Commenting on Rom 5:19 and καθίστημι, Protestant Brian Vickers wrote that:
Made Righteous
The
word “made” (kathisthēmi) is not strictly a synonym for “impute” (logizomai).
Imputation language . . . is not the language of 5:19. . . . In the New
Testament, the same word translated as “made” in 5:19 is most commonly used to
designate the place and/or status a thing or person holds or to which a thing
or a person is appointed (see Matt. 25:21, 23; Luke 12:14; Acts 6:3; Titus 1:5;
Heb. 5:1). Less commonly the word
carries the sense of become, cause to me, or make and refers to
some state of being (see James 4:4, “makes himself an enemy of God,” and
2 Peter 1:8, “If these [qualifies] are yours . . . they keep you from being ineffective
or unfruitful”). Neither New Testament writers, nor those who translated the
Old Testament into Greek, use it as a synonym for impute. . . . In 5:19
the phrase “will be made righteous” refers to being put into a position, like
the way we sometimes use the word appoint, as in “he was appointed
to be a federal judge.” (Brian Vickers, Justification By Grace Through
Faith: Finding Freedom from Legalism, Lawlessness, Pride, and Despair [Explorations
in Biblical Theology; Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2013], 47-48)
Note the language of “appointment”;
however, even allowing for this meaning of καθίστημι, when one is “appointed”
to a role or office, say, President of the USA, one is not merely “declared”
such; one is made such, being invested with all powers/authorities
thereof. To see why the common Protestant understanding of Rom 5:19 in general,
and καθίστημι in particular, is flawed, as is the common understanding of λογιζομαι, see:
Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness
