[N]one of these texts [Gal 3:6;
Rom 4:3, 22; 4:5, 6, 9, 11, 22-24] says that Christ's righteousness was
counted. With the exception of Rom 4:6, 11, which will come up later, they say
that Abraham's faith was counted and that our faith is counted, so that righteousness
comes into view not as what is counted but as what God counts faith to be. Nor
does Paul ascribe this righteousness to Christ; rather, he portrays Christ as
the object of faith, for example in Gal 2:16b, "even we believed in (εις)
Jesus Christ in order that we might be declared righteous."
Those who understand these texts
to teach an imputation of Christ's righteousness, alien to sinners, argue on
the contrary that Paul's phraseology is shorthand for faith as the instrument
by which that righteousness is received. An expansive paraphrase might read,
"Faith was counted with the result that Christ's alien righteousness was
imputed." To test this understanding we need to examine the way that Paul and
others elsewhere use the phraseology of "counting as" and "being
counted as" (λογιζομαι εις, Greek texts without εις, "as," being
less relevant to our purpose):
-- Rom 2:26: “his [a Gentile
law-keeper’s] uncircumcision will be counted as circumcision, won’t it?
-- Rom 9:8: “the children of the
promise are counted as seed.”
-- 2 Cor 12:6: “lest anyone count
as me more than what he sees me [to be] or [more than] anything he hears from
me” (a somewhat literal translation).
(All the non-Pauline texts in the
NT)
-- Acts 19:27: “that the temple of
the great goddess Artemis be counted as nothing.”
--Jas 2:23: “it [Abraham’s
believing God] was counted for him as righteousness.”
(Some Greek texts outside the New
Testament)
--Gen 15:6 LXX: “he [the Lord]
counted it [Abraham’s believing in the Lord] for him as righteousness.”
--Job 41:24 LXX: “the fathomless
deep was counted as a place for walking around.”
--Ps 105:31 (106:31 HB): “it
[Phinehas’s zeal] was counted for him as righteousness.”
--1 Macc 2:52: “and was not it
[Abraham’s being found faithful when tested; cf. Genesis 22] counted for him as
righteousness?”
--Philo, Her. 94: “and it
is well said, ‘His faith was counted as righteousness for him,’ for nothing is
so righteous as to put in God alone a pure and unmixed faith.”
(Some non-Greek texts with similar
phraseology)
--Gen 31:15: “are we [Rachel and
Leah] not counted by him [Laban] as foreigners?”
-- Lev 25:31: “the houses o the
villages that have no surrounding wall will be counted as open fields.”
-- Num 18:27: “your offering will
be counted for you as the grain from the threshing floor or the full produce
from the wine vat.”
-- Num 18:30: “when you have
offered from it the best of it, then the rest of it [i.e., the rest of the
offering] will be counted for the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor
and as the product of the wine vat.”
-- 2 Sam 19:19 (19:20 HB): “let
not my lord count to me iniquity nor remember what your servant did wrong”
(Shimei to David).
-- Job 13:24: “why . . . do you
count me as your enemy?” (so also Job 19:11; 33:10).
--Job 19:15: “those who live in my
house and my maids count me as a stranger.”
--Job 41:27: “he counts iron as
straw.”
--Prov 27:14: “it will be counted
to him as a curse.”
--4QpsJba (=4Q225) 1 I:
“And Abraham believed God, and righteousness was counted for him.”
--Jub 14:6: “and he
[Abraham] believed the LORD and it was counted for him as righteousness” (cf.
31:23).
--Jub 30:17: “and it [the
killing of the Shechemites by two of Jacob’s sons] was a righteousness for
them, and it was written down for them for righteousness.”
-- Jub 35:2: “This thing
[the obedience of Jacob to his mother] is . . . a righteousness for me before
the LORD.”
--4QMMT 117 (=4Q398 1 II, 4, and 2
II, 7): “it will be counted for you as righteousness when you do what is
upright and good before him.”
Now it is hard if not impossible
to think that Rom 2:26 presents a Gentile law-keeper’s uncircumcision as the
instrument by which an alien circumcision is received. Or that Rom 9:8 presents
the children of the promise as the instrument by which an alien seed is
received. Or that 2 Cor 12:6 presents more than what others see in Paul or hear
from him as the instrument by which an alien Paul might be received. Or that
Acts 19:27 presents Artemis’s temple as the instrument by which an alien
nothingness might be received. Or that Jas 2:23 presents Abraham’s faith as the
instrument by which an alien righteousness was received (for James emphasizes
faith as needing the evidence of the believer’s own behavioral righteousness).
Or that in its context Gen 15:6 presents Abraham’s faith as the instrument by
which an alien righteousness was received. Or that Ps 105(106):31 presents
Phinehas’s zeal as the instrument by which an alien righteousness was received.
Or that 1 Macc 2:52 presents Abraham’s faithfulness in offering Isaac as the instrument
by which an alien righteousness was received. Or that 4QMMT 117 presents
upright, good behavior as the instrument by which an alien righteousness is
received. (Robert Gundry, “The Nonimputation of Christ’s Righteousness,” in The
Old Is Better: New Testament Essays in Support of Traditional Interpretations [Wissenschaftliche
Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 178; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005; repr.,
Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2010], 226-228)
On Rom 4:23-24, contra D. A. Carson
[I]t is faith, not righteousness,
that is counted; and it is counted “as righteousness,” so that the reference to
“us . . . who believe” is designed to bring both Jewish and Gentile believers
under the umbrella of an Abrahamic faith that God counts as righteousness, not
to make it an instrument of gaining an alien righteousness of Christ (cf. v.
11: that he [Abraham] might be the father of all who believe”). (ibid., 232)
Further Reading
Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness