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)