Luther illustrates justification with the image of a mortally sick man and his doctor. The doctor is so certain that he is going to heal the patient that he declares him well already, and tells the patient to consider himself well. The patient trusts the doctor so thoroughly that he considers himself well now, takes all the medicine prescribed, and looks eagerly to the time when he’s finally healed. (Scot Hafemann, incidentally, has argued that Paul’s doctrine of justification is very like this.)
Though this parable doesn’t capture everything that the Bible says about justification, it neatly captures a number of things:
-The patient is, in the present, simultaneously sick and well. Sick in that he is not wholly healed, well in the judgment of the doctor.
-The patient’s “status” is that of “well.” The patient accepts this judgment because he trusts the doctor, not because of the condition of his own body.
-Justification on this view is a verdict or judgment already passed. The patient is well. That’s how the doctor regards him, and how the patient should regard himself. But he is well in spe , in hope. This “verdict” points to the final state of the patient, which is one of complete healing. The faith that receives justification is the assurance of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen.
-The present judgment of health in this parable is grounded in the future state of the patient. The doctor saying “you are well” depends on his confident “I will heal you.” But notice that the future state of the patient is not the product of the patient’s own doing at all. It’s all the doctor’s doing. The doctor doesn’t pronounce the patient healthy because he knows the patient has the capacity to make himself healthy. The patient doesn’t have that capacity, which is why the patient has to rely completely on the doctor. The physician pronounces the patient well because of the doctor’s confidence in his own healing powers.
-The doctor’s “verdict” on the patient is also a commitment to see the patient through to complete healing.
On Luther’s analogy, then, the verdict of justification is not only a statement about the status of the person justified. The verdict is a promise about what the Physician will do for the person. In saying “You are right in Christ,” the Father is also saying “And I have given my Spirit to make you righteous in fact.” Justification is God’s pronouncement that things are right; and it is likewise His utter commitment that He will not rest until things are set right.
Is this promissory aspect of justification sufficiently appreciated in Reformed churches?
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