Finally, Schreiner said it is strange that Wright maligns imputation when he admits God requires perfect obedience.
via A Justification Debate Long Overdue – The Gospel Coalition Blog.
One last comment. I simply don’t understand how this argument can be used since it so obviously denies the cross of Christ. Note, that I think an exegetical argument from 1 Corinthians 1.30 is just fine (though the term from Romans, “righteousness of God” is missing and thus proves nothing about what Paul says in Romans).
The logic of this kind of argument, though, is horrible. God says obey or die. Adam disobeys. Jesus dies the death Adam deserves so that he is no longer liable to that death. Thus, Adam is no longer under the curse and is counted as righteous based on the obedience-to-death of Christ.
And then theologians come along and say that Christ’s death is insufficient and Adam needs more from Christ in order to escape God’s wrath?
That’s an odd way to claim to defend the Gospel.
For further reading:
Machen, Adam, and the forgiven Christian
If “active obedience” is imputed, it is not to make up for any alleged insufficiency in the passive
Zacharias Ursinus and the Imputation of the Active Obedience
I’m glad you made this post.
It is indeed annoying (to say the least) that those who deny Imputed Active Obedience are accused of denying Christ was sinless and perfectly obedient. They fail to see that is never denied, and that His sinless and perfect obedience is necessary for our salvation, but only in order to make him a worthy Sacrifice. This is akin to how an athlete needs food to get energy to run the race, but the food itself is not a component in the winning of the race, only the running is.
The reasoning behind IAO is that these theologians are projecting their systematic theology onto the Bible and forcing the Bible to teach something it never does.
I’ve finished those other suggested readings you gave and immediately subscribed to your blog feed on Google Reader.
One suggestion: enable the commenting option of “email me of follow up comments” so that when someone comments they can be alerted when new responses come in.
Nick, you can also subscribe to the comment feed for all posts here at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/CommentsForOnceMoreWithFeeling