Monday, November 23, 2020

Robert C. Koons vs. Reformed/Lutheran (Mis-)Readings of Romans 4

 

Romans 4:2-5

 

2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

 

4Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

 

This is a critically important passage, often cited by Lutherans and Protestants in support of a purely forensic conception of righteousness. The word for “credits” is logizomai, a word that means to think or to estimate, especially to ascribe value to. Very much the same meaning attaches to the Hebrew word chashab, which occurs in the Genesis passage (Genesis 15) that Paul is quoting, following the Septuagint translation. The words logizomai and chashab do not carry any connotation of mere supposition or make-believe: in most cases, they express the holding of an accurate belief and estimation. Consequently, when God, who is omniscient and omnipotent, reckons something, that reckoning is true and just. God reckons Abraham’s faith to be righteousness; he appraises the value of Abraham’s faith as constituting righteousness.

 

The passage does not directly support Melanchthon’s theory of imputation: it does not say that God reckons Christ’s (extrinsic, alien) righteousness to be Abraham’s righteousness. Rather, it says that God reckons Abraham’s faith to be Abraham’s righteousness. Why is this? Why is Abraham’s faith of such value? Here all Christians will agree: because Abraham’s faith lays hold of Christ. But, how does it do that? Faith lays hold of Christ by uniting us to Christ through baptism (Romans 6), and by keeping us united to Christ through the gift of the Spirit (Romans 8). There is certainly nothing in this passage to indicate that our union and conjunction with Christ is a purely external matter. Hence, it does not support the Lutheran conception of the alien righteousness of Christ, as opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of an internal appropriation of Christ through infusion of grace and the Spirit.

 

Moreover, Paul typically uses the words for “work” and “to work” (variants of ergon) with a negative connotation, signifying things done autonomously, apart from Christ. The one exception is Romans 2:6, where Paul is quoting the Septuagint and uses ergon, or “deed,” in a neutral sense. (Ephesians 2:10, if this letter is in fact Pauline, is a second exception.) Throughout his letters, Paul rarely uses ergon to refer to the fruit of the Spirit or the results of walking or living in the Spirit. In Ephesians 2:20, the one exception to this rule, Paul combines the word work with the qualifier “good” and with the phrase ‘to walk in them’ (peripateo), a phrase with a consistently positive connotation for Paul. Hence, there is little reason to take him to be here excluding the fruit of the Spirit from any role in justification. In the context f Romans 4, it is likely that “work” is shorthand for “work of the law of Sinai,” since Paul’s point is that faith in Christ equalizes Jews and Gentiles, limiting the significance of the law of Moses.

 

Romans 4:6-9

 

6David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7”Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
9Is the blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.

 

We see in this passage the same characteristics: the pejorative use of the word work (ergon), the use of “credit” (logizomai), implying a truthful estimation of the believer’s righteousness and sinlessness. All this is consistent with a transformational conception of justification, with faith as the channel through which transforming grace is conveyed. God does not “count” our sins because he has, by his grace, annihilated them.

 

The root of the word for “forgive” (aphiemi) gives the sense of sending away. What God forgives, he removes. The fact that sin is described as “covered” does not give some support to a fictional or suppositional form of righteousness, if we think of the sin as a blemish that is hidden or disguised by the covering. However, we could instead think of the covering as a fulfilling a real need: supplying raiment to the naked sinner or bandages to his wounds. Similarly, the saints in heaven are described as having robes washed white by the blood of the Lamb. This cannot be taken as suggesting that even the saints in heaven remain internally sinful, with a mere covering to disguise this fact. The covering with a clean robe signifies a corresponding, internal cleanliness. (This is not to deny that the metaphor indicates that there is a forensic element in justification, in additional to the transformational one.)

 

Romans 4:16

 

16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

 

The context of this verse makes clear that “the law” refers specifically to the Torah, the Law of Moses. For Paul, there is clearly an essential connection between grace and faith. Salvation must be out of (ek) faith if it is to be according to (kata) grace. The key contrast here is between the faith of Abraham and observance of the Law of Moses. By giving priority to the first, Paul secures the equality between Gentile and Jewish Christians, since both have access through faith in Christ to God’s saving grace. This does not establish that grace a merely external righteousness or legal status, nor does it exclude the possibility of the Christian believer’s active cooperation with God’s grace, outside of the Law of Moses. (Robert C. Koons, A Lutheran’s Case for Roman Catholicism [Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2020], 119-22)

 

Further Reading


Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness

λογιζομαι in texts contemporary with the New Testament:










An Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed Theology