What about imputed righteousness? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Right at the start, Bates says that imputed righteousness does not show up in Scripture. Scripture speaks about the faith for righteousness being imputed, but not the righteousness itself. Bates goes so far as to say that this assumes a merit view of salvation which shows Protestant soteriology could have been influenced unintentionally by Catholic soteriology.
Doesn’t Scripture say Jesus is a ransom? Yes, but for many, and not individuals. When many were ransomed, it was paid not to everyone individual account, but rather to a large lump sum. Even when martyrs died in Jewish faith, they were said to die collectively for the people.
Doesn’t Colossians 2 say a written record was erased for us? Yes. Erased. Not paid.
Aren’t we clothed in righteousness? Yes, but none of these texts speak along the lines of imputation. They speak more in a representative sense. Perhaps Bates thinks they should be seen as group identification somehow.
Bates recommends instead, incorporated righteousness. This is not where Christ gives us His righteousness per se, but we choose to identify with Him and thus participate in His righteousness, rather than the sinfulness of Adam. We claim HIm as our king and make Him our exemplar.
How long is such a person righteous in this model? As long as they are in Christ. When they are in Christ, then they are justified. If they ever turn their back on Christ and walk away, they will no longer be justified. While I get Bates’s idea here, this is again an area I think he needs a whole other book on. We need a work on Christian assurance and forgiveness since I am sure some Christians reading this could wonder “But what if I’m not really in Christ?” (It’s not rare. I get their emails with concerns.)
This also gets us more into group identity instead of the individualism we have. As we live with Jesus as our King, we are more and more to walk as Jesus walked. We will grow in character and virtue which means that we will do the works that are fitting for people who are servants of Christ.
As I said in an earlier post, the last chapter of the book is largely a summation and this brings us to an end for this chapter. So overall, I do like Bates’s book. Even if one doesn’t agree with everything in there, and most won’t regardless as we all have at least little things we could disagree with, overall, I find much of his work to be intriguing and I think it is a work that evangelical scholarship needs to take seriously. I regularly fellowship with Catholics especially and I would like to see more done to bridge the divide.
That being said, my main recommendation is still the same. Bates needs to write a book on forgiveness and assurance. My fear is a lot of Christians will read this and wonder upon what they can base their security. Are they doing enough work? If they are struggling in their walk, does that show they are not real Christians?
I look forward to reading that book.
And again, if you want to get your copy, go here.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
Support Deeper Waters on Patreon!
