Traditional Protestant Theology Accentuates The Pathological Model of Justification

Traditional Protestant theology accentuates the pathological model of justification

Traditional Protestant theology emphasizes the forensic model of justification. Under this view, justification is essentially something that takes place outside of humans. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for human sins on the cross, and God accepts this atoning act as the necessary and sufficient satisfaction for those sins. This remedy is applied to an individual’s heart by grace through faith, which enables the person to be justified, or counted as righteous. In the theologies of both Martin Luther and John Calvin, even this faith is extrinsic to humans, for prior to their birth God has predestined those who will be saved, and based on this election God grants justifying faith to the chosen.

Traditional theology emphasizes that justification involves the active cooperation of humans. While justification begins with faith, it is maintained and increased by works, which are motivated by grace through faith. Justification involves both being counted as righteous and actually being made righteous by the work of the Holy Spirit.

A study of the Letter to the Romans and other Pauline writings indicates that neither position fully articulates the Pauline concept of justification. The forensic model accurately describes Christ’s death as the necessary and sufficient atonement for all human sins, and Protestantism correctly insists that in Paul’s theology no human works can earn salvation. Nevertheless, the traditional Protestant interpretation of justification does not give sufficient attention to the resurrection of Christ and to the corresponding role of the Holy Spirit. Here the Catholic explanation gives a useful hint by pointing to the work of the Spirit in the believer’s life.

What is needed for a full theology of justification is something more than either of these two approaches. We find a fresh way to move forward by a careful examination of Paul’s theology in Romans—supported by other Pauline writings as well as other books of the NT (although we have excluded the latter from the present study). In Romans, we see an emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit for justification as well as for all aspects of salvation.

Romans teach that justification rests upon both the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s death provides the way of atonement and reconciliation, but by itself, his death would have been a defeat instead of a victory. Christ’s resurrection won actual victory over death, sin, and the devil, and to receive justification people must somehow participate in his resurrection as well as his death.

The way believers apply the resurrection of Christ to their lives is by receiving his Spirit to dwell in them. The Spirit is the agent of justification—not only transferring them from the category of unrighteous to righteous based on Christ’s atoning death but also transferring them from a dead spiritual state to a living relationship with the risen Lord. At justification, the Spirit of Christ gives believers power to overcome sin, death, and the devil just as Christ did in his earthly life. The work of transformation begins, as the Spirit progressively molds believers into the image of Christ. This is the process of sanctification, but it begins with justification by the Spirit. In the words of Morgan (1995, 122), “The God who creates and saves is known in his saving righteousness in the death and resurrection of Jesus who is present to believers as Spirit. The Lord who is Spirit and creates freedom (cf. 2 Cor. 3.14-18) works on earth through believers who are empowered by this Spirit.”

Sanders (1977, 419-26) and Dunn (1988a, lxv-lxxii, 158-59) remind us that in the first century, the doctrine of justification involved a battle over the boundary markers of a covenant relationship with God. Paul contended that Gentiles should be recognized as covenant members on the basis of faith in Christ without having to adhere to the Jewish distinctive of circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and dietary laws. Traditional Protestant theology correctly concludes that Paul’s teaching would also oppose any other system that bases justification on group identity or human merit rather than faith in God’s grace. But Catholic theology reminds us that Paul expected a genuine inward transformation to be part of justification. From our investigation of Paul’s writing, we see that this transformation occurs by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. In essence, Paul teaches that the new boundary marker for the covenant people of God is the charismatic reception of the Holy Spirit.

Dunn (1998, 332-33, 416, 425, 442, and 455) describes the beginning of salvation as a crucial, many-sided transition and a complex whole with three significant aspects: justification by faith, participation in Christ, and the gift of the Spirit. Protestant theology has focused on the first, and Catholic theology has focused on the second. While it would be a mistake to elevate any one aspect to the exclusion of the others, it is the gift of the Spirit that is the most prominent of the three in Paul’s thinking. Thus “Paul could think of the blessing of Abraham both as justification and as the reception of the Spirit…. It is ‘having the Spirit’ which defines and determines someone as being ‘of Christ.’…In Paul’s understanding, it was by receiving the Spirit that one became a Christian” (414, 423).

Williams (1997, 86) concludes that Paul linked “the status of righteousness with the work of the Spirit in the closest possible way,” and “the experience of the Spirit and the status of justification are, for the apostle, inconceivable apart from each other.” Indeed, God justifies humans by overcoming the power of sin in their lives by God’s Spirit. “Thus the new relationship with God, the status of being justified, is the work of a life-transforming power, the power of the Spirit” (Williams 1987, 97).

As Williams (1987, 98) points out, this understanding of Paul enables us to transcend earlier Protestant-Catholic debates over whether justification is extrinsic or intrinsic. “For Paul, a new status before God implies a life transformed by the working of God’s Spirit and vice versa. It would not occur to him that a Christian would claim the status if the signs of the Spirit were lacking.”

In sum, for Paul, justification involves not only a change of standing but also a victory over sin and the beginning of a new life. Sinful humans can receive the divine work of justification in their lives by grace through faith. Justifying faith is not merely acceptance of Christ’s atonement, but it consists of trust, reliance, and obedience. By obedient faith, the sinner turns to God in repentance, receives water baptism in Jesus’ name, and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). The Spirit comes with a vibrant witness and transforming power.

While justification is by grace through faith and not of works, it is not merely an extrinsic, forensic transaction. Rather, it is a dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart that enables believers to enter the new covenant and participate in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.

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