Narrow-Minded versus Webber, Marquart, and Kueng (?!)

. . . But when is the sinner declared just? When does God’s gracious saving judgment of the sinner occur? . . . But for Sacred Scripture the real judgment of God is inexorably bound up with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christthe sinner is declared just: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested . . . the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3.21-26). We are “justified by his blood” (Rom. 5.9); Christ “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom. 4.25). . . (p. 222).

In reading texts which speak of justification in connection with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is striking to note that all of them referred emphatically to faith as well (for example, Rom. 4.5, 20-25). Only he who believes is justified. The task consequently is to relate the “objective” act of justification which happened on the cross with its “subjective” realization. On the one hand, the justification accomplished on the cross must not be separated from the process which reaches down to the individual man: this would in one way or another lead to apokatastasis [{universal}restoration, universalism, K.M.]. On the other hand, personal justification must not be separated from the general act of justification on the cross; this would in one way or another lead to predestinationism. Rather both must be seen as the two sides of a single truth: All men are justified in Jesus Christ and only the faithful are justified in Jesus Christ. The generic act of justification on the cross is the “permanently actual presence of salvation, accessible for personal appropriation” (Schrenk, S.V. “dikh” in TWNT [Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament], II, 220f.). The divine character of the declaration of divine justice and grace which took place on the cross once and for all and for all men, makes possible a relation between “objective” and “subjective” justification.

It is the task of this chapter to stress the “objective” aspect of justification. . .

This, therefore, is the event: In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s gracious saving judgment on sinful mankind is promulgated. Here God pronounces the gracious and life-giving judgment which causes the one just man to be sin and in exchange makes all sinners free in Him: “He [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5.21; cf. Gal. 3.13; Rom. 8.3). And in this (“objective”) sense we can say that through Jesus Christ all men are justified, because “one has died for all” (2 Cor. 5.14; cf. 1 Tim. 2.6). “Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5.18-19; cf. 5.12-17; 8.32; 11.32). . . . (223-224).

In the Pauline perspective especially, justification never stands in isolation as a purely personal event; it has its place in the total framework of salvation history, of the redemption of all mankind. Those justified on the cross and in the resurrection are “the many,” the “all.” The object of justification, as the prophets proclaimed, is Israel, the people of God, and in the new Israel, all people on earth. In Jesus Christ all men were justified and thereby called to the Church and even germinally integrated into it. . . Through faith, the individual shares the general justification, and so justification, as it occurs in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is essentially ecclesiological in character. . .(224-225).

“The objective fact of justification is accomplished in the redemptive death of Christ, in connection, of course, with the resurrection. And so Rom. 5.9 can insist that we are justified in His blood, and by way of complement, in Rom. 4.25, that Christ was raised up for our justification” (Meinertz, Theologie des NT, II, 116). Catholic theologians do not normally speak of justification in connection with the death and resurrection of Christ. They prefer to the term “justification” (which is ordinarily understood as “subjective”) the terms “redemption,” “atonement,” and so forth. But we saw that the term “justification” is used here in perfect agreement with scripture, revealing a deep and ultimately indispensable meaning. . .(226).

. . . what Barth and with him many Protestants call “justification” largely coincides with what we Catholics call “redemption” and . . . many expressions that sound heretical ought to be understood as completely orthodox (e.g., “all men are justified in Christ,” although it agrees with Scripture may seem to Catholic ears to imply apokatastasis which Barth, however, categorically rejects. In ordinary Catholic usage—and in agreement with scripture—this would mean nothing other than the totally orthodox statement that “All men are ‘redeemed’ in or by Jesus Christ.”). . . Everything does indeed depend on the proper definition of the relationship between “objective” and “subjective” justification. . . (227-228).

Put without polemics then, the justification of the sinner means the declaration of justice by God who at the cross and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ declares all sinners free and just, and thereby makes them just, though this act can, for the Church, have its consequences in the individual only if the individual submits in faith to God’s verdict. . . Only thus is adequate weight given to the theocentricity of justification. It is not primarily a matter of a process of salvation taking place within man. . . Rather the primary issue is the wrath and grace of God, His divine act of gracious and judicial decision, of justification considered as active; it is not primarily “peace to men on earth,” but “glory to God in the highest.” It is not primarily the justification of man, whereby man receives justice, but the self-justification of God, whereby God, willing from eternity salvation and creation, is proven just.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned . . . among them; and the nations will know that I am the LORD, says the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes” (Ezek. 36.22-23; cf. 36.31-32; Rom. 3.26).

Thus the accent is not on the “subjective” but on the “objective” aspect of justification. It is true that everything depends on this having its effect within individual men, on its realization in the individual, on human participation in it. It is true, too, that only he who believes is actually (subjectively) justified. Yet the decisive element in the sinner’s justification is found not in the individual but in the death and resurrection of Christ. It was there that our situation was actually changed; there the essential thing happened. What afterwards happened in the individual man would be impossible to conceive of in isolation. It is not man in his faith who originally changes the situation, who does the essential thing. It is not a matter of completion of the central salvation event in Jesus Christ, but rather an active acknowledgment, and this solely by the power stemming from the central event . . . In the death and resurrection of Christ, justification is established with final validity. It has happened once and for all and irrevocably (e’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’””vfa,pax) [230-231].