A Question For Medieval Theologians

Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.   Romans 5:1, ESV

Early on in the church’s history, the New Testament was translated from Greek into Latin. This translation—the Vulgate—became the standard Bible used by the church for over a thousand years.

The word that the Vulgate used for the English word justified meant “made righteous.” So when medieval theologians studied Romans 5:1, it read like this: “Since we have been made righteous by faith, we have peace with God.”

This translation led to the conclusion that the only way to have peace with God was to become a righteous person, and if one ceased to be righteous, that person would lose peace with God. If you had asked a medieval theologian, “How can I have peace with God?” he would probably have said, “You have to be righteous.”

If I could ask a medieval theologian one question, I would ask, “Are you righteous?” That would be difficult for our medieval friend to answer. It would be hard to say yes because Jesus warned about the dangers of being confident in our own righteousness, but if he said no, he had no way to peace with God.

For over a thousand years, the church’s understanding was this: justification is the way God makes a bad person good. Christ gives you a spotless robe; it is your responsibility to keep that robe clean by living according to God’s law. If you fail, confession and penance are God’s appointed means of restoring the purity of the robe.

The big question was, have you preserved the righteousness given to you by Jesus Christ? That left honest people desperately scouring their memories to make sure all their sins were confessed and appropriate penance performed.

This is a crushing burden. If our salvation depends on preserving the righteousness Jesus gives us, the best of us could only be agnostic about our salvation. We might hope to enter heaven; we could never be sure.

But you can know that you’re in a right relationship with God through faith in Christ. When faith unites you with Jesus, he assumes your debt and you are credited with his righteousness. Justification doesn’t depend on your performance; it depends on God applying the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection to your life.

For further reading, see Romans 5