INCORPORATED RIGHTEOUSNESS: A RESPONSE TO RECENT EVANGELICAL DISCUSSION CONCERNING THE IMPUTATION OF CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS IN JUSTIFICATION

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2004 by Bird, Michael F

Wright offers a fitting summary: "Christ's dikaioma in the middle of history leads to God's dikaiosis on the last day."89 Piper is similar: "Adam acted sinfully, and because we are connected to him, we are condemned in him. Christ acted righteously, and because we are connected to Christ we are justified in Christ. Adam's sin is counted as ours. Christ's 'act of righteousness' is counted as ours."90 The objection I have is that Piper wants to move from "connected" to "imputed," which is more than the text says. Of course, nothing in the text denies the notion of imputation, but it hardly proves it. Gundry states that "the verse does not say that this making sinful and this making righteous happened by means of imputation; and like the verb 'were made' the preceding language of giving and receiving a gift, though it would be compatible with imputations, neither demands it nor equates with it."91 Inevitably, the notion of representation and participation may be more accurate than imputation regarding how this righteousness is applied to believers. Christ, the representative of believers, has demonstrated his righteousness in his sacrificial death and has been vindicated as righteous in his resurrection, and it is exclusively by connection with him that believers apprehend a righteous status in God's eyes. I contend that once more Isa 53:11 lies in the background with the frequent allusion to the "one" justifying the "all/many."92 Similarly, the resurrection may tacitly be in view given the concept of being saved "through his life" in 5:10 and the fact that here justification is a function of the second Adam, significantly, a role Christ has only by virtue of his resurrection.

3. 1 Corinthians 1:30, Philippians 3:8-9. In 1 Cor 1:18-31, Paul opposes the Corinthians in their preference for pneumatic and acculturated wisdom and instead extols Christ as the locus of God's wisdom and salvific power. Paul states that Christ became our "righteousness" and this is frequently taken as evidence of imputed righteousness.93 Alternatively, Wright states:

It is the only passage I know where something called "the imputed righteousness of Christ" . . . finds any basis in the text. But if we are to claim it as such, we must also be prepared to talk of the imputed wisdom of Christ; the imputed sanctification of Christ; and the imputed redemption of Christ.94

4. 2 Corinthians 5:21. In 2 Cor 5:17-6:2, Paul notes that the result of his ministry has been the inauguration of people who are a "new creation," products of God's reconciliation proclaimed through his ambassadors of reconciliation. However, those who reject God's message and his messengers should not presume upon his mercy and instead are to be reconciled to God. At this point Paul incorporates some traditional material into his plea (vv. 19-21) in order give content to his gospel of reconciliation.

According to Gundry, the passage does not mention Christ's righteousness but God's. Christ's not knowing sin is set in contrast to his being made sin, highlighting his innocence. Additionally, nothing is mentioned pertaining to the imputation of Christ's sinlessness or righteousness. Imputation is mentioned but only in the sense of "not counting" the world's transgressions. Gundry declares, "Apart from the imputation of transgressions to Christ, Paul uses the language of union, reconciliation, being made and becoming rather than the language of imputation."103 Piper replies that Gundry's language concerning union with Christ is in "vague terms." Instead, Piper advocates that there is nothing contrived about seeing a reference to the imputation of God's righteousness in the words "become the righteousness of God," since it seems the reverse side of Christ's becoming sin, which he takes to mean the imputation of sin. He states, "We 'become' God's righteousness the way Christ 'was made' our sin."104 More specifically Piper, following Charles Hodge and G. E. Ladd, contends that the righteousness that is imputed to believers is Christ's righteousness.105 He notes that the passage does not explicitly say this, but "the absence of doctrinal explicitness and systematization in Paul may be no more problematic for the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness than it is for the doctrine of the Trinity."106 He substantiates this importation on the grounds that: (1) The combination of divine righteousness becoming ours is the same way that sin became Christ's; (2) the divine righteousness is ours only "in Christ"; and (3) the close parallel with Rom 5:19, where through the obedience of the One many will be appointed as righteous.107