own Righteousness... Nothing But Filthy Rags
Contrarily, the prophet Isaiah describes mans' own righteousness by these vivid words: "...And all our righteous deeds are like dirty, filthy rags." Man's inherent righteousness is worth the status of dirty menstrual rags.

As stated in a previous post, man is totally depraved; unable to save himself; merit anything as being holy before a righteous God in and of his own good works; is conceived in sin; and by nature a child of wrath. Seeing that man's condition cannot be changed or altered by his own philanthropic religious works, the eternal question then surfaces: if no sinful creature can find acceptance in the presence of a holy God, then what kind of righteousness does God accept to allow sinful people into His presence?

The answer? A perfect righteousness.

It alone must be accomplished and applied to man in order for man to enter heaven and have eternal communion with an infinitely holy God. As even David has said, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity," (Psalm 32:1-2). Here is the beatitude of forgiveness and salvation. Transgressions forgiven; sins atoned for; iniquity not imputed. This is the triumvirate of spiritual blessing we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And how is this spiritual blessing obtained? By grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Look briefly at our text above:

"This was to demonstrate" or to declare. God made His eternal declaration of redemption through Christ Jesus. As Barnes's so rightly says, "The meaning is, that the plan was adopted; the Saviour was given; he suffered and died; and the scheme is proposed to men, for the purpose of making a full manifestation of his plan, in contradistinction from all the plans of men."

"His righteousness," - justification. This is the gospel. God through Christ saved us from Himself (His wrath, His justice and the just do for violating His holy law). Here, His saving righteousness is made available to sinners.

"because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;" - the sins of the elect that is. God did not ignore their sins, but passed over them - patiently, for that glorious day, the day 'in due time' where He provided forgiveness of sins through His Son--the Son of His love (cp, Col. 1:12-14). This righteousness here is not being referred to as an attribute of God, but of His plan of justifying sinners. He has adopted and proposed a plan by which men may become just by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by their own works.

"for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time," - This is the declaration for the first time under the gospel. This is the joy of deliverance. God had appointed a day in eternity past in which Jesus was manifested in the flesh to satisfy God and redeem His elect. No wonder Paul may boldly say, "who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity" (2 Tim. 1:9).

God put on public display His perfect righteousness. God showed forbearance in order for us to be given His grace in salvation. Do you want to behold the perfect righteousness of God? Do you want to have a glimpse of the holy standard that God requires of all in order to have eternal life and to stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy? Then look unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2) on the cross--for HE is our righteousness; HE is God incarnate: HE is our perfection; HE is the spotless Lamb of God, the sinless High Priest, the perfect Son of Man. And in God the Son alone, plus or minus nothing, we have obtained a righteousness that pleases God the Father alone.

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less...
Many of us have sung several times these embonpoint theological words from the great hymn, The Solid Rock: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness…” and, again from that fourth stanza: “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before His throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand…”

How glorious and true are those words.

The quintessential verse in all the NT on this important truth is found in 2 Cor. 5:21, “He who knew no sin, became sin for us; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus Christ became our sin-bearer, though without sin and sinless, so that we might become the righteousness of God IN HIM. All of our righteousness is imputed to us. It is the perfect, complete, lack nothing - righteousness of Christ. Can we grasp this reality today beloved? We only have a right standing before God, because Jesus as our Divine Substitute stood before God in our place. And therefore, all who are IN Christ are clothed with His perfect righteousness for eternity.

This righteousness of God in Christ is comprised of two very important things: the active and passive obedience of Christ. His active obedience in fulfilling the demands of the Law through His sinless life; and His passive obedience through satisfying the penalty of the Law through His perfect, once for all sacrifice on the cross for our sins. In life and in death, Jesus Christ perfectly as our merciful and faithful High Priest has completely fulfilled all righteousness and by faith, imputes that righteousness to every believer so that we may forever have a just standing before God.

For if by the transgression of the one,
death reigned through the one,
much more those who receive the abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
-Romans 5:17

The great Puritan divine, John Owens, so profoundly says,

"That which we plead is, that the Lord Christ fulfilled the whole law for us; he did not only undergo the penalty of it due unto our sins, but also yielded that perfect obedience which it did require. And herein I shall not immix myself in the debate of the distinction between the active and passive obedience of Christ; for he exercised the highest active obedience in his suffering, when he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit. And all his obedience, considering his person, was mixed with suffering, as a part of his exinanition and humiliation; whence it is said, that "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."

And however doing and suffering are in various categories of things, yet Scripture testimonies are not to be regulated by philosophical artifices and terms. And it must needs be said, that the sufferings of Christ, as they were purely penal, are imperfectly called his passive righteousness; for all righteousness is either in habit or in action, whereof suffering is neither; nor is any man righteous, or so esteemed, from what he suffers. Neither do sufferings give satisfaction unto the commands of the law, which require only obedience. And hence it will unavoidably follow, that we have need of more than the mere sufferings of Christ, whereby we may be justified before God, if so be that any righteousness be required thereunto; but the whole of what I intend is, that Christ's fulfilling of the law, in obedience unto its commands, is no less imputed unto us for our justification than his undergoing the penalty of it is."

As a Reformed Baptist, I affirm on this blog, the biblically rich 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith which says on this issue of justification, substitution and imputation of the complete righteousness of Christ:

Chapter 11: Of Justification
1. Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God. (Romans 3:24; Romans 8:30; Romans 4:5-8; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31; Romans 5:17-19; Philippians 3:8, 9; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12; Romans 5:17 )

2. Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love. (Romans 3:28; Galatians 5:6; James 2:17, 22, 26 )

3. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf; yet, inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them, their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. (Hebrews 10:14; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; Isaiah 53:5, 6; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:26; Ephesians 1:6,7; Ephesians 2:7 ) (emphasis mine)

Could it be any more clear beloved?

that, as sin reigned in death,
even so grace might reign through righteousness
to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-Romans 5:21

Based on the requirements of the Law, it is not enough that Christ dies for the sins of His people. To die and cleanse sinners from their sin is to set them at ground zero. At that point redeemed sinners still continue to sin. As Luther said, "they are piles of dung covered in gold." The remnants of remaining sin and the filthiness of the flesh still war with the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). They must also have a covering that continues to infinitely expiate their sin before the holy justice of God; otherwise, justification becomes analytic and not synthetic.

Dr. C. Matthew McMahon helps tremendously in defining these biblical truths for us:

Analytic justification is the Roman Catholic belief where God looks both at the sinner and the Savior and justifies them based on what Christ did and what the sinner continues to do.

Synthetic justification is the biblical formulation where God recognizes Christ’s work, both the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva, and declares the sinner just as a result of them both. The sinner, in the ordo salutis, has been regenerated, acts with a fides reflexa (a reflex act of faith) springing from regeneration, is declared righteous by God on account of Christ’s iustitia imputata, but is then continued to be viewed in this credited manner because of the perfect obedentia of Christ’s work.

Jesus perfectly fulfilled the iustitia Dei where men cannot. It is this active obedience that continues to justify them, and it is passive obedience that continues to save them before the wrath of God’s justice. Kline rightly comments, “For Christ himself enters upon the inheritance as the forerunner, surety, and head of the many only when by his active and passive obedience he has fulfilled the constant Hauptgebot of the covenant and submitted to the demand of the curse sanction voiced in the covenant from the beginning.”

and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own
derived from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God
on the basis of faith,
-Philippians 3:9

The Belgic Confession states that understanding the justification of the sinner, “embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits…imputing to us all His merits, and so many holy works which He has done for us and in our stead.”

The Heidelberg Catechism defines this righteousness which Christians receive, “as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me.”

The Second Helvetic Confession echoes this, “Therefore, solely on account of Christ's sufferings and resurrection God is propitious with respect to our sins and does not impute them to us, but imputes Christ's righteousness to us as our own (2 Cor. 5:19 ff.; Rom. 4:25), so that now we are not only cleansed and purged from sins or are holy, but also, granted the righteousness of Christ, and so absolved from sin, death and condemnation, are at last righteous and heirs of eternal life. Properly speaking, therefore, God alone justifies us, and justifies only on account of Christ, not imputing sins to us but imputing his righteousness to us.”

Simon Peter, a bond-servant
and apostle of Jesus Christ,
to those who have received a faith
of the same kind as ours,
by the righteousness of our
God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
-2 Peter 1:1

John Calvin states the same, “the obedience of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to us saves sinners."

The Westminster Confession makes this distinction when it says that justification is through “imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ” to elect sinners.

John Gill states “not only the active obedience of Christ, with his sufferings and death, but also that the holiness of his human nature is imputed to us for justification.”

John Owen speaks thoroughly about this throughout His works:

“First, By the obedience of the life of Christ you see what is intended, —his willing submission unto, and perfect, complete fulfilling of, every law of God, that any of the saints of God were obliged unto. It is true, every act almost of Christ’s obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was attended with suffering, so that his whole life might, in that regard, be called a death; but yet, looking upon his willingness and obedience in it, it is distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called, and termed his active righteousness. This is, then, I say, as was showed, that complete, absolutely perfect accomplishment of the whole law of God by Christ, our mediator; whereby he not only “did no sin, neither was there guile fold in his mouth,” but also most perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, as he affirmed it became him to do. Secondly, That this obedience was performed by Christ not for himself, but for us, and in our stead.”

“with respect unto the imputation of the active obedience or righteousness of Christ unto us [is] an essential part of that righteousness whereon we are justified before God... That which Christ, the mediator and surety of the covenant, did do in obedience unto God, in the discharge and performance of his office, that he did for us; and that is imputed unto us.”

I do not nullify the grace of God;
for if righteousness comes through the Law,
then Christ died needlessly.
-Galatians 2:21

Charles Hodge states, “The righteousness of Christ is commonly represented as including his active and passive obedience. This distinction is, as to the idea, Scriptural.”

According to William Ames, in differentiation from the works of Adam which brought condemnation, Christ’s works, all of them, are imputed to the Christian for justification, “The obedience of Christ is that righteousness (Romans 5:16) in the name of which the grace of God justifies us, just as the disobedience of Adam was that offense (Romans 5:16) for which God’s justice condemns us. Therefore the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers in justification.”

Francis Turretin explains the difference between the active and passive righteousness of Christ and its importance,

“the two things are not to be separated from each other. We are not to say as some do that the “satisfaction” is by the passive work of Christ alone and the “merit” is by the active work alone. The satisfaction and the merit are not to be thus viewed in isolation, each by itself, because the benefit in each depends upon the total work of Christ. For sin cannot be expiated until the law as precept has been perfectly fulfilled; nor can a title to eternal life be merited before the guilt of sin has been atoned for.”

He continues, “the obedience of Christ rendered in our name to God the Father is so given to us by God that it is reckoned to be truly ours and that it is the sole and only righteousness on account of and by the merit of which we are absolved from the guilt of our sins and obtain a right to life; and that there is in us no righteousness or good works by which we can deserve such great benefits which can bear the server examination of the divine court, if God willed to deal with us according to the rigor of his law."

Jonathan Edwards explains why Christ’s active obedience is so vital in respect to covenant work and fulfillment:

"The first distribution of the acts of Christ’s righteousness is with respect to the laws which Christ obeyed in that righteousness which he performed. But here it must be observed in general, that all the precepts which Christ obeyed may be reduced to one law, and that is that which the apostle calls the law of works, Rom. 3:27. Every command that Christ obeyed may be reduced to that great and everlasting law of God that is contained in the covenant of works, that eternal rule of right which God had established between himself and mankind. Christ came into the world to fulfill and answer the covenant of works, that is, the covenant that is to stand forever as a rule of judgment. And that is the covenant that we had broken, and that was the covenant that must be fulfilled."

W.G.T. Shedd says the same more succinctly, “Christ’s active obedience is his perfect performance of the requirements of the moral law.”

having been filled with
the fruit of righteousness
which comes through Jesus Christ,
to the glory and praise of God.
-Philippians 1:11

Jesus Christ - our Yom Kippur
Christ is our righteousness beloved; and without His active and passive obedience in satisfying the requirements and the demands of the Law, the fullness of that righteousness would be incomplete. It would be a righteousness of our own doing--not His. But the good news of the gospel is, by grace through faith in Christ alone He has imputed to sinful man His perfect righteousess so that we as His elect may have a right standing before a holy God. We can never be justified in the sight of God and obtain a true righteousness that does not fail by ourselves.

Today is Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement in the Jewish calendar. It is the one day out of the year that the high priest could go into the holy of holies and offer a sacrifice for the sins of himself and for the sins of the people. It was a shadow of things to come. BUT NOW, the substance has come and the shadow has been done away with. Jesus Christ is our High Priest who once for all, for all time, for every time entered the Holy of Holies on the cross (Heb. 2:17; 7:26; 9:14ff; 6:19f); shed His own blood as a sacrifice for the sins of His chosen ones, redeemed us and has brought us into intimacy with God forever. The Apostle Paul even says that "He was raised for our justification" (Roms. 4:25).

May you rejoice today beloved that all has been accomplished in and through the sinless life and perfect death and bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ that is needed for our salvation. Do you know Him as your Lord today? Then take hope in this: you are clothed with the perfect rightouesness of Christ and therefore you will never face judgment or eternal wrath. What confidence we may have to approach the throne of grace to find help in time of need.

Amen?
Solus Christos

THE SCREAM OF THE DAMNED...was Jesus really damned by God for our salvation?

UPDATED

CJ spoke of our Savior's cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" And though I have contemplated that amazing cry often, never did it hit me as hard as in CJ's message, when he referred to it as "the scream of the Damned." Then there was break and music and announcements, and John Piper stood up to bring his message. Several of us had prayed in a back room that God would anoint John, and pick right up where He left off in the previous message, and wow, did He. John referred repeatedly to the "scream of the Damned," and then moved into Romans 8. A flood of tears came as God preached the message to me yet again. That Deity would be Damned. That the God who is called upon righteously by the saints and angels in heaven to damn people, and called upon habitually by unbelievers flippantly and unrighteously to damn people, would in fact damn his Son, would (from the Son’s willingness to drink the cup) damn himself…for us. That it could be said of the Beloved One, “God damned Him,” and that He screamed the scream of the Damned….it was too much for me. It is too much for me this moment. And in the ages to come it will continue to be too much for me. -RANDY ALCORN

John Piper from his sermon on 'The Screamed of the Damned. Everything exists to magnify the worth of the scream of the damned. That’s the point of the universe. What we will do forever in heaven is magnify the worth of the scream of the damned. Calvary will not be forgotten. It is the most-horrible, most sinful, most agonizing event that ever was - it will be the center of heaven forever. Hell exists, cross exists, sin exists, heaven exists, you exist, universe exists, in order to magnify the worth of the scream of the damned. What is the apex of the revelation of the grace of God? And the answer is the scream of the damned on the cross.

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect,

so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God,

to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

-Hebrews 2:17

I have listened now several times to two messages from the 2008 Resolved Conference by CJ Mahaney and John Piper. The shocking phrase they both chose to use to describe Jesus' finished work of redemption on the cross for the elect was, The Scream of the Damned. No, they are not referring to unregenerate people in hell, or the weeping and gnashing of teeth from perdition's flames, but using this to describe the sinless, holy Son of God as our divine Substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ the Righteous now called: The Damned. This is unthinkable. Those words not only stunned me, but it did stir my interest afresh to go back and study again the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross with those provocative words in mind.

Both of these men are good communicators; passionate about the things of the Lord; both strive to be biblical in their sermons; and both are men of God. As most know, Piper has a reputation for creating phrases for shock value and being provocative (i.e., anyone remember Christian Hedonism?). I am all in favor of being creative in our writing, but it must stay in line with biblical truth as well. There can be no artistic license when speaking of God, His attributes, His character, our Lord's ministry, the cross, or the persons and nature of Jesus Christ Himself in incarnation for our redemption. We must pursue godly discipline with the purposed constraint to God and His truth that careful and circumspect study of Scripture affords when mining these great and essential truths of the Christian faith.

In all of my research, I haven't been able to find anyone who referred to Jesus' suffering on the cross as "the damning of Jesus"; and not one early church father that referred to Jesus as "The Damned" when speaking of the cross and substitutionary atonement. If someone knows of any early church father (or anyone for that matter except Piper and CJ) who use the term The Damned to refer to the loving, holy sacrifice of our Lord Jesus on the cross, I would be most interested to see the source and context. Thank you.

For context, CJ and Piper attribute the saying, "The Scream of the Damned", to Jesus' words on the cross: "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). Christ was forsaken as our sin-bearer and propitiatory sacrifice (Heb. 1:3), but this is not the cry nor the language of damnation. This is a quote taken from Psalm 22:1. In saying these words, Jesus is fulfilling the prophetic words of the Psalmist and declaring Himself to be the one true Messiah. He is also expressing the agony and mystery of enduring God's wrath against us and our sins, so that we may have peace with God forever (Rom. 5:1). God forsaken of God... who can fully comprehend it? What great love by the Father (Rom. 5:8-9) and the Son (John 15:13) to endure such suffering for those He came to save (Heb. 2:9, Phil. 2:5-11). "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). Amen?

Do you think that this is a picture of Jesus being damned beloved, or it is a picture of humiliation, substitution, propitiation, redemption, justification, and imputation? Are these two things compatible or antithetical according to God's Word?

Words matter; especially when expounding God's Word

Some initial questions I have about this disturbing phrase are:

• is it biblical?
• does the Scripture speak of the substitutionary death of Jesus for the elect as Christ being damned?
• is this just cultural contextualization?
• is it emotionalism run amuck?
• is it sensationalized passion?
• shock the flock nomenclature designed to wake up tired ears?
• is this sound doctrine, theatrics, dramatics, blasphemy, or truth?
  

Let's look briefly at this issue.

The Scream of the Damned seems like language that is meant to provoke thought, solicit listenership, entice questions and entreat discussion rather than expound and exegete Scripture. But, I am absolutely convinced, it is language that is foreign to the biblical record. Nowhere in Scripture, beloved, is our Lord Jesus Christ ever referred to as "the damned" - even while enduring the wrath of God on the cross in vicarious penal substitutionary atonement. To do so misappropriates the truth of this great biblical doctrine and does injustice to the very nature of our sinless Savior who was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.

Substitutionary death is not equal to the damnation unbelievers suffer, it is far superior because it is not due. His cry was not the cry of the damned but the perfectly obedient and sinless cry of the Son to His Father. Amen?

Is the word damned in the Bible?
The word damned is only used three times in all of Scripture (Mark 16:14; Roms. 14:23; 2 Thess. 2:12); and used for the unregenerate to everlasting perdition. Not even is that language used in describing the elect saints of God. Though we are all conceived in sin, dead in trespasses and sin, and by nature children of God's wrath, before we come to salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who are regenerated unto life are not called “The Damned.” Consider Romans 9 where Paul distinguishes between vessels of mercy whom God prepared beforehand for eternal life AND the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (v.21-23). He does not say that the vessels of mercy, though elect - but yet not saved, are vessels of damnation... Foolishness.

While I appreciate the ministries of CJ and Piper, God's truth is preeminent over any person's individual proclivity to be clever. None of us can assign new meaning to words about the nature, person, character and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that the Scriptures have not assigned to Him already. To say that Jesus was Damned on the cross, is unbiblical and quite honestly, irresponsible.

Biblically, being damned is an irrevocable, final act of eternal judgment for those who are vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. It is not descriptive of Christ's substitutionary work on the cross. In fact, I would say it is blasphemous.

Notice how God Himself describes the profound account of Jesus on the cross prophetically in Isaiah 53. He uses language such as:

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;"

The Spirit of God in writing God's Word never one time refers to our Lord Jesus Christ as being “the damned” or the cross as “the damnation of Christ.” (Frankly, it is even disturbing to type that phrase.) If it is so key to understanding the cross, why does not the Author of the Scriptures not use it? It would have been easy for Him to do so, but He does not. And I believe the Word of God is silent on such perturbing nomenclature is for one reason... the cross was not the damnation of Jesus.

Here is how the Bible speaks reverently and solemnly about our Lord upon the cross:

• He was made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13);
• He was delivered up because of our transgressions (Rom. 4:25);
• He died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3).
• He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24);
• He died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust (1 Peter 3:18);
• He became the propitiation for our sins (Rom. 3:25-26; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 4:10);
• and He was our divine substitute (Heb. 2:9; Rom. 5:8-9).

In like manner, 2 Cor. 5:21 is referring to imputation, not damnation:

"He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Jesus was holy throughout all aspects of the cross even when drinking the cup of wrath. He was our sin bearer or sacrifice. He was neither guilty of sin, or sinful, nor did He actually become sin itself. That would be heresy. Even in substitution, imputation, and justification the Word does not speak of Him as being damned, but God's holy once for all sacrifice for our sins.

The Bible speaks of the truth of His vicarious penal substitutionary atonement conveyed in five key words: substitution, justification, imputation, redemption, and propitiation. Nowhere is the damnation of Jesus on the cross a biblical term representing a biblical truth. Biblical terms do matter; and more importantly, biblical terms represent biblical truth written so by God Himself for our benefit and instruction. IOW, words matter.

Bible words are too boring; it needs "punching up" to speak to us... today
There seems to be a trend today to nuance or contextualize biblical truth and biblical terms. Whatever the motive, it can lead to the erosion of the fidelity of God's Word. (The Prodigal God; The Shack, etc.). We don't need the truths of Jesus on the cross punched up or embellished in someone's preaching for it to impact us. The Scriptures are sufficient enough to move us and inform us about the crucifixion and all that Christ did on behalf of satisfying the Father and redeeming His elect.

The need for the shocking, the sensational, the dramatics or the theatrics, etc. adds nothing to the real meaning of the text, or the cross and usually invokes something that is foreign to Scripture - which I believe has unfortunately occurred here. I know this is common within the emerging/emergent church community, but should not be among orthodox expositors of God’s Word. Men like CJ and Piper should be more careful when trying to rightly divide the Word (2 Tim. 2:15).

Jesus "became a curse for us"; but was He damned?

As to the text most cited by those who are trying to introduce apocryphal language as biblical, is Galatians 3:13:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"—

Notice here, Jesus was not cursed; but He became a curse for us. There is a difference. John Calvin agrees also to this difference. Christ saved us from the curse of the Law. What is the curse of the Law? Sin and death. To transgress the Law is to sin; and the wages of sin is death. Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the Law. How? By “becoming a curse for us.” The full weight of the penalty of the Law fell on Christ on the cross so that by His sinless life (His active obedience) and His perfect once for all sacrifice (His passive obedience) we might be redeemed and given by imputation the full righteousness of Christ. We are not made righteous; but we are clothed with His perfect righteousness. He was not cursed, but our sins and the curse of the Law was imputed to Him; and in that sense, He became sin and became the curse of the Law.

He bore the fullness of that curse upon Himself at the cross. Man could not do this for we are under the curse and our own righteousness is nothing but filthy rags deserving of the eternal justice and punishment of hell itself.

John Gill soberly brings this great truth of Gal. 3:10 to our self-righteous hearts and minds... pleading with sinners to trust in Christ alone:

they are under the curse, that is, of the law; they are under its sentence of condemnation and death, they are deserving of, and liable to the second death, eternal death, the wrath of God, here meant by the curse; to which they are exposed, and which will light upon them, for aught their righteousness can do for them; for trusting in their works, they are trusting in the flesh, and so bring down upon themselves the curse threatened to the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm; not only that trusts in a man of flesh and blood, but in the works of man; his own, or any other mere creature's: besides, by so doing, he rejects Christ and his righteousness, whereby only is deliverance from the curse of the law; nor is it possible by his present obedience to the law, be it ever so good, that he can remove the guilt of former transgressions, and free himself from obligation to punishment for them: nor is it practicable for fallen man to fulfil the law of works, and if he fails but in one point, he is guilty of all, and is so pronounced by the law; and he stands before God convicted, his mouth stopped, and he condemned and cursed by that law he seeks for righteousness by the deeds of:


Man is left hopeless and helpless trusting in his own ability to please God by perfect obedience to His law. This, beloved, is an effort in futility. We can never perfectly satisfy God and His holy standards by our own religious practices, or charitable acts of philanthropy, or reverent displays of adoration. It is all rubbish in His sight and worthy of the manure dump. We must "be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—" (Phil. 3:9) if we are to have an unshakable hope of eternal life. Christ Jesus bore the curse of the Law for us; by His sinless life and His once for all complete sacrifice on the cross. He was "delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Rom. 4:25).

Charles Spurgeon comments on the unfathomable love of our Lord Jesus in "becoming a curse for us" by reason of substitution:

“The curse of God is not easily taken away; in fact, there was but one method whereby it could be removed. The lightnings were in God's hand; they must be launched; he said they must. The sword was unsheathed; it must be satisfied; God vowed it must. How, then, was the sinner to be saved? The only answer was this. The Son of God appears; and he says, "Father! launch thy thunderbolts at me; here is my breast—plunge that sword in here; here are my shoulders—let the lash of vengeance fall on them;" and Christ, the Substitute, came forth and stood for us, "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."

This is moving, powerful, stirring language and biblical in its truth about the worthy Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. Jesus was not Damned, He did not suffer damnation; but He willingly died in our place and took the punishment that we deserve upon Himself. O, hallelujah to the King of kings and Lord of lords!

Albert Barnes gives us some word of helpful caution as to what this phrase does not mean:

Being made a curse for us. This is an exceedingly important expression. Tindal renders it, "And was made a curse for us." The Greek word is katara; the same word which is used in Galatians 3:10. There is scarcely any passage in the New Testament on which it is more important to have correct views than this; and scarcely any one on which more erroneous opinions have been entertained. In regard to it, we may observe that it does not mean, (emphasis by SJC)

(1.) that by being made a curse, his character or work were in any sense displeasing to God.

(2.) He was not ill-deserving, he was not blameworthy. He had done no wrong, he was holy, harmless, undefiled. No crime charged upon him was proved; and there is no clearer doctrine in the Bible than that, in all his character and work, the Lord Jesus was perfectly holy and pure.

(3.) He was not guilty, in any proper sense of the word. The word guilty means, properly, to be bound to punishment for crime. It does not mean, properly, to be exposed to suffering; but it always, when properly used, implies the notion of personal crime.

(4.) It cannot be meant that the Lord Jesus properly bore the penalty of the law. His sufferings were in the place of the penalty, not the penalty itself. They were a substitution for the penalty, and were, therefore, strictly and properly vicarious, and were not the identical sufferings which the sinner would himself have endured. Eternity of sufferings is an essential part of the penalty of the law--but the Lord Jesus did not suffer forever. Thus there are numerous sorrows connected with the consciousness of personal guilt, which the Lord Jesus did not and cannot endure.

(5.) He was not sinful, or a sinner, in any sense. The sense of the passage before us is, therefore, that Jesus was subjected to what was regarded as an accursed death. He was treated in his death AS IF he had been a criminal. He was put to death in the same manner as he would have been if he had himself been guilty of the violation of the law.

Spurgeon says it this way:

“Ah! my hearers, how humbling is this doctrine to our pride, that the curse of God is on every man of the seed of Adam; that every child born in this world is born under the curse, since it is born under the law; and that the moment I sin, though I transgress but once, I am from that moment condemned already; for "cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."—cursed without a single hope of mercy,”

John Gill deals with this profound verse by saying:

“becoming the surety of his people, he was made under the law, stood in their legal place and stead and having the sins of them all imputed to him, and answerable for them, the law finding them on him, charges him with them, and curses him for them; yea, he was treated as such by the justice of God, even by his Father, who spared him not, awoke the sword of justice against him, and gave him up into his hands; delivered him up to death, even the accursed death of the cross, whereby it appeared that he was made a curse: "made," by the will, counsel, and determination of God, and not without his own will and free consent; for he freely laid down his life, and gave himself, and made his soul an offering for sin...

The curse of God, in vindicating his righteous law, was visibly on such a person; as it was on Christ, when he hung on the cross, in the room and stead of his people; for he was made a curse, not for himself, or for any sins of his own, but for us; in our room and stead, for our sins, and to make atonement for them.”

John Calvin brilliantly reflects on the Paul's words to the Galatians in saying:

It is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Now, Christ hung upon the cross, therefore he fell under that curse. But it is certain that he did not suffer that punishment on his own account. It follows, therefore, either that he was crucified in vain, or that our curse was laid upon him, in order that we might be delivered from it. Now, he does not say that Christ was cursed, but, which is still more, that he was a curse... If any man think this language harsh, let him be ashamed of the cross of Christ, in the confession of which we glory. It was not unknown to God what death his own Son would die, when he pronounced the law, “He that is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deuteronomy 21:23.)

He could not cease to be the object of his Father’s love, and yet he endured his wrath. For how could he reconcile the Father to us, if he had incurred his hatred and displeasure? We conclude, that he “did always those things that pleased” (John 8:29) his Father. Thus, “he was wounded for our transgressions...”

But what made the atonement so wonderful, so glorious, so benevolent, what made it an atonement at all, was, that innocence was treated as if it were guilt; that the most pure, and holy, and benevolent, and lovely Being on earth should consent to be treated, and should be treated by God and man, as if He were the most vile and ill-deserving. This is the mystery of the atonement; this shows the wonders of the Divine benevolence; this is the nature of substituted sorrow; and this lays the foundation for the offer of pardon, and for the hope of eternal salvation.

Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ...His perfect obedience in life and death

GLORY IN THE CROSS
By Steve Camp

Glory in the cross, our faithful High Priest
Went beyond the veil as our Prince of Peace
Clothed with our sin, its guilt and shame
Our sinless Substitute, Jesus His name

Glory in the cross the Law now fulfilled
Righteousness displayed on Calvary’s Hill
Imputed to all who’d ever would believe
The Lord, the spotless Lamb, hung cursed upon a tree

Glory in the cross where grace doth abound
Where the Man of Sorrows wore transgressions crown
Wounded and chastened for our iniquities
Our faithful Redeemer, God the Father pleased

Together for the gospel; redeemed by the risen Lamb
By grace alone, through faith alone, on Christ alone we stand
Clothed with His righteousness; peace with God forevermore
By His word and for His glory, we proclaim the gospel story
That salvation is through only, Jesus Christ our Lord

Glory in the cross marked by sin’s crimson stain
Forgiveness flows from His precious veins
Perfect redemption, once for all sacrifice
Salvation made secure by the Lord Jesus Christ

Glory in the cross Satan’s power of death destroyed
Rendered impotent by The Incarnate Word
He crushed the Serpents head upon Golgotha’s tree
Our great and dreadful Sovereign, Champion is He

Together for the gospel; redeemed by the risen Lamb
By grace alone, through faith alone, on Christ alone we stand
Clothed with His righteousness; peace with God forevermore
By His word and for His glory, we proclaim the gospel story
That salvation is through only, Jesus Christ our Lord

Glory in the cross the elect have been redeemed
O covenant of grace from eternity decreed
Worthy is the Lamb slain from all ages past
Sinners reconciled, true worshippers at last

Glory in the cross “It is finished”, the Victor, cried
God propitiated, forever satisfied
Once enemies now brethren, estranged but brought near
His judgment-assuaged no bondage nor fear

Glory in the cross God forsaken of God
Smitten and afflicted, bruised with Heaven’s rod
Resurrected triumphant, our Lord, God and King
Grave where is thy vict’ry, O death where is thy sting?

Together for the gospel; redeemed by the risen Lamb
By grace alone, through faith alone, on Christ alone we stand
Clothed with His righteousness; peace with God forevermore
By His word and for His glory, we proclaim the gospel story
That salvation is through only, Jesus Christ our Lord

Remember Faithful Leadership
"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." -Hebrews 13:7

"We obtain "precious faith through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," or, as it might be rendered, "through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:1). "This is the name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness" (Jer. 23:6). He is so called on account of the righteousness which He wrought out by His obedience unto death; for this righteousness is expressly connected with His Mediatorial work. "The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law and make it honourable" (Isa. 42:21). By His vicarious sufferings and obedience, He fulfilled the Law both in its precept and its penalty; and is now said to be "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:3, 4); while His righteousness is identified with "the righteousness of God," to which the unbelieving Jews refused to "submit themselves," and contrasted with "their own righteousness" which they "went about to establish," "as it were by the works of the law."

In like manner, this righteousness is called "the righteousness of One," and "the obedience of One" (Rom. 5:18, 19); expressions which serve at once to connect it with the work of Christ, and to exclude from it the personal obedience of the many who are justified. It is called "the free gift unto justification of life," and "the gift of righteousness" (Rom. 5:17, 18), to show that it is bestowed gratuitously by divine grace, and not acquired by our own obedience. It is called "the righteousness which is of faith," or "the righteousness which is by faith," both to distinguish it from faith itself, and also to contrast it with another righteousness which is not received by faith, but "sought for as it were by the works of the law" (Rom. 9:32). It is called "the righteousness of God without the law" (Rom. 3:21), to intimate that, while it was "witnessed by the law and the prophets," and while, as "a righteousness," it must have some relation to the unchangeable rule of rectitude, it was above and beyond what the law could provide, since it depends, not on personal, but on vicarious obedience. And it is called the righteousness "which God imputes without works" (Rom. 4:6, 11); to show that it is "reckoned of grace," and not "of debt" (Rom. 4:4, 5) – that "God justifies the ungodly" by placing this righteousness to their account, – and that He makes it theirs, because it was wrought out for them by Him, "who was delivered for their offences, and rose again for their Justification."

"I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me…. I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save;" "Hearken, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness, I bring near MY righteousness" (Isa. 63:1, 3; 46:13). It is still His, and, moreover, it is only to be found "in Him." "Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness," and "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory" (Isa. 45:24, 25). "We are made the righteousness of God," but only "in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21); and if we would have "the righteousness which is of God by faith," we "must win Christ, and be found in Him" (Phil. 3:9); for this righteousness is part of that "fulness which dwells in Him" (Col. 1:19), and which is "treasured up for us in Him." The whole merit is His, – the gracious imputation of it only is ours." -James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification

"The doctrinal norm for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the Abstract of Principles Here is what it says about justification: Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal of sinners, who believe in Christ, from all sin, through the satisfaction that Christ has made; not for anything wrought in them or done by them; but on account of the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith.

James Petigru Boyce was one of the founding professors of Southern Seminary. His Abstract of Systematic Theology (1887) is still a very useful resource. He discusses justification in chapter 35. There, on page 399, we read, "Our justification is due also to the active obedience of Christ, and not to passive obedience only.

1. Righteousness involves character, conduct and action, even more than suffering endured as penalty. The sinlessness of Christ is therefore plainly taught, and especially in connection with imputation. 2 Cor. 5:21.
2. The gracious salvation he brings is said to establish the law.
3. He assures us, that he came to fulfill the law. Matt. 5:17.
4. The obedience of Christ is not only contrasted with the disobedience of Adam, but is declared to be the means by which many shall be made righteous. Rom. 5:19."

It thus appears, that the ground of justification is the whole meritorious work of Christ. Not his sufferings and death only, but his obedience to, and conformity with the divine law are involved in the justification, which is attained by the believer. The question is here sometimes asked, how the active obedience of Christ can avail to us, when he was himself a man and under the law, and owed obedience personally on his own behalf. The answer to this is twofold, in each case depending upon the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God. On the one hand, the position was one voluntarily assumed by the Son of God. He was under no obligation to become man. He was not, and could not be made man without his own consent. In thus voluntarily coming under the law, his obedience would have merit to secure all the blessings connected to the covenant, under which he assumed such relation. But besides this, the fulfillment of the law would not simply be that fulfillment due by a mere man, which is all the law could demand of him on his own behalf, so that the merit secured is that due to the Son of God, thus as man rendering obedience to the law. That merit is immeasurable and is available for all for whom he was the substitute." -Dr. James White

"Those whom, God effectually calls he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God" – WCF Ch 11

“Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares, on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the law are satisfied with respect to the sinner” -L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 513.

"The phrase in ipso (in him) I have preferred to retain, rather than render it per ipsum (by him,) because it has in my opinion more expressiveness and force. For we are enriched in Christ, inasmuch as we are members of his body, and are engrafted into him: nay more, being made one with him, he makes us share with him in every thing that he has received from the Father." -John Calvin Commentary on 1 Cor 1:5

"This calling is an act of the grace of God in Christ by which he calls men dead in sin and lost in Adam through the preaching of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, to union with Christ and to salvation obtained in him." -Francis Turretin

"Objectively, this righteousness is provided “in Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:25–26 describe Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice on the cross as a payment for sin, Through this death God demonstrates His righteousness not only as the just God, but as the God who justly justifies sinners. Prior to Christ’s death a question could be raised about this. How could God justify Moses and not Pharaoh? Both were sinners. Both lacked the righteousness that God requires. Verse 35 explains that the sins of Moses (and all Old Testament believers) were “passed over” by God, awaiting their full payment in the death of Christ. Now that Christ has died, that question has been answered forever and, by the cross, God has demonstrated that He is both personally righteous and that He righteously justifies those who have sinned.

The law requires death for lawbreakers. This is its curse under which all sinners naturally find themselves. By enduring God’s wrath against our sin Christ has redeemed sinners from “the curse of the law” having become a “curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). This secures the just forgiveness of our sins because our sins have been justly punished.

But the law reveals that not only does God require the punishment of sin, He also requires perfect righteousness. This was His requirement of man before the fall and it has not changed since the fall. Therefore, the justification that is found in Jesus Christ is accomplished not only by His sacrificial death but also by His representative life. This is Paul’s argument (as we have already seen) in chapter 5 of Romans. The “one Man’s righteous act” (5:18) and “one Man’s obedience” (5:19) are references not merely to the death of Jesus but to the whole of His work, including His obedient life. Just as the act of breaking the law brought judgment on all who are in Adam, so the act of keeping the law brings justification to all who are in Christ. And this justification comes through His perfect righteousness being imputed to us." -Dr. Tom Ascol

The above quotes span the past 500 years of redemptive history.

God's Divine Plumbline
The law of God is His holy, righteous standard for sinful man. (Ex. 20)

The first Adam disobeyed the command of God (Gen. 3) and sin entered this world through the sin of that one man (Rom. 5:12-14). Therefore, all of Adam’s posterity has been thoroughly effected by his one act of disobedience, so that now all are conceived in sin (Psalm 51:1); subject to sin’s wages and penalty—death (Rom. 3:23); living as dead in trespasses and sins; walking according to this worldly age; according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain; the spirit now working in the disobedient; living in fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of the flesh and thoughts, and by nature, children of wrath; not seeking to please God, doing good, without reverence or fear of God… (Rom. 3:10-18; Eph. 2:1-3).

In forbearance and love of God, the Word (God the Son) became flesh and dwelt among us; Jesus came into this world as Immanuel, God with us (John 1:1,14, 18; Matt. 1:21-24); to save His people from their sins; and not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). How? By His submission to it, being born under the Law (Gal. 4:4); in fulfilling its demands by perfect obedience to it (Matt. 5:17; Gal. 3:10); and by ultimately dying on the cross to satisfy its penalty and judgment (Gal. 3:13). The demands of the law of God are thus fulfilled and exacted in His sinless life and in His once for all sacrifice on the cross.

The Perfection that God Demands
This was vital in our salvation for all of man’s righteousness are worthless rags: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6).

The Apostle Paul says, “For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous” (Rom. 2:13). But no man can perfectly obey the law of God. “For no flesh will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, for through the law |comes| the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20).

Galatians 3:10: “For all who |rely on| the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue doing everything written in the book of the law.”

James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of |breaking it| all.”

Man is incapable of living in perfect conformity to the law of God in word, deed, and desire. Proverbs 24:9 says that even, “the thought of foolishness is sin.” Sin is to transgress against the law of God. As the Apostle John says, “Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; sin is the breaking of law.” (1 John 3:4).

But Christ, as our merciful and faithful High Priest, lived a life of perfect obedience to the law of God. “He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.” (1 John 3:5).

“For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all when He offered Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, |appoints| a Son, who has been perfected forever” (Heb. 7:26-28).

He lived the life we could not live. “Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time” (Heb. 4:14-16).

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. But John tried to stop Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me?” ¶ Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him to be baptized.” (Matt. 3:13-15).

Christ Fulfilled All Righteousness
What was this fulfillment of “all righteousness” the Lord spoke of here at His baptism? Christ was identifying with sinners He will ultimately bear their sins in this ‘baptism of repentance.’ His perfect righteousness will be imputed to them (2 Cor. 5:21). John MacArthur says, “This act of baptism was a necessary part of that righteousness He secured for sinners. This first public event of His ministry is rich in meaning: 1. It pictured His death and resurrection (cf, Luke 12:50); 2. It, therefore, prefigured the significance of Christian baptism (v.6); 3. It marked His first public identification with those whose sin He would bear (Is. 53:11; 1 Pt. 3:18); and, 4. It was a public affirmation of His messiahship by testimony directly from heaven (v. 16-17).” (MacArthur Study Bible, Thomas Nelson -1997, p.1397).

In obedience through our Lord’s sinless life in incarnation, He fully satisfied the demands of God’s law so that man, by faith, in imputation could be clothed with His righteousness. The law required perfect obedience and sinlessness from those born under it. Christ accomplished both these things in incarnation.

But the law of God not only required perfect obedience to it, but the penalty of disobedience against it had to be paid. God demanded a perfect once for all sacrifice for His holiness, justice and wrath to be completely satisfied—something the old covenant could never provide.

Behold the Lamb of God
John the Baptist proclaims this of our Lord Jesus when saying, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:36). In His complete sacrifice on the cross, he satisfied the justice, holiness and wrath of God fully—He drank the cup no one but He could drink (the cup of wrath); and the God the Father was propitiated by His only begotten Son (John 1:18; Heb. 2:17).

He lived a holy life in the flesh that fulfilled the Law and all righteousness (Heb. 7:26); He completely expiated the demands of the penalty of the Law through death (Gal. 3:14; 4:4); and was our merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God as a propitiation for the sins of the people on the cross (Heb. 2:17).

“Now the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the holy of holies once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God? ¶ Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions |committed| under the first covenant.” (Heb. 9:11-15).

As the Last Adam, Christ provided in His sinless life perfect obedience to and fulfilled the Law as Son of Man; He provided the perfect once for all sacrifice as the holy spotless Lamb of God; and He was the faithful High Priest who entered the holy of holies behind the veil (Heb. 6:19-20) when “He Himself had purged our sins” (Heb. 1:3). Sinless man; unblemished Lamb; faithful High Priest—all three were needed to satisfy God; and all three were in Christ Jesus our Lord as our divine substitute!

Justification Secured in Resurrection
And lastly, by virtue of His resurrection He has secured our justification forever. “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:25).

In summary:
Christ fulfilled the law of God in perfect obedience in His earthly life; He perfectly fulfilled its penalty in His death on the cross; He fully satisfied God’s holiness, justice and wrath in His once for all propitiatory sacrifice on the cross and in resurrections secured for us our justification. Therefore, sinful man may have peace with God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord by being justified by His blood (Roms. 5:9); and that His righteousness, by virtue of His sinless life lived and atoning death is now imputed to us by faith (2 Cor. 5:21) so that we are no longer under the curse of the Law; the demands of the Law; or under the justice and wrath of God. But we are clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ, being regenerated and sealed by His Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-7; Eph. 1:13-14).

The Testimony of Scripture
Rom. 5:17, “Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

Rom. 10:3, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Rom. 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

Rom. 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

1Cor. 1:30, “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

2Cor. 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Gal. 2:21, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

Phil. 1:11, “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Phil. 3:9, “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—“

Titus 3:5-7, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Incarnation; substitution; propitiation; imputation; justification; regeneration; sanctification, resurrection – What a great salvation we have in the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Active and Passive Obedience of Jesus Christ...clothed with His perfect righteousness

"That which we plead is, that the Lord Christ fulfilled the whole law for us; he did not only undergo the penalty of it due unto our sins, but also yielded that perfect obedience which it did require. And herein I shall not immix myself in the debate of the distinction between the active and passive obedience of Christ; for he exercised the highest active obedience in his suffering, when he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit. And all his obedience, considering his person, was mixed with suffering, as a part of his exinanition and humiliation; whence it is said, that "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."

And however doing and suffering are in various categories of things, yet Scripture testimonies are not to be regulated by philosophical artifices and terms. And it must needs be said, that the sufferings of Christ, as they were purely penal, are imperfectly called his passive righteousness; for all righteousness is either in habit or in action, whereof suffering is neither; nor is any man righteous, or so esteemed, from what he suffers. Neither do sufferings give satisfaction unto the commands of the law, which require only obedience. And hence it will unavoidably follow, that we have need of more than the mere sufferings of Christ, whereby we may be justified before God, if so be that any righteousness be required thereunto; but the whole of what I intend is, that Christ's fulfilling of the law, in obedience unto its commands, is no less imputed unto us for our justification than his undergoing the penalty of it is." -John Owen

This past week I was posting on a reformed baptist forum discussing the impeccability and peccability of Christ, when a member of the faculty from a well known evangelical seminary (a seminary that I respect) posted a brief comment claiming: "Now of course, I don't hold to what I think is a contrived concept of active/passive obedience. Christ lived a righteous life which demonstrated to the world and generations His fitfulness to be the perfect sacrifice on the cross. His righteous life does not atone for sin, only His death does that, and His righteous life credits nothing to my "account" as a believer. I think covenant theology reads way too much into the First Adam Second Adam parallel on this point." (It should be noted: the President of this particular seminary does not affirm this doctrinal aberrancy).

Did you hear that beloved? I was stunned, shocked and surprised that someone at a seminary level would assert that Christ's righteous life credits nothing to my "account" as a believer. There is no salvation without His righteousness being imputed to us in justification. And that righteousness is not a phantom righteousness, but that which results from His active and passive obedience in fulfilling the Law of God; and His once for all sacrifice on the cross as a propitiation for the sins of the people.

A few additional thoughts: First of all, Christ is never referred to as the Second Adam; only as the Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Secondly, The active/passive obedience of Jesus Christ is not a contrived concept--it is essential to our justification which is the gospel. Thirdly, that he thinks the sinless righteous life lived by our Lord Jesus Christ in fulfilling the Law "credits nothing" in regards to our salvation in justification as a believer is severe doctrinal error. (FYI: I offered complete this brother complete access to my blogs and website in order to address this crucial issue in a discussion/debate format for further engagement. He graciously declined due to current scheduling demands and commitments to unfinished projects.)

Q - How could a man of his theological learning and education drift into such obvious error on an essential truth on the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ? As you can imagine, several questions arose from him posting this theological error : i.e., then what is the righteousness that is imputed to all who believe in the Lord if not the righteous life of Christ? What then did the Lord actually accomplish in fulfilling the Law and all righteousness in His sinless life lived in regards to justification? What does he think is the relationship between the First Adam and the Last Adam? etc.

As a Reformed Baptist, I affirm on this blog, the biblically rich 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith which says:

Chapter 11: Of Justification
1. Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God. (Romans 3:24; Romans 8:30; Romans 4:5-8; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31; Romans 5:17-19; Philippians 3:8, 9; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12; Romans 5:17 ) (emphasis mine)

2. Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love. (Romans 3:28; Galatians 5:6; James 2:17, 22, 26 )

3. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf; yet, inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them, their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. (Hebrews 10:14; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; Isaiah 53:5, 6; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:26; Ephesians 1:6,7; Ephesians 2:7 )

Could it be any more clear?

To help address this important issue, I discovered a very thorough and powerful treasure, written by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, that answered these and many more important questions about the active and passive obedience in Christ. (Also, I would encourage you to listen to Dr. S. Lewis Johnson's excellent series on Imputation as well). This is a very important issue beloved. With the much anticipated significant conference next month, "Together for the Gospel"; the unfortunate and dangerous inroads being made into evangelicalism by those who affirm The New Perspective of Paul; Open Theism; and Brian McLaren's postmodern Emergent Heterodoxy; and the skewed aberrant views the seminary faculty member above asserted who has strayed from historic orthodox biblical Christianity; we must now, not assume anything anymore about what anyone teaches due to church, seminary, or Para-church affiliation. WE MUST ALL be faithful Bereans (Acts 17:11), everyone of us, and ask the tough, essential, critical, and necessary questions of anyone who claims to represent the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel (1 Thess. 5:21-22). We must not play politics with God due to political alignment and personal relationships within evangelicalism. The stakes are too high beloved; for what we are talking about here is the integrity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Take your time reading this following article and the rich truths it contains. May it encourage you to stand firm in the Lord, retaining the standard of sound words, contending for the once for all delivered to the saints faith. I highly commend it to you all. Make sure you visit Dr. McMahon's website as well A Puritan's Mind. It is excellent with many valuable resources for your reading and biblical encouragement.

Grace and peace to you,
Steve Camp
2 Cor. 5:21

The Active and Passive Obedience of Jesus Christ
By Dr. C. Matthew McMahon

The following article explains the doctrine of imputation of the active and
passive righteousness of Jesus Christ. This article was first submitted to the
Whitefield Theological Journal, in which its first publication is soon to be released.

With the rise of the heresy of the Federal Vision, New Perspectives on Paul, and the Auburn Avenue Theology, there stands a continued need for reproclaiming the truth of historic Christianity. Contrary to modern liberal theologians who are continually trying to appeal to the masses with new fangled theological ideas, such a reproclamation of orthodox theology is in accord with both the Gospel, and the Westminster Confession of Faith, and needs no revision, updating or change. Reformed Theology does not need to be modernized; it simply needs to be understood.

Reformed Theologians have generally made a distinction between what is called the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ. These two components of the obedentia Christi are fundamental to understanding the foundational doctrine of the iustitia imputata of Christ.[1] The two accompany each other at every point in the Savior’s life.[2] Romans 10:4 declares, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Christ is the “termination” or te,loj of the law for all who believe (by faith) that His obedience forensically justifies them eternally.

The obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ summarizes the iustitia Dei used throughout the Scriptures. This phrase relates to the reflection of God’s character as seen in the perfect obedience to the commandments, or lex moralis. Justification is a summation of the legal declaration of God toward the sinner – the actus forensis – counting the believer righteous (through imputation) rather than making him righteous (misconstruing justification and sanctification).[3] The iustitia imputata of Christ is completed upon God’s judicial declaration. At its heart “declarative justification” involves the iustitia alienum et extra nos (the alien righteousness not of the sinner but from Christ) imputed to the believer through faith by grace (Eph. 2:8-10).

This obedentia Christi fulfills the covenant breaking of the Law that the first Adam failed to uphold. Karlberg says, “Where the first Adam failed as a covenant breaker, the second Adam succeeded in perfectly fulfilling the demands of the covenant by his active and passive obedience.”[4] This does not liberate Christians from keeping the law – in terms of sanctification and holiness – but does release them from having to keep the law perfectly to satisfy divine justice and procure their own salvation (the first use of the law). Bahnsen states correctly, “Christ’s perfect obedience to the Law of God secures our release from the necessity of personally keeping the Law as a condition of justification.”[5] Rather, the foundation of Christian ethics is substantiated in the sinner through this iustitia imputata. McGrath rightly comments, “The doctrine of justification by faith declares that God makes available as a gift a new mode of existence, a new lifestyle, and enables believers to act in such a way that their actions correspond to those of Jesus.”[6] This does not mean that Christian ethics is justification. The only means by which the sinner is justified before God rests solely upon the imputation of the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ to a sinner, and subsequently God’s just declaration of the sinner’s soteriological state based on the work of Christ. It is this justification that makes Christian ethics possible.

Based on the requirements of the Law, it is not enough that Christ dies for the sins of His people. To die and cleanse sinners from their sin is to set them at ground zero. At that point redeemed sinners still continue to sin. As Luther said, they are piles of dung covered in gold. The remnants of remaining sin and the filthiness of the flesh still war with the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). They must also have a covering that continues to infinitely expiate their sin before the holy justice of God; otherwise, justification becomes analytic and not synthetic. Analytic justification is the Roman Catholic belief where God looks both at the sinner and the Savior and justifies them based on what Christ did and what the sinner continues to do. Synthetic justification is the biblical formulation where God recognizes Christ’s work, both the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva, and declares the sinner just as a result of them both. The sinner, in the ordo salutis, has been regenerated, acts with a fides reflexa (a reflex act of faith) springing from regeneration, is declared righteous by God on account of Christ’s iustitia imputata, but is then continued to be viewed in this credited manner because of the perfect obedentia of Christ’s work. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the iustitia Dei where men cannot. It is this active obedience that continues to justify them, and it is passive obedience that continues to save them before the wrath of God’s justice. Kline rightly comments, “For Christ himself enters upon the inheritance as the forerunner, surety, and head of the many only when by his active and passive obedience he has fulfilled the constant Hauptgebot of the covenant and submitted to the demand of the curse sanction voiced in the covenant from the beginning.”[7]

Throughout the centuries Reformed theologians and confessions have embraced and taught this distinction of the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ. The Belgic Confession states that understanding the justification of the sinner, “embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits…imputing to us all His merits, and so many holy works which He has done for us and in our stead.”[8] In question 60 the Heidelberg Catechism defines this righteousness which Christians receive, “as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me.” The Second Helvetic Confession echoes these sentiments, “Therefore, solely on account of Christ's sufferings and resurrection God is propitious with respect to our sins and does not impute them to us, but imputes Christ's righteousness to us as our own (2 Cor. 5:19 ff.; Rom. 4:25), so that now we are not only cleansed and purged from sins or are holy, but also, granted the righteousness of Christ, and so absolved from sin, death and condemnation, are at last righteous and heirs of eternal life. Properly speaking, therefore, God alone justifies us, and justifies only on account of Christ, not imputing sins to us but imputing his righteousness to us.”[9] And so Calvin’s influence on the French Confession states the same where the, “obedience of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to us” saves sinners.[10] The Westminster Confession makes this distinction when it says that justification is through “imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ” to elect sinners. [11] The Confession qualifies what “obedience” means in respect to Christ’s obedentia activa and obedentia passiva when it says, “Christ, by his obedience and death,” making a conscious choice to utilize both his active obedience and his passive obedience (death) as the foundation for justification.[12]

John Gill states that the obedentia Christi encompasses, “not only the active obedience of Christ, with his sufferings and death, but also that the holiness of his human nature is imputed to us for justification.”[13]

John Owen speaks extensively about this throughout His works. In one example he states:

“First, By the obedience of the life of Christ you see what is intended, —his willing submission unto, and perfect, complete fulfilling of, every law of God, that any of the saints of God were obliged unto. It is true, every act almost of Christ’s obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was attended with suffering, so that his whole life might, in that regard, be called a death; but yet, looking upon his willingness and obedience in it, it is distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called, and termed his active righteousness. This is, then, I say, as was showed, that complete, absolutely perfect accomplishment of the whole law of God by Christ, our mediator; whereby he not only “did no sin, neither was there guile fold in his mouth,” but also most perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, as he affirmed it became him to do. Secondly, That this obedience was performed by Christ not for himself, but for us, and in our stead.”[14]

Owen also says that, “with respect unto the imputation of the active obedience or righteousness of Christ unto us [is] an essential part of that righteousness whereon we are justified before God.”[15] Owen gathers these biblical ideas as a result of Christ’s work as the Surety of the covenant. He continues, “That which Christ, the mediator and surety of the covenant, did do in obedience unto God, in the discharge and performance of his office, that he did for us; and that is imputed unto us.”[16]

Charles Hodge states, “The righteousness of Christ is commonly represented as including his active and passive obedience. This distinction is, as to the idea, Scriptural.”[17]

According to William Ames, in differentiation from the works of Adam which brought condemnation, Christ’s works, all of them, are imputed to the Christian for justification, “The obedience of Christ is that righteousness (Romans 5:16) in the name of which the grace of God justifies us, just as the disobedience of Adam was that offense (Romans 5:16) for which God’s justice condemns us. Therefore the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers in justification.”[18]

Turretin explains the difference between the active and passive righteousness of Christ and its importance,

“the two things are not to be separated from each other. We are not to say as some do that the “satisfaction” is by the passive work of Christ alone and the “merit” is by the active work alone. The satisfaction and the merit are not to be thus viewed in isolation, each by itself, because the benefit in each depends upon the total work of Christ. For sin cannot be expiated until the law as precept has been perfectly fulfilled; nor can a title to eternal life be merited before the guilt of sin has been atoned for.”[19] He continues later, “the obedience of Christ rendered in our name to God the Father is so given to us by God that it is reckoned to be truly ours and that it is the sole and only righteousness on account of and by the merit of which we are absolved from the guilt of our sins and obtain a right to life; and that there is in us no righteousness or good works by which we can deserve such great benefits which can bear the server examination of the divine court, if God willed to deal with us according to the rigor of his law.”[20]

Witsius explicates the imputation of the work of Christ and the period of time in which Christ’s sufferings count for us, “from his very infancy, and through the whole course of His life, especially the close thereof, he endured all manner of sufferings, both in soul and body, humbling, nay, emptying himself, and being obedient to the Father unto death, even death of the cross…in time he fully performed for his people all that the law required in order to obtain a right to eternal life.”[21]

Jonathan Edwards explains why Christ’s active obedience is so vital in respect to covenant work and fulfillment:

The first distribution of the acts of Christ’s righteousness is with respect to the laws which Christ obeyed in that righteousness which he performed. But here it must be observed in general, that all the precepts which Christ obeyed may be reduced to one law, and that is that which the apostle calls the law of works, Rom. 3:27. Every command that Christ obeyed may be reduced to that great and everlasting law of God that is contained in the covenant of works, that eternal rule of right which God had established between himself and mankind. Christ came into the world to fulfill and answer the covenant of works, that is, the covenant that is to stand forever as a rule of judgment. And that is the covenant that we had broken, and that was the covenant that must be fulfilled.[22]

Shedd says the same more succinctly, “Christ’s active obedience is his perfect performance of the requirements of the moral law.”[23] Without this obedience, men can never be justified in the sight of God and obtain a true righteousness that does not fail them.

A no-nonsense article such as this is relevant to the theological seminarian today and his future ministry among the people of God. Why? Teachings surrounding the active and passive obedience of Christ in current Reformed Theological circles are under attack by those who desire to supplant these truths with a works-righteousness. For example, those who are advocating the New Perspective on Paul base much of their teachings on a rejection of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ in relation to the law. They rest much of their theology on parables (an historic practice heretics used to insert meaning of their own into the text) and on a reverse reading of typology (one consistently finds that their approach to typology has the Old Testament controlling the New Testament, rather than the other way around).

For example, they use the parable of the rich young ruler to say that works can save. In discourse with some of these advocates, one may listen affrightedly to their argumentation as they attempt to make Christ say that He expected the rich young ruler to save himself by giving away all his money. Then, they use John 15 to say that truly regenerate people who are indwelt with the regenerating new life of the Spirit can still fall away.[24] Such is the new-fangled “objectivity” of the covenant, and the “corporate justification” one should look to over and against the active and passive obedience of Jesus Christ advocated by these “covenant moralists.” Yet, the Scriptures speak differently, as does Confessional Christianity and its orthodox teachers. Such teachings are infiltrating, not only aged seminaries, but the up and coming pastor attending those seminaries, and then finally the churches they preach in every Sunday. This is a blatant retreat from the historical Reformed position, both theologically and confessionally on this issue. And it is of such importance to the salvation of the elect sinner, that in speaking about the active and passive obedience of Christ, Gerhard Forde rightly states, “where the church no longer speaks this word, it has lost its reason for being.”[25]

FOOTNOTES:
[1] This should be noted, “It is not to be interpreted as if it meant, that His passive obedience consisted in mere suffering, or that His active obedience consisted in mere service; for it implies obedience in both, and excludes sufferings from neither.” Buchanan, James, Justification, (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1991), Page 307.

[2] Berkhof, Louis, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co.: 1988) Page 379.

[3] Making one righteous is to cross into the heretical “works salvation system” that Roman Catholicism has erected through the infused righteousness one may gain from Christ, but may also lose. The only manner in which a Roman Catholic may be able to gain this back is through works assigned to them through penance.

[4] Karlberg, Mark W. Westminster Theological Journal, Reformed Interpretation of the Mosaic Covenant, (Westminster Theological Seminary 1981;2002). Vol. 43, Page 52.

[5] Bahnsen, Greg, Theonomy in Christian Ethics, (Covenant Media Press: 2002) Page 128.

[6] McGrath, Alister E. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, In What Way Can Jesus Be A Moral Example For Christians? (The Evangelical Theological Society: 1991;2002). vol 34, Page 296.

[7] Kline, Meredith, Westminster Theological Journal, Law Covenant, (Westminster Theological Seminary: 1965;2002). vol 27, Page 13.

[8] The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article XXII, Our Justification Through Faith in Jesus Christ.

[9] The Second Helvetic Confession - Chapter XV, Of the True Justification of the Faithful.

[10] The French Confession, Article XVIII.

[11] The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XI Of Justification, Paragraph 1.

[12] Ibid, cf. the Westminster Confession of Faith paragraph 3, the Westminster Larger Catechism question 70 and the Westminster Shorter Catechism question 33.

[13] Gill, John, Sermon 37: The Doctrine Of Justification, By The Righteousness Of Christ,
Stated And Maintained. (Auburn, Ages Software: 2002, CD ROM) Page 11.

[14] Owen, John. Works, vol 3 (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1992) Pages 204-205.

[15] Owen, John. Works, vol 1 (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1992) Page 359.

[16] Ibid, Page 384.

[17] Hodge. Charles, Systematic Theology, Volume 3, (Grand Rapids, Wm. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1986) Page 141.

[18] Ames, William. The Marrow of Theology, (Grand Rapids, Baker Books: 1997) Page 162. Emphasis mine.

[19] Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol 2 (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 1994), Page 448.

[20] Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol 2 (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 1994) Page 648.

[21] Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, vol 1 (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 1990) Page 402.

[22] Edwards, Jonathan, Works, vol 1 (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1992) Page 575.

[23] Shedd, W.G.T. Dogmatic Theology, (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 2003) Page 720.

[24] Examples of this kind of Romanized teaching, and more, which denies the imputation of the active and passive obedience of Christ and centers on a works-justification, may be found throughout the theology of the following works: Reformed is Not Enough, by Doug Wilson; Stumbling into Apostasy, Credenda Agenda, Vol. 13, Number 2, by Douglas Wilson; tapes from the Auburn Avenue Pastor’s Conference 2002 or 2003; The Climax of the Covenant, by NT Wright; What Saint Paul Really Said, by NT Wright; Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion, by E.P. Sanders; Word Biblical Commentary on Romans, by James D.G. Dunn; The Justice of God: A Fresh Look at the Old Doctrine of Justification by Faith, by James Dunn and Alan Sugate; Jesus, Paul, and the Law: Studies in Mark and Galatians, by James Dunn; Paul Among Jews and Gentiles and Other Essays, by Krister Stendahl; The New Perspective on Paul, by Michael B. Thompson; The Call of Grace, by Norman Shepherd.

[25] Forde, Gerhard, Dialog, Justification by Faith Alone. The Article by which the Church Stands or Falls? (Fall 1988) Vol 27, Page 260.