Is the "righteousness of God" more than a life of perfect submission?
Upvote:3
Ten times, the expression 'righteousness of God' is used in the New Testament scriptures. Never once is the collocation 'righteousness of Christ' ever found.
The idea of 'active and passive obedience' was introduced by Dr Owen into the Savoy Declaration in 1658. It is not present in the Westminster Confession of 1647.
Luther never mentions it, nor Calvin.
It is a legal concept, the idea that 'Jesus kept the law' and that, somehow (never expressed in scripture) this is 'transferable'.
It is absent from Romans and Galatians which is where Paul would have expounded it, did it exist. Which it doesn't.
Some attempt to squeeze it into various texts like Romans 5:18 where the correct translation reads 'by one righteousness' (the special word for 'righteousness' in this place conveying 'the execution of judgment' and referring to God's righteousness who exacted righteousness upon his own Son at Golgotha) and 2 Peter 1:1 where righteousness is a matter of justification by faith, not legal works.
But these very attempts, by their clumsiness, more attest to the truth of the righteousness of God being a divine matter (not a legal matter) than they support their own theory.
The theory detracts from justification by faith which, in scripture, is a matter of God seeing his own righteousness in the faith of the believer (Abraham believed God) and rightly evaluating (logizomai) that to the believer.
And Abraham believed God and there was evaluated to him unto righteousness : is the exact wording which is extremely precise in the several places it appears.
It is a matter of God's rightness. It is not a matter of law at all. God is righteous because he is whom he is and he is what he is (I am that I am).
If law be greater than God, and if God keep the law to be righteous then Law is to be worshipped. Which breaks the second commandment of the law.
And any scheme of 'righteousness' which is based on a legal righteousness detracts from the 'righteousness of God' which is what we find in holy scripture : ten times over.
Humanity was forbidden by God to address itself to the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden. Doing so was catastrophic and led to death. It was sin to do so.
That some suggest Jesus Christ should, in humanity, do what was forbidden to humanity in the beginning just reveals how little they truly understand what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil really is.
The tree of life was that which was in the midst of the garden. Not the knowledge of good and evil. And the word of God, the word of life, was that which, in the midst, spoke truth and testified to the true nature (and source) of rightness.
More post
- 📝 Does Jesus's soul exist before his incarnation?
- 📝 What biblical evidence is there that our spirit only began in this life?
- 📝 Is the statement "That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit." still a statement which is against Catholic truth?
- 📝 According to Protestant theology, does God’s omnipresence entail us humans walking into God all the time?
- 📝 What is the sin of St.Peter that made St.Paul opposed him in Galatians2:11?
- 📝 According to Reformed Theology, why did the 70 Jewish translators include the Apocrypha?
- 📝 is Adam no longer the son of God?
- 📝 Is the definition of "sin" subjective? Of whom's morals is it based on?
- 📝 How do proponents of the dual nature of man address Hebrews 4:12, "dividing soul and spirit"?
- 📝 Does "Lithium" have any meaning in Christianity?
- 📝 (LDS) What kind of payment can a murderer make to receive a pardon?
- 📝 What is "Christ Consciousness"?
- 📝 Why is there a modern misconception about Christianity and Science?
- 📝 Are our consciences trustworthy?
- 📝 Meaning behind skull at the base of a cross?
- 📝 According to Two Kingdom theology, could a man hold both secular and spiritual office?
- 📝 Are the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang now binding to Catholics and to be held as true?
- 📝 By what authority does the old Catholic Encyclopedia call itself Catholic?
- 📝 Do Christians typically switch denominations?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for Jesus having one nature only, a human nature?
- 📝 How do Catholics observe Lent through a dignified and appropriate use of food?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for believing in the Book of Mormon?
- 📝 How sound are the arguments that Melchizedek invoked a Canaanite deity when he met Abraham?
- 📝 References explaining non-biblical dogmas in Roman Catholicism?
- 📝 How do we explain Paul's encounters with disciples of Jesus in light of the Great Commission?
- 📝 According to Reformed theology, why does God tell people to repent if they don't have the choice to do so, as in Exodus 10:3?
- 📝 What's the new rite in Tantum Ergo?
- 📝 What does the Bible say about being a witness to sin?
- 📝 Are Christians supposed to be like-minded?
- 📝 Who was Tychicus?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is the "righteousness of God" more than a life of perfect submission?
- 📝 Is there more than one Joseph in the Bible?
- 📝 What is the theory that there is more than one "Satan" called, and what is its basis?
- 📝 Is a moral society more open to the gospel than an immoral one?
- 📝 Does "Where ever there is more than one of you gathered in My name" apply to the Internet?
- 📝 Why does the LDS church (Mormon) put so much more emphasis on the family than most other denominations do?
- 📝 Why does God often permit his children to suffer in this world more than the wicked?
- 📝 Which 20th-century Orthodox Christians said that the crusades were more oppressive than the Marxist anti-religious campaigns?
- 📝 Looking for the Bible Verse: "If any of you have more than one <some-thing> give that to another"
- 📝 Can I project more than 500 verses of Scripture over the course of a year? Or, an entire book of the Bible?
- 📝 Are modern Amish much more dissimilar from society than the original generations of Amish?
- 📝 Are some people pursued by the "enemy" relatively more than others?
- 📝 Why did Jesus favor Peter, James and John more than the other disciples?
- 📝 Why do Jehovah's Witnesses make the Old Testament forms of address to God ("Jehovah" and "Father") more important than "Abba?"
- 📝 Why does the apostle John write far more clearly about the deity of Christ than seems to be the case in the other gospel accounts?
- 📝 In Catholicism, do the teachers more truly constitute the "church" than the hearers?
- 📝 Is the Eucharist more holy than the other Sacraments in the Catholic Church?
- 📝 Is the Holy Spirit more effective at restoring people's mental health than secular therapeutic approaches and treatments?
- 📝 Do any living, Reformed authors interpret ‘the life the eternal’ as anything other than an expression of the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ?
- 📝 Is there more than one High Priest in the order of Melchizedek?
- 📝 What common apologetic arguments support the view that it is more likely that Jesus was resurrected than his body was stolen?
- 📝 Do the Eastern Orthodox think the state of virginity is more meritorious than marriage?
- 📝 Are Catholics allowed to believe that the EF or OF is objectively more reverent than the other?
- 📝 According to Pope Francis and/or Catholicism, what sins are more serious than sins of the flesh?
- 📝 Who said that the smallest spiritual progress of a religious merits more than that of a thousand laymen?
- 📝 Does this mean that Pope Paul VI thought that the Rosary is more important than the daily examen?
- 📝 What are some of the reasons why Catholics would feel more drawn to focus on pius devotions than the Psalms?
- 📝 Which Christian traditions value the Gospels more than the Epistles?
- 📝 Is "There's more sanctity in a dog's loyalty than there is in all your human laws." a quote from the Holy Bible?
- 📝 Is 'pure' monotheism of more primitiveness and innateness than the Trinity is?