White on NT

White in fact does not even cover all the passages concerning justification within the texts that teach the doctrine. Romans 6:7 is absent from his Scripture index, and he lists the "key Pauline passages" that deal with justification as Romans 3-5; 8:29-34; Gal 1-5 (The God Who Justifies, p. 82). What about Romans 8:1-4, with its language of "no condemnation"? He does mention that passage (p. 98), but explains that there is "no condemnation" because "all who are 'in Christ' partake of His righteousness and have been declared free from the curse of the law, and therefore there can be no possible grounds of condemnation for them." This is NOT precisely what Paul says in Romans 8:2-4; rather, there is no condemnation "for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death." In context (Rom 7), the law of sin and death refers to the power of sin and death that perverted the good law into an instrument of condemnation and death. Because of the power of the Law, I cannot do what I like. There is no condemnation because I have been set free from that law of sin and death and now walk according to the Spirit. This could be classified as deliverance from "the curse of the law," provided the curse of the law is seen as bondage to the power of sin. If "curse" means "being unacceptable to God," then White does not say what Paul says. Paul does not merely say we are delivered from the "status" of being sinners, but are delivered from the power of sin and death, and this is why there is "no condemnation." (For more on this, see the comments of John Murray, posted on this site several weeks ago.)

On page 92, White quotes from William Hendriksen who quotes Romans 8:1-2 to make the point that justification and sanctification "stand in the closest possible relation to each other." That's a good point to make from the passage. But what Hendriksen and White fail to perceive is that Paul expresses this "closest possible relation" by using forensic language to describe our deliverance from the power of sin - "no condemnation" MEANS "set free from the law of sin and death." Or, if we take the GAR ("for") beginning 8:2 strongly, the "no condemnation" RESTS ON being set free from the law of sin and death: "There is no condemnation . . . BECAUSE the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death." I think the GAR works better as epexegetical: "There is no condemnation . . . THAT IS TO SAY, the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death." Either way, however, Paul is using the language of the courtroom to describe our deliverance from an oppressive power. Our exodus out of the Egypt of sin and death into life in Christ is God's act of judgment.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, November 26, 2004 at 12:51 PM

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