2 Corinthians 5:21

Introduction:

There is a virtual theological war being waged today in Evangelical circles as to the meaning of basic ideas such as justification, the righteousness of God, imputation etc. One of the battleground verses is no doubt 2 Corinthians 5:21. I want to argue that the standard Evangelical interpretation of this verse is faulty. Basically, I want to argue that the “righteousness” in the verse refers to God’s activity of saving, judging, vindicating, etc. That is, I take the phrase “righteousness of God” to be a subjective genitive. I will bolster my interpretation of Genesis 15:6 because there I also claim that the righteousness reckoned to Abraham is God’s righteousness as understood has his saving, judging, vindicating etc. I hope to accomplish this task in part by comparing 2 Corinthians 5:21 with Galatians 3:13-14, which I take to be the outgrowth of Galatians 3:6=Genesis 15:6. I believe this comparison will be a decisive factor as to the correctness of the subjective genitive interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:21.

The Verse:

The one not knowing sin [noun] on behalf of us sin [noun] he made, that we might become the righteousness [noun] of God in him.
Note that the verse is not a tidy balanced statement akin to Irenaeus’ “Christ became what we are so that we might become what he is”. In other words, the verse does not say: “Christ was made sin so that we would be made righteous.” (The verse also does not say that we might receive or attain righteousness as does Romans 9:30). Also, the referent of “us” has always been a crux since it need not necessarily refer to all Christians.

The Standard Evangelical Interpretation:

The standard Evangelical gloss on this verse is that the righteousness in question is ours (or the “we” in the verse), so that the phrase “righteousness of God” is either a genitive of origin or an objective genitive. The righteousness concerns our standing before God. It is precisely this understanding of the verse I want to refute. The first red flag, in addition to my note under the verse above, is that on the standard reading one might have expected that we become the “righteousness of Christ” because many Evangelicals read this verse in terms of imputation. However, as I will mention below, Paul has much to say about being “in Christ” and what he says simply cannot be reduced to the idea of imputation as commonly understood.

The Gospel Beyond Belief Interpretation:

When Paul says that we have become the righteousness of God, he is saying that he (and his co-workers and all Christians?) partakes in those activities in which God engages which show God being righteous, such as blessing, reconciling, saving, redeeming etc. Paul is not saying that he becomes righteous before God by being imputed with Christ’s righteousness. Jesus is made sin in the sense that he exhausted the curse of the law which was death due to disobedience. The redemption of Israel means the blessing of the nations, hence the similarities between 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 3:13, and 4:4-5—see below on the issue of the pronouns in Paul.

The Context:

The context certainly favors the Gospel Beyond Belief interpretation. Throughout 2 Corinthians and especially at points near 5:21, Paul indentifies his work with God’s activity:
• 5:18 having given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
• 5:19 having put in us the message of reconciliation.
• 5:20 we are ambassadors as God is entreating through us.
• 5:21 we might become the righteousness of God.
• 6:1 as ones working together with him [God], also we entreat [same word used in 5:20].
The activity of God is rife in these surrounding verses: reconciling, the grace of God (6:1, the verse immediately after 5:21), saving (6:2).
Paul is a servant of God who enacts God’s will (6:4), who is “in the power of God” (6:7) and uses the “weapons of righteousness” (6:7), which no doubt come from God as the phrase “through the weapons of righteousness” immediately follows the phrase “in the power of God”.
It should also be said that elsewhere in Paul, the “righteousness of God” is clearly God’s activity:
• Romans 1:17 for the righteousness of God is in it revealed [this follows 1:16, which mentions the “power of God” and precedes 1:18 and the “wrath of God” which certainly refers to God’s activity).
• Romans 3:5 but if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God [this is meant to pick up the activities of God in 3:4 (judging) and in the same verse “inflicting wrath.”
• Romans 3:21-26 in these verses God’s righteousness is tied to his activities of displaying (25), passing by (25), and justifying (26).

Parallel with Galatians 3:13-14:

2 Corinthians 5:21 is very similar to Galatians 3:13-14 and it is this similarity which is very instructive. Compare the verses:
• Galatians 3:13-14: Christ redeemed US from the curse of the law, having become on behalf of us a curse, because it has been written cursed is everyone having hung on a tree, THAT to the nations the blessings of Abraham might come in Christ Jesus, THAT the promise of the Spirit we might receive through faithfulness.
• 2 Corinthians 5:21: The one not knowing sin on behalf of us sin he made, THAT WE might become the righteousness of God in him.
The similarities are thus (1) on behalf of us (2) in Christ Jesus/him (3) US/WE (4) THAT (5) curse/sin.
The final similarity (6) comes after the “that’s” and concerns activities of God. In Galatians it is the blessings of Abraham which are due to God’s grace (3:18) and in 2 Corinthians the direct analogue is the righteousness of God—note the use of “grace” in 6:1, the verse immediately following 5:21. This similarity (as well as the gift of the Spirit, which also figures heavily in Galatians 3) argues for the identification of the blessing of Abraham and the righteousness of God. Since the blessing of Abraham is God-given and an activity of God, then so is the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is then saying that Paul and the “we” become the agents of God’s blessing, which is exactly what Paul says in the rest of 2 Corinthians.

The Pronouns in 2 Corinthians:

It ought to be highlighted too that the pronouns in 2 Corinthians need not be universal even in the sense of all Christians. The “we” in 5:21 might only refer to Paul and his co-workers. After all, the use of “us” in 5:18b, 5:19b, and 5:20a most likely refer to Paul and his co-workers primarily, as does the meaning in 6:1. Sure, Paul would no doubt want all Christians to imitate him in his ministry but that is not to say that the primary referent to the pronouns here are all Christians. Furthermore, some have argued that the “us” in Galatians 3:13 refers to Jews or Jewish Christians since it is they who were under the curse of the law. If this is so, then it is more likely that the “us” in 2 Corinthians 5:21 refers to Jewish Christian too, of whom Paul belonged.

Theological upshot:

If 2 Corinthians 5:21 is to be interpreted as indicated then this verse simply cannot be used to ground the doctrine of imputation. According to the Gospel Beyond Belief there is a sense in which Jesus’ obedience is imputed to humanity by the grace of God. However, when Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” he has a certain relationship in mind and it is not imputation. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul says that Jesus died for all and so that “all died”. Jesus did not die only in the place a person but so that the person too would die and also rise to life. For Paul, the changes in a Christians are real, they are not legal fictions. As one of many, many examples those in Christ will “walk” according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4); the walk metaphor certainly goes well beyond mere belief. (Paul also uses the walk metaphor when he says that we “keep in step with the steps” of Abraham (Romans 4:12)—this metaphor is usually lost in English translations.)