Author: Jack Kilcrease

Jack Kilcrease is a Lutheran lay theologian and member of Our Savior Lutheran Church (LCMS). He is currently a member of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations. Jack was born in Texas, but grew up in Oregon. He went on to receive a B.A. from Luther College and an M.A. from Luther Seminary. He earned his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology and Ethics from Marquette University in 2009. Jack’s theological work explores the gift of God’s self-donation in Jesus Christ. He is the author of several books including the most recent volume of the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series on Holy Scripture and the forthcoming Justification by the Word (Lexham Press). Jack is currently Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at the Institute of Lutheran Theology’s Christ School of Theology. He is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor teaching philosophy at Aquinas College. Jack lives in beautiful West Michigan with his lovely wife, Bethany, and his two energetic daughters, Miriam and Ruth. When he’s not thinking about theology—and even when he is—Jack enjoys running, hiking, and hanging out with his family and cat. He’s passionate about BBQ, whiskey, jazz, movies, and theological discussion.
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New Historical Theology Podcast: Doth Protest Too Much

Fr. Andrew Christiansen, a fine student of mine at the Institute of Lutheran Theology, is producing a new historical theology podcast called Doth Protest Too Much. The Fr. Christiansen writes that the ecumenical interview-based podcast will “dive into the last 500+ years of church history and the theological developments within the broad ‘Protestant’ tradition, from the Reformation to modern theology.” I was honored to be the first guest and engage in a stimulating discussion about the Protestant Scholastics on the episode “Those Cut-and-Dry Scholastics.”

Rev. Andrew Christiansen is the Canon for Youth and Schools at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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The Imputation of Righteousness and our Future-Present Justification

Although justification is pronounced objectively in the resurrection (Rom. 4:25), it is received subjectively through faith that hears the promise: “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved . . . [And] faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:10, v. 17).  No one can have faith apart from the electing and regenerative work of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:14, 12:3, Gal. 3:2).  Christ makes intercession on behalf of believers in heaven, on the basis of his sacrifice on the cross (Rom. 8:34).  The Holy Spirit, the who is the spirit of the Son (Gal. 4:6), makes the fruits of Christ’s intercession – justification – present in the heart of the believer (Rom. 10:6-13) through the hearing of the Word (Rom. 10:7, Gal. 3:2).  Much as the elect representational persons stood in the place of Israel in the Old Testament as mediators, so too Christ and his righteousness stand in for the unrighteousness of the unbeliever through an act of imputation (Rom. 3:25, 4:9, v. 22, 8:10, 1 Cor. 1:30, 2 Cor. 5:21, Gal. 3:6, Phil. 3:9).  The concept of representation that we see in the Old Testament therefore makes sense of Paul’s language of imputation in atonement and justification.  In atonement, Christ is imputed with human sin, and in justification humans are imputed with Christ’s righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21).

It is important to notice that Paul uses the term eschatological term “justification” for what happens proleptically (in the future) to believers in the present.  As we observed earlier, for Second Temple Jews, at the end of time God would “justify” (judge righteous and vindicate) those who had adhered to the covenant and usher them into the kingdom.  For Paul, Christ is the object of election and justification.  He is one the one who has adhered to the covenant and be vindicated on the eschatological day of his resurrection.  Therefore, in the present believers can proleptically receive through Christ what they will receive at the end of time through faith in the promise (i.e., election and justification).  This is because the eschaton has already happened for Christ, and therefore when believers enter into him the eschaton happens to them as well.  Outwardly, believers remain in the current age weighed down by sin and death, but in the inner being they already have been ushered into the kingdom of the resurrected: “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:10).