Today, we continue looking at Justification from Michael Gorman¢â‚¬â„¢s book Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul¢â‚¬â„¢s Narrative Soteriology. The last post ended with this following:
For Paul, then, in light of Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 4, justification has:
1. an objective basis, or means, which is Christ¢â‚¬â„¢s death as a gift of God¢â‚¬â„¢s gracious initiative (Rom 5:1, 6-8, 9-11; 2 Cor 5:18, 21), together (implicitly) with Christ¢â‚¬â„¢s resurrection as God¢â‚¬â„¢s life-giving power;
2. a required subjective response, or mode, that effects justification/reconciliation, which is usually (though not always) explicitly labeled pistis, normally translated ¢â‚¬Å“faith¢â‚¬ or (in its verbal form) ¢â‚¬Å“believe¢â‚¬ (Rom 5:1; 2 Cor 5:20)
3. substantive content, which includes reconciliation, participation, and transformation (Rom 5:1-2, 9-11; 2 Cor 5:14-15, 17, 21)
The essential content of this transformation is fidelity to God and love for neighbor, the very heart of the covenant.
To demonstrate this, Gorman sets out to address three questions arising from these conclusions:
- What is the distinctive meaning of Christ¢â‚¬â„¢s death for Paul?
- What is his distinctive understanding of pistis? and
- What is the connection between the meaning of Christ¢â‚¬â„¢s death and the meaning of pistis, on the one hand, and the significance and character of the transformation inherent in justification, on the other?
This post will deal with Christ’s death as the quintessential act.
According to Gal. 2:15-21 and Phil 2:6-11, Christ’s crucifixion simultaneously manifests both vertical and horizontal covenant-keeping. As a result, it fulfills the two tables of the Law as the quintessential covenantal act. This aspect of Paul’s interpretation of Christ’s death has been largely overlooked, according to Gorman, resulting in a significantly truncated understanding of justification.
The death of Jesus is interpreted in the New Testament as an act of love. According to Paul, Christ’s death was a demonstration of God’s love (Rom 5:7-8; 8:31-39) and a manifestation of his own love (Gal 2:20; Rom 8:34-35, 2 Cor 5:14). Paul also interprets Christ’s death as an act of obedience to God the Father and as an act of faith, as in covenantal faithfulness or faithful obedience. Recent scholarship “suggests also that Christ’s death is depicted as his act of ‘faith’ or ‘faithfulness’ (pistis) in seven passages within the undisputed letters of Paul where the Greek grammar is ambiguous: Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16 (twice), 20; and 3:22; and Phil 3:9.”
Since the Reformation, the ambiguities have been read as “faith in Christ,” but the arguments for interpreting these phrases as an example of the subjective genitive, translating them as the faith[fulness] of Christ are persuasive to many, including Gorman. If “faith of Christ” is the correct translation, “Paul says that Christ’s faithful death embodies the righteousness of God (Rom 3:22), constitutes the means of justification (Gal 2:16;3:22;Phil 3:9) as well as the mode of justification (Rom 3:26), and somehow even provides the manner of living in the present (Gal 2:20).” (59)
For Paul, “Christ’s death on the cross was simultaneously his act of self-giving faith(fulness) toward God (2:16,20) and his self-giving love toward humanity (2:20). It was a unified act of vertical and horizontal covenant fulfillment, of love for God and for neighbor.” (61) Therefore, “Christ’s death is not merely a reprentative, messianic act or substitutionary act. It is, more specifically and importantly, the quintessential covenantal act, in which love of God and of neighbor are joined and embodied in the one act of a faithful, loving death. And because Paul sees Christ not only as Israel’s Messiah but also as Adam’s antitype (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:22, 45), such an act is also the quintessential human act.” (62-63)
