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R.C Sproul
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NOTICE: The following
article is written by the author itself and not by me, I am not trying to
violate their copyright. I will give some information on them.
PAGE TITLE: http://www.ligonier.org/
ARTICLE
TITLE:
Resurrection and Justification
DATE: March 26, 2016
AUTHOR: R.C Sproul
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: Robert Charles Sproul (born February 13,
1939) is an American Calvinist theologian, author, and pastor. He is the
founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries (named after the Ligonier
Valley just outside of Pittsburgh, where the ministry started as a study center
for college and seminary students) and can be heard daily on the Renewing
Your Mind radio broadcast in the United States and internationally.
"Renewing Your Mind with Dr. R.C. Sproul" is also broadcast on Sirius
and XM satellite radio. In late July 2012, a new Christian internet radio
station called RefNet (Reformation Network) was also
announced by Ligonier Ministries in an effort to reach "as many people as
possible" where Internet access is available.
Ligonier Ministries hosts several theological
conferences each year, including the main conference held each year in Orlando,
FL, at which Sproul is one of the primary speakers.
Sproul was a passenger on the Amtrak train
that derailed in the 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck and often gives firsthand
accounts of the story.
How
is the resurrection of Christ linked to the idea of justification in the New
Testament? To answer this question, we must first explore the use and meaning
of the term justification
in the New Testament. Confusion about this has provoked some of the fiercest
controversies in the history of the church. The Protestant Reformation itself
was fought over the issue of justification. In all its complications, the
unreconciled and unreconcilable difference in the debate came down to the
question of whether our justification before God is grounded in the infusion of
Christ’s righteousness into us, by which we become inherently righteous, or in
the imputation, or reckoning, of Christ’s righteousness to us while we are
still sinners. The difference between these views makes all the difference in
our understanding of the Gospel and of how we are saved.
One
of the problems that led to confusion was the meaning of the word justification. Our English
word justification
is derived from the Latin justificare.
The literal meaning of the Latin is “to make righteous.” The Latin fathers of
church history worked with the Latin text instead of the Greek text and were
clearly influenced by it. By contrast, the Greek word for justification, dikaiosune, carries the
meaning of “to count, reckon, or declare righteous.”
But
this variance between the Latin and the Greek is not enough to explain the
debates over justification. Within the Greek text itself, there seem to be some
problems. For example, Paul declares in Romans 3:28, “Therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
Then James, in his epistle, writes, “Was not Abraham our father justified by
works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar” (2:21) and “You see then that
a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (2:24).
On
the surface, it appears that we have a clear contradiction between Paul and
James. The problem is exacerbated when we realize that both use the same Greek
word for justification and both use Abraham to prove their arguments.
This
problem can be resolved when we see that the verb “to justify” and its noun
form, “justification,” have shades of meaning in Greek. One of the meanings of
the verb is “to vindicate” or “to demonstrate.”
Jesus
once said, ” ‘Wisdom is justified by all her children’ ” (Luke 7:35). He did not mean
that wisdom has its sins remitted or is counted righteous by God by having
children, but that a wise decision may be vindicated by its consequences.
James
and Paul were addressing different questions. James was answering the question:
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not
have works? Can faith save him?” (2:14). He understood that anyone can profess
to have faith, but true faith is demonstrated as authentic by its consequent
works. The claim of faith is vindicated (justified) by works. Paul has Abraham
justified in the theological sense in Genesis 15 before he does any works.
James points to the vindication or demonstration of Abraham’s faith in
obedience in Genesis 22.
The
Resurrection involves justification in both senses of the Greek term. First,
the Resurrection justifies Christ Himself. Of course, He is not justified in
the sense of having His sins remitted, because He had no sins, or in the sense
of being declared righteous while still a sinner, or in the Latin sense of
being “made righteous.” Rather, the Resurrection serves as the vindication or
demonstration of the truth of His claims about Himself.
In
his encounter with the philosophers at Athens, Paul declared: ” ‘Truly, these
times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to
repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in
righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this
to all by raising Him from the dead’ ” (Acts 17:30-31).
Here
Paul points to the Resurrection as an act by which the Father universally
vindicates the authenticity of His Son. In this sense, Christ is justified
before the whole world by His resurrection.
However,
the New Testament also links Christ’s resurrection to our justification. Paul
writes, “It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was
raised because of our justification” (Rom. 4:24-25).
It
is clear that in His atoning death Christ suffered on our behalf, or for us.
Likewise, His resurrection is seen not only as a vindication of or surety of
Himself, but as a surety of our justification. Here justification does not
refer to our vindication, but to the evidence that the atonement He made was
accepted by the Father. By vindicating Christ in His resurrection, the Father
declared His acceptance of Jesus’ work on our behalf. Our justification in this
theological sense rests on the imputed righteousness of Christ, so the reality
of that transaction is linked to Christ’s resurrection. Had Christ not been
raised, we would have a mediator whose redeeming work in our behalf was not
acceptable to God.
However,
Christ is risen indeed!
This
post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.
