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"More-than" Justification

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Posted By: Zach Hoag

I had an excellent conversation with friends this morning over bacon.

I mean, the conversation wasn't about bacon, it was over bacon, like a conversation over coffee.

It was about justification.

Anyway.

We read Romans 3, talked, and then flipped over to Romans 4. And this was striking:

But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

The striking thing was that while Romans 3 - along with the vast majority of evangelical thought - associated justification with the cross, here Paul connects it directly to the resurrection.

Which is mysterious.

Of course, it's really only mysterious if you have a limiting view of justification. You may have heard, but in recent years there has been quite a hubub in evangelical theology regarding the nature and scope of justification. Just what is it, and to what does it pertain?

Better, how far does it go?

I am no pro, but it strikes me as odd that this is such a problem. Now, I know that there are issues regarding the way that some of the newer theology treats the doctrine of imputation - whether the righteousness of Christ, that is, his obedience in life to the law of God, his moral perfection, is credited to our account at the moment of faith, rendering us righteous before the Judge's bench. NT Wright, for one, has presented a different view on this finer point (with which I don't entirely agree).

But if we take a traditional view of imputation (and I think we have to, in light of 1 Corinthians 5:21) and also try to apply the discoveries coming at us in the newer scholarship, what do we get?

I think we get a more-than justification.

It's not that it's more than justification, ya know, as if justification is not enough. It's that justification is more than we thought it was, and not less. That's the kind of justification that this justification is - the more-than kind.

Let's be honest. More often than not, when Paul talks theology in Romans, he also talks about the relationship between Jewish folks, Gentile folks, and the new folks called the church. If we talk justification and don't talk about that, we are not talking about justification the way Paul did.

Why are justification and the bringing together of Jewish community and Gentile community into a new community so directly connected? It's because justification is as relational as it is judicial.

Which brings us back to the mystery.

When Paul adds, with brilliant nonchalance, that Jesus was "raised for our justification," he means that justification would not be effective without the resurrection. He means that justification is not merely about the vicarious satisfaction of judgment through the blood of atonement; it is about the vindication of the Son.

Because in the resurrection, the Son is vindicated as the Son, and raised to his proper relational position before the Father.

(See, God's a Father, not just a Judge.)

At Dwell, we've been studying the Story of the Lost Son. After spending his trust fund on the equivalent of a Vegas binge, the son realizes that he is no longer good enough to be called the father's son. Yet upon his return, something amazing happens:

But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.

I think this is the more-than picture we need to really get the doctrine of justification by faith. Justification is not merely right-standing before the Judge and a pardon from punishment; it is rather a resurrection and reinstatement unto full sonship in the family of God. This is what happened to Jesus, the firstfruits, when he was raised from the dead - sin could not separate him from the Father, the relationship had to be restored. His righteousness cleared him, and the Father vindicated him by raising him up to his right hand.

Likewise, by faith in Jesus and not by works, we are raised to full sonship in the Father's house, even though we don't deserve it - we are never good enough, but Jesus was, and we are in him.

Incredible!

And the more amazing thing is this: Justification means right relationship with the Father as sons and a restored place at the family table - that is, in the new community, the church. Justification means that through Jesus we are all raised to life in the kingdom of God, Jewish folks and Gentile folks alike, male and female, slave and free, because there is no distinction.

Justification means that the walls of religion, gender, ethnicity, and social status have been destroyed! All can be brought back to perfect relationship with the Father and unmatched community with one another!

And as we are reconciled to the Father and into his community, we are also sent to be about the business of reconciling others...and the world. Justification is the fact that we have been made right through Jesus, in a community of those who have been made right through Jesus, who are about the Father's work of right-making in the world through Jesus.

And that's more-than.

[Zach is the Leader for Teaching at Dwell. You can check out Zach's personal blogging at http://thenuance.tumblr.com.]

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