Robert C. Koons on Faith being "passive," "merely receptive," and Romans 3:21-26

Critiquing the Protestant belief that faith is “passive” and “merely receptive,” Robert C. Koons wrote:

 

Lutherans insist that faith is a mere organ by which we receive Christ’s righteousness. This begs the question: why must this organ of receptivity be identified with faith alone, and not with “faith working in love,” or even with faith, regeneration, and the fruit that naturally flows from these? For example, Robert Preus writes, “If justification is declared freely (dorean, gratis) over the sinner by God’s grace (Romans 3:24), then only faith is left to justify” (Preus, Justification and Rome, 97). This is a non sequitur. If justification is free, how can anything be “left to justify”? If faith can justify despite our being justified “freely,” then why is it impossible that it is faith and love together that do the justifying, so long as both are free gifts of God for Christ’s sake? (Robert C. Koons, A Lutheran’s Case for Roman Catholicism [Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2020], 31)

 

On Rom 3:31-26, a common “proof-text” to support this doctrine, Koons noted:

 

This passage is silent on whether this righteousness, which comes to us from God through faith in Christ, is internal or external, inherent or “alien.” It is silent, further, on the question of whether this righteousness is received in toto, all at once, or whether the believer can be expected to grow from one degree of righteousness to another. Nor does the passage speak to the question of whether such growth (if it is required) depends only on the believer’s faith, or whether the believer cooperates in that growth through subsequent actions.  Even if the believer uses the law to guide him in this cooperation with God’s Spirit, this would not nullify the fact that God’s righteousness came to him initially apart from the law. What Paul is condemning is the use of the law by the autonomous, self-righteous sinner as a means for manipulating or controlling God, placing God under an obligation to accept as he is, without receiving Christ’s righteousness through faith.

 

According to Paul, we are justified freely by God’s grace, implying that there is nothing that we can do, prior to our conversion to faith, that could be thought of as earning that grace or mitigating the guilt of our sinfulness. In this sense, righteousness comes to us “apart from law”: no conformity to the law is a prerequisite to the initial reception of God’s grace.

 

Paul makes it clear that faith is the first point of contact between the sinner and God’s grace: it is to the believer in Christ that the righteousness of God is freely given. (Ibid., 118-19)

  

To be fair to Koons, he is being too generous to the Protestant interpretation of this pericope. It is eisegetical to the extreme. With respect to other instances of δικαι-words, consider the following from a leading scholar of Pauline New Testament texts and theology whose work has refuted the concept Paul taught forensic justification:

I contend that even if on occasion δικαι- terms are forensic, in Paul at least, the terms do not refer to the Last Judgment. Paul does not, in fact, use δικαι- terms (in conjunction with “faith”), however, does not evoke any judgment that determine one’s eternal destiny. The issue does not need to be whether the terms (in conjunction with “faith" are forensic, but whether they refer specifically to the Last Judgment. Paul’s use of the δικαι- terms to embrace both the notions of (1) forgiveness, cleansing, and purification of past sins and (2) an emancipation from sin as a ruler over humanity. The various δικαι- terms all refer to the same quality or effect of Jesus’ death on the believer. In other words, despite their grammatical distinctions, δικαιοσυνη, δικαιος, δικαωσις, and even δικαιοω all have the same sense; therefore, the best rendering of δικαιοσυνη is “righteousness,” of δικαιος, “righteous,” and of δικαιοω, “make righteous.” (Ibid., 245-46; emphasis added; see the entire chapter, Chapter 4: “Justification by Faith”—A Mistranslated Phrase and Misunderstood Concept [pp. 242-332] for a full-length refutation of the historical Protestant understanding of “justification”).

Commenting on a long-standing “proof-text” for sola fide, Rom 3:21-26, VanLandingham writes that:

The verb δικαιοω can be causative, because aside from the fact that the –οω verbs normally are (as φανερω in 3:21), the verb most often renders the causative hip’il of  צדק in the Septuagint. In this case, it would mean “to make δικαιος.” Admittedly, δικαιοω does not often have this sense; however, as previously stated, this rendering fits very well in Ps 72:13 (LXX); Luke 18:14; Rom 4:5; 1 Cor 6:11; and Jas 2:21, 24, 25, and with a nearly synonymous meaning in T. Sim. 6:1; Sir 26:29; and Acts 13:38-39. The causative sense also works well; but considering that Paul uses the verb synonymously with the δικαι- terms (δικαιος, δικαιοσυνη) that occur in the proof-texts of Hab 2:4 and Gen 15:6, it makes the most sense that here δικαιοω means “to make δικαιος.” Paul uses the verb as a convenient way to indicate the transferal of believers from a state of unrighteousness to the state of righteousness. This transferal, of course, is precisely what Paul says in Rom 5:19: “By means of obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous” (δίκαιοι κατασταθήσονται) (Ibid., 320-31)

Further Reading

Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness

An Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed Theology