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Book Review: Justification, God's Plan & Paul's vision by N.T. Wright

N.T. Wright, Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009. 279 pages. Hardcover, $25.00. ISBN 0830838635.

 

 

Thus, Wright spills more ink, 279 pages worth, on this issue of justification in a worthy and in my opinion, persuasive attempt to show why the point of Christianity is not exclusively and sufficiently about “my relationship with God” and “my salvation”. For the first 108 pages of the book, Wright takes you on a theological thrill-ride through addressing the issue of justification. In my opinion, the bulk of his case can be made (and won) in this first section. He talks about volume-sized topics such as second-temple Judaism, Paul’s use of the law court metaphors, the covenants between God and people, and the Law as viewed in first-century understandings all the way until today. The final chapter of this first section is comprised of getting to the meat of justification from a systematic perspective. He locks horns and shakes hands with many different modern theologians in this section including other “New Perspective” proponents like James Dunn, historical theologians like Alister McGrath, and of course the prince of the Reformation himself, John Piper.

The biggest theme throughout this section and really the whole book is that God’s plan to redeem the world is through Israel, and when Israel seemingly failed the task at hand, the Son was sent to redeem the world--- justification. There is literally so much to cover as to how Wright gets to his conclusion on what justification is, that to be honest, one review of this book will not do justice, even if a person were to spend the whole review on one sub-point. But the most important thing to understand about this first section is the idea that Wright cares deeply about the Bible and what it is Paul is saying to us; not what we want Paul to say.

That is the issue at stake, one which Piper apparently accuses of Wright and Wright of Piper. So who is correct in their understanding of Biblical justification? Should not the Bible and Paul speak it out loud for all to hear? Yes, in a perfect world it should. But we do not live in a perfect world which is why we need geniuses like Wright (and to be fair, Piper) to try to explain it to us. And with that, the engaged reader will need to brush up on their Koinine Greek, dust off the dictionary and put on their thinking cap because off to the second section of the book Wright goes--- onward to the exegesis.

For the remainder of the book, Wright takes the reader on a whirlwind of (albeit, shortened given the subject matter at hand) exegesis and theological analysis of Galatians, Philippians, Corinthians, Ephesians, and Romans. Instead of writing or rewriting a commentary on each of these epistles, Wright looks at just the key passages in these letters that have to do with justification. He responds eloquently to Piper and other’s exegesis of passages, and even throws in passages that other people have left out in their analysis of the doctrine.

It is at this point in the book that a small flag was raised for me as a reader. Granted, it was nothing to do with the exegesis itself, but I do wish (especially for the reader who is of layman status) that Wright would have systematized each chapter a little better. I would have liked to see more verse by verse or section by section analysis rather than say, going from Galatians 3:22 over to Galatians 2:15-21, and then back to Galatians 3:23-29, etc etc. Perhaps I am being too picky here and perhaps the way Paul wrote was not as organized as I would like, but this is just a small quibble for an otherwise excellent analysis of the texts.

Similarly to the previous section, I would be doing injustice to the book and Wright’s argument if I were to camp on one or two particular points he makes in this section on exegesis. In fact, that seems to be much of the point that Wright is trying to get across. You cannot just look at one or two passages that talk about justification and fit it into your predetermined theology. You must look at the whole of Scripture, especially the whole of Paul’s writings to finally determine a position on what you believe Paul to be saying on justification. A proof-text won’t cut it, and it won’t convince the informed reader that one phrase in one particular translation (Piper’s heavy emphasis on the “imputed righteousness” of Christ as translated in the NIV) will be convincing of an entire theology of justification. To be fair, and as one who has not read Piper’s response to Wright in his own book, I will not critique Piper from where I sit. To be sure, Wright does plenty of that on his own--- and in my opinion, it is overwhelmingly convincing.

This whole issue of the “New Perspective on Paul” is a bit of a misnomer, as Wright admits and as one quickly realizes while reading through Justification. The only thing that is “new” may be what is “new to you” regarding Paul and his concept of justification. Some people might be appalled by Wright’s analysis of the texts. Some people might be confused as to why they weren’t taught this in Sunday School. Some people might hold on to their brazened Reformation traditions and forget the fact that there was nearly 1,500 years of Scripture analysis and theological reflection prior to Luther, Calvin and company.

But for all these things, they shouldn’t be. People should not be afraid to question (at the least) or challenge (at the most) the status quo of what they have grown accustomed to understanding about God and His ways. Like I said at the beginning of this review, we are not God and cannot know everything--- which is why we seek and search more and more and deeper and deeper into God’s Word and the revelation from the Spirit to learn more about our Lord. After reading Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision, I am thoroughly convinced that the “New Perspective on Paul” should be renamed the “Correct Perspective on Paul”. N.T. Wright is an arbiter of truth, a prophet to today’s Christians to come back to the Scriptures and bask in their amazing glory and what it is God wants us to know about Himself. That is, if we let Him. If we let the Scriptures speak for themselves, if we let Paul speak to us instead of vice versa. That is probably the biggest challenge Christians face with this and that is the challenge that N.T. Wright lays forth in this masterfully thought out and marvelously argued analysis of justification.