Justification for Everyone by Burk Parsons

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

For years we have wrestled with the question as to whether we should produce an issue of Tabletalk devoted to the new perspectives on Paul on the doctrine of justification, and for years we concluded that many of our readers …Read More

What God Requires, Christ Provides by John Piper

“If justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:21). Historically, Protestants have believed that the Bible teaches that our salvation depends on what Christ has accomplished for our pardon and our perfection. We accept …Read More

Five Arguments Against Future Justification According to Works (Part I) by Richard Phillips

The year 2009 witnessed a publishing event of real interest to many Christians: the publication of N.T. Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision. Wright is widely considered the most provocative writer on justification today and …Read More

Five Arguments Against Future Justification According to Works (Part II) by Richard Phillips

Argument #4: The future judgment of believers consists only of reward and praise. Those who support future justification according to works will cite the numerous Bible passages that in one form or another state that we must all stand before …Read More

Was Luther Right? by Thomas Schreiner

Martin Luther turned the world upside down in the sixteenth century by proclaiming the Pauline gospel. Luther, who was a professor of biblical exegesis for many years, slowly came to an understanding of the righteousness of God in Rom. 1 …Read More

N.T. Wright and the New Perspective on Paul by Ligon Duncan

The term “new perspective” was coined by J.D.G. Dunn in 1982 to describe the new approach to Paul’s theology he was advocating which was built on the work of several earlier scholars such as E.P.Sanders …Read More

The Attractions of the New Perspective(s) on Paul by Ligon Duncan

Many intelligent Christians are puzzling today over what is being called “the new perspective on Paul.” Seminary students run across it in their New Testament course reading and perhaps class lectures. Pastors hear about it from fledgling theologues wanting to …Read More

The New Perspective on Paul: Calvin and N.T. Wright by J.V. Fesko

Despite the fact that Qohelet tells us that there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1.9), in recent years a school of Pauline interpreters have raised their banner declaring they have a new perspective on Paul. What exactly …Read More

An Explanation of the New Perspective on Paul by Bryan Chapell

First, my disclaimers: I am not a New Perspective on Paul expert. A seminary president sometimes has the role of getting up to speed on an issue that has suddenly become hot in the Church, and he should make no …Read More

What’s Wrong with Wright: Examining the New Perspective on Paul by Phil Johnson

My assignment in this hour is to give a critical review of an influential book by Anglican author N.T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham. The book is titled What Saint Paul Really Said. It’s a fairly thin paperback …Read More

The “New Perspective” on Paul and the Law by Ben Witherington

There is something of a small war going on in Pauline circles on the issue of “the New Perspective on Paul” which actually also involves “the New Perspective on Early Judaism”. This sometimes heated debate was set in motion by …Read More

“Faith” and “Faithfulness” by D.A. Carson

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

The Greek word pistis can mean, in English translation, both “faith” and “faithfulness”; no one disputes that fact (for the latter, see Rom. 3:3). N.T. Wright, however, takes two steps that cannot be fairly evaluated without understanding how …Read More

Justification for Everyone by Burk Parsons

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

For years we have wrestled with the question as to whether we should produce an issue of Tabletalk devoted to the new perspectives on Paul on the doctrine of justification, and for years we concluded that many of our readers …Read More

Tilting at Scarecrows by R.C. Sproul

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

In the past few years, the British bishop and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has emerged as an icon of biblical theology around the world. His excellent work on the resurrection of Christ has influenced many people including his …Read More

Rethinking the Gospel? by Albert Mohler

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

Bishop Wright believes the Christian church has fundamentally misunderstood the gospel. If he is right about this, we must hear him and accept his corrective. But, if he is wrong, he will lead us away from the gospel. The stakes …Read More

A Future Justification Based on Works? by Cornelis Venema

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

One of the remarkable features of N.T. Wright’s reformulation of the Protestant doctrine of justification is his emphasis upon a “future justification” on the basis of works. According to Wright, the apostle Paul clearly teaches that believers will …Read More

“Works of the Law” in Paul by J.V. Fesko

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

The definition of Paul’s phrase “works of the law” is one of the more significant disagreements between N.T. Wright and the Reformation understanding of justification by faith alone. On what basis can Wright claim that Paul does not …Read More

What Does Justification Have to do with the Gospel? by Sinclair Ferguson

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

There is a striking plausibility about saying that “justification by faith is not what Paul means by ‘the gospel.’” After all, as N.T. Wright elsewhere observes, we are not justified by believing in justification by faith but by believing …Read More

Justification and Ecumenism by Michael Horton

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

One of the great connections that N.T. Wright emphasizes in his work is the one between soteriology (how we are saved) and ecclesiology (the church: who are the true people of God?). He properly (and repeatedly) reminds us that …Read More

Has the Church Misunderstood Justification? by Guy Waters

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

For all their differences concerning the doctrine of justification, Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church have agreed on this: justification fundamentally concerns the salvation of the sinner. To draw this observation is not, of course, to minimize the importance of …Read More

A New Luther? by Derek Thomas

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

The accusation that systematic theology (doctrinal formulations of the Reformation period in particular) overly governs (distorts) exegesis is not new, and Bishop N.T. Wright trots it out with renewed zeal in his latest book, Justification: God’s Plan and …Read More

Wright Is Wrong on Imputation by Thomas Schreiner

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

Is the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer an artificial construct, an idea from systematic theology that does not truly come from the Bible? N.T. Wright argues that the traditional view of imputation veers away from the …Read More

Two Birds, One Stone by R.C. Sproul Jr.

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

When error comes into the church we face a set of obligations. First, we must confront the error. The world has embraced a live-and-let-live relativism that will accept any foolishness, but will not accept the wisdom of calling foolishness by …Read More

Salvation and the Life After Life by Paul Helm

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

How do we estimate what a person is primarily interested in? Perhaps by seeing how often they return to the subject, or what they mention on important occasions. And perhaps, also, by the manner in which people write about things …Read More

Christ, Our Righteousness by Roger Nicole

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

N.T. Wright in his advocacy of a “new perspective” on Paul and his teaching makes a special plea that “justification” should relate to the question “who belongs to God’s covenant with the world?” rather than “how can you …Read More

The “Nonsense” of Justifying the Ungodly by David Mathis

FROM TABLETALK | February 2010

There are at least three problems with N.T. Wright’s claim that imputing God’s righteousness to a defendant is a category mistake and “makes no sense.” First, Wright’s definition of the righteousness of God is too shallow …Read More

N.T. Wright on Justification by C.E. Hill

There is so much in this book that is good and should elicit a loud “Amen!” A balanced review of What Saint Paul Really Said by N.T. Wright would focus on both its strengths and weaknesses. Here, unfortunately, I …Read More

A Defense of the Old Perspective on Paul: What Did Paul Really Say? by Phil Johnson

The following is transcribed from a seminar given by Phil Johnson at the London Reformed Baptist Seminary, meeting at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, on 10 January 2004. In this hour, I want to give you a brief critique of a …Read More

The New Perspective on Justification by Richard Phillips

At the last meeting of this presbytery, I was commissioned to present a paper on the theological movement known as the New Perspective on Paul as it relates to the doctrine of justification. This request notes a growing movement that …Read More

A Reformed Critique of the New Perspective by Richard Gaffin Jr.

The New Perspective on Paul, as it has been called, raises serious questions for Protestants committed to the doctrine of justification by faith. This school of thought does so in two ways. On the one hand, it questions the Apostle …Read More

Jesus’ Perspective on Sola Fide by John MacArthur

Many who have embraced “the New Perspective on Paul” are also proposing a different slant on the doctrine of justification by faith. When the text of Scripture is interpreted in the new light, they say, Pauline support for the principle …Read More

Annotated Bibliography: N.T. Wright and the New Perspectives on Paul

Annotated bibliography of works on N.T. Wright and the New Perspectives on Paul.Read More

Of Justification by Faith by John Calvin

1. I trust I have now sufficiently shown how man’s only resource for escaping from the curse of the law, and recovering salvation, lies in faith; and also what the nature of faith is, what the benefits which it …Read More

“Of Justification” from “The Defense of the Augsburg Confession” by Philip Melancthon

In the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and, below, in the Twentieth Article, they condemn us, for teaching that men obtain remission of sins not because of their own merits, but freely for Christ’s sake, through faith in Christ. [They reject …Read More

The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord

The third controversy which has arisen among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession is concerning the righteousness of Christ or of faith, which God imputes by grace, through faith, to poor sinners for righteousness. For one side has contended that …Read More

Martin Luther’s Definition of Faith by Martin Luther

Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear …Read More

“Of Justification” from “The Westminster Confession of Faith”

1. Those whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by …Read More

Forensic Justification by Francis Turretin

Is the word Justification always used in a forensic sense in this argument, or also in a moral and physical? The former we affirm, the latter we deny, against the Romanists.Read More