Acquiesce to Righteousness

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Missionalia 44:2 (175–191)175 www.missionalia.journals.ac.za | http://dx.doi.org/10.7832/44-2-137 So that we might become the righteousness and justice of God Re-examining the gospel in 2 Cor 5:21 for the church’s contribution to a better world Dustin W. Ellington 1 Abstract This article interprets Paul’s summary of the gospel in 2 Cor 5:21 as saying that Christ died so that believers might be transformed into God’s righteousness (not only deemed as righteous by God). The article explains the powerfully generative nature of God’s righteousness and then demonstrates that dikaiosunē also means justice. The interpretation of 2 Cor 5:21 clarifies that the gospel Christians believe for salvation also transforms them to embody God’s righteousness and justice. This enlarged angle on Paul’s view of the gospel serves as a basis for teaching a seamless continuity between believing in Jesus Christ and becoming a force for justice in the world. Keywords: 2 Cor 5:21, Church, Gospel, Justice, Righteousness, Transformation 1. Introduction 2 This article explores the nature of the Christian gospel in an effort to understand what the gospel may contribute toward establishing righteousness and justice in the world. Sometimes the gospel we Christians proclaim promotes escaping the reality that this world is neither righteous nor just, whether through focusing on questionable promises of health and wealth in this life (see Ellington 2014:327-342; Gbote & Kgatla 2014:1-10), concentrating on promises of the life to come (however true to the witness of Scripture), or appreciating almost exclusively the individual and personal benefits of salvation. A motivating concern for this article is that Christians may be failing to contribute as much as we could toward a better world, because we fail to recognize the resources for human transformation toward righteousness and justice which reside within the gospel. This investigation turns to Scripture for a description of the gospel that responds to the need for transformation toward both 1 Dustin Ellington is a lecturer in New Testament and Greek at Justo Mwale University and a research fellow of the Department of New Testament, University of the Free State. He can be contacted at ellingtondustin@gmail.com. 2 The author thanks those who gave responses to earlier versions of this paper at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Missiology (June 2015 in Chicago) and at the conference Re-thinking Righteousness and Justice in Society, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa (Aug 2015).
176 Missionalia 44:2 Dustin W. Ellington personal righteousness and social justice, for the sake of the church’s contribution to Africa and beyond. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians give extended attention to the relationship between the gospel and the formation of a Christian way of living in the world. This essay will focus on one of Paul’s key summaries of the gospel. The apostle states in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He (God) made him who did not know sin to be sin for our sake, in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” 3 This essay concentrates mainly on the final portion of 2 Cor 5:21. Margaret Thrall states: “The traditional understanding of ‘becoming God’s righteousness’ is that it means ‘being justified by God’” (1994:442). I affirm that Paul’s gospel includes the change in status from guilty to justified, but this does not do justice to the statement of the gospel in 2 Cor 5:21. While we might expect Paul to say, “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, in order that we might be justified”, Paul actually says, “that we might become God’s righteousness”. 4 Paul’s assertion that we become God’s righteousness is not the same as saying that we are justified, or pronounced righteous. 5 This essay does not downplay justification or soteriology; it would be more accurate to say that it takes soteriology more expansively, as including the establishment of a transformed and world-restoring community through the gospel and through our union with Christ. 6 When we interpret 2 Cor 5:21 in the literary context of 2 Corinthians, we can find insight into the relationship between God’s righteousness and justice and believers’ 3 All translations are the author’s own unless stated otherwise. 4 Morna Hooker (2008:369) observes that most interpreters have tended to interpret dikaiosunē (righteousness) in 2 Cor 5:21 as a genitive of origin (“righteousness from God”) with the ultimate meaning of dikaiōthentes (“having been justified”), as though Paul meant that we are given the verdict that we are righteous. While this interpretation is conceivable, in light of the literary context of 2 Corinthians as a whole, it is not persuasive. Moreover, Paul chose the noun dikaiosunē, not the participle dikaiōthentes, even as he does in 2 Cor 3:9; 6:7, 14; 9:9-10; and 11:15. In 2 Corinthians, Paul does not use the participle related to dikaio, though he frequently utilizes it in Romans and Galatians. We should not assume the same line of thought in 2 Corinthians as in Romans and Galatians. 5 Richard Hays (1996:24) states: Paul “does not say … ‘that we might receive the righteousness of God.’ Instead, the church is to become the righteousness of God”. This contrasts with the positions of Harris (2005:455) and Collins (2013:126), who interpret dikaiosunē in 2 Cor 5:21 as essentially meaning “justification”. Thrall (1994:444) speaks mainly of a “change in status”, though affirms that Paul has in mind more than simple imputation, on account of our being united with Christ. Thrall rightly states: “In the first half of the verse Paul has described the first element of a dual process of identification and exchange” (1994:442). I take Thrall’s assertion as less than correct when she says 5:21 relates reconciliation to justification. The accent of 5:21 is upon exchange that brings transformation, which is more than justification. I commend Stegman (2011) for demonstrating that Paul’s language related to dikaiosunē, in 2 Corinthians and beyond, is not only juridical but also deeply concerned with transformation. 6 This view accords with the New Perspective on Paul in recognizing the apostle’s central interests in participation in Christ and ecclesiology.
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The Transformative Justice Project
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Biblical Authority ______ Matthew 5
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Table of Contents …a compilation
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I. Introduction Righteousness Right
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understanding of a situation, and t
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Lane Craig argues that we should th
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II. Christian Perfection Christian
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Thomas Aquinas wrote of three possi
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Wesleyan-Arminian Teaching John Wes
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Missionary Society) in his popular
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that Christians experience. The fir
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III. Imparted & Imputed Righteousne
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N. T. Wright, who is one of the bes
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Imparted righteousness, in Methodis
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of humans to cooperate with God's a
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The Case for Imputed Righteousness
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Understood this way, the objectiona
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Final Note on Protestant Views Thos
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IV. Justification In Christian theo
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produces works as a result... The q
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alone (monergism), by divine and hu
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In the words of one Orthodox Bishop
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Traditionally, Lutherans have taugh
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justification if indeed they were o
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Roman Catholics and most Lutherans
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V. Sacred [Holiness] Sacred [Holine
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Sociology French sociologist Émile
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Lutheranism The early Protestant Re
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for "holiness," kedushah (Hebrew:
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VI. Salvation ‏,יָשַׁ‏ ע
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BCE that there arose a belief in an
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Salvation is believed to be a proce
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Those who believe (in the Qur'an),
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Five Pillars There are acts of wors
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VII. Sanctification Sanctification
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Holy Spirit uses churches to gather
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its members, who display a real, no
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VIII. The Sermon on The Mount Accor
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There are two parts in this section
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Analysis and Interpretation Interpr
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IX. The Sermon on The Plain Accordi
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X. References 1. https://en.wikiped
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Notes _____________________________
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Attachment A Righteousness Page 97
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Righteousness continueth therein, h
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Page 103 and 104: Two Kinds of Righteousness EW Kenyo
Page 105 and 106: to me. I have read the Gospels, I h
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Page 109 and 110: place to worship, but to make a yea
Page 111 and 112: Covenant a man who has accepted Jes
Page 113 and 114: This is the reason why some of the
Page 115 and 116: Having been made righteous, having
Page 117 and 118: the place that God has planned for
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Page 121 and 122: efore he transgressed. John 8:36, "
Page 123 and 124: "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
Page 125 and 126: spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
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Page 129 and 130: It is His business to work in us Hi
Page 131 and 132: The Word is the voice of the Father
Page 133 and 134: On the basis of that He calls us to
Page 135 and 136: ondage to the Senses. They are not
Page 137 and 138: They were the fruits of Righteousne
Page 139 and 140: that we have a right to come into y
Page 141 and 142: The high priest who carried the blo
Page 143 and 144: therefore now no condemnation to th
Page 145 and 146: "If a man love me, he will keep my
Page 147 and 148: We know that as He is, so are we in
Page 149 and 150: WHAT DO YOU SAY? What are the react
Page 151: Attachment C Becoming God’s Right
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Acquiesce to Righteousness

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