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  • From: "Rabbi Saul" <tim AT rabbisaul.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Paul and the Divine Justice: Anslem of Canterbury
  • Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 23:23:25 -0600

John, I am in agreement with the Heidelberg (which I think is an improvement on Anselm) on this point.  (No huge surprise there; as you can see, I am a Reformed pastor.)  I admit its particular *angle of approach* is not entirely Paul's (since its purpose is catechetical in a manner quite unlike his own exposition), but a necessary derivative (as I think) from his position.  
 
It is clear enough that Paul understands Christ's sacrifice as a sin-offering (Rom 8.3), which is no surprise, given that his gospel is largely an exposition of Isaiah; Is. 53.10-12 identifies the Servant as a sin-offering and sin-bearer (as cf 53.4-6, 8).  It should be stressed that the forensic background to Paul's thought is of course not identical to the Roman juristic categories presupposed by Anselm.
 
I should note that I take Paul's appeal to Gen 15.6 in Rom 4 (and Gal 3.6) as establishing that God accounts faith as righteousness; it is the righteous response that God in His own pistiV (faith[fulness]) seeks from His covenant partner.  Hence:  the righteousness of God is revealed from pistiV  to pistiV (Rom 1.17).  PistiV on both the divine and human side maintain the covenantal bond.  (I won't elaborate here, but this also underlies the entire subsection Rom 3.1-8, with its tangle of God's faith/faithfulness, righteousness, and truth [and the logia which express it]; and Israel's apistia [unbelief/unfaithfulness], unrighteousness, and "lie."  Note the proliferation of pist- roots in 3.2.3 and dik- roots in 3.4-5.)
 
But I would also add that I hold that faith-as-righteousness view *in connection with* the view that Christ was raised because of our justification (Rom 4.25) - i.e. our justification is a participation in His justification, so that it is also completely true to Paul to identify the believer's righteousness as Christ's righteousness.  (One might say that I hold to the substance of the "imputation" view, without acknowledging that that is what Paul is precisely doing with the imputation language in Rom 4.)
 
FWIW.
 
tim
 
Tim Gallant
Pastor, Conrad Christian Reformed Church
Conrad, MT
 
 
Pauline studies:
http://www.rabbisaul.com
 
(406) 278-5846 / (406) 278-7809
Fax:  (406) 278-7809
http://www.timgallant.org



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