Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision

by Tom Wright and N.T. Wright

Book Overview

Few issues are more central to the Christian faith than the nature, scope and means of salvation. Many have thought it to be largely a transaction that gets one to heaven. In this riveting book, N. T. Wright explains that God's salvation is radically more than this. At the heart of much vigorous debate on this topic is the term the apostle Paul uses in several of his letters to describe what happens to those in Christ-- justification. Paul uses this...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830838635
• ISBN13: 9780830838639
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

It's not about you.

Book title: Justification Author: N.T. Wright Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2009 Number of pages: 252 Leading New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has taken C.S. Lewis's seat at the table. As Lewis changed the way people looked at Christianity, read their Bibles and thought about God in the twentieth century, Wright will do the same in the twenty-first. Like Lewis, Wright has a talent for making difficult biblical concepts accessible to the average person. He is a primary scholar in the New Perspective on Paul. Wright sheds light on aspects of Paul and his theology that have left to gather dust in the dark corners of church tradition. Wright's rise to popularity makes him a lightning rod for controversy. He intends to educate, but theological sacred cows are kicked over in the process. Incoming criticism rains down on him from several theological strong-holds. Some he deflects and some he absorbs. His most public fire-fight revolves around his treatment of the Doctrine of Justification. Opponents say that Wright's New Perspective is out of balance; that examining Paul in a historical Jewish context is a mistake. Wright's answer: "...we end up reading [Paul] as though was really a 17th-century theologian born out of due time..." Wright posits in his book Paul: In Fresh Perspective that most of what we accept about Paul is based on scholarship that has been delivered to the world since the Reformation. But Paul pre-dates the Reformation. Author Scot McKnight attempts to sum up the New Perspective in three bullet points: 1. Judaism was not a works-earns-salvation religion. 2. Paul was therefore not opposing a works-earns-salvation religion. 3. Therefore, the Reformation's way of framing the entire message of the New Testament as humans seeking to earn their own redemption rests on shaky historical grounds. "Right or wrong," writes McKnight, "the New Perspective is the most Protestant move made in the 20th Century -- and by that I only mean that it seeks to get back to the Bible and challenge our beliefs in light of what we find in that Bible." John Piper leads the assault. In his 2007 book The Future of Justification, Piper attempts to punch holes in Wright's position. Wright's new book, Justification, is a response to his critics. Wright gives a thorough explanation of justification doctrinally and exegetically from Paul's epistles. Piper, in his book, explains justification against the backdrop of Reformed Tradition appealing mostly to Luther and Calvin rather than re-examining the Bible in its historical context. Piper's position on the doctrine of justification is that the righteousness of Christ and His perfect obedience is imputed to the believer once faith is placed in Christ. That is, Christ's perfect obedience, morality and virtue becomes the believer's perfect obedience, morality, and virtue. Piper makes the point that Wright believes God merely declares us righteous based on the work of Christ and includes us in His family. W

Consider the bigger picture

Since reading Wright's Paul: In Fresh Perspective, I have been waiting for Wright to expound on the doctrine of justification. This book fills the bill, and it goes far beyond what I expected. I disagree with those reviewers who say that Wright's use of historical context violates the "sola scriptura" model of the Reformers. In fact, the Reformers were making their own assumptions about the historical context of Paul's writings; they assumed either that Paul's issues were identical to their own (Renaissance/Enlightenment) issues or that the epistles could be treated as ahistorical expositions of universal truths (in spite of the fact that Paul contextualized each of his letters by addressing them to particular churches and even to specific people in those churches). The bottom line is that the much-vaunted "sola scriptura" of the Reformers was far from "sola"! Wright's practice of exploring Paul's teaching within a specific historical context is right on. (By the way, many Christians in the Reformed tradition, and I include myself in that number, have been guilty of treating the Reformation as God's last word on theology. But if the Reformers could claim that Augustine and Anselm and Aquinas weren't the last word, who are we to say that the Reformers were? They have no special claim to truth that wasn't possessed by their predecessors, without whom the Reformers would have had little to say about theology.) Wright is not claiming that he has the last word. As more is learned about first-century Judaism, he will no doubt adjust his current thinking. That approach is more biblical, and certainly more humble, than that of those who think they already have the last word. But as much as I appreciate Wright's desire to locate his exegesis within a historical understanding of Paul's context, there's something about this book I appreciate even more. The following passages from pages 23 and 24 will show what I mean: "Salvation is hugely important.... Knowing God for oneself, as opposed to merely knowing or thinking about him, is at the heart of Christian living.... But we are not the center of the universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around him. It may look, from our point of view, as though 'me and my salvation' are the be-all and end-all of Christianity. Sadly, many people--many devout Christians!--have preached that way and lived that way. This problem is not peculiar to the churches of the Reformation. It goes back to the high Middle Ages in the Western church, and infects and affects Catholic and Protestant, liberal and conservative, high and low church alike. But a full reading of Scripture itself tells a different story. "God made humans for a purpose: not simply for themselves, not simply so that they could be in relationship with him, but so that through them, as his image-bearers, he could bring his wise, glad, fruitful order to the world. And the closing verses of Scripture, in the book of Revelation, are not about human

Finally...

NT Wright spells out his view of justification, and delivers with chapter after chapter of solid exegesis. Wright continues in his characteristic approach to the Pauline epistles by laying out the over-arching framework in which Paul thinks and by tracing Paul's line of thought through several key passages. The result? A coherent picture of God's plan and Paul's vision. And, equally as important, Wright returns the respectful tenor of conversation that was extended to him by Piper. A Great Buy!

Wright is Right!

I grew up on Piper, Carson, Grudem and others in response to my semi-pelegian pentecostal upbringing. I found in their reformed theology a focus on God's grace, the love of God, and a proper following of scripture. And while I will always have a deep respect for this heritage, it has now become apparent that with Wright's focus on a first-century context (instead of a 16th century), his work (even if not right in every aspect) is at least taking biblical studies and general theology in the right direction: beyond the questions of "me and my salvation" to what Paul was saying in his letters - "How is God saving the world through Israel". In this book, you will find an amazing focus on what Paul said in his own context and will come to see that Justification is not the center of Pauls thought but to be firmly placed within (what Wright numerously hammers home) Gods-single-plan-through-Israel-for-the-world, covenant, christology, the Holy Spirit and eschatology. As such, it is clear that the idea of imputed righteousness (with all its good intentions) is not only foreign to Paul, but unnecessary as Paul's theology (according to Wright) has the same result with even more! It is hard not to feel the frustration Wright has throughout his book at times with those, such as Piper, who use their own well-known reformed theological system of belief to then use as a yardstick for interpreting Wrights work and totally misunderstand what he is saying. It is hard to predict the response Wright will receive from from the American army of conservatives who think they are the only ones who know the Bible. At times Wright is a little patronizing; but as i said, he seems sick of having to lay it out over and over again. As wright says at the end of his introduction: "for too long we have read scripture with nineteenth-century eyes and sixteenth-century questions. It's time to get back and read with first-century eyes and twenty-first-century questions" (p. 21). Can't agree more! Can't wait for his next Pauline volume! Stimulating read

Brilliant!

This is without a doubt a must have book for those who are interested in the discussions on Paul and his theology. This book is Wright's most clear and dogmatic explanation of what he believes that Paul is saying. It is direct it is, for him, succinct and it drives home the point the point that we must be historically and contextually grounded to get an accurate reading of what is really going on in St. Paul's writings. As always with Wright you get far more than just an explanation of justification. Just order it. Whether you are a proponent of his readings or not you will gain a lot from the book.