In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

3 Justification and This World Justification as an unconditional act does not abolish the law, but upholds it in all its stringency, obviating both antinomianism and the "third use of the law." Justification by faith fosters a new understanding of the life of the Christian "under the law" in this age. Because the end and goal are given to faith, the law is now to be incarnated "in the flesh." To be "saved" means to be "reborn" into this world. God's commandments take the Christian into this world, not on a quest for another or for one's own holiness. A distinc­ tion between the "two kingdoms" (this age and the next) must in­ deed be maintained for the sake of the unconditional gospel, but this must not mean either synthesis or separation. The unconditionality of the eschatological kingdom prevents synthesis at the same time as it prohibits separation or premature escape from this world to the next. Thus this world is given back to the believer as God's good creation for the time being as a place for service. JUSTIFICATION AND THE LAW Justification as an unconditional eschatological act apart from law and its works demands reassessment of our ideas about the law. Paul put the question for us: "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?" Does justification make us antinomians, enemies of the law? So it might seem at first glance, and especially in light of the persistent polemic against thinking in terms of law, moral progress, the quest for virtue, found in the earlier pages of this locus. The answer Paul gives is therefore likely to be puzzling: "By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law" (Rom. 3:31). How is the law upheld precisely by maintaining we are justified entirely apart from it? Attempting an answer to that question is the task of this section. It is important because it is one of the building blocks in constructing an understanding of the relationship between eschatological justification and life in this world. Living under the law is a determinative factor for life in this world, this "age." If a positive 445 1 1 / CHRISTIAN LIFE relationship to it is not established, eschatology will lead only to abandoning this world—a temptation all too prevalent in Christian circles. How does justification by faith uphold the law? We have already seen the beginning of the answer in the treatment of the functional understanding of law. In the light of the unconditional nature of justification, the law func­ tions first and foremost to reveal sin, to reveal that apart from justification by faith there is no hope for us. Precisely justification as an unconditional gift, therefore, insists that law be established in its absolute clarity, stringency, and strength. Precisely justification will insist that there be no loopholes in the law, no watering down, no casuistic amelioration. "I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law" (Gal. 5:3). To break one commandment is to break them all. One cannot comfort oneself with the platitude that one is at least as good as the next person, or congratulate oneself on being a champion of the law even if one does not exactly keep it. But if you call yourself aJew and rely upon the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are in­ structed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? (Rom. 2:17-21) Precisely from the point of view of the eschatological breaking in of the kingdom in Jesus, no relaxation of the law is envisaged. Indeed, the law is restated in all its vigor. Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them, for truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is ac­ complished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and...

Share