Easter Sunday

Adam bore the image of God and was man's federal representative. Adam rebelled against God, however, the rebellion-sin did not destroy but only defaced the imago Dei. So now man's nature has been corrupted by the imputation of the ethical disease of sin (Romans 5:12).

God, however, promised that from the seed of the woman a new federal representative and image bearer of God would be sent to restore the defaced imago Dei of the progeny of the First Adam. This "seed" who brings the grace-gift of Salvation-Eternal Life is the Second Adam the God-Man Jesus Christ (Romans 5:8, 17; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 45). God has demonstrated in the Second Adam his love in full (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). Easter Sunday is a celebration of God's love in full--we celebrate because we know that if having been united to Jesus by the gift of saving faith through the work of the Holy Ghost, and that having gone down with Jesus in his death, so too we shall rise with Jesus in that decisive victory of Resurrection, when the Father proclaimed that Jesus Christ the Son of God was the Salvation-King of fellow-man (Psalm 2; Psalm 110). At the Table of Fellowship Christians gather to partake of Christ's body and blood which are a Testament of a greater covenant, the Covenant of Grace declared in Genesis 3:15; it is the New Covenant by which God is restoring the World to goodness through His Resurrection.

Sola Fide

Sola Fide.

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Justification by faith alone.

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Galatians 3:6, Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 

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Romans 4:3, 5, 22-25, For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. . . . But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. . . . Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. . . . And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

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The gift of FAITH <-- connects you --> to God's Word of Promise (of imputed righteousness)

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In this book, see pages 63-64 for a clarifying analogy.

God's All-Wise and Perfect Plan

"But why didn't God, when sin entered the world, simply squash Satan and his legion and finish the battle? Why does he put up with, even actively join the fight against, such rebellion when he could stop it at any time? The only answer we have to such questions is that all things are still working to and for his own glory, even though sin has ruined his creation (Rom. 11:36). Everything that happens, happens according to his all-wise and perfect plan" (K. Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practices in Defense of Our Faith, 32).

Free From Condemnation

"The word "condemned" in Romans 8:3 recalls the words from verse 1, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." This is a reference to the reality of justification. ("Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?" [Romans 8:33-34, ESV].) The Son of God became flesh so that the "condemnation" of sin might be on him (who had no sin). That is, he bore our condemnation. We are now viewed as free from condemnation "in Christ" (v. 1) when we are united to him by faith" (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness?, 79).

Justification and Sanctification

John Piper dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the doctrine of justification:

If Paul had just spent three chapters teaching that justification means God's powerful salvific activity in liberating people from the mastery of sin, why would the question arise: So shall we sin that grace may abound? . . . what gives some measure of plausibility to these rhetorical questions in Romans 6:1 and 6:15 is the doctrine of Romans 3 - 5 that justification is emphatically not liberation from the mastery of sin. It does not include sanctification. That is precisely what creates the need for Paul to write in Romans 6 - 8: to show why God's imputing his own righteousness to us by faith apart from works does not result in lawlessness, but in fact necessarily leads to righteous living. Therefore we are not at all encouraged to blur the relationship between sanctification and justification that Paul preserves in Romans 6:6-7: Justification is the necessary and prior basis of sanctification ("for," v. 7) (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness?, 77-78).

Family Resemblance: Sanctification and Holiness

"If men have no likeness to the Father in heaven, it is vain to talk of their being His "sons." If we know nothing of holiness we may flatter ourselves as we please, but we have not got the Holy Spirit dwelling in us: we are dead, and must be brought to life again--we are lost, and must be found. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they," and they only, "are the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 14.) We must show by our lives the family we belong to.--We must let men see by our good conversation that we are indeed the children of the Holy One, or our son-ship is but an empty name" (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 42).

God's Word - God's Deed

Following the logic of Gerhard von Rad, Sidney Greidanus discusses how the OT Prophets and NT authors understood God's word as being God's deed:

"You have been born anew ... through the living and abiding word of God." If anyone should wonder what the word of God is precisely, Peter explains: "That word is the good news which was preached to you" (1 Pet 1:23, 25). Like the prophets and Paul, Peter is convinced of the power of the preached word. That power is not some magical force in the words themselves but is the power of God whose word it is, for the gospel "is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith" (Rom 1:16). The New Testament, therefore, views preaching as "God in action." Preaching is not merely a word about God and his redemptive acts but a word of God and as such is itself a redemptive event (The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text: Interpreting and Preaching Biblical Language, 5). 

Defending Justification

Why devote so much time to defending the imputation of Christ's righteousness when there are so many unreached people groups and millions of people who have no access to the Gospel? I will mention two things. One is that over the past twenty years of leading a missions-mobilizing church I have seen with increasing clarity that teacher-based church planting and not just friendship-based church planting is crucial among peoples with no Christian history. In other words, doctrinal instruction becomes utterly crucial in planting the church.

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The second thing I would say about the doctrine of justification and missions is that Paul develops this doctrine in the book of Romans in a way that shows it is absolutely universal in its relevance. It crosses every culture. It is not a tribal concept. He does this by building part of the doctrine out of the connection between Adam and Christ in Romans 5:12-21. For example, take only verse 19: "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were appointed sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be appointed righteous." This, along with the whole context, shows that what Christ came to do in his obedience was universal in its scope and significance. It is not just for the posterity of Abraham, but for the posterity of Adam--namely, everyone (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ, 32-33). 

Coming to Christ is Faith

Robert Haldane quotes from Bell’s On the Covenants in his opening remarks on Chapter IX of Romans: “The sinner’s right to Christ turns not at all upon any inward gracious qualifications, but purely on the Divine warrant revealed in the word. Faith is not a qualification in order to come to Christ, but the coming itself; it is not our right to Christ, but our taking and receiving Him to ourselves on the footing of the right conveyed by the Gospel offer” (Exposition of Romans, 433).

Romans: Entrance to Treasures of Scripture

In regard to the Argument, that is, the contents of the Epistle to the Romans, Calvin wrote, “It will hence appear beyond all controversy, that besides other excellencies, and those remarkable, this can with truth be said of it, and it is what can never be sufficiently appreciated—that when any one gains a knowledge of this Epistle, he has an entrance opened to him to all the most hidden treasures of Scripture.”

Romans: Influence - Western Thought

In the introduction to his commentary on The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, CH Dodd wrote, “The Epistle to the Romans is the first great work of Christian theology. From the time of Augustine it had immense influence on the thought of the West, not only in theology, but also in philosophy and even in politics, all through the Middle Ages. At the Reformation its teaching provided the chief intellectual expression for the new spirit in religion. For us men of Western Christendom there is probably no other single writing so deeply embedded in our heritage of thought.”