RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE PAULINE WRITINGS

The goal of all Christians is righteousness.  How does Paul comprehend the concept of righteousness in his writings?

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul uses the teaching of the Christ event to reject the claims of the Judaizers who emphasize that Gentiles converts ought to counter their argument by insisting on freedom from the law won for humanity in Christ Jesus by emphasizing on justification by faith from the perspective of freedom that the Christian has won in Christ Jesus.

In the letter to the Romans, Paul is was not dealing with the Judaizers (this was a passé) but presents his missionary reflection on the historical possibility of salvation rooted in God’s righteousness and love, now offered to all human beings through faith in Christ Jesus: “from the missions in the East and his conflicts with the Judaizers, Paul came to the realization that justification and salvation depended not on deeds prescribed, but by the effects of the Christ-event, in the plan of salvation conceived by God.

Doctrine of salvation

Jewish:

The Jewish doctrine of salvation is based on the fundamental assumption that man has within himself the possibility of fulfilling the law, and he who has fulfilled the law is righteous. Man is righteous because he has been declared so by God. Justification is in this case taken from the vocabulary of the law: it means being in the right, being just, pure, or the fact of clearing a person of guilt by means of judicial decision. Justification is therefore the work of man himself, his own merit, something that God owes to man and which man has a claim. Justification is not God’s grace action. It came to mean, in the convenantal perspective, uprighteousness or righteousness in the sight of Yahweh the Judge vis-à-vis the Mosaic law (Job 4: 17; 9: 2; Ps. 143: 2). But righteousness is difficult with regards to keeping the Mosaic Law (Ps. 7: 7-12; 119: 1-9). The Essenes were aware of this difficult and believed in God’s role as the source of uprighteousness in spite of their strong awareness of their sinfulness. Paul built on this and saw the role of Jesus Christ in repairing the human lack of righteousness via sin, through justification (Rm. 3: 23).

For Paul, the effects of the Christ-event which won profits for humanity by faith through baptism are manifold. They include Justification, Salvation, Reconciliation, Expiation, Redemption, and Adoption. Paul insists that Christ has justified human beings by his death and resurrection. In this sense, the Apostle affirms the gratuitous and unmerited character of justification of all humanity. In Pauline theology, God has displayed Jesus in death (by his blood) to show that He (God) is upright and justifies (vindicates) whoever has faith in Christ. This is to show that the process of justification begins in God who is “upright” and who justifies. Paul believes that Christ is our “righteousness”, since through his obedience many are made “upright”. In this sense, justification is a free gift from God who becomes the source of life in Christ.

 Paul distinguishes two ways of God justifying human beings: 1) The juridical/forensic way: all people are sinners and merit condemnation; in this way no man is justified; 2) The way of interior justice by which God makes us righteous; this is what He freely calls justification by faith in Christ Jesus and the Gospel. In this perspective, Paul quotes from Psalm 143 (142): 1-2: “In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no living man is righteous before you!” From this Psalm, Paul talks about three effects of justification in Christ Jesus and the gospel (Rom 1: 16): 1) Peace with God: the justified person experiences peace with God; this peace is the fullness of divine blessings; 2) Confident hope of sharing God’s glory: the believer accesses to the divine presence; 3) The Sharing in of the risen life of Christ, which brings salvation: justification takes place when a person comes in right contact with God.

Paul uses the word “righteousness” (diakaiosynē) 57 times and out of these 33 occurs in Romans. (Rom 1:16-17; 3:21-26).

In Greek “righteousness” is an idea or ideal against which the individual and individual action can be measured. In Hebrew thought “righteousness” is a more relational concept – “righteousness” as the meeting of obligations laid upon the individual by the relationship of which  he or she is part. A classic example is 1 Sam 24:17: king Saul was unrighteous in that he failed in his duty as king to his subject; david was more righteous because he refused to lift his hand in violence against the Lord’s anointed. That is, in a relationship of mutual obligation, david was to be reckoned more righteous than Saul because he fulfilled his obligation to Saul, whereas Saul failed in his obligation to David. This concept is similar to the modern English “justification”

For Paul, one of the main ways of describing what God has done for humanity in the total Christ-event is a metaphor taken from the law-courts, "dikaiōsis – dikaioun - dikaiosynē"  terms for setting relationships right, meaning "righteousness" or “uprightness” or "justification". (The adjective is dikaios – righteous upright, just.) Paul's understanding of these rich terms is found in compact form in a very dense text in Romans 3:21-26 :

            But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. 

The image behind the concept of righteousness is that of just and proper relationships between people – making right or setting straight whatever has been distorted or twisted. It is the language of law. Paul means that by Christ’s life, death and resurrection, human beings now stand before God’s tribunal acquitted or innocent. Through Christ we share in God’s own justice, God’s own righteousness. However, the Greek word dikaiosynē also takes over the richness of the Hebrew sedâqâ. This word described the attitude that sustains a covenant between two parties - a social situation of peace, harmony and well-being, of right relationships with all. Being right before God was what counted most of all. It is God who makes us "right" through the free gift of love that he lavished upon us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. When the New Testament speaks of God “justifying” someone, it means that the all-holy God, the only “righteous” one, so transforms a person that the individual shares somehow God’s own holiness and hence it really is “right” for God to love him or her. They are right in God’s eyes. God is not playing games, acting as if  we were loveable when we are not. This is for real. WE don’t have to justify our own existence. We  really are of value and significance and worth in God’s eyes. Justification is all about right relationships. Jesus has transformed our human freedom so that we can live in right relationship with God, with each other and with our own selves.

 

I. PAULINE DOCTRINE ON JUSTIFICATION:

- For Paul, there is justification by faith in Christ Jesus and the Gospel. In this sense, God justifies a person “apart from the works of the Law”. God does not look at man’s works. He is not “justifying as a Judge”, but He justifies in the sense of “making a sinner holy”. With this regard, Paul distinguishes between the justification by works (observance of the Laws) and the justification apart from Laws (making a man holy as a gift).

- Because God justifies the sinner, He acts not as a strict Judge, but as one who has MERCY and LOVE. In this sense, Paul employs the term “justification” both in the juridical dimension (observance of laws) and in the spiritual dimension (justification by faith in Christ Jesus and the Gospel). However, what should be the originality of Paul?

- Pauline doctrine of justification is against the pharisaic one. According to Paul, in the pharisaic theology, the covenant basis was forgotten and emphasis was placed instead on a growing and expanding system of laws and prescriptions. Instead of a man justified by the fulfillment of divine legislation, Paul focuses on the man who passes from the state of a sinner to that of holiness before God. He rejects the theory of justification by the works of Law. Paul uses the example of Abraham to show that the only justification ever offered to man was that by faith. In this perspective, Paul says that Abraham received the promise and was justified by his faith before the ritual of circumcision. Abraham was justified uncircumcision. In fact, Abraham’s case of justification shows that the gentiles will be justified on his model — in their uncircumcision, that is, without the works of the Law.

             His reflection on the doctrine of justification reflects the processes of Paul’s own vocation. He was a strict observer of the Mosaic Law, fulfilling even the smallest details. These practices led him to seek salvation through his own efforts. His awareness of sin will be the starting point for abandoning himself to God’s grace, given through Jesus Christ     Justification is a pronouncement of absolution from sin, and the righteousness is identical with being declared absolved (covered).

Salvation, Righteousness and Justification in the blood of Christ

For Paul, justification is totally gratuitous. Humans can participate in Christ’s victory and vindication via baptism (Rom. 6: 5-8). This is because baptism is the actual experience of a union with Christ and sharing with him in victory brought about by His death. The doctrine that Paul develops concentrates on three major elements:

-                      the need of all people for the unmerited justification that can  be found only in Christ;

-                      the new life of hope and freedom in Christ that God’s love has given to all through this justification;

-                      and the problem of the failure of Israel, God’s favoured people, to attain this life.

Paul asserts that man is made righteous not on the basis of the works of the law but on the basis of faith, purely from the grace of God. Justification is in this sense an intrinsic or inner freeing from sin and its powers. Justification and righteousness become one and include moral integrity, a basic of holiness, and the possibility of interior conversion and sinless life. Justification is therefore a leading to life (Rm 5: 18). Those who are justified participate in the glory and righteousness which exists in God’s presence.

Paul’s decisive teaching is his understanding of the atoning death of Christ as the revelation of the salvific action of God, and the ensuing recognition of the hopelessness of the human situation before Christ. No man, not even a Jew with his works of the law, has the intrinsic possibility of overcoming sin and being justified in the sight of God but is dependent on the grace of God which alone justifies.

Justification, righteousness and salvation in Christ Jesus.

Sin is not primarily a crime against man (Romans 3:23). It is a crime against God. "All have sinned and fall short of God's glory." Sinning is always a valuing of something in the world more than God. It's a belittling of his glory. It's a dishonoring of his name. But God's righteousness is his commitment to do what is ultimately right--namely, to uphold the honor of his name and the worth of his glory. Righteousness is the opposite of sin. Sin belittles the worth of God by choosing against him; righteousness magnifies the worth of God by choosing for him.

Therefore when God just passes over sin and lets sinners go without just punishment, he seems to be unrighteous. He seems to be saying: the scorning of my worth is not significant; the ridicule of my glory is unimportant; the dishonoring of my name doesn't matter. If that were true God would be unrighteous. And we would be without hope. But God did not let it be true. He put forward his Son, Jesus Christ, that through death he might demonstrate that God is righteous. The death of the Son of God is a declaration of the value that God places upon his glory, and the hatred that he has for sin, and the love that he has for sinners.

Let's look at four things that justification means for those who receive the gift through trust in Jesus.

 First, being justified means being forgiven for all our sins.

 Romans 4:5-8 and Romans 3:24 says that we are justified "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." That word "redemption" means freeing or releasing or loosing from some bondage or imprisonment.

Being justified means being reckoned righteous with God's righteousness imputed to us, or counted as ours.

We are not merely forgiven and left with no standing before God. God not only sets aside our sin, but he also counts us as righteous and puts us in a right standing with himself. He gives us his own righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is one of the most breathtaking passages about this great gift of imputed righteousness. "For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“Being justified means being loved by God and treated with grace.

This is most beautifully pictured in Romans 5:6-8. The forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of God are free gifts. That means they cost us nothing because they cost Christ everything. They cannot be earned with works or inherited through parents or absorbed through sacraments. They are free, to be received by faith. Romans 5:17 says it like this: If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1}Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 8:30} and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

1 Corinthians 6:11} And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

Titus 3:7} that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Justification is a concept related to God as the righteous Judge of all the earth (Gen. 18:25; Deut. 32:4; 2 Tim. 4:8).

Finally, being justified means being secured by God for ever.

This is the crowning blessing. Paul proclaims it in Romans 8:30. "Those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. “If you are justified, you will be glorified. You will reach the glory of the age to come and live forever with God in joy and holiness.

THE CATHOLIC THEOLOGY OF JUSTIFICATION:

- The Catholic theology of justification is based on Scripture. In his justification, man’s part is faith, not good works; God’s part is grace, his gracious mercy or favor. It is true that man freely cooperates with divine grace in repentance, faith, hope and charity. But what should be the difference between Catholics and Protestants regarding the question of justification?

- Catholics stress man’s free cooperation with grace, while Protestants stress man’s passivity in total surrender. We should keep in mind that both Catholics and Protestants stress that the whole process of justification is the work of God’s grace. Both positions consider God’s part in a sinner’s justification as doing everything. But while Protestants take this to mean exclusion of man’s free cooperation, Catholics hold that it includes this free cooperation.

- The Catholic theology of justification says that man’s justification does not depend on his own merit; justification does not depend on human works of Law. In other words, there is no act of mere man that can justify him, because justification is essentially a supernatural gift, completely dependent on God’s grace. God’s grace does not mean that man does nothing toward preparing himself for justification. The process of justification is a dialogue between God and man: “Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you…” (Zechariah 1: 3). Man’s justification is both a “being turned” and a “turning”.