The interpretation of “imputed righteousness” was
bolstered by a certain kind of rendering of 1 Cor. 1.30 as follows: “It is
because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from
God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.” The sentence in the
Greek is convoluted. What is clear is that Paul says that Christ has become the
believer’s wisdom from God. The phrase about Christ is, however, parenthetical
and there is no word “our” connected to any of the three attributes at the end
of the sentence. Furthermore, the Reformers had to insert the word kai (and)
before the last clause to make it say that Jesus is our Wisdom and righteousness,
etc. But the Greek sentence reads literally “But from him you are (in
Christ Jesus, who has become our wisdom from God) righteousness, and holiness
and redemption.” Nothing is said here about Christ being righteous or holy or
redeemed for us. The object of the verb “you are” is righteousness,
holiness, redemption. Yes, these qualities come to the believer “from him” but
Paul is describing qualities of the believer, not qualities Christ has in
the place of or on behalf of the believer. This latter correct
interpretation of the matter is confirmed when one looks at 2 Cor. 5.21: “God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
Paul is not allowed about Christ himself (who does not
need to “become” righteousness, and no, he is not talking about alien righteousness).
God actually wants the believer to become holy, through the internal working of
the Holy Spirit of course. To a very considerable extent, Lutheran and Reformed
theologians, and even various of the current exponents of such theologies, have
not corrected the mistakes Augustine made, but in fact have reinforced them in
various ways, and this in turn has skewed the interpretation of election and
related concepts as well. The verb “become” in the final clause makes very clear
that Paul is talking about something that happens to and in the believer,
not something that happens for them in someone else, namely Jesus. Yet, it only
happens to them because they are in Christ. No, it is not referring to something
wholly alien that exists only in Christ himself, who is somehow thought to be
in some sort of union with the believer that doesn’t actually make the believer
righteous! (Ben Witherington III, Biblical Theology: The Convergence of the
Canon [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019], 389-90)
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