On Greenbaggins blog, he said:
Why Imputation Is Not a Legal Fiction
August 18, 2014 at 11:23 am (Justification)
A very common objection from Roman Catholics against the Protestant doctrine of imputation is that God declares someone to be innocent who is not, in fact, innocent. This is legal nonsense, to them. They believe that God would never declare a person to be righteous who is not, in fact, righteous. So, the Protestant idea that an alien righteousness, that of Christ, is reckoned to the sinner, is nonsense to them. It would be God declaring something to be true which is actually false.
I answer:
Yes. Scripture says:
Proverbs 17:15 English Standard Version
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.
So, why would God do something He considers abominable?
Anybody?
Martin Luther's interpretation of justification as imputation has indeed been followed by many Protestants, but not all. Even some other "reformers" during Luther's time didn't agree. For example, Zwingli, a Swiss reformer at that time disagreed, and followed Augustine's view of justification as part of regeneration. Especially the Anabaptists, some of whom were persecuted by Luther, said that justification depended on regeneration through the Holy Spirit, which empowered people to imitate Christ's example. And Tyndale, in England, said justification was God "making righteous" (not just declaring righteous). Unfortunately, such views have been, and remain, mostly a minority view among Protestants since Luther.
ReplyDeleteI take it that you agree, then, that God would not do something which He considers to be an abomination when men do it?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.