* Weizsiicker, Apostolic Age^, i. 156.
t These expressions are too strong ; the evidence of Rabbinic religion must be allowed to modify them, though not to disprove their essential truth.
RIGHTEOUSNESS
RIGHTEOUSNESS
383
eousness by faitli is the popular Rabbinic lonoeption of zeeiilh or satisfaction.* acc-oriliiif; to which any- one wlu) kept the coninianils of tlie Law was in a state of zenith or '"race,' and being thus 'right- eous'niiglit chiiiu tlie Divine rewaril of justilica- tion. .Such a man is rii;ht with (Joil, liccause he lias niaile himself right, satisfyini; (JoJ's tlenianiis, especially by the stuiiy of the Torah, by almsgiving, charity, and tlie like. He can even swell his credit, and do so of his own initiative. It is this sort of self-made morality, with its tendency to .self-right- eousness, that St. I'aul antagonizes in his polemic against the works of the Law as a ba.sis for right- eousness.
Without entering into details on St. Paul's con- ception of faith, or of justification as compared with contemporary Jewish views (e.g. in the Apucalypxe of Baruch), we may notice two items of importance, (i.) One is the triple re]iudiation of 'works' in the earliest allusion to justilication (Cial 2""). There is a curious misinterpretation of this verse, which takes (af iii] with €? (pyuiv, as if St. Paul wrote, 'a man is not justified by the works of the law unless he believes in Jesus Christ.' Newman, e.g., adopted this view for dogmatic reasons in his Lectures on Justification (.3rd ed., p. '279). He pleads ingeniously that 'it does not follow- that works done in faith do not justify, because works done without faith do not justify.' But it does follow, according to St. Paul. Newman's position is the very position of the Jewish Chris- tians, which St. Paul regarded as ambiguous and compromising to the gospel, viz. that if a man does believe, his moral obedience and actions co- operate in his justification. ' We know,' says the Apostle, 'that a man is justified simply by faith in Jesus Christ and not by doing what the law commands.' He explicitly seeks to lift and free Christianity from the Jewish Christian combina- tion of faith and works which re-appears in New- man's theory.
(ii.) In the second place, we notice that as soon as he speaks of righteousness, he brings in faith (Ro 1") ; from first to last — this seems to be the meaning t of ^/c Tlareois eii Trlrrnv — the saving revela- tion of God is conditioned by faith. Faith is for man its source and sphere. It is not a faith which is itself a 'work,' on which a man might plume himself. It is not iroiova-a but dKOiSoucra (Ro 10"), elicited by the revelation of God's grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Gal 3"- ^ Ko 10", 1 Co 2'"-). The faith which justifies is called out by this overpowering disclosure of God in the Person and sacrifice of Christ. The Cross, with the love of God in it, e.xhibits God's righteousness and elicits faith in man, the faith of which St. Paul says, 'a man who instead of "working" believes in him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted as righteousness' (Ro 4'). Obviously it is not a meri- torious action, any more than it is a legal condi- tion for a legal acquittal. At the same time, it is not an empty state, this faith stirred in the soul. The contrast of 'not by works' and 'by faith,' in the dialectic of 'righteousness,' does not imply tliat a man believes in Christ by putting out of life henceforth all moral energy. ' Works of the law ' mean for St. Paul that a man is constantly thinking of himself, urging himself on, putting moral pressure on himself, striving to please God on his own resources, and inevitably taking some credit to himself ; ' by faith ' means that a man turns from his moral or immoral self to God, meeting Him who comes triumphing over we.ik-
' Cf. W. O. E. Oesterle.v and G. H. Box, Tlir Religion and Worship of thf, Synwioijut^-, London, liUl, p. 274 ff.
♦ Not *ex tide legis in fideni evangelii,' nor 'from weak faith to strong faith," nor ' from the faith of the preacher to the faith of the hearer,' nor * from belief in the gospel-message to per- sonal trust in Christ.'
ness and sin in Jesus Christ, daring to trust him- self to Him who has successfully invaded sin and death in their headquarters in the llesh, ready to live by this f.aitli, because it identifies him with the power and ins]iiratioii of the Lord. This is, acconling to SI. Paul, the way to be right with God ; and it means a right life, for the end of such a Divine righteou.sness is to create spiritual person- alities, and the faith which a]ipropriates it is not so much an act tu* a reception of Christ or an abandonment of oneself to Mini. Hence, e.g., the explanation that even Abraham's faith im- l)lied a reverence for the power of (jiid and a willingness to act upon His wonl (Ro 4'"). Hence also the association of faith with obedience (Ro j5 gi7f. 10-'), i.e. submission to the gracious will of (Jod which meets us in the gospel, a willingness, at any cost of pride and prejudice, to take His road to life ; you must ' give in ' to tJod's terms, he declares (Ro It)*). How hard that was, especially for a man of moral character, he himself knew well — how hard, and yet how glad and fruitful, once the surrender was made.