Review of Macchia, Frank D. Justified in the Spirit: Creation, Redemption, and the Triune God. Pentecostal Manifestos 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010. ISBN: ISBN: 9780802837493, RRP, $32.
In the second installment of the Pentecostal Manifestos series, Frank D. Macchia examines the doctrine of justification with keen ecumenical and pneumatological insight. The doctrine of justification, which centers on the gift of righteousness, has historically been the subject of much scrutiny. Since the age of St. Augustine the Catholic position has favored a subjective, anthropocentric, and imparted view of righteousness as the fruit of justice. The Protestant position, on other hand, has stressed the objective and theocentric nature of imputed righteousness. With the dawning of the Pentecostal movement in the twentieth century, a mediating position has emerged that incorporates Spirit baptism as the guiding metaphor for justification. Herein a dynamic trinitarian link is extended emphasizing the pneumatological dimensions of the doctrine and “mutual embrace” of the Spirit. According to Macchia, professor of systematic theology at Vanguard University and former president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, the Spirit’s embrace is substantively achieved through divine self-giving and indwelling. The Manifestos series, edited by Amos Yong and James K. A. Smith, provides a platform for emerging Pentecostal scholarship to address the broader themes and concerns of contemporary Christian thought.
In part one of this work Macchia enumerates the thesis of Spirit baptism as the central metaphor for the doctrine of justification. The gift of God bestowed in Spirit baptism provides a pivotal link between historic Catholic and Protestant models of justification. Foremost, a Spirit baptism model is identified with the “Spirit-indwelt Christ” who “inaugurates the triumph of divine righteousness in the world and imparts the Spirit to the creature” (75). This model formed the basis of William J. Seymour’s soteriology. Seymour, founder of the Pentecostal movement, identified justification with regeneration and the Spirit’s initial-indwelling, and the baptism in the Spirit with the fullness of divine indwelling. The same model became the basis for Oneness Pentecostal Christology and soteriology, according to which Spirit baptism is seen as the culmination of the threefold “full-salvation” pattern of repentance, faith, and water baptism.
In part two Macchia underscores the basis of our justification. Old Testament righteousness is fulfilled in the bestowal of the Spirit in the renewal of God’s covenant people. This righteousness is concentrated objectively in Christ, the Anointed One who brings freedom, obedience, and hope through the coming of the Spirit to indwell all things. The Spirit-indwelt Christ provides the necessary link between objective (Christological) and subjective (pneumatological) justification. The end result is an objective pneumatology rooted in election and the doctrine of the atonement, depicting the Christ-event as a Spirit-event. Election is herein understood as God’s “predetermined act of self-giving for the creation” (137). As the “elect one,” the center of gravity for the Spirit’s indwelling is located in Christ who mediates the Spirit to sinful humanity through the atonement, resurrection, and ascension.
Part three examines the eschatological dimension of justification. Through participation by faith, and in the unity of the Spirit, the justified community lives as witnesses of the divine love. The great mistake of the Protestant Reformation was separating the work of love from the faith “alone” which receives grace. Faith and love (following the apostle Paul, Martin Luther, and Karl Barth) are “kenotic” (self-emptying) responses to God’s self-giving. Justification through Spirit baptism means “solidarity of love and communion” and implies faithful participation through Christ in the mutual love of Father, Son, and Spirit. Macchia favors an interactive, perichoretic, and ultimately koinoniac model of mutual indwelling and communion (278). In this respect the Spirit’s vocation as “third person” is to open the fellowship of the Trinity beyond the “I-thou” of Father and Son. The overabundance of trinitarian fellowship in the Spirit according to Macchia draws all flesh into divine koinonia. Justification is no longer an individual reality, but is essentially communal, ushering all creation into the justice of trinitarian fellowship and love.
Justified in the Spirit offers a categorical reformulation of the doctrine of justification in light of the work of the divine Spirit. For Macchia the Spirit is far from a passive participant in the act of justification. Exceeding existing moralist Catholic and often legalistic Protestant metaphors, our justification before God in Christ becomes an active and pneumatic participation in trinitarian communion. Traditional Christocentric models are reintegrated into a model of Spirit-indwellment, thereby fostering a dynamic, inter-relational, and communal understanding of justification.
This book is arguably the most important contribution to ecumenical dialogue on the doctrine of justification since the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification issued in 1999. The Declaration marked a critical step in the achievement of Christian unity between Roman Catholics and Protestants (the Lutheran World Federation). This work represents the best in scholarship on the doctrine from a Pentecostal point of view. Macchia, himself a noted ecumenist, engages the traditional perspectives on justification while effectively reconceiving those perspectives within the context of Pentecostal renewal theology. The emphasis on the “participatory” nature of Spirit-indwellment provides a meeting ground for Catholic, Protestant, in addition to Eastern orthodox perspectives on justification. The Eastern theosis concept of participation is easily reconciled with a Pentecostal worldview positing Spirit baptism as the basis for sharing in the righteousness of Christ.
True to the purpose and scope of the Pentecostal Manifestos series, Macchia delivers a critical investigation into a key theological issue, while recasting that issue within the framework of an imaginative, Spirit-oriented position. Macchia poignantly and judiciously weighs opposing viewpoints and rearticulates them for the broader audience which includes the growing global Pentecostal-charismatic community. As a systematic theologian, the strength of Macchia’s proposal is his constructive and forward-looking examination of Christian doctrine. This work will appeal to Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Christians alike interested in the ecumenical points-of-dialogue regarding the issue of justification, and deserves a place on the shelves of anyone genuinely concerned with the renewal of Christian doctrine in the twenty-first century.