Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification

by Alister E. McGrath

of God’s own righteousness with its actualisation in the transformation of the nature of humanity.56 It is like the declaration of God’s riches, not only in that God is rich, but also in that God makes others rich; or in the same way about [the declaration of God’s] life, not only in that God is living, but also in that God makes the dead to live; and of [the declaration of God’s] power, not only in that God is powerful, but also in that God makes the weak powerful. So the declaration of God’s righteousness is not only that God is righteous, but also that God makes those that are corrupted by sin immediately righteous.

What God says is. Ours is to say amen. Be it done to me according to thy word. God spoke and worlds leapt into existence. real worlds. God spoke and the Virgin conceived after her fiat. Real God and Real Man...Real Flesh and Blood. No world of legal fiction. A world a gravity and sun burns and cold water on parched throats. No apparent flesh. Actual Flesh torn by Pilate's torturers. So too, at the Last Supper, "...this is My Body...".