Are Christians merely forgiven, or do they possess the righteousness of Christ? Recently the time-honored understanding of the doctrine of justification has come under attack. Many question how—or if—we receive the full righteousness of Christ.

Martin Luther said that if we understand justification “we are in the clearest light; if we do not know it, we dwell in the densest darkness.” And now, in this new and important book, John Piper accepts Luther’s challenge. He points out that we need to see ourselves as having been recipients of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and therefore enjoy full acceptance with God and the everlasting inheritance of life and joy.

Piper writes as both a pastor and a scholar. His pastor’s heart is shown in his zeal for the welfare of the church. His careful scholarship is evident in each explanation and undergirds each conclusion.

As I have preached through the first eight chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans in the last four years, I have found my mind and heart moving toward Luther's estimation of the doctrine of justification, and particularly the imputation of Christ's righteousness as the precious foundation of our full acceptance and everlasting inheritance of life and joy.

[Justification is] the chief article of Christian doctrine. To him who understands how great its usefulness and majesty are, everything else will seem slight and turn to nothing. For what is Peter? What is Paul? What is an angel from heaven? What are all creatures in comparison with the article of justification? For if we know this article, we are in the clearest light; if we do not know it, we dwell in the densest darkness. Therefore if you see this article impugned or imperiled, do not hesitate to resist Peter or an angel from heaven; for it cannot be sufficiently extolled.

I do believe that the article is "impugned [and] imperiled" in our day. And while I would rather glory in it than argue for it, sometimes resistance is a form of rejoicing. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven... a time to break down, and a time to build up... a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak... a time for war, and a time for peace" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, ESV). A time to delight in the truth and a time to defend the truth. For the sake of delight.

Chapter One will explain why I have invested so much energy in this controversy. For now, I would simply say that the glory of Christ is the most precious reality in the universe, and it is obscured when the doctrine of justification is lost or blurred for the people of God and the mission of the church. I pray that this small effort will help preserve the "usefulness and majesty" of this truth. I offer it as a fallible act of worship in the hope that "Christ for righteousness" (Romans 10:4) will be more "sufficiently extolled."

I hope that thinking laypeople, pastors, and scholars will read this book. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 are, I believe, readable and hope-giving to the ordinary layperson. Chapter 3 is a rigorous and demanding exegetical argument. But disciplined minds can follow the argument without advanced theological training or foreign languages. In fact I would encourage the effort. Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves. Digging is hard, but you might find gold.

I have dedicated the book to the first class of The Bethlehem Institute because their questions for two years drove me back to the texts again and again to see things more clearly. I thank God for my comrade Tom Steller, whose challenges focused my energies on the crucial issues. I thank God for the Council of Elders of Bethlehem Baptist Church who freed me at least three times to do this work, because they really believe that it matters for the church and the cause of Christ in the world. And I thank God for the partnership of Lane Dennis and the team at Crossway Books for sharing the burden I have in this book.

Justin Taylor and Matt Perman deserve special thanks because of the extraordinary assistance they gave in helping conceive and assemble this final version of the book. Matt also provided the subject index, and Carol Steinbach, with her usual excellence, provided the text and person indexes. As always, my wife Noël read it all, and caught mistakes that others didn't. Finally, thanks to Robert Gundry for his perhaps unwitting assistance in bringing it all to a crisis for me, so that my thinking moved from brain to book. He graciously read my exegetical arguments against his view and allowed me to quote his correspondence. He is not persuaded. May God give us light and move all his people toward the fullest understanding and enjoyment of Christ, our righteousness.

Largely a result of the emergence in recent decades of the 'new perspective' on Paul is the growing denial today that the apostle teaches the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers. Counted Righteous in Christ is such an important book because it confronts this denial head-on and counters the charge that the heart of the Reformation doctrine of justification rests on a misunderstanding of Scripture. Written in the author's typically spirited and winsome fashion, it provides what is most urgently needed in the face of this charge: a clear and convincing exegetical case for the gospel truth affirmed in its title. The broader church is deeply indebted to John Piper for what it has been given to him to produce in the midst of the already overly full demands of a busy pastorate.

Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.

Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology

Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

John Piper's defense of the Reformation's traditional interpretation of the imputation of Christ's righteousness deserves to be taken very seriously. Expert biblical scholars must, in the end, judge the details of his exegesis, but all careful readers should be able to see that he has presented a telling account of the practical spiritual value of the doctrine, its centrality in the church's most enduring hymnody, and its critical importance in the theology of the New Testament.

Mark A. Noll

McManis Chair of Christian Thought

Wheaton College

In this exegetical study John Piper carefully demonstrates the importance and the biblical basis of the doctrine of imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer. This is important reading in light of recent challenges to the traditional understanding of justification.

Millard J. Erickson

Distinguished Professor of Theology

Truett Seminary, Baylor University

While the biblical doctrine of justification is about more than imputation, it does not involve less. John Piper has written a vigorous and timely book on this neglected and yet critically important theme. From the historic Protestant perspective, the doctrine of imputation underscores the radical character of divine grace, and John makes this point with clarity, passion, and insight.

Timothy George

Dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

Executive Editor, Christianity Today

While evangelicals sleep, people we once trusted have been sowing seeds of false doctrine in the church. Responding to the latest departure from the faith, John Piper challenges those who have abandoned the pivotal doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness. What is at stake here is nothing less than the integrity of the Gospel.

Ronald H. Nash

Professor of Philosophy

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

With the heart of a pastor and the skill of an accomplished exegete, John Piper offers refreshing insight into the practical as well as theoretical importance of the doctrine of justification. It's essential reading at a time when this marvelous gospel is under increasing attack.

Michael S. Horton

Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Apologetics

Westminster Theological Seminary in California

I share the concern of John Piper as he not only sounds the alarm but also rushes to the rescue of all who are tempted to abandon a truly biblical perspective on the issue of imputation.

Alistair Begg

Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Cleveland

Although I have been a Christian for a long time, I became aware of the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's active righteousness only fairly recently. Yet in the years since I have become aware of the 'Blessed Exchange'—my sin for Christ's righteousness—I doubt that a day has gone by without my feasting on this core truth of biblical faith. Consequently, I am deeply grateful to John Piper for his careful articulation and defense of this, the 'leading edge' of Christianity's Good News. Piper also shows how our faithfully embracing this liberating truth should radically affect our daily Christian lives. As Augustine heard the child chant, 'Take and read.'

Mark R. Talbot

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Wheaton College

Executive Editor, Modern Reformation magazine

This is a superb work, wonderful in its clarity, remarkable for its faithful, thorough treatment of the biblical texts, and powerful in the force of its argument. Dr. Piper's simple, potent answer to the recent attacks on the historic Protestant understanding of justification by faith will cure a host of theological ills. This is surely one of the finest and most important books to be published in many years.

John MacArthur

Pastor, Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California

President, The Master's College

John Piper's book on Christ's imputed righteousness is exactly what the current debate over this issue needs. Dr. Piper demonstrates through a precise and persuasive exegesis of the relevant passages that this doctrine is both biblical and important. He argues passionately that understanding the doctrine is spiritually edifying and pastorally helpful. He does all this, moreover, in a charitable, irenic tone suitable for a teaching that is such good news.

Frank Thielman

Presbyterian Professor of Divinity

Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

Now I know something of the shock Augustine must have felt when he initially read Pelagius. My heart is pained that the cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith is called nonsense and passé by friends. Without imputed righteousness Christianity is not Christian, divine justice is made a folly, and sin is requited by mere human sincerity. It is too much to surrender the wonderfully comforting, biblically clear truth that we stand before a holy God clothed and complete in the righteousness of His Son. I thank God that someone has spoken out!

John D. Hannah

Department Chairman, Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology

Dallas Theological Seminary

This is certainly the most solid defense of the imputed righteousness of Christ since the work of John Murray fifty years ago. I'm delighted that Dr. Piper has established that important doctrine, not as a mere article from the confessional tradition, but on the solid foundation of God's Word.

John M. Frame

Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy

Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando

Does Christ's lifelong record of perfect obedience to God get 'credited' to your account when you trust in Christ and are 'justified' by God? This has been the historic Protestant understanding of the 'imputation of Christ's righteousness,' but John Piper warns that we are in danger of losing this doctrine today because of attacks by scholars within the evangelical camp. In response, Piper shows, in careful treatment of passage after passage, that the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers is clearly the teaching of the Bible, and if we abandon this doctrine we will also lose justification by faith alone. I am thankful to God for John Piper's defense of this crucial doctrine.

Wayne Grudem

Research Professor of Theology and Bible

Phoenix Seminary

With John Piper, I think that as the doctrine of justification by faith alone is a vital means to the church's health, so the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ is a vital element in stating that doctrine. Therefore I gladly welcome Dr. Piper's carefully argued reassertion of it.

J. I. Packer

Board of Governors Professor of Theology

Regent College

This book may be short, but it is clear, to the point, and illuminating on the imputation of Christ's righteousness to sinners, without which there is no biblical doctrine of justification and without which the church would certainly fall.

David Wells

Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical & Systematic Theology

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

The Gospel must be defended in every generation. Today, as in the sixteenth century, the central issue is the imputation of Christ's righteousness. John Piper clearly and powerfully proves this is the view of the Bible and not merely of orthodox Protestant theology. The church must say 'No!' to those who declare that imputation is passé. If imputation is passé, then so is the Gospel.

R. C. Sproul

President, Ligonier Ministries

Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics

Knox Theological Seminary

I am thankful for John Piper's zeal for the glory of Christ and the good of the church, and for his careful exegesis of the relevant texts. For myself 2 Corinthians 5:21 is enough, affirming the glorious exchange that the sinless Christ was made sin (by imputation) with our sins, in order that in Christ we might become righteous (by imputation) with his righteousness. In consequence Christ has no sin but ours, and we have no righteousness but his.

John Stott

With a mind deeply saturated in God's word, a heart longing for the church's purity and confidence, and a passion that Christ be honored in all and above all, John Piper writes Counted Righteous in Christ to guide a new generation of Christians into the glorious truth of our justification by faith alone, in Christ alone. One cannot help but marvel at and rejoice in the care with which Piper treats relevant passages. Often countering popular and novel proposals, he gives clear and compelling reasons for seeing justification as, centrally, the crediting of Christ's very own and perfect righteousness to the one who trusts in God alone for his salvation. No doctrine is more basic to God's salvation plan and hence more central in understanding the Christian's new identity; yet today these truths are widely ignored or misunderstood. Believer, I commend you to read this book with justified hopes of entering more fully into the liberating freedom of your full and certain righteous standing before the God who justifies the ungodly (marvel!) through faith in the merits of his Son's righteous life and substitutionary death.

Bruce A. Ware

Senior Associate Dean, School of Theology

Professor of Theology

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

This is a timely and important work. Four times in the past four days I have been shocked to read of well-known evangelicals challenging some aspect of the historic, Reformation view of justification. As an eroding tide of evangelical opinion rises against it, may the Lord use John's book to reinforce the theological retaining wall around the lighthouse doctrine of justification.

Don Whitney

Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

The unraveling of evangelical commitment seems always to have a new chapter. In Counted Righteous in Christ, Dr. John Piper has isolated the newest retreat on the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ. This book restates in powerful terms the necessity of Christ's righteousness becoming our own.

Paige Patterson

President, Professor of Theology

Southeastern Theological Baptist Seminary

Dr. Piper writes not only with his customary verve and enthusiasm but also with the courtesy and charity we have come to expect of him, as he robustly defends the traditional doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Those who think that this teaching is neither biblical nor essential to the Christian faith, and can therefore be quietly dropped, will need to weigh Dr. Piper's arguments carefully, particularly his exposition of the Pauline teaching on righteousness and justification.

Peter T. O'Brien

Senior Research Fellow in New Testament and Vice Principal

Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia

Piper provides a passionate, well-informed, and convincing exposition of the centrality of the imputed righteousness of Christ for the justification of sinners. In response to a growing number of scholars and church leaders who have questioned the traditional Protestant understanding of justification, Piper offers a lucid and compelling examination of the biblical evidence in support of that understanding. His many fresh insights and practical applications will challenge the complacent, comfort the afflicted, and inspire lives of grateful praise on the part of those who are the beneficiaries of Christ's redeeming work.

The Rev. Gordon P. Hugenberger

Senior Minister, Park Street Church, Boston

Adjunct Professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

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