16 And
the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned;
for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression
resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift
arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.
17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through
the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and
of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One,
Jesus Christ.
18 So then as through one transgression there resulted
condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness
there resulted justification of life to all men.
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were
made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many
will be made righteous.
Romans 5:16-19.(NASB).
In his excellent book The Pleasures of God, there
is a section where John Piper argues that God takes pleasure in
the death of the wicked. This section was so profound to me
because it was so shocking: we wouldn’t expect God to take
pleasure in the death of anyone (cf. Ezekiel 33:11). Yet there is
a sense in which he does take pleasure in the death of the wicked
(Deuteronomy 28:63; Psalm 135:6-12). He does not delight in
punishing the wicked in itself (God is not sadistic) but rather
delights in it insofar as it vindicates His glory by executing
the punishment that sin deserves.
What I would like to explore is the converse of this truth, which
to me is no less shocking: the pleasure of God in the life of the
wicked. Or, to be more specific, the pleasure of God in
justifying the wicked. We know that God takes pleasure in
justifying the wicked because Psalm 115:3 and 135:6 imply that
God only does things which please Him. Romans 4:5 explicitly says
that God "justifies the wicked." Therefore, God takes pleasure in
justifying the wicked.
The problem is that in Proverbs 17:15 God says that he who
justifies the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: "He who
justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of
them alike are an abomination to the Lord." God, thus, hates it
when people justify the wicked. How, then, can God do this very
thing and not only be "just" as Romans 3:26 says (most of us
probably know the answer to that) but actually delight in doing
it?
What I would like to do towards this end is draw out a few
diamonds from Romans 5:16-19. When we are done, we should be able
to piece together all the pieces to see why God takes pleasure in
doing the very thing that Proverbs 17:15 seems to say that He
hates.
First, notice that we are justified on the basis
of the righteousness of Christ. Verse 17 says that as a result of
receiving the "gift of righteousness" we have eternal life. Verse
18, in turn, refers to this "gift of righteousness" as an "act of
righteousness" performed by Christ. The righteousness of Christ,
therefore, is the ground of our justification. We’ll come
back later to get more specific about what this means.
Second, notice that the righteousness of Christ
is specifically defined as His obedience. For what verse 17 calls
the "gift of righteousness" and verse 18 calls the "one act of
righteousness," verse 19 calls the "obedience of the one."
Third, notice that His obedience is here viewed
as both the payment of the penalty for our sins and the positive
fulfillment of the law’s precepts. These two facets of His
obedience are often called His active and passive obedience. The
law of God requires that those who break it be punished (Romans
6:23, etc.) The passive obedience of Christ is His payment of
this penalty. But the law of God also requires that its positive
precepts be fulfilled (Galatians 3:10). It doesn’t simply
require that we never break it; it requires that we positively do
all that it says. The active obedience of Christ is this positive
fulfilling of the law that He accomplished while on earth.
It is hardly be disputed that when Paul speaks of Christ’s
obedience here in Romans 5:19 he has in view the passive
obedience of Christ. For by referring to it as the "one act" of
righteousness Paul clearly shows that what he has in mind is the
death of Christ—the crowning act of Christ’s
obedience. And just a few sentences ago in verses 9-11 Paul had
spoken of Christ’s death as reconciling us to God and
removing the enmity—which clearly has in view primarily the
removal of our sins. Paul, then, is surely viewing the death of
Christ as the payment of the penalty for our sins.
But Paul is also in this passage viewing the death of Christ as
something that perfectly fulfilled the positive requirements of
the law—to love God and your neighbor—because he
contrasts it here with the disobedience of Adam. Jonathan Edwards
rightly points out from this: "What can be meant by
righteousness, when spoken of as the opposite to sin, or moral
evil, but moral goodness? What is the righteousness that is the
opposite of an offence, but the behavior that is well pleasing?
And what can be meant by obedience, when spoken of as the
opposite of disobedience or going contrary to a command, but a
positive obeying and an actual complying with the command?"
(Edwards, "Justification by Faith Alone," in The Works of
Jonathan Edwards, vol I, 638). According to this text, then, the
death of Christ (the "obedience of the one," which is the "one
act of righteousness") does not simply take away our sins, but
supplies us with a perfect record of obedience before God.
The parallel in Philippians 2:6ff. confirms this, where we read
that Christ "humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted
Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." In Romans Paul spoke
of Christ’s obedience as "one act of righteousness," and
here he says that Christ was "obedient to the point of death."
This indicates that Paul sees Christ’s death as the
culmination of a life of obedience. Thus, it is not the only
righteous thing Christ did and which justifies us, but is the
culmination of His righteousness because it is the capstone of
His obedience. For this reason Paul can speak of us as being
justified by "one act of righteousness."
What is especially significant is that in the Philippians passage
it is clear that Paul is not simply viewing the death of Christ
as a fulfillment of the law’s penalty. That is evident not
only from the fact that it is referred to as "obedience" but
because it is the ground of His exaltation. For to say, as Paul
does here in Philippians, that Christ obeyed unto death and
therefore God exalted Him is to view the death of Christ as an
act of moral goodness that won exaltation. And so, likewise, in
Romans 5 where Paul speaks of Christ’s death as an act of
righteous obedience and says that we are made righteous by it, he
means that it is because of the moral goodness of Christ’s
obedience unto death that we are justified. He is, in other
words, viewing the death of Christ as a perfect fulfillment of
the positive precepts of the law.
Finally, that Paul is viewing the death of Christ as a positive
fulfillment of the law’s commands follows simply from the
meaning of "righteousness." As John Piper argues in The
Justification of God, righteousness in Paul means an unswerving
commitment to uphold the glory of God. By calling the death of
Christ "one act of righteousness," then, Paul is viewing it as an
act of obedience which not only pays the penalty for our sins but
also perfectly upholds and displays the glory of God’s
name—that is, positively fulfills the law (since this is
what the law calls for).
Fourth, notice that this righteousness of Christ
is imputed to us. Verse 18 loosely indicates this when it says
that justification results from the righteous death of Christ;
verse 19, however, gets more specific and explains how: it is
"through the obedience of the one that the many will be made
righteous." By the obedience of Christ (both active and passive,
as we have seen) we will be made righteous. This is, in Paul,
imputation language. Note, for example, the parallel in 2
Corinthians 5:21: "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our
behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
When Paul says that Christ was "made sin" he cannot mean that
Christ was transformed into a sinner—that would be
blasphemous. Neither can he simply mean that in some loose sense
our sins resulted in Christ dying. Rather, he means that our sins
were imputed to Christ. He did not become inherently sinful, but
was rather regarded as being guilty of our sins.
Likewise, therefore, when Paul says in Romans 5:19 that we are
"made righteous" by the obedience of Christ, he must mean that
this obedience of Christ is imputed to us. The term "made
righteous" here might seem to imply that Paul is saying that we
are made inherently righteous by the obedience of Christ. But the
parallel usage of this term in 2 Corinthians 5:21 will not allow
us to conclude this, since we have seen that when speaking of the
death of Christ Paul uses terms like this to refer to imputation
and not impartation. And so Paul means in Romans 5:19 that we are
made righteous by imputation—not impartation. The
righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and we are thereby made
legally (not inherently) righteous.
What needs to be emphasized is that since we have already seen
that this obedience is both the payment of the penalty Christ
made for our sins and His positive conformity to all the
law’s precepts, it follows that what is imputed to us is
both the active and passive obedience of Christ. We must not
divide the righteousness of Christ. Since Paul is viewing
Christ’s obedience here as both active and passive (as we
have seen), what is imputed to us is not simply Christ’s
payment of the penalty for our but also His positive fulfillment
of the law’s commands.
Fifth, notice from this that a course of
obedience perfectly fulfilled secures eternal life. For otherwise
Christ’s perfect obedience could not have secured our
eternal life—as this text says that it does. This principle
is what is called the "covenant of works." It doesn’t mean
that obedience earns justification from God by doing something
for Him that He has not first given to us; rather, it simply
means that God has promised to bestow eternal life on the ground
of perfect obedience. If we deny this principle—the
covenant of works—we are thereby denying that
Christ’s death secured our salvation.
Sixth, what this means is that eternal life is
given to perfect obedience in justice and not grace. This does
not mean that God did not empower the obedience or that the
obedience did Him a favor that obligated Him. Rather, it means
that since God has promised to bestow eternal life on perfect
obedience, He must give eternal life to those who possess perfect
obedience. To say that life is bestowed in justice instead of
grace, then, means that God could not decide to withhold life
from those who possess perfect obedience. If something is of
grace, you can either give it or withhold it without committing
an injustice; since God cannot (by His own decision to esteem the
death of Christ as worthy of eternal life for all who receive it)
withhold justification from perfect obedience, it is thus
bestowed in justice and not grace.
One reason we know that perfect obedience secures life in justice
is because if it did not then God could legitimately deny eternal
life to someone who has the righteousness of Christ. But that is
surely unthinkable. What a dishonor that would be to the Son! And
so it is not sufficient to simply say that God will give eternal
life to all who receive the imputation of His Son’s
righteousness; we have to say that God must give eternal life to
all who receive the imputation of His Son’s righteousness.
Anything less would imply that God does not have to save us and
that He does not have to honor the Son by granting what He
won—namely, eternal life for all who possess His
righteousness.
Justice, then, is at the foundation of our eternal life. We thus
have strong security since God would be unjust to not give
eternal life to those who believe and Christ is duly honored
because we see that He must receive the reward of His
sufferings—namely, eternal life for all those who receive
His righteousness. We also are able to see more clearly the stark
contrast that Paul makes between justification by works and
justification by grace through faith in passages like Romans 4:4,
16. Justification by works is given in justice; justification by
faith is given in grace. And since, of course, those who believe
receive the righteousness of Christ their justification is
ultimately on the ground of works (and thus in justice)—not
their own works, but the works of Christ.
We should not think, then, that it is because of the fact that we
believe that God would be unjust to withhold eternal life from
us; rather, He would be unjust to withhold it from us because
when we believe we receive the perfect obedience of Christ by
imputation. We do indeed receive the obedience of Christ by grace
when we believe—God does not have to give it to us because
our faith is the instrument and not ground of receiving
Christ’s righteousness. But once we possess the perfect
obedience of Christ He must grant eternal life to us because His
righteousness is indeed the ground and not instrument of
obtaining life.
This reveals one reason Paul is so adamant in contending for
justification of sinners by faith instead of works—because
if we are justified by works (obedience) that we do—even if
in the power of God—, our justification would be given in
justice for what we had done. The problem is that, in the case of
sinners (though not the sinless, such as Christ), that leads to
inappropriate boasting (Romans 4:2).
Seventh, if we move back to the parallel with 2
Corinthians 5:21 we see that the righteousness of God is the
righteousness of Christ: "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him." Just as Paul spoke in Romans 5:19 of us being made
righteous by the obedience of Christ, so also in this text Paul
speaks of us becoming the "righteousness of God in Him." Since
the righteousness imputed to us in Romans 5:21 is the obedience
of Christ and the righteousness imputed to us in 2 Corinthians
5:21 is called the righteousness of God, we must conclude that
the obedience of Christ is the righteousness of God.
This is confirmed by the relationship between Romans 5:17-19
(which speaks of the obedience of Christ) and Romans 3:22 (which
speaks of the righteousness of God). The language of 3:22 that
the righteousness of God comes to us and does so through faith
indicates that it is a righteousness that is imputed to us. Since
Romans 5:17-19 says that the righteousness which is imputed to us
is the obedience of Christ, the righteousness of God must be the
obedience of Christ.
Likewise, then, when Paul simply says in passages like Romans 4:6
that God "reckons righteousness" to those who believe, these
things indicate that he is speaking of the righteousness (active
and passive) of Christ. Unless, of course, we want to say that
there are two different righteousnesses imputed to us (or perhaps
even three)—the "righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21;
Romans 3:22), "righteousness" (Romans 4:6) and the "righteous act
of the One" (Romans 5:18-19).
It is probably evident where I am going with
this. If God simply declared the wicked to be righteous without
also making them legally righteous—that is, imputing
righteousness to them—he would indeed be committing an
abomination. For he would be violating Proverbs 17:15 by
declaring those who are not really just to be just. But Romans
5:19, 4:6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, etc., show us that God’s act
of justification is not simply declarative, but constitutive. In
other words, it God’s declaration that we are righteous is
based upon the real imputation of righteousness to us. The
righteousness of Christ is imputed to us and, consequently, we
are declared righteous and set right with God. God is not,
therefore, saying that the wicked are just when they are not
(which is what Proverbs 17:15 opposes). Rather, He is making
those who are inherently wicked to be legally (though not
inherently) just such that His judgement that we are righteous
accords with reality. It is not, therefore, an abomination to
Him.
While this answers why justification is not an abomination to
God, it does not answer why God would take pleasure in justifying
wicked humans. But the answer is not hard to find: God takes
pleasure in justifying the wicked because the righteousness that
He imputes to them is the righteousness of His beloved Son, which
perfectly reflects the worth of His glory.
It is at this point that it is extremely important to keep clear
that it is on the basis of Christ’s obedience that we are
justified. Obedience—or righteousness—is that which,
having been enabled by the power of God (1 Peter 4:11), perfectly
reflects the moral greatness of God. By making obedience the
ground of justification, therefore, God is justifying us on the
basis of the reflection of His own moral worth and excellence.
Consequently, when God justifies us He is testifying to the
pleasure He takes in the surpassing worth of His glory. For by
making His glory the basis for the supreme good of eternal life,
He demonstrates that His own glory is itself a supreme
good—otherwise it could not be the basis of something of
such great value.
For example, if I received a medal for winning a race, that medal
would be a testimony to the importance of winning that race.
Likewise, since God bestows eternal life on the basis of a
perfect reflection of his moral perfections in the creature
(i.e., perfect obedience), eternal life is a testimony to the
importance of God’s glory. And just as an expensive medal
testifies to the importance of winning a race more than a less
valuable medal, so also the surpassing value of eternal life
testifies to the surpassing value of the glory of God (since it
is at the basis of that life).
We can even take this further. Since Christ is the embodiment of
the glory of God at the foundation of our justification, when God
justifies us He is testifying to the surpassing worth of and
pleasure that He takes in His Son—who is the perfect
reflection of His glory. God loves to justify the wicked,
therefore, because in doing so He highlights the excellency of
the worth of His Son, whom He loves and delights in. The
justification of the wicked, then, is a testimony to the
excellency of the Son of God. It is, therefore, a great delight
to the heart of God.
Take courage and be glad that God is so delighted to justify you.
And teach these things to others, for in doing so you will be not
only exhorting them to take refuge in the pleasure of God in
justifying the wicked in Christ, but will also be wonderfully
manifesting the great delight that God takes in His Son and His
glory.