I have long been impressed with St. Paul’s profound insight into Christ’s saving work. Paul was a man absolutely taken with the saving work of Jesus Christ. This was always of central importance to him. Yet, so awesome was Jesus Christ’s saving work that Paul could not speak about it in just one way. He used a number of different word pictures and concepts to best communicate to the people of his day what Christ had done for them. The real point of this little study, however, is to generate thought and discussion about how we might best communicate what Christ has done to our contemporaries. Which of these words/concepts would be best understood by the people of our day?
By His life and death Jesus Christ Brought About Our:
Justification — This was Paul’s primary way of speaking about Christ’s saving work. The legal language of justification made sense to both Jew and Gentile. To the Jew "to be justified" meant to be "declared righteous," that is, to be declared a perfect keeper of God's Law, sinless. To the Gentile, "to be justified" meant to be "declared 'not guilty'" or 'innocent.' This made sense to the Gentile because the Roman judicial system was well known by most (especially the urban Romans). Thus, to both Jew or Gentile, the teaching that a person is "justified by faith without the works of the Law" meant that a person is declared righteous and innocent not on the basis of his own merit or performance/keeping of the Law; he is declared righteous/innocent on the basis of God's Gospel promise which faith believes: that through Jesus Christ crucified, all sins, guilt, and punishment are forgiven.
Therefore, since justification is God's acquitting verdict, it is not something that gradually grows inside of us (the Roman Catholic view); it is something that happened outside of us when God declared us justified on the basis of what Christ Jesus did for us on the cross. This is good news! For is justification depends to any degree on something in me that I contribute to by my obedience, holiness, or works of love, then I can never be certain of God's love or my eternal destiny. Moreover, the view that I contribute to the growth of my internal justification by my good works contradicts all those passages which say that we are justified by faith apart from the works of the Law. For my obedience, holiness, and love are all works of the Law.
Redemption - Redemption means “the setting free by the paying of a ransom.” In the Roman empire, slaves were redeemed, set free from their slavery. Prisoners of war were also redeemed. The Jew would have been familiar with the rich "redemption" language in the Old Testament (e.g., God redeeming Israel from the slavery of Egypt). All who are baptized and believe in Jesus Christ are set free from the slavery and captivity of sin, devil, and Law by the payment of Christ's blood shed in death, which is the ransom.
Salvation - Salvation means "the rescuing of one's life from sin, satan, hell, and Law." This is the sense in Paul's letters. Interestingly, in most cases, "salvation" language is future-oriented: Christians "shall be saved" when Christ returns and ushers in His kingdom at the end of time. But in other places, He refers to the Christian as already having been saved, though it is not fully consummated. Through Jesus Christ we have been rescued from all that would destroy or terrorize us, be it sin, satan, hell, or even God's Law. This language would have immediately made sense to the Jews, with the multitude of Old Testament examples of of God's rescue of His people, both individually and nationally. The Gentiles were also accustomed to turning to their gods for "salvation" from trouble.
Sanctification - Sanctification means "the declaration that one is perfectly holy, purified, cleansed from all sin and guilt." In Paul's writings, sanctification is used in a "wide" sense, which is the sense above. In this sense it is equivalent to justification, in that it is God's verdict that occurs outside of us. We are cleansed, declared holy, and sanctified because the holy God declares us to be so because Christ died for us. All those places where Paul refers to Christians as "saints" (which means "holy ones") belong here. Sanctification can also be used in a "narrow" sense to mean the inner and gradual transformation of a believer so that he becomes increasingly holy and more Christ-like (e.g., see 1 Thess. 4:3-7). Sanctification in the sense of gradual growth in the lives of Christians makes sense, because all Christians still have to contend with a sinful nature which needs to be overcome in daily living. Thus, the Christian both has been sanctified and is being sanctified.
Both Jew & Gentile understood the need of holiness and purity as a prerequisite of fellowship with God. Therefore, this word group would have clearly resonated with them.
Forgiveness - Forgiveness means that all sin, guilt, and punishment is no longer counted against us, that it is taken away and forgotten. In Paul's writings, forgiveness is generally spoken of in tandem with one of the other word concepts used here. Anyone acquainted with the Old Testament Scriptures knows that forgiveness is a tremendously prominent theme. Thus, to hear that Christ Jesus brought about complete forgiveness of all sin and guilt would have been incredibly liberating to the Jew. The Gentile also would have appreciated this, but to a lesser degree, which perhaps explains why there is a scarcity of "forgiveness" language in Paul.
Atonement - Atonement means that Christ is our sacrificial substitute; He was sacrificed in our place, instead of us, so that we escape God's judgment. He served our sentence of death. All of God's punishment and wrath has been poured out and spent on Christ. Because He has suffered this in our place, there is not a drop left to be poured out on us who put our trust in Him rather than our own good works or holiness. Obviously the ancient world understood far better than we the notion of sacrifice for atonement as sacrifice was a very real part of their piety. Here also belongs the many places where Paul uses the phrase "for us" as shorthand for Christ's vicarious atonement.
Reconciliation - Reconciliation means "to make peace between enemies, unite those who are separated." Sin had separated humanity from the holy God (Isaiah 59) and made them enemies. Since Jesus Christ was punished for the sin of the world, that which separated us from God has been taken out of the way. Thus, we are reconciled to God through Jesus and are now in eternal fellowship with Him. Since enmity and division has always tended to be a cross-cultural phenomenon, the language of reconciliation is one that also the people of Paul's day would have understood.
Paul chose these concepts not to impress (or befuddle) people with his theological acumen. He chose them because the people of his day could relate to them and thus better understand what Jesus Christ had accomplished.
Thus, as mentioned at the beginning of this study, one of the pressing questions for us should be, "Which of these words/concepts is best able to communicate Jesus Christ's saving work to the people of our day?" We shouldn't assume that they all will be readily understandable. We should always keep the person or group that we are sharing the Gospel with in mind and choose accordingly. All the words/concepts point to the same saving work, but describe it from a slightly different perspective.
Pastor Richard Bucher
