Category: Justification

  • The quality of “Righteousness” is not strained

    John Smuts is asking me some good hard questions about my view of “righteousness” as a quality (rather than a substance or a status). I’m finding the interaction very helpful.

  • Rereading Doug Campbell to help us preach the gospel

    In chapter 1 of his megabook, The Deliverance of God: an Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), Douglas Campbell outlines what he calls “the justification theory of salvation”, which he seems to regard as a summary of the conventional understanding of the gospel amongst the majority of Western Christians (7). If…

  • The Individual and the Community in Paul

    It’s been a concern of mine for some time that a number of New Testament scholars such as Tom Wright take an approach to justification in Paul which subordinates individual issues (such as personal sin, guilt and salvation) to communal concerns. The same is true in some scholarly approaches to Paul’s use of the word…

  • Righteousness: neither substance nor status

    I’ve noticed what I reckon is a false dilemma which has appeared over the meaning of the word “righteousness” (δικαιοσύνη). The false dilemma is pretty widespread, but here’s one example. I’ve been following Mike Bird’s excellent, informative and industriously updated blog for a while. Recently, Mike spoke about the meaning of “righteousness” as if there…

  • Postscript: Why the New Perspective claims that “righteousness” means “covenant faithfulness” – and why it’s wrong

    Here’s a very insightful post from Lee Irons critiquing the theory that “righteousness” means “covenant faithfulness”. I’ll quote a sizeable chunk of Irons’ conclusions because they’re highly relevant to both of my series on righteousness and covenant: As you can see, the New Perspective claim that “the righteousness of God” is a cipher denoting “God’s…

  • The ratification of the covenant in Galatians 3:17

    We have seen that the “seed” of Galatians 3:16 is referring to Genesis 17:8. In Galatians 3:16, Paul is explaining to the gentile Galatians that the “seed” of Genesis 17:8 is the “one” nation Israel, not the “multitude” of nations who will also have Abraham as their father (Genesis 17:5). In Galatians 3:17, Paul goes…

  • Improve your Biblical Word Power – the series

    I’ve put up a single page linking to all the articles in my “Improve your Biblical Word Power” series, originally published on the Sola Panel. Here are the posts in the series: Improve your biblical word power 1: Righteousness Improve your biblical word power 2: Forensic righteousness Improve your biblical word power 3: Justification Improve…

  • The most authentic – and heartwrenching – Christmas message I’ve heard this year

    From BBC news: Hannah Saaf, 28, of St Michael’s Hill in Kingsdown, Bristol, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at Bristol Crown Court in September. Sam Riddall was killed in May as he walked with friends in Westbury-on-Trym on his way home from a church. The Bristol University law graduate had been travelling…

  • Heavy metal for kids on iTunes – Ben Pakula

    Our whole family (aged 35, 31, 7, 5 and 2) has loved listening to Ben Pakula’s heavy metal album for kids, A Very Special Tent. The Album is now available on iTunes. Just type “Ben Pakula” into the iTunes Store search box (if you don’t have iTunes, you need to download and install the program…

  • Thomas Cranmer the Protestant reformer during the reign of King Henry VIII

    Lionel Windsor (2004) Introduction: A Protestant Reformer? For a comfortable theoretician to assess the actions of a man caught up in the cut and thrust of national and international politics is a precarious business, as Martin Bucer warned when, in 1537, the humanist Grynaeus lamented Thomas Cranmer’s slowness to bring about reform in England.1 To…

  • Is Anyone Righteous?

    From the Sola Panel: This is a postscript to my biblical word power series, responding to an excellent question from a bloke at my previous church: Ecclesiastes 7:20 states that there is not a righteous man on earth. Psalm 14 states that there is no one righteous. So why does the Bible say that Noah,…

  • Improve your theological word power: Imputation

    On the Sola Panel: Today we are going to conclude our series on biblical word power with something slightly different: a brief introduction to imputation. ‘Imputation’ is not actually a word used in the Bible. Nevertheless, imputation is still a very important word, because it can help us to plumb the depths of the issues…

  • Using your biblical word power: Justification through Atonement

    From the Sola Panel: Today we’re continuing the series on biblical word power. This time we will seek to use what we have learned about the meaning of some important biblical words, so that we can come to grips with a very significant story told by Jesus. Definitions To recap our key biblical definitions: Righteousness…

  • Improve your biblical word power 3: Justification

    On the Sola Panel: This post is the third in a series designed to help you to get to know and love some of the important words used in the Bible. Today we’ll learn the basic meaning of the word ‘justification’. To recap In the first post, we saw that, Righteousness = being in line…

  • Improve your biblical word power 2: Forensic righteousness

    From the Sola Panel: This post is the second in a series designed to help you to get to know and love some of the important words used in the Bible. Today we’ll clarify the meaning of ‘forensic’, and then look at what ‘righteousness’ means in the forensic setting. To recap This post assumes that…

  • Improve your biblical word power 1: Righteousness

    From the Sola Panel: This post is the first in a series designed to help you to get to know and love some of the important words used in the Bible so that you can be more precise as you seek to know God and talk about him. Comments A couple of initial comments about…

  • A key point at which N.T. Wright is just plain wrong

    I’m currently reading through Tom Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision. He writes lucidly and engagingly, with a grand vision and a ready wit. However, it’s been frustrating going. Not only does he appear to be consistently misrepresenting his opponents (which is frustrating enough), he also misrepresents the Bible at a key point. On…

  • The problem with social justice

    In the last few weeks, the world has witnessed a rather extreme example of what may be dubbed ‘social justice’—an attempt to make the world a better place for all (or, at least, an attempt to prevent the world from being quite so bad a place as it might be). Following the lead of the…

  • Indicative and Imperative in the Letters of Paul

    Lionel Windsor (2004) Introduction It is undeniable that Paul’s letters contain both declarations and commands, theology and ethics, indicatives and imperatives. Yet Paul himself never explicitly lays out the logical connection between these two elements of his thought. Certainly, indicatives generally precede and are connected to imperatives, sometimes broadly (e.g. Eph 1-3 then 4-6; Rom…

  • Justification and Sanctification: Biblical Definitions and Modern Misunderstandings

    Lionel Windsor (2004) Introduction The relationship between God and humanity is, of course, of fundamental importance to Biblical revelation. The details of how this relationship is made right, from God’s point of view and from our own (corporately and individually), are also treated at length, both in the Scriptures and in subsequent Christian reflection. Here…

  • Paul’s Apostolic Ministry as Presented in the Book of Acts

    Lionel Windsor (2002) ‘In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach’, writes Luke, at the beginning of his second volume (Acts 1:1, emphasis mine). The implication is that Jesus continued to act and to teach after his ascension (So Köstenberger and O’Brien 2001, 128). So Paul,…