ROMANS 1.16 and 10.4 [present active substantival participles carry a durative nuance.... "are believing!"]

ROMANS 9.30-33

The Gentiles [nations] have attained righteousness.

• They didn’t pursue it.
• They attained it by faith.

Israel pursued a law of righteousness.

• They didn’t arrive there.
• They didn’t pursue it by faith, but by works.
• They stumbled over the rock of offense – Jesus.

ROMANS 1 [just thinking?]

How do "power of God" in 1.16, "righteousness of God" in 1.17, and "wrath of God" in 1.18 all relate? All have the same structure in Greek. The gospel is the key here. Power is unto salvation through the gospel. In the the gospel, the righteousness of God is revelaed. So, does wrath come upon those who have no power or righteousness through the gospel? I believe so. Those recipients of the wrath of God in 1.18 have stiff-armed the "truth of God" in 1.18 and 1.25. The immediate need here is righteousnes [or a righteouesness] because the wrath of God comes upon all unrighteousness in 1.18. The gospel grants power unto this end.

Pardon my Pauline keyboard-brainstorming. See the gospel in Isaiah 52.7 and Nahum 1.15.

THE FUTURE OF JUSTiFiCATiON [book review]

To the scholar, it will warm his heart and prod his mind. To the pastor, it will cause him to see the need for precision in language and push him to do that on tough texts. To Joe in the pew, read chapter 11 and the appendices and be challenged to think deeper about what Saint Paul really said. There are occasional places where Piper gets repetitive, but not to a fault. You can tell he has really studied and conversed with Wright in this book. Piper even thanks Wright in the intro for his 11,000-word response to Piper's first draft. There are sections where I'm convinced that the standard Reformed understanding of imputation/justification cannot fit. There are other places where the New Perspective's "covenant faithfulness" can't quite be seen. Still, this is exactly how theological debates should be handled.

ROMANS 5-8 and JUSTiFiCATiON

Paul’s questions in Rom 6 and following [“Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” in 6.1; or “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” in 6.13; and others] must be read with the backdrop of chapters 1-5.

If someone is “made righteous” [this is how Catholicism defines justification] by faith in 1-5, then the expectation of an upright and holy person is that they will not sin. This is what righteous means. There was only one of those persons. But what if chapters 1-5 teach that when a person believes, he or she is “pronounced” and/or “declared” righteous? If this latter proposition be true, then it must also be pregnant with questions such as “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?"

Further still, this pronouncement is such that it is not only a counting or a reckoning of one as righteous, but it is a declaration that ensures that one day the justified individual will be completely righteous like and with Jesus. Why else would Paul say that God predestined these to be “conformed to the image of His Son”? Why else would he continue his argument to say that all God predestined, God also called; and all God called, He also justified; and all God justified, He also glorified?

Paul would never link these near the close of his argument in chapters 5-8 and ask the kind of questions he did unless the declaration of righteousness in 1-4 secures the future reality of absolute righteousness forever in the new creation.

ROM 5.12-21

This is a tough text. It is good to keep 1 Cor 15.22 and 15.45 in mind when dealing with it. Noting the following contrasts is important:

• [5.15] the transgression/the free gift
• [5.16] result=condemnation/result=justification
• [5.17] reign of death/reign of righteousness
• [5.19] one man's disobedience/one man's obedience
• [5.21] reign of sin by death/reign of grace by righteousness

One mustn't be hung up on "the many" and "all" language if they read this passage rightly. That language is used as descriptive of the posterity of the first Adam and the posterity of the second Adam, Jesus. After discussing justification in a more personal way in Rom 4, Paul articulates it through a wider lens in chapter 5.

He essentially says that the same way we were counted as having sinned in Adam and then we actually sinned in deed from our nature, so then we who are in Christ are counted righteous through His life and death [apart from anything we've done] and then we actually do righteous deeds in obedience "which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" [Eph 2.10]. The Lord is indeed our righteousness [Jer 23.6, 1 Cor 1.30].

JESUS has to be my righteousness

For everyone who plants their flags in the authority of church history, here's a sweet little excerpt from chapter 9 of the Epistle to Diognetus. Then, for those who can be blessed by solid Great Awakening preaching, here a section from a George Whitfield sermon on Jer 23.6.

"He himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! - that the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!"

"And you think, O sinners, that you will be able to stand in the day of judgment, if Christ be not your righteousness! No! That alone is the wedding-garment in which you must appear. O Christless sinners, I am distressed for you! The desires of my soul are enlarged! O that this may be an accepted time, that the Lord may be your righteousness! For whither would you flee, if death should find you naked? Indeed, there is no hiding yourselves from His presence. The pitiful fig leaves of your own righteousness will not cover your nakedness when God shall call you to stand before Him. Adam found them ineffectual, and so will you. O think of death! O think of judgment! Yet a little while and time shall be no more; and then what will become of you, if the Lord be not your righteousness."

Romans 1-8

The power of God [dunamis gar theou] in 1.16 is evidenced in the righteousness of God [dikaiosune gar theou] in 1.17. This righteousness is one that is credited to the account of everyone who is believing in the perfect life and wrath-absorbing death of Jesus on the cross [3.21-26]. This righteousness shows the power of God because Jews and Gentiles are all sinful and accountable before a holy God [1.18-3.20]. Their impotence to righteousness means that they are powerless on their own. They need another, alien righteousness to be declared "not guilty" in the courtroom of the Just and the Justifier [3.26].

This reality of justification by faith is unfurled in the believer's life by living according to the Spirit. Paul shows the universality of sin [chs 1-3], the right-standing before God that is available [ch 4], the hope that a right-standing entails [ch 5], the problem of sin [ch 6], and the problem of the law [ch 7]. He does not discuss how to live in these truths until ch 8. In chs 1-7, he uses the word "spirit" [pneuma] 5 times. In ch 8, he uses the same word 22 times! "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh" [Gal 5.16].