Christians dissatisfied with traditional formulations of the doctrine of justification have found a new alternative in N. T. Wright's popular book, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?, published by Eerdmans in 1997. Wright, currently Bishop of Durham, is a talented and prolific writer and speaker who has clarified many New Testament truths. His overall thought on Paul, however, belongs to what many have termed the "new perspective on Paul," and his views on justification have created concern among some Christians. What is it about Wright's teaching that is causing a stir? Very simply put, it is the question of whether justification by faith in Christ is or is not the solution to the problem of sin, whether it establishes in a legal sense the sinner's acquitted status before a righteous God. I cannot begin to treat the matter fully here, but I will try to get at the heart of the issue, with special reference to Paul's teaching in Galatians.
If you have a current subscription or current on-line account please log-in here to read the rest of this article.
1 [ Back ] Quotations are from N. T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans , 1997), pp. 120-22. For Wright's claims that Paul did not speak of justification in his evangelism, see pp. 116-17.
No bio information available for this author.
Issue: "The Heart of the Gospel: Paul's Message Of Grace in Galatians" Sept./Oct. 2003 Vol. 12 No. 5 Page number(s): 37-39
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 500 physical copies. We do not allow reposting an article in its entirety on the Internet. We request that you link to this article from your website. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Modern Reformation (webmaster@modernreformation.org).
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: This article originally appeared in the [insert current issue date] edition of Modern Reformation and is reprinted with permission. For more information about Modern Reformation, visit www.modernreformation.org or call (800) 890-7556. All rights reserved.