Belgic Confession, Article 23: Legal Fiction!

by Rev. Martyn McGeown, Missionary-pastor laboring in Limerick, Ireland.

Article 23: We believe that our salvation consists in the remission of our sins for Jesus Christ's sake, and that therein our righteousness before God is implied: as David and Paul teach us, declaring this to be the happiness of man, that God imputes righteousness to him without works. And the same apostle saith, that we are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ. And therefore we always hold fast this foundation, ascribing all the glory to God, humbling ourselves before him, and acknowledging ourselves to be such as we really are, without presuming to trust in any thing in ourselves, or in any merit of ours, relying and resting upon the obedience of Christ crucified alone, which becomes ours, when we believe in him. This is sufficient to cover our iniquities, and to give us confidence in approaching to God; freeing the conscience of fear, terror and dread, without following the example of our first father, Adam, who, trembling, attempted to cover himself with fig-leaves. And verily if we should appear before God, relying on ourselves, or on any other creature, though ever so little, we should, alas! be consumed. And therefore every one must pray with David: O Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

Instead of imputed righteousness, Rome teaches infused or imparted righteousness, the idea that the Spirit works grace in the heart of the sinner who uses the sacraments of the church. Then on the basis of virtue in the heart—an acquired, internal righteousness—the church member is justified. The more grace in the heart, the more justified a person becomes, but even the most justified person in this life—with very few exceptions—must be purified in purgatory after death. The result is that no member of the Roman Catholic church can ever know if he has accrued enough grace in his heart to merit justification now and on the Last Day. The result for the sinner who understands sin and the holiness of God is and must be terror.

Rome scoffs at the Reformed, biblical and confessional view of justification by imputed righteousness as “legal fiction.” Rome is especially offended by the “as if” language of Reformed theologians. We believe that God views us in justification “as if [we] had never had had, nor committed any sin, yea as if [we] had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for [us]” (Heidelberg Catechism, LD 23, Q&A 61).  To “as if” Rome cries out “legal fiction!” Modern heretics have also criticized the doctrine of imputation, characterizing it as “the shuffling about of heavenly ledgers” (or accounting books); and have said that it is impossible for righteousness to be transferred to a guilty sinner from the sinless Christ.

The Reformed believer is not afraid of the charge of “Legal fiction!

First, if our justification is “legal fiction,” how can we possibly explain the cross of Christ? If it is impossible for God to impute Christ’s righteousness to us, it is also impossible for God to impute our sins to Christ, and for Christ to bear the punishment for them. Then we must satisfy God’s justice for our own sins, and that is impossible. Was God playing “legal fiction” at the cross? God forbid! Second, the “legal fiction” argument supposes that God is playing “Let’s pretend” in His judgment hall. God would be pretending that the sinner is righteous when the sinner is, in fact, not righteous. But God is not pretending because the righteousness which is the basis of our justification is not a “make-believe” righteousness but Christ’s righteousness. Christ’s righteousness is real! Christ’s lifelong obedience is real! Christ’s atonement on the cross is real! And God’s act of imputing that righteousness to us is real! Third, it is not that the demands of the Law are not met—they most certainly are—but the demands of the Law are not met by us. It is not that God agrees not to enforce the demands of His Law—He insists on them most strongly—but that God does not demand them from us. And the reason God does not demand perfect obedience from us is that Christ has already fulfilled the demands for us. That is not “legal fiction,” but grace!

Let us turn the “legal fiction” charge back on our detractors. All who deny that justification is by faith alone based on the imputed, alien righteousness of Christ alone must face this question. On what basis are you justified before God? On what basis can God declare you—here and now, and in the Final Judgment—to be righteous?  If God—as Rome contends—justifies sinners on the basis of an imperfect obedience to His Law, God is unjust.

Imperfect righteousness as the basis of justification is the real “legal fiction”.

Belgic Confession, Article 20: The Father Laying Our Iniquities Upon Him

by Rev. Martyn McGeown, Missionary-pastor in Limerick Reformed Fellowship, Ireland (This article first appeared in Limerick RF's August 10, 2014 bulletin.)

Isaiah 53:5: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities …”

Belgic Confession, Art.20 - That God hath manifested his justice and mercy in Christ Jesus:

We believe that God, who is perfectly merciful and just, sent his Son to assume that nature, in which the disobedience was committed, to make satisfaction in the same, and to bear the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death. God therefore manifested his justice against his Son, when he laid our iniquities upon him; and poured forth his mercy and goodness on us, who were guilty and worthy of damnation, out of mere and perfect love, giving his Son unto death for us, and raising him for our justification, that through him we might obtain immortality and life eternal.

There is one subject about which we must be clear before we proceed—the justice in God’s punishing of His Son for our sins. How could the sinless, innocent Son of God be made to suffer? How is it right that the Son of God experience pain and anguish in body and soul? How is it possible that the Son of God should know the wrath of the Father? Could it be true that the Father was angry with His own Son?

The answer is given in the Belgic Confession: “God therefore manifested His justice against His Son when He laid our iniquities upon Him.” It was because God laid our iniquities upon Christ that He could be just in punishing Christ. To lay our iniquities upon Christ means to impute the guilt of our iniquities to Christ. Legally, the guilt of all our sins became Christ’s. Imputation is an extremely important word in theology. We believe in a threefold imputation.

First, we believe—as we already saw in Article 15—that God imputed the guilt of Adam’s sin to the entire human race. Adam’s sin rendered us all guilty, because Adam represented us.

Second, we believe—as we learn in Articles 20-21—that God imputed the guilt of all our sins to Jesus Christ. Our sins rendered Christ guilty—not personally guilty, but legally guilty—before God, and God treated Christ accordingly as a guilty man, guilty of all the sins of all those whom He represents. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

Third, we believe—as we learn in Articles 22-23—that God imputes the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us by faith. Christ righteousness renders us, whom He represents and who believe in Him, righteous before God. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

This explains how it was possible for Christ to suffer. He had the capacity to suffer because He has a human nature. He had the right to suffer—or God had the right to inflict suffering upon Him—because our sins were imputed to Him. Otherwise, to speak reverently, God had no legal right even to have Christ stub His toe; and it would be a moral outrage for Christ to experience the slightest pang of anguish. Anguish, pain and suffering are the experience only of sinners. Personally, Christ is the sinless Son of God, the righteous one. If He is not, He cannot be our Mediator and Saviour. But, legally—with respect to the Law, with respect to His position before God’s Law—Christ became guilty when the sins of all His people whom He represented were made His by imputation.

And since Christ was loaded down with the guilt of our sins, He became the object of God’s just wrath. He lived under the shadow of that wrath His whole life and that wrath came upon Him—justly—when He died on the cross.

But we must never forget that Christ willingly adopted that position of guilt before the Law for us. Christ made Himself of no reputation; Christ humbled Himself for our salvation.