{"id":17873,"date":"2016-02-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2695"},"modified":"2016-02-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T00:00:00","slug":"justice-justification-baptism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/02\/justice-justification-baptism\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice, Justification, Baptism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/em>Michael Gorman (Becoming the Gospel<\/a>) points out what Richard Hays has called the \u201cdeft word-play\u201d on the dik<\/em>\u2013 root in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. The word-play is sometimes lost because English translations use different word groups to translate different forms of the root. If we stick to a consistent translation, we come up with something like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unjust<\/strong> (adikon<\/em>) instead of taking it before the saints? . . . to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffering injustice<\/strong> (adikeisthe<\/em>)? Why not rather be defrauded. But you yourselves inflict injustice<\/strong> (adikeite<\/em>) and defraud \u2013 and believers at that. Do you now know that the unjust<\/strong> (adikoi<\/em>) will not inherit the kingdom of God? . . . And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washing, you were sanctified, you were justified<\/strong> (edikaiothete<\/em>) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, to compress even further: Taking a brother before the unjust courts is itself an act of injustice. You should rather allow injustice to be inflicted on you, rather than inflicting it on others. Don\u2019t you know that the unjust (that is, the type of people to take others to court to defraud them) don\u2019t inherit the kingdom. You used to be people like that, but you were justified \u2013 delivered from the world of injustice.<\/p>\n

The sequence of thought makes it abundantly clear that Paul connects justification with the doing of justice. As Gorman says, \u201cIt is clear that Paul sees taking fellow believers to pagan courts, which are courts of the unjust\/unjustified (v. 1), as an act of injustice (v. 8) that betrays the divine action of rescue from such injustice that Paul calls justification (v. 11).\u201d On the narrowest construal of \u201cjustify,\u201d we can say: \u201cThe unjust act of taking a brother to pagan courts betrays the verdict of justification pronounced over you.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gorman, rightly, argues that Paul implies something stronger. He appeals to justification (along with washing and sanctification), as grounds for saying that the Corinthians are no longer among the unjust who do not inherit the kingdom. What makes them unjust is their unjust behavior<\/em>; if they are \u201cjustified\u201d from that injustice, they are delivered by justification from the mastery of injustice and made slaves of God\u2019s justice (see the same sequence of thought in Romans 6). Paul is not merely saying that they are considered just before God, but that they have been delivered-by-judgment from the realm of injustice. Gorman also, rightly, stresses the threat implied by Paul\u2019s warning: \u201cTo practice injustice is effectively to annul the justification wrought by God, to return to the realm of the unjust, and to jeopardize one\u2019s future inheritance of the kingdom of God (v. 9). It is evidence of an incomplete conversion. The justified are expected to suffer injustice, not to inflict it, because that is what Jesus the paschal lamb . . . did on the cross\u201d (236).<\/p>\n

Gorman also takes the reference to \u201cwashing\u201d as a baptismal reference (\u201cbaptized and forgiven\u201d): \u201cjustification means a transfer<\/em> from the realm of the unjust\/unjustified into the realm of the just\/justified, which simultaneously means a transformation<\/em>, a conversion<\/em> from being unjust people to being just people and thus a transition<\/em> from practices of injustice to practices of Christologically shaped justice\u201d (237). Baptism is the effective mark of this transfer from the company of the unjust to the company of the just.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Gorman (Becoming the Gospel) points out what Richard Hays has called the \u201cdeft word-play\u201d on the dik\u2013 root in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. The word-play is sometimes lost because English translations use different word groups to translate different forms of the root. If we stick to a consistent translation, we come up with something like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,41,1020],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-nt-1-corinthians","category-bible-nt-paul","category-justification"],"yoast_head":"\nJustice, Justification, Baptism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michael Gorman (Becoming the Gospel) points out what Richard Hays has called the \u201cdeft word-play\u201d on the dik- root in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. 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