Pietists Turn to 1 Timothy 3:16, But Lenski Is an Antidote

KJV 1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was

1. manifest in the flesh, 
2. justified in the Spirit, 
3. seen of angels, 
4. preached unto the Gentiles, 
5. believed on in the world, 
6. received up into glory. [numbers added by GJ, to show the Trinitarian form].

Lenski:

When and how was Jesus declared righteous by God? In and by the act of raising him from the dead. Men had nailed him to the cross, condemned him to the cross as one accursed of God, for to be hung on wood meant to be declared accursed of God; him God raised from the dead, him God thereby declared righteous. God’s forensic judgment was analytic: Jesus himself was declared righteous; it was not synthetic: another’s righteousness was not imputed to him. On Christ’s sinlessness note John 8:46; Heb. 10:7, 9; 7:26; 4:15. Why this signal act of declaring Jesus righteous? He is made “unto us righteousness,” 1 Cor. 1:30; “he was raised for our righteousness,” Rom. 4:21; “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 1 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 10:4.

The phrases match the verbs; a person would not be manifested “in spirit,” the manifestation would be “in flesh,” for when “flesh” is used to designate the whole human nature, as it is here, it includes body, soul, and spirit and thus the whole visible, bodily life that is manifest to other men and manifesting the kind of person one is. So Christ was manifested “in flesh,” and John 1:14 says, “we beheld his glory,” etc. But one is not justified or declared righteous “in flesh” but “in spirit,” for one’s spirit is judged when a justification occurs; here it was Christ’s spirit of holy obedience unto the death on the accursed cross.

Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus and to Philemon. Columbus, O. : Lutheran Book Concern, 1937, S. 611.


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GJ - The misuse of 1 Timothy 3:16 shows how rationalism works. Man has no parallel with Christ, yet they create one in their minds. They attack the majesty of Christ in doing so. They have God declaring Christ righteous in the same way man is declared righteous. They conclude that all of mankind is declared righteous in the resurrection of Christ. Thus they connect this verse and Romans 4:25 with their fake exegesis.


One flaw alone defeats their scheme. Christ did not die as a sinner. He died as the Holy One. The resurrection revealed this holiness to the world.


KJV Psalm 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption.

To have the world declared righteous, a rolling righteousness that seems to take effect before birth, according to that whack job Ed Preuss, is the fantasy of UOJ. And how does that happen without the Word? No one has explained it, as much as they posture about their exegetical skills.

Somehow this point-in-time world absolution must move forward as people are born, since they are born forgiven, but no one deals with pre-resurrection world absolution. Abraham was justified by faith in the Old Testament so Sodom was justified without faith? Let me be the first to acknowledge confusion.