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<\/source><\/picture>I know it is summer time, but here is a quiz. It\u2019s only one question and it\u2019s fill in the blank. Ready? Christology is by nature bound up with the doctrine of _________ ?<\/p>\n
This sentence comes from lectures given by Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the University of Berlin in 1932. After that year, the Nazis would rise to power in Germany. Bonhoeffer would lose his license to teach and eventually become the director of one of five underground seminaries to serve the Confessing Church \u2014 a church that rose up against the German Lutheran Church, which had embraced and endorsed the Nazi party.<\/p>\n
Now back to the quiz. Here\u2019s Bonhoeffer\u2019s answer: \u201cChristology is by nature bound up with the doctrine of justification.\u201d This sentence comes from his lectures on 20th century systematic theology. He began the last lecture, which he titled, \u201cPreaching,\u201d with a simple but urgent and ultimate question, \u201cWhat should we preach?\u201d We must preach Christ, he declares. Preaching Christ means nothing other than preaching the Gospel. Preaching the Gospel means, and only can mean, preaching the doctrine of justification.<\/p>\n
Pulling a page from Luther\u2019s playbook, Bonhoeffer speaks of how the cross is God\u2019s \u201cNo\u201d to humanity and to any attempt to achieve salvation, to attain righteousness. The cross slams the door on any and all attempts to merit salvation, to merit God\u2019s grace. The cross is also simultaneously God\u2019s \u201cYes\u201d to us. Through His active and passive obedience, Christ has achieved for us what we could not. Christ died for the penalty of sin, enduring God\u2019s wrath. Christ fully kept the law as the perfectly obedient Son. At the cross, Christ both undid what Adam had done and did what Adam could not do. \u201cThis is the reason,\u201d Bonhoeffer says, \u201cfor the cross.\u201d We have no hope without it.<\/p>\n
In his discussion of justification, Bonhoeffer goes on to address the \u201calien righteousness\u201d of Christ. This is one of the key concepts of the Reformers and of their protest against Rome. We are passive; God acts upon us. Even our act of faith is, in the words of Bonhoeffer, \u201cthe expression of the most profound human passivity.\u201d We are justified, declared righteous before God, because of Christ\u2019s righteousness imputed to us. It is outside of us, alien from us. The Latin expression is\u00a0extra nos.<\/p>\n
Why is Bonhoeffer stressing justification, imputation, and alien righteousness in his lectures? Because, while it was so central to Luther in the 16th century, the Lutheran church of the 20th century had let the doctrine go by the wayside. The Church had sold its birthright. We should not wonder at this. The doctrine of alien righteousness is offensive to human nature. It tells us we are unable to do something, that we lack capacity and ability. It tells us more. It tells us we are sinful and deserving of nothing but God’s wrath (Eph. 2:1-3<\/a>). That was not a popular message in 20th century Germany.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a popular message today, either. Even those who profess to be evangelicals have expressed an unease with historic formulations of the doctrine of justification. Some have outright rejected it.<\/p>\n At the end of Bonhoeffer\u2019s lectures he left his students with one last statement: \u201cWho will show us Luther!\u201d<\/p>\n We can put the same question to the 21st century evangelical church. Luther saw justification as the centerpiece to the whole Reformation enterprise. It is the doctrine the church can\u2019t live without.<\/p>\n This article was first published in Tabletalk<\/a>, the Bible study magazine of Ligonier Ministries<\/a>. Find out more at TabletalkMagazine.com or subscribe today at GetTabletalk.com.<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Stephen J. Nichols is president of Reformation Bible College in Sanford, Fla., chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries, and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. He is host of the podcasts\u00a05 Minutes in Church History\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Open Book<\/a>. He is author of many books, including\u00a0For Us and for Our Salvation<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0A Time for Confidence<\/a><\/em>, and\u00a0R.C. Sproul: A Life<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n