W hat does obscure this occasionally is the undue emphasis laid on the retributive or penal element in God's 'righteousness ' as the Apostle employs that form of expression. But this is merely one ele- ment. The acquittal, for example, which is the result of Christ's death for men (Ko 5'"), is opposed to doom or the condemnation of death, i.e. exclusion from the jjresence of God, and it therefore looks to ' life,' 11 ' glory,' or ' salvation.' "it is not enough to
* E.g.^ consecration * or ayta(Tft6^, which also meant primarily a relifjious relation to God in which men stood as ayioi, but re-adilv suggested (e.g. 1 Th 43f-) the moral implication of such a position (p. 387).
t The latter view is still held by some, on exegetical grounds (ct. McG\Sert'8 History of Chrlstianiti/ in the Apostolic Age,\>. 143 f.; E. P. Gould in AJTh i. [1837] 149-168) or for more theological reasons (cf., e.(7., R. C. Moberly's Atonement and Persona/itjjf London, 1901, p. 336 f., and J. brummond in HJ i. [V.Xri] 83 t., 272fE.). But, while the protest against an extravagant inter- pretation of St. Paul's language is justified, the 'forensic' element is too fundamental to be ignored (cf., e.g.^ W. A. Stevens in AJTh i. 443-450) in favour of a ' factitive ' sense for 5t««toi)f (F. W. Mozley in Exp, "th ser., x. [1910] 481-603). Much of the strife and confusion arises from the tendency either to ex- aggerate or to ignore the distinction between a religious relation to God and a moral state, which Orientals did not find it difficult to understand.
J There is a verbal parallel, at any rate, in the Pharisaic En. xlviii. 7, where the righteous are said to have 'hated and despised this world of unrighteousness, and have hated all its works and ways in the name of the Lord of Spirits : for in his name they are saved.'
§ Cf. J. Weiss's notes on these passages in 1 Corinthians^ (Meyer's Komm^ntar, Gottingen, 1910, pp. 41 f., 156).
II How naturally St. Paul assumed this may be seen in his remark (Gal 321), ' had there been any law which had the power
say that these are further stages in the process initi- ated by the justifying verdict ; they are imjilicit in it. St. Paul often s]ieaks of the latter liy itself, no doubt, concLMitratiiig attention upon the Divine act of grace which inaugurates the new standing of men, but we are drawing distinctions which he never drew when we conline this initial stage to the forgiveness of sins, as if th.at were merely or mainly a negative boon, or to a verdict which does not carry with it the instant admission of the believing man to the life of (iod through Jesus Christ. Take his own explanation, e.g., of what is meant by having 'faith counted as righteousness.' To us that is apt to sound formal and forensic. There is a ring of unreality about it, in modern English. But just as to have one's trespasses ' counted against' one ('2 Co 5'") means the delinite exclusion of the sinner from God and his relegation to doom and death, so he who has his faith 'counted as righteousness' (Ro 4"-) is thereby admitted to the inward experience of forgiveness, i.e. to a positive and real relationship with God. It is not simply God opening the door of the prison, though it is that ; it is God bringing us out into the sunlight beside Himself. That is what 'righteousness' means, as His free gift through Jesus Christ. Similarly — to look at the same truth from another angle — the faith which justifies at the outset can- not be regarded as apart from some experience of the Spirit. Faith and revelation correspond to each other, and both are conditioned by the Spirit. The Galatian Christians, who had the Crucilied Christ placarded before the eyes of their mind when St. Paul preached the gospel, began with the Spirit (Gal 3"-)- Their belief in the gospel message of the death of Christ started with an experience of the Spirit. Justitication by faith cannot, therefore, be regarded as a preliminary stage which has a more or less negative character. The faith which medi- ates it for the sinner is God's action upon him, and initiates him into the new standing of grace ; it is his reception into that ideal relation between God and His people which St. Paul describes from one point of view as ' righteousness.' It is called ' righteousness ' because that denotes the saving, gracious relation between the two parties, and it is called ' God's righteousness ' not only becau.se He, and He alone, has the right to create it, upon the ground of Christ's death, in view of human sin, but because it is His will of love to establish it. This being so, it means life with God, life in Jesus Christ His Son. The antithesis to SiKaiotrvv-q Ls 6ava.T0i (Ko 5-' 6"), and it is impossible to overvalue the significance of this. It would be un-Pauline to say that nothing remains to be done ; the justified man has a great deal to do for God, and God has a great deal still to do for him and with him. But it would be still more un-Pauline to say that any- thing remained to be done, even by God, in order to fill this relationship with intimate fellowship and an experience of the Spirit. ' As we are justi- lied by faith, let us enjoy the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have got our access into this grace where we have our standing. . . . God's love Hoods our hearts through the Holy Spirit given tous'(Ko5"''-). These are the words of a man to whom justilication was not a pale, formal preliminary, but a real experi- ence which transformed the relations between him- self and God, and in so doing transformed his own life into a shining light which was to shine more and more unto the perfect Day.