Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 12:4 (Fall 2003)
Article: Another Reply to Counted Righteous in Christ
Author: Daniel P. Fuller

RAR 12:4 (Fall 2003) p. 115

Another Reply to Counted Righteous in Christ

Daniel P. Fuller

John Piper, in his Counted Righteous in Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 2002), talks of the need for a “detailed defense ... on the historic Protestant view of the relationship between faith and obedience ...” (44, note 2). As a pastor of a large church as well as a theologian, he senses a need for “trembling souls and imperfect saints” (51) to understand clearly the relationship between justifying faith and obedience. Piper sounds as if he might write more about this in the months ahead.

But this current book already has quite a bit to say on this subject. “Our only hope of ... growing in likeness to Jesus is that we already have a right standing with God by faith alone” (49). This “right standing,” consisting of the imputed righteousness of Christ, provides believers with the power to achieve practical righteousness (50). Through union with Christ believers are connected with the Holy Spirit, whose power “severs the root of sin’s compelling promises by cherishing Christ above all other treasures and pleasures” (122, note 4). But this sanctifying faith coming from union with Christ must not be confused with the antecedent justifying faith that established that union.

RAR 12:4 (Fall 2003) p. 116

Piper and John Calvin

Distinguishing between justifying and sanctifying faith was also essential for Calvin. “[Justifying faith] properly begins with the promise, rests in it, and ends in it. For in God faith seeks a life not found in commandments or declaration of penalties [in the law] ... [but] only in [the unconditional] promise of mercy [found in the gospel].” “When we say, [however], that faith must rest on a freely given promise, we do not deny that believers embrace and grasp the Word of God in every respect [including the law]” (Insitutes 3:2:29). “[In sanctification] it is the function of the law ... to arouse Christians to a zeal for holiness.... But where consciences are worried ... with what assurance they will stand [before God], there we are not to reckon what the law requires, but Christ alone, who surpasses all perfection of the law (3:19:2).

For Calvin the faith suited for the law and sanctification was so different from the faith suited for justification that Calvin viewed the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5), to be urged from all peoples on earth, to refer only to the justifying faith urged by the gospel, the only “firm testimony of God’s [unconditional] benevolence” (3:2:29).

Distinguishing between justifying and sanctifying faith is also vital for Piper, but not because of how the gospel contrasts with the law. The “wo...