Book Review: Counted Righteous in Christ

Click on image to purchase at Amazon.comShould We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness by John Piper.

I decided to read Counted Righteous in Christ because Piper refers to it repeatedly in the footnotes of his more recent book, The Future of Justification, particularly when he is giving biblical support for the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness by exegeting relevant passages. Since imputed righteousness is one of my favorite subjects, how could I not check this book out?

While the arguments in it are aimed at all challenges to the doctrine of imputation, this book is a specific response to arguments made by Robert Gundry, because Piper considers him to be “one of the most courageous and straightforward and explicit and clearheaded” of those who challenge the traditional doctrine. Besides, it was two articles Gundry wrote for Books and Culture in 2001 that served as impetus for Piper to tackle this issue.

Gundry believes that God decided to count our own faith as our righteousness. There is no such thing as positive imputation of Christ’s righteousness to those who believe. And justification, according to Gundry, includes freeing the believer from “sin’s mastery,” something that has traditionally been called sanctification and kept distinct from justification. 

The middle section and greatest part of this short book (66 of 125 pages) contains Piper’s exegetical basis for the traditional Protestant view that justification includes the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer, and that it is not faith that is counted as as our righteousness. This bit is difficult reading. I had to work to follow the arguments, and there are sections I’ve marked to go over yet again. It was, however, worth the effort, because Piper builds what is, in the end, an airtight case for the historical Protestant view of justification as the biblical one. 

John Piper is pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. He has written many books, including Desiring God, God Is the Gospel and Finally Alive.

That’s good news for me. My faith is unreliable and a pretty wobbly at times, and if it serves (along with Christ’s death, of course) as grounds for my justification, how can I be assured of my justification? Christ’s righteousness, on the other hand, is rock solid, and anything based on it is certain. As Piper writes, “the full meaning of justification, as pardon and imputed perfection, has proved to be a mighty antidote to despair for the saints.”

But more than that, the historical Protestant doctrine of imputed righteousness

bestows on Jesus Christ the fullest honor that he deserves. Not only should he be honored as the one died to pardon us, and not only should he be honored as the one who sovereignly works faith and obedience in us, but he should also be honored as the one who provided a perfect righteousness for us as the ground of our full acceptance and endorsement by God.

Counted Righteous in Christ is an important book, one you’ll want to read if you’re interested in the doctrine of justification, and especially if you’ve been bothered by the attacks by some evangelical teachers on the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer. Be prepared to take the time to study carefully the 66 pages of scriptural exegesis. 

Counted Righteous in Christ is available as a free pdf from Desiring God, but I’m glad I bought the book so I could mark up the margins in the tricky middle section.