Reflection: Justification by N.T. Wright

Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision is N.T. Wright's response to John Piper's The Future of Justification. It is a thorough, dense if somewhat brief explanation of Wright's take on Justification and why Piper is wrong. I am not qualified to review this book's content and engage critically with it. It is simply out of my league. It is, however, vintage Wright: Readable, dense, and enlightening, with some good one liners thrown in for good measure. As such, I simply offer some reflections.

Wright believes that justification can only be understood in a covenant setting for a Hebrew lawcourt. Justification is the declaration of God that a certain group of people are in the right and will be found in the right. This declaration is in complete accord with the Abrahamic covenant and so it exhibits God's righteousness. God, in this declaration, has remained faithful to the covenant he established because of the faithfulness of Jesus. Jesus has taken on himself the whole of the law and seen it through to make possible the accomplishment of what the law couldn't do, which was make righteous by the power of the Spirit. Wright works through this belief by emphasizing we read Romans in light of Galatians and all of these in light of Ephesians, Corinthians, and Philippians. Justification is about creating one group of people out of two.

Wright believes this formulations is more trinitarian and that it requires a high Christology and a high ecclesiology. Perhaps this has shied some Protestants away from its full impact. It also has a more robust eschatology because present justification always points forward to a future justification for those in Christ who have participated in the transformative power of the Spirit. Wright's emphasis on transformation as an aspect of justification--not earning it, not solidifying it, but flowing from it--was one of the most pastorally exciting aspects of the work. He believes there has been too much navel-gazing and laziness that has gone on because of fear in "works" and "synergism." He challenges that those who believe he is falling into some kind of works-righteousness have not grasped his pneumatology. It is more reliance on God, not less!

This is not a book that can be read quickly or without thorough knowledge of Romans. It's a challenge, but worth the effort. I expect it will take me several more reads of Romans and another two reads of Justification to begin to get a full appreciation of Wright's argument.

Nothing Surprising from "Surprised by Hope"

Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright's soon-to-be classic on resurrection, heaven, and mission, was exactly what I expected: very readable, creative and surprising to some, vintage Wright to others, and somewhat long-winded.

SBH is divided into three sections. First, Wright does an extensive (for popular work) ground clearing, exploring contemporary pictures of heaven, describing the environment of 1st century afterlife thought, and then giving the biblical Easter stories. From here, Wright gives his theology of resurrection: The world's trajectory, future judgment and resurrection, Christ's ascension and return, and the afterlife (heaven, hell, and purgatory). Finally, Wright turns his robust resurrection thinking into missional implications for the church.

Wright's thesis is that the resurrection of Jesus took everyone by surprise. Jesus' Jewish followers were surprised by its timing, the Romans were surprised because the resurrection was claimed to be a physical event. This surprising event led Jews to reconsider their thinking of life-after death and spurred Christians on in their mission. All of the sudden, the followers of Jesus became convinced that God would restore justice to this world and that this had started in Jesus. As a result, Paul can write to the Corinthians that they should continue in their work for Jesus because their work is not in vain. This leads to his rejection of contemporary beliefs that the Christian hope is going to heaven when you die or that the soul is the "real" part of the person. Wright does believe in what could be called an intermediate state, but that this isn't the final hope for Christians. (While Wright calls this stage "life after death," he argues that resurrection means "life after life after death.") To stop here is to disregard the doctrine of the resurrection. This means that Wright is looking forward to the final marriage of heaven and earth, the completion of Jesus' prayer. With this in mind, Christians should be about projects of justice, beauty, and hope now. This is the full work of 'evangelism'--living into the future in the present.

First, it should be said, I love Wright. I think he gets it right almost always (I fudge a bit with him on justification--I do think justification is how one 'gets in') and admire that he does serious thinking about mission. He is a leader for the next generation of theologians--biblical theologians who are practitioners. (If this is the case, then the next generation has much potential and many pitfalls.) The book reads a lot like his sermons and I even started noticing the same phrases in this book that he uses in his sermons. Which leads to my one and only critique that the book could be shorter and tighter. Wright rambles at times, struggling with redundancy.

This is a great book for people rediscovering their Christian faith or for people open and interested in a more robust view of heaven. I expect preachers will benefit from it greatly, being especially encouraged by its sermonic style.