“Passive Righteousness”

[its_brad]

Explain Luther’s concept of “passive righteousness.” Do you think this notion ignores sinfulness in the life of a believer?

[bmayo]

Luther’s concept of “passive righteousness” is the understanding that it is only through the passive role of the believer that one is saved. God does the active work, thus righteousness does not occur through “active works” of human beings. I don’t think this ignores the sinfulness in the unbeliever. In fact, if it “ignores” anything, it is the good works done in the attempt to secure salvation. But even in this, it isn’t that God ignores “good works” or “sinfulness,” as if they are unimportant (bringing the risk of antinomianism), but that we can never be good enough. This is seen in Romans where Paul states we have all sinned and fallen short and that the wages of sin is death. Luther understood that there is no action that we can do or not do that would gain our salvation, but that it is only through the passive work of faith.

[cmoore]

The word “passive” means to be inactive, inert, acted upon, affected by some external force, cause, or agency, or simply, having something done to something else. The object being acted upon is not doing the acting. Therefore, passive righteousness is a term to simply show that the believer receives righteousness as a result of external forces. A believer is caused to be righteous. There is nothing that a person does to obtain this righteousness, aside from accepting it. Second Corinthians 5:21 teaches that Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. In other words, what Christ did (the external force) on the cross acted on and for us so that we might be righteous. Our works could not make us righteous. This is Luther’s concept of passive righteousness. In the context of the sixteenth century, Luther taught this out of a time of heavy teaching on “works righteousness.” Luther was defending the biblical position that righteousness did not come from works but from faith in Christ.

I do not believe that this notation ignores sinfulness in the life of a believer because Luther’s notion of this term is teaching against the idea that righteousness comes through works. Luther does not deal with the sinfulness of the believer as it relates to works-righteousness and passive-righteousness. I believe the real question should be, “does passive righteousness give the believer a license to sin?” Paul answers this question in Romans 6:1-2. “Certainly Not!” Paul exclaims.

[cmoore]

Luther’s concept of “passive righteousness” is the understanding that it is only through the passive role of the believer that one is saved. God does the active work, thus righteousness does not occur through “active works” of human beings. I don’t think this ignores the sinfulness in the unbeliever. In fact, if it “ignores” anything, it is the good works done in the attempt to secure salvation. But even in this, it isn’t that God ignores “good works” or “sinfulness,” as if they are unimportant (bringing the risk of antinomianism), but that we can never be good enough. This is seen in Romans where Paul states we have all sinned and fallen short and that the wages of sin is death. Luther understood that there is no action that we can do or not do that would gain our salvation, but that it is only through the passive work of faith.

Bmayo makes a solid point here. "If it 'ignores' anything, it is the good works done in the attempt to secure salvation." This is the real issue at hand, not whether a believer is exempt from good works or if a believer is free to sin at will. The question Luther sought to answer, in my opinion, was "how does one obtain salvation: through good works or through faith in Christ?" According to Luther the answer would be, "Salvation is obtained by faith in Christ and NOT by works of the flesh." A person cannot earn salvation. It is a gift (Romans 6:23). If we earned anything, it is death, not salvation.