JUSTIFIED IN GOD'S SIGHT

"Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, ...even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe."  Romans 3:20-22 

The story is told of a conversation between the author, Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, and a ruthless businessman, who was infamous for his unscrupulous practices. During the course of their discussion, the man boldly announced to Twain, "Before I die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb Mount Sinai and read the 10 Commandments aloud at the top." Twain, knowing the man's character, replied sharply, "I have a better idea! You could just stay in Boston and keep them! (Twain)" Ouch!!!

Since the beginning of human history, man has always sought to justify himself, in some unprescribed way, rather than just repenting of their sin and accepting the righteous redemption that only God can give, through faith in Him. For instance, what do we find when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden? "The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Gen 3:7)" Not much has changed since that day unfortunately. We have just found more comfortable and sophisticated methods of attempting to cover our unrighteousness, but they are all as equally inadequate as were the fig leaves!   

Man has even gone so far as to obscure the biblical understanding of this principle, which is why; when interpreting Scripture, it is a very dangerous thing to lift one book or letter out of the context of the Bible and attempt to assign ulterior motives and intentions to the writer, which do not align with the rest of Scripture. This seems to be the case in what has been called the, New Perspective on Pauline Justification. In this blog I would like to briefly address the error of this perspective. 

For hundreds of years, the church has understood Paul’s comments in the book of Romans to be somewhat of a rebuke and corrective instruction to the Jews, for their practice of trying to establish their own righteousness, based on keeping the works of the Law of Moses. His correction to them includes a reminder that God always held that their justification came by means of faith, not by works. In recent years, however, some have challenged this assertion in Paul’s writing, contending that the Jews always maintained that they were saved by covenantal grace, not the works of the law, and that Paul was not addressing the issue of works based righteousness at all; rather, he was merely addressing the propensity of the Jews to error on the side of, “…nationalistic pride, ethnocentrism, racism, and the like… (Westerholm 251)" 

However, while these relatively minor issues do get addressed in Romans, it is abundantly clear that works based righteousness is the major gist of Paul’s letter to the Romans, as well as his other works in Galatians, i.e. (NKJV Gal 2:16) “…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” 

Additionally, as mentioned previous, Paul’s writings are in harmony with the rest of Scripture as well, because the Bible does not contradict itself. Scripture repeatedly condemns Second Temple Judaism for works based self-righteousness. For example, when the lawyer stood up to test Jesus about what needs to be done to inherit eternal life; Jesus said to him, “”What is written in the law?... So he answered and said, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART… and 'YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'" And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:25-29).

This is a clear indication of the heart of the Scribes and Pharisees within Judaism to try to justify themselves through their interpretation of the law, rather than seeing God’s righteous demands through the eyes of faith. This is precisely what Paul was dealing with in Romans, not nationalistic pride, ethnocentrism, and racism. The theological and ecclesial consequences of departing from Scriptural unity, even in the smallest areas can be extremely detrimental to your interpretation of other areas of Scripture. If the Bible is seen in its entirety and not as each book being autonomously separate, we remain steadfast in the faith, rather than being led astray by errant doctrines.

I find this to be a disturbing trend, that doctrines which the Church has held to for nearly 2,000 years are now being re-imagined and misinterpreted by liberal scholars. Which is why Paul himself once wrote, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. (2 Thess 2:15)"  

By Pastor Glen Mustian

Works Cited: 

Twain, Mark. Moody Bible Institute's Today in the Word. September, 1991, p. 32.
NKJV New King James Version. Holy Bible. Thomas Nelson. Nashville, TN: 2000. Print.
Westerholm, Stephen. Perspectives Old and New on Paul. Eerdmans. Grand Rapids: 2004. Print.