Imputed Righteousness: A Meditation on Romans 4, for the 2nd Sunday in Lent

What shall we say then that Abraham our father,

As pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

For if Abraham were justified by works,

he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

For what saith the scripture?

Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him

that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man,

Unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying,

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom

the Lord will not impute sin.

Few topics caused such uproar during the 16^th century Reformation as the debate around how a sinner could be justified before God.  Not least among these disputes were the definitions of the terms “sinner,” “righteousness,” and “impute.”  Naturally, such debates were not new to the Reformation era; saints and heretics as great as Augustine and Pelagius did verbal battle on this field a thousand years before Luther and his Pope, and it should not surprise us that this debate rages on still today.  In every age before us, and every age to come, the settlement of such debates is found where the people of God have always found it:  in His Word, breathed out by His Holy Spirit through His Prophets and Apostles, and incarnate in the person of His Son.

The Epistle of St. Paul to the church at Rome is the Apostle’s magnum opus, and it is to this letter that the church fathers (including Luther) often returned to understand the foundations of what we may call the Doctrine of Justification.  In the opening chapters of this letter, St. Paul defines everyone as a sinner, having fallen in Adam’s Fall, twisted and corrupted in our own evil desires and actions from the moment of our conception by our likewise fallen parents, utterly unable by our own power to save ourselves.  St. Paul describes every human being as a sinner, deserving of death and hell, so that every braggart’s mouth might be stopped before both God and their fellow men.  Such sinners are born with an inclination toward selfishness and pride, bent away from God in their own evil desires, and under the oppression of the devil who plays their fallen intellect like a fiddle.

Juxtaposed to the hopeless wickedness of man’s fallen state and willful or unwitting slavery to the evil one, God is revealed as the ultimate source of goodness, beauty, life, justice, power, love, compassion, mercy, and truth.  The collective term for all these attributes of divine goodness is righteousness, which is the collective quality sinful man lacks in every regard.  Rather than man reflecting his Creator’s righteousness, his fallen nature more reflects the evil one to whom he made himself a slave; whatever is left of man’s divine image when he was made has become twisted and marred in every attribute, so that no power of man is trustworthy to produce righteousness.  The sinful flesh of man is addicted to the passions and lusts which lead him away from God, just as his mind and intellect are addicted to self-love, self-service, and self-worship.  The soul of fallen man is a dark and dying thing, corrupting the whole of a human being until everything it touches withers and dies.  Where God brings forth life, man fixates on death; where God establishes justice, man works corruption; where God designs beauty, man produces distortion; where God breathes out love and compassion, man breaths out threats and murders.  Thus we learn from St. Paul that God is the definition of righteousness, and the revelation of His righteousness to men is the Word of His Law.

For man to be justified before his holy and righteous God, man would need to be in harmony with God, reflecting the perfection of His righteousness.  To be justified is to be declared just—it is an act of truth in acknowledging someone as righteous.  When we say that God is righteous, we declare in harmony with unalterable truth that He is Just and Good.  When we measure man as God measures man according to His holy and unbreakable Law, we must acknowledge the inescapable truth that man is not righteous, and worthy of his judgment under that holy Law.  Thus St. Paul rightly concludes that no man is justified by his works according to the Law of God, because no man by the use of his own corrupted nature, can heal the corruption which so completely infects him.  God is holy and righteous.  Man is unholy and unrighteous.  This is the base root of all of man’s problems, the reason why he is afflicted with death and despair, and why his separation from God can only lead to an eternity in hell.  Man’s problem is that the truth of his self-wrought condition declares him condemned before his righteous God, with no ability in himself to undo his own corruption.

Into this stark reality of man’s condemnation before God according to His Holy Law, St. Paul preaches the pure wonder of God’s Holy Gospel:  God saves fallen man through the Vicarious Atonement of His Only Begotten Son in their stead.  Knowing that man could not save himself, nor pay for his sins except by an eternity in hell, the Father sent His Son in the power of His Holy Spirit to suffer the condemnation of every man, woman, and child who would ever walk this fallen earth.  From Adam to the last person born in this world, Christ Jesus became the sacrifice which paid for the sin and corruption of everyone, that everyone who would believe in Him might receive His forgiveness, life, and salvation.  This faith which clings to Jesus as Savior from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil is itself a divine gift, coming to fallen man through God’s Word and Spirit—for St. Paul tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  Rather than the wages earned for our corrupted works which could never achieve righteousness nor escape hell, a person who falls down in faith and repentance before Jesus receives the free gift of the mercy and grace Jesus earned for us all upon His Cross.  This great exchange between the sinner and Jesus, where Jesus takes on Himself the sins of the world and gives to the world His divine righteousness and grace, is what imputation is all about.  Man is not saved by his works, as if God should owe him a debt for his paltry efforts, but rather he is saved because God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to those who repent and believe in Him, through the power of His Holy Spirit bearing witness to this Everlasting Gospel of reconciliation between man and God.

Justified by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, the sinner is raised up to live in God’s grace through faith and repentance all the days of his life, having been born again from above by Water and Spirit.  His new nature given to him by Jesus continues yearning to be conformed to the image of his Savior, while constantly working to drown his old sinful nature in the waters of his baptism.  The sinner who has imputed to him the righteousness of his Savior and is given the Holy Spirit unto eternal life, no longer stands in fear or despair before his Holy God and His Law.  Rather, the justified sinner stands also as a saint before the same God who has become his justification, life, hope, and salvation.  Having received the life-giving love and grace of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, the sinner rises up each day to reflect his Savior’s love and grace to everyone around him, until that last day when the sinful nature is finally laid in the dust, and the new nature in Christ’s image shines forth forevermore, brighter than any star in the heavens.

This Doctrine of Justification, which the Reformers observed is the doctrine upon which the Church stands or falls, is the beating heart of our Lenten reflections.  Herein we know ourselves and our fallen state, the love of God which seeks and saves all who will trust in Him, and His Gospel means by which we arise unto newness of life.  Dear sinner, hear the Word of Christ’s Law and Gospel speak to you this day, that you may repent of your selfishness and pride, believe in Jesus as your reconciliation with God through His Cross, and have imputed to you the righteousness which raises you up, justifies you, and saves you forever.  Amen.