Theological Term of the Week: Simul Justus et Peccator

simul justus et peccator
Latin for “at the same time just and sinner,” a formula Martin Luther used to communicate “the objective  reality of justification by faith alongside the Christian’s continual struggle against sin.”1

• From scripture:

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness .  .  .  . (Romans 4:5 ESV).

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chaper 11:

1. Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.

• From Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, page 255:

[T]he Reformers insisted that the formal cause of our justification is the righteousness and obedience of Christ imputed to believers by faith alone. An inherent righteousness cannot be the cause of or justification because our best deeds are always imperfect. The Pharisee confessed that he had done his good works by God’s grace, but still he could not be justified by them (Luke 18:9-14). 

… Imputation is essential to the storyline of Scripture. Adam’s disobedience was imputed, our sin was imputed to Christ, and Christ’s obedience is imputed to the elect. Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen.15:6; Rom. 4:23-25; Gal. 3:6). The logic of 2 Corinthians 5:21 teaches the we must become righteous that same way Christ became sin. Righteousness is not the moral quality of the justified soul just like sin was not the moral quality of Christ’s soul. Though without sin, Christ was reckoned to be a sinner. In the same way, though still sinners, we are reckoned to be righteous.

… Righteousness is constituted of us—by imputation—in order for “righteous” to be justly declared of us. God did not set aside that law in judging us. He fulfilled it. Christ bore the curse of the law so that in him we might become the righteousness of God—sinners, but as the same time justified (simul justus et peccator).

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul: What Does “Simul Justus et Peccator” Mean?
2. R. C. Sproul: “Simul Justus et Peccator”
3. Monergism.com: Simul Iustus et Peccator
4. Kevin DeYoung: Five Key Concepts in the Reformation Understanding of Justification

Related terms:

• active obedience
• double imputation
• justification

1From Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Faith by Kelly M. Kapic & Wesley Vander Lugt

Filed under Reformed Theology

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