Two Kinds of Righteousness

Some intriguing quotations from Luther’s treatise on Two Kinds of Righteousness .

1) The first sort is “alien righteousness”: “The first is alien righteousness, that is the righteousness of another, instilled from without. This is the righteousness of Christ by which he justifies though faith, as it is written in I Cor. 1:30: ‘whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’ In John 11:25-26, Christ himself states: ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me . . . ..shall never die.’ Later he adds in John 14:6, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ This righteousness, then, is given to men in baptism and whenever they are truly repentant. Therefore a man can with confidence boast in Christ and say: ‘Mine are Christ?s living, doing, and speaking, his suffering and dying, mine as much as if I had lived, done, spoken, suffered, and died as he did.’ Just as a bridegroom possesses all that is his bride?s and she all that is his ?Efor the two have all things in common because they are one flesh[Gen. 2:24] ?Eso Christ and the church are one spirit [Eph. 5:29-32].”

2) Surprisingly, however, Luther does not consider this “alien righteousness” to be fixed and static. It does not all come at once: “Therefore this alien righteousness, instilled in us without our works by grace alone ?Ewhile the Father, to be sure, inwardly draws us to Christ ?Eis set opposite original sin, likewise alien, which we acquire without our works by birth alone. Christ daily drives out the old Adam more and more in accordance with the extent to which faith and knowledge of Christ grow. For alien righteousness is not instilled all at once, but it begins, makes progress, and is finally perfected at the end through death.”

3) The second sort of righteousness is the righteousness of our good deeds: “The second kind of righteousness is our proper righteousness, not because we alone work it, but because we work with that first and alien righteousness. This is that manner of life spent profitably in good works, in the first place, in slaying the flesh and crucifying the desires with respect to the self, of which we read in Gal. 5:24, ‘And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.’ In the second place, this righteousness consists in love to one?s neighbor, and in the third place, in meekness and fear towards God. The Apostle is full of references to these, as is all the rest of Scripture. He briefly summarizes everything, however, in Titus 2:12, ‘In this world let us live soberly (pertaining to crucifying one?s own flesh), justly (referring to one?s neighbor), and devoutly (relating to God).’

4) The righteousness of good deeds depends on the progressive “alien righteousness”: “This [second] righteousness is the product of the righteousness of the first type, actually its fruit and consequence, for we read in Gal. 5:22, ‘But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’ For because the works mentioned are works of men, it is obvious that in this passage a spiritual man is called ‘spirit.’ In John 3:6 we read, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’”

And this second righteousness works along with the first in a process of “sanctification”: “This righteousness goes on to complete the first for it ever strives to do away with the old Adam and to destroy the body of sin. Therefore it hates itself and loves its neighbor; it does not seek its own good, but that of another, and in this its whole way of living consists. For in that it hates itself and does not seek its own, it crucifies the flesh. Because it seeks the good of another, it works love. Thus in each sphere it does God?s will living soberly with self, justly with neighbor, devoutly toward God.”