Thursday, February 16, 2023

Paul O’Callaghan on Luther's Doctrine of Imputation

  

Living under the veil of Christ: ‘imputed’ justice Faith, though consisting of and producing an intimate union with Christ and a real belonging to him, lays hold of a righteousness which never comes under the dominion, as it were, of the human persons, for it always remains a iustitia Christi aliena. Man’s new-found dignity as a Christian, as a believer, though stable, is perpetually ‘on loan’. This is the other side of the Christian’s justified state: ‘imputation by God.’ (WA 40/1:364) Faith as we saw it certainly a fides apprehensive, a faith which seizes Christ and holds him fast. (WA 39/1:44f.) Thus man is justified not so much on account of his faith (propter fidem), but on account of Christ (propter Christum): the believer holds Christ fast in faith. (‘The Christ who is grasped by faith and lives in the heart is true Christian righteousness, on account of which God counts us righteous and grants us eternal life’ idem., in sp. S. Pauli ad Galatas Comm. [WA 40/1:229]) But of course, since Christ is Deus pro me, Christian faith in his saving action can never be expressed as dominion, as possession; it can never be expressed coram Deo as an ‘autonomous’ human action, for man is just in God’s eyes exclusively on account of his beloved Son. The following text from Luther’s major commentary on Galatians offers a synthetic view of his understanding:

 

Christian justice should be properly and accurately defined as trust (fiducia) in the Son of God, or trust in the heart of God through Christ. Here one should add this specific note: this faith is imputed as justice for the sake of Christ. These two elements, as I have said, make Christian justice perfect: one, faith (fides) itself in the heart, which is a gift divinely given and formally believes in God; the other, that God considers this imperfect faith to be perfect faith for the sake of Christ, his Son, who suffered for the sins of the world, in whom I have begun to believe. And for the sake of this faith in Christ, God does not see the sin which is still left in me . . . And imputation does this for the sake of the faith by which I have begun to apprehend Christ, for whose sake God considers imperfect justice to be perfect justice, and sin not to be sin although it is truly sin. Thus we live under the veil of the flesh of Christ. (Ibid. [WA 40/1:366f.])

 

In approximate terms, it could be said that Christ becomes ours by taking our place before the Father, in such a way that the two elements of our relationship with Christ (being united with him, being accounted for or protected by him) relate to one another dialectically yet inseparably. If we were not intimately united with him, his intercession for us would be meaningless and the doctrine of imputed justice mere extrinsicism. Conversely if our justice were our very own and not received and imputed, we would not be united with him, but simply with ourselves. This dialectic is at the very heart of Luther’s spiritual and theological vision. (Paul O’Callaghan, Fides Christi: The Justification Debate [Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997], 30-3, emphasis in bold added)

 

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