Wright’s  Justification  For  Everyone   The  Theology  of  N.T.  Wright  Made  Simple   Derek Ouellette

 

 

Wright’s Justification For Everyone

TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  ............................................................................................................................  1   INTRODUCTION  ....................................................................................................................................  2   2.  THE  RIGHTEOUSNESS  OF  GOD  ..........................................................................................................  6   ROOTED  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  ....................................................................................................................  7   ROOTED  IN  THE  BIG  STORY  ............................................................................................................................  8   ROOTED  IN  THE  ROMAN  DILEMMA  .................................................................................................................  9   KEY  PASSAGES  ...........................................................................................................................................  11  

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone

INTRODUCTION Every time I come across someone who enjoys reading N.T. Wright I usually ask two questions. First I ask if they read his book on Justification and secondly, if so, what are their thoughts. In response I usually get one of two answers. Either they are not sure if they agree with Wright or they are not sure if they know what he is even saying and why it matters. My purpose for writing this eBook is to explain N.T. Wright’s theology on Justification in a condensed, manageable manner. To say, ‘this is what I think N.T. Wright is saying, and this is why it matters’. I realize that I am taking a big risk here because I will be attempting to interpret one of the brightest scholarly minds of our day, but I am confident that I do have a relatively firm grasp of the key issues, Wright’s views on the subject and why they matter. I hope that those who read this eBook would receive some much-needed clarifications and have a greater understand of Wright’s theology on Justification. On the flip coin I hope that those who react strongly to Wright’s theology will come away feeling less threatened by it.

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone I work as the marketing manager for a small Christian bookstore and I have racked up many fascinating stories over the years. On one occasion I remember meeting a gentleman who seemed to have taken quite the liking of me. We engaged in a conversation about the bible, its history and different translations; we talked about this author or that author and various popular speakers and many other things. Then at one point in the conversation he noticed a book on a nearby table by John Piper and remarked about his great admiration for him. I asked if he had read John Piper’s – then – latest book; it was titled, The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright. He took it from my hands with great excitement exclaiming that he had not yet read it but was looking forward to doing on. It had just so happened that not a week before this encounter Intervarsity Press had released N.T. Wright’s book titled Justification, which – at least to some minimal extent – was a response to John Piper. Always with a mind to up-sell, as well as with a heart to present a balanced theology, I tried to hand the gentleman this book, too: ‘If you are going to read John Piper’s response to N.T. Wright,’ I said, ‘then you have to read this one too”. But the man’s reaction was not at all what I anticipated. In fact, we might say that our conversation came to an explosive conclusion. First the man would not touch N.T. Wright’s book as if it was plagued or something. Then he took a step back and shooed by hand away while trying to be evasive; and all the while muttering sharply about how Wright is deceiving the church and leading thousands of souls astray. After purchasing Piper’s The Future of Justification, he left my store never to be seen again. I still don’t quite understand what happened. But somehow this guy felt threatened, not just by Wright’s theology, but by his influence too. I hope to show in this eBook that it is possible to

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone civilly disagree with Wright’s theology without being threatened by it or his influence. The only way to do this is to show that Wright’s theology – whether he is right or wrong – is not at all dangerous to the Christian faith. So at this point I suppose it would be a good time to mention a few features you’ll find throughout this work that I hope you find helpful. To assist me in the goal above you will occasionally find, stuffed somewhere off to the side so as not to be totally intrusive, “Dangerous Observations” dialogue boxes. These boxes are designed to ease the concerns of someone like the man I encountered in the bookstore, they are to draw attention to things like, “just because Wright thinks we have misinterpreted such and such does not mean that he is denying this and that bit of truth”. Something else you will notice throughout this work is that although this work is primarily centered on Wright’s theology, I will sometimes refer to the works of other scholars when I think referencing them will be helpful. In doing so I do not mean to imply that Wright agrees with these scholars on every point. Throughout most of this eBook I’m going to assume that the reader at least has some familiarity with who N.T. Wright is as well as whom some of the other secondary players are (like John Piper, Thomas Schreiner, Jimmy Dunn et al). I am also going to assume that the reader has at least a surface understanding of how the teaching of justification has been taught traditionally. Yet because I want to reach those readers who might have picked up this booklet out of curiosity and whom therefore have no frame of reference, I’m going to quickly survey the history of the controversy over N.T. Wright’s doctrine of justification.

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone At the same time I hope that for those who are familiar with the controversy, that you will still find a rehearsing of this history and a setting of the backdrop to be valuable in the long run. It is always good for a healthy discussion if everyone begins on the same page. And it is to that page that we turn to next.

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2. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD N.T. Wright believes that little phrase ‘the righteousness of God’ is the bible writers shorthand way of referring to God’s faithfulness to his covenant. At first I was perplexed by this wondering “How is ‘righteousness of God’ supposed to somehow mean ‘God’s covenant faithfulness’?” It really sounded like two completely different things to me. In fact, on the surface of things, the phrase ‘righteousness of God’ seems to be a clear references to God’s own character. When the Bible talks about God’s righteousness it is talking about God’s moral goodness. Thus when the bible says that we have become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21), what it is saying is that we have taken on God’s moral character, or that God has transferred or imputed his character onto us. It’s the great exchange. It’s that Jesus became sin and I become holy. It is that clear. So clear, in fact, it’s crystal. Or not. N.T. Wright begs to differ with this whole line of interpretation of the ‘righteousness of God’. To be sure he’s not denying God’s righteousness. Nor is he denying that some sort of a exchange has taken place. His point is that when Paul uses the phrase ‘righteousness of God’ he

Wright’s Justification For Everyone is not talking about God’s general goodness; neither is he talking about us receiving a transfer of God’s moral character. It’s not that those things aren’t true (that is to be discussed on a different occasion), it is simply that that is not what Paul is talking about. Many have wondered how on earth Wright could conclude that the phrase ‘righteousness of God’ could mean ‘covenant faithfulness’. Here’s how. Rooted in the Old Testament For starters the phrase ‘righteousness of God’ (or some variation of that phrase) is rooted in the Old Testament, and Wright says that this fact is relatively uncontested by most scholars (What Saint Paul Really Said? p.96). A first

Dangerous Observation N.T. Wright believes that the phrase, ‘righteousness of God’ is not a general statement about God’s moral character. Sometimes people panic here and jump to the conclusion that Wright denies God’s moral character. If that’s you, take a deep breath. Inhale slowly. Now exhale and read this very carefully. N.T. Wright is not, nor has he ever, denied God’s holiness, his goodness, his perfection or his righteousness. All he is saying is that in its original context, the phrase ‘righteousness of God’ had a very specialized meaning attached to it.

century Jew, reading from the Greek version of their Bible, would have been familiar with the phrase ‘the righteousness of God’, and so the question becomes, what did that phrase mean to them? What did it mean to speak of God’s righteousness? Wright says that the meaning would have been clear, the righteousness of God is a reference to “God’s own faithfulness to his promises, to the covenant” (ibid). J.I. Packer agrees, “The reason why these texts (Isaiah and Psalms) call God’s vindication of his oppressed people his ‘righteousness’ is that it is an act of faithfulness of his covenant promise to them” (“Justification” in New BIble Dictionary, quoted in Wright’s Justification, p.65).

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone The same point is affirmed by a scholar named Krister Stendahl in a little book he wrote titled, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles. In it he references the song of Deborah back in Judges 5. You will recall in the story how God’s plan and promises to Abraham had fallen into jeopardy as the Israelites became subject to a Canaanite king who oppressed “Israel cruelly for twenty years” (Judges 4:3); but at the Lord’s command Barak and Deborah went to battle and defeated the Canaanites. Afterward they sang a song of victory, and the lyrics of Judges 5:11 reads: “To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers.” To this Stendahl asks the pertinent question: “How can it be said that the people rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord? What are the righteous acts of the Lord? It is the fact that God vindicated his people against their enemies... If this is God’s people, then, when righteousness comes it must mean salvation, triumph, victory, blessing, and the destruction of the enemy. This is plain and simple, because God’s righteous acts means that God is putting things right - and that is... the righteousness of God.” (Paul Among Jews and Gentiles, p.31) The point is that in the Old Testament the phrase ‘righteousness of God’ is not an abstract reference to God’s general goodness and character. It had a very specific and theologically loaded meaning to it. Rooted in the Big Story The whole Story the scriptures tell, the meta-narrative if you will, is a Story about how God is fixing everything. It is a Story about how things are not as they should be, but how God has set about a plan to make things right. And the way that God has set about to do that is through a

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone covenant. And so whenever that covenant seems to be in jeopardy - as in the often case in the book of Judges, as well as in the Exodus event and the Exile event - the question that always arises is, will God be faithful? Can he be trusted to do what he said he would do? Or, to use the terminology the Bible uses for this question, can we count on God’s righteousness? Will he be a righteous judge? And the answer is always emphatically ‘yes!’ God will keep his promises, God will fix our current state of affairs, God will be faithful to his covenant. That is, the righteousness of God. The linch-pin of the language of ‘the righteousness of God’ is that it is about God and about what he is doing to fix things. God’s plan to turn creation around - or rather to move it forward to renewal and recreation - was through Abraham and his descendants, Israel. But the problem became exasperated when it was realized that Israel herself was a part of the problem, climaxing in the Babylonian exile. Thus once again the question arose, how could God be faithful to his covenant if his covenant partner remained unfaithful? The answer is that God would need a faithful Israelite, a representative who would stand in the gap for Israel as Israel was to stand in the gap for the world. It was through this representative - the Messiah - that God could be shown to remain faithful to his covenant. But this plan would only work if the Messiah himself would remain faithful. In fact, that is just the point. It was through the faithfulness of the Messiah that God himself was faithful to the covenant. In other works, through the faithfulness of the Messiah, the righteousness of God has been revealed! And this brings us to our third point on the map. Rooted in the Roman Dilemma Romans 1:16-17 reads like this:

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith.’” For in “it” says Paul, that is, in “the gospel”, the righteousness of God is revealed. And that is precisely the point we just made. “The gospel, strictly speaking, is the narrative proclamation of King Jesus” (What Saint Paul Really Said? p.45). The anointed king in Israel’ history was to represent the people to God, and God back to the people. Jesus was the Son of David, the Anointed One, the Messiah, who filled that representative roll. The Gospel is the Story of Jesus the Messiah - as recently explain in Scot McKnight’s book, The King Jesus Gospel. And that is a Story of Jesus’ faithful obedience resulting in his being vindicated by God (Philippians 2:8-9). In other words, through the faithful obedience of Jesus the Messiah God’s own righteousness that is, his own faithfulness to the covenant - has been revealed. Or to word it another way still, how was God’s covenant promises to be fulfilled? Through the faithful sacrifice of his Son on the cross. No matter how you slice it, the phrase ‘righteousness of God’ has the very specific reference to God’s faithfulness to the covenant which was accomplished through the faithful obedience of the Messiah Jesus. Romans 1:16-17 sets the pace for the entire book. The whole book of Romans is concerned with the question, “how can God be faithful to his covenant promises to Abraham if he has turned his back on Abraham’s children, Israel?” In other words, the righteousness of God was on trial, and Paul’s answer is that God’s righteousness has been revealed through Israel’s representative, Jesus, and those who are in Jesus the Messiah are therefore the true Israel. This is

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Wright’s Justification For Everyone why - to anticipate our discussion in another part of this eBook - Justification plays such a prominent role throughout Romans, because justification is how Paul explains the union of Christ made up of Jews and Gentiles together - one family! Key Passages I’m not going to set about a full defense of Wright’s interpretation of these passages, for that project would far exceed the purpose of this eBook and I would prefer to just defer you to his writings where he engages them more fully. Rather I wish to summarize his interpretations in case you are unaware, and offer some rational behind those interpretations.

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