Justified in the Spirit: Creation, Redemption, and the Triune God
Overview
Historically, the premise of justification by grace through faith has been debated according to Protestant and Catholic understandings. It has, therefore, been limited to the question of whether justification is the reception of forgiveness by faith alone or the personal transformation that occurs as we cooperate with grace. Though some recent ecumenical discussions have sought to link to the two, the results have been largely imprecise.
Here Frank D. Macchia seeks not so much to link Protestant and Catholic views as to set them both within a larger framework—the Spirit of Life as the realm of God’s favor. The resulting pneumatological theology of justification by faith is broadly Trinitarian, ecclesiological, and eschatological in orientation.
Get this volume and more in the Pentecostal Manifestos Series (6 vols.).
Key Features
- Examines a larger framework for justification
- Explores both Catholic and Protestant understandings of justification
- Presents a pneumatological theology of justification
Contents
- Imparted Righteousness: The Catholic View of Justification
- Imputed Righteousness: The Protestant View of Justification
- Justification and Spirit Baptism: The Exploration of a Pentecostal Metaphor
- The Promise of the Spirit: Justifying Righteousness in the Old Testament
- Apart from Us: Justification and the Spirit-Indwelt Christ
- Embracing Us: Justification and Spirit Baptism
- Participation: By the Spirit through Faith
- The Spirit and the Other: The Justified Community
- The Embrace of the Spirit: Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Justification
- Justified in the Spirit: A Concluding Reflection
Top Highlights
“No metaphor of legal exchange or process can ultimately capture justification in the Spirit: the Spirit is an abundant and overflowing gift that ultimately defies legal explanations. The very fact that God plays the role of judge, advocate, and witness in this ‘trial’ should tell us that this is not the kind of trial that we can identify with anything familiar to human experience. The fact that justification brings life in the midst of death (Rom. 5:18) tells us that here we are dealing with something that transcends a mere legal acquittal. Justification in Scripture has legal overtones but cannot adequately be grasped by any legal metaphor. Righteousness is not imputed; it is accessed or participated in through faith and by the life of the Spirit.” (Page 6)
“God the Father, in this metaphor, seems to be a relatively passive spectator who happily accepts Christ’s advocacy but had nothing fundamentally at stake in its outcome and played no active role in it.” (Page 5)
“One cannot, therefore, separate the cross from the resurrection and Pentecost along the lines of justification and sanctification. These events represent a seamless mediation of the Spirit, the mediation of life and justice in communion with God. Grace is not a divine disposition but an abundantly poured-out gift of divine self-giving to the sinner. The right relationship is not a distant agreement but an intimate communion of love involving a mutual indwelling.” (Page 8)
“How indeed can one eliminate from justification the advocacy and witness of the Spirit to and through the community of the faithful throughout history and in eschatological fulfillment? Neither can we view the gift of the Spirit as a mere addendum to justification nor a collateral gift only logically connected to justification by Christ. All soteriological categories occur in Christ and in the Spirit, or ‘in the name of Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 6:11).” (Pages 8–9)
Praise for the Print Edition
Argues persuasively that Christian teaching about the Spirit (pneumatology) has much to offer to a correct understanding of justification. . . . We have here a book of singular consequence.
—William Gr. Rusch, professor, Yale Divinity School
With Macchia’s Justified in the Spirit Pentecostal systematic theology has come of age. . . . Catholics and Protestants will no longer be able to attribute a secondary role to the Spirit, while Pentecostals will discover the hidden treasures that their movement signifies.
—Ralph Del Colle, associate professor of theology, Marquette University
- Title: Justified in the Spirit: Creation, Redemption, and the Triune God
- Author: Frank D. Macchia
- Series: Pentecostal Manifestos
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2010
- Logos Release Date: 2016
- Pages: 355
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Justification (Christian theology); Pentecostal churches › Doctrines
- ISBNs: 9780802837493, 0802837492
- Resource ID: LLS:JUSTIFIEDSPIRIT
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:59:54Z
Frank D. Macchia is Professor of Systematic Theology at Vanguard University of Southern California. He holds the MDiv from Union Theological Seminary (New York) and the DTheol from the University of Basel (Switzerland). He edits Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (Brill) and has authored Baptized in the Spirit (Zondervan, 2006).