What did Paul Mean By Justification?

As I work through my beliefs and put them to work in my life I usually go through a process where I know that something “doesn’t fit” and I keep searching until it does. I’ll confess to being a theological hack, but I do see the import of working out what I believe. I’ve been going through that process with the “relational theology” paradigm (I’ll use that term, for lack of a better word, to describe the theology that focuses on a personal relationship with God as the primary focus of the Christian faith, a heavy emphasis on Grace vs. Law, and an individual, spiritualized concept of salvation). There are some points that I really agree and resonate with, but underneath I’ve been uncomfortable about where the theology “ends up” because it does not take into account many key themes of the Bible. So for the next few posts I’m going to attempt to “work out” some of my issues....

Recent scholarship has realized that traditional Reformed understandings of many of Paul’s writings, especially Romans and Galatians, have been removed from their historical contexts. In one of my previous posts I demonstrated one reason to keep the Gospels in the context of the 1st-2nd century Jew. Understanding the context of Paul’s writings gives a very different view of soteriology (the study of how we are saved).

One of the shortcomings in “relational theology” that I’ve run into revolves around the conversation of Law vs. Grace. The argument typically goes: Judaism was a system that tried to earn the favor of God by doing “works of the Law” (Gal. 2:16). This was a legalistic effort to merit God’s favor and thus, was opposed to being “justified by faith” or grace alone.

I’ve noticed that this leads to a view that the Law is evil, and any form of effort or response becomes part of the evil Law. This leads to a passive view of faith that is concerned with “being rather than doing” (I’m not saying that is all bad, but “being” should lead to “doing”, rather than be put up against it.) and suspect of any positive action. Additionally, Biblical responses such as repentance, belief, obedience and faith are discounted and considered as "works".

One argument is that this interpretation of 1st-2nd Century Judaism is totally influenced by Martin Luther and other Reformed theologians who put Judaism in the place of the legalistic 16th century institutional church. I can see why, given the tone of Galatians, and confess that I have made this mistake.

“Since the time of Martin Luther, this has been understood as an indictment of legalistic efforts to merit favor before God. In fact Judaism in general has come to be construed as the very antithesis of Christianity. Judaism is earthly, carnal, proud; Christianity is heavenly, spiritual, humble. It is a tragic irony that all of Judaism has come to be viewed in terms of the worst vices of the sixteenth-century institutionalized church.”

“When Judaism is thus cast in the role of the medieval church, Paul's protests become very Lutheran and traditional Protestant theology is reinforced in all its particulars, along with its limitations. In hermeneutical terms, then, the historical context of Paul's debate lies at the very heart of the doctrine of justification in the church.”

“Traditional Protestant soteriology, focused as it is on the plight of the conscience-smitten individual before a holy God, must be carved out of the rock of human pretentiousness in order to be cogent. Thus it is no accident that the Reformers interpreted the burning issues of Paul's day in light of their struggle against legalism. "The Reformers' interpretation of Paul," writes Krister Stendahl, "rests on an analogism when Pauline statements about Faith and Works, Law and Gospel, Jews and Gentiles are read in the framework of late medieval piety. The Law, the Torah, with its specific requirements of circumcision and food restrictions becomes a general principle of 'legalism' in religious matters." (Mattison)

So, the questions are:

• What was 1st century Judaism if it wasn’t a legalisitic system to merit God’s favor?

• What was the context of Paul’s writings if not a battle against legalism?

• What was Paul really concerned about?

• What does “justification by faith” mean in that context?

I’ll write some more on this later as I try to do this in “bite-size” pieces. I look forward to hearing other points of view....