ntwright-justificationweek1_000

7/30/2019 NTWright-JustificationWeek1_000

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The Doctrine of Justification

in the Work of N. T. WrightBy William N. Wilder

Center for Christian Study

Week 1I Love to Tell the Story:

The Narrative Substructure of Pauls Theology


2/27

Copyright 2005 William N. Wilder

Why You Should Spend At Least SixHours Learning About N.T. WrightAnd His View of Justification

NTW is an extremely prolific scholar

who writes faster than you can read.

NTW is a first-rank

scholar and churchman

with increasing influence

in both realms.

His writing

is invariably

fresh and

insightful.

For NTW the original

historical context isdeterminative for the

meaning of the text.

He writes for the

heart as well asfor the head. He has been dogged

by controversy. NTW is a VIP in

the NPP

..and an emergingstorm center in

Reformed circles,

especially the PCA.

He is a monocovenantalist.

He questions the Reformed

understanding of imputation.

He defines justification in a very non-traditional manner.

He has been accusedof undermining Protestant

theology in a way which

threatens the Reformation

and, indeed, the very

truth of the Gospel.


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Overview of the Series

1. I Love to Tell the Story: The Narrative

Substructure of Pauls Theology2. Adam, Israel, Servant, Christ: Does

Covenant Theology Get It Wright?

3. To Whom It Belongs: The ImputedRighteousness of God

4. The Importance of Definition:Righteousness, Justification, Faith &Works

Dis


4/27

I Love to Tell the Story:The Narrative Substructure

of Pauls Theology


5/27


The Creator God Chose Israel To Be a Blessing to the World

So Whats the Story?


6/27Copyright 2005 William N. Wilder


What Israel has always been

tempted to forget, from Pauls

point of view, is that the God who

made the covenant with Abraham

is the creator of the whole worldand that the covenant was put in

place precisely in order thatthrough Israel God might address

the whole world. NIB Romans, p. 482




Monotheism Election Eschatology

with the help of the law

There are three cardinal points of Jewish theology in this period:

and there is one future for allthe world, a future not very far

away now, in which the true

God will reveal himself, defeat

evil, and rescue his people.

eschatology.

There is onetrue God, the

one true God of

all the world;

monotheism election and

What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 31

(Covenantal Nomism)

Israel is thepeople of

this one

true God;






This is the patternor the storylineof Pauls thought prior to his conversion.

(Covenantal Nomism)






This is the patternor the storylineof Pauls thought prior to his conversion.The first point monotheism was summed up in the Shema:

Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.

Jewish monotheism in this period was not an inner analysis of the being of theone true God... Instead, it made two claims, both of them polemical.

On the one hand, Jewish mono-

theism asserted that the one God,

the God of Israel, was the only Godof the whole world... and that the true

God would one day decisively defeat

these pagan gods and their powers,

and vindicate Israel as his truepeople. Monotheism, in short, was a

fighting doctrine.

On the other hand, Jewish monotheism

contained the strong assertion that the

dualists were wrong. The material world wasnot the evil creation of an evil god... Jewish-

style monotheism committed its adherents

both to the effort to bring in the kingdom within

the physical world... and to the belief thatthose who died ahead of time would be raised

physically to life when the great day came

What Saint Paul Reall Said, . 63-64.

(Covenantal Nomism)







(Covenantal Nomism)

God took the initiative, when he made a

covenant with Judaism; Gods grace thus

precedes everything that people (specifically,

Jews) do in response. The Jew keeps the lawout of gratitude, as the proper response to

grace not, in other words, in order to getin

the covenant people, but to stayin. Being in

in the first place was Gods gift. This scheme

Sanders famously labelled as covenantalnomism (from the Greek nomos, law).

Keeping the Jewish law was the human

response to Gods covenantal initiative

(WSPRS, p. 19).







The Shammaites, and the revolutionaries in general, were eager to bring these

prophecies to fulfilment by their zeal for Torah... The one true God, YHWH, was

dishonoured by the present state of things; his glory demanded that the pagans,

idol-worshippers as they were, would receive what they deserved. For this tohappen, Israel needed to keep Torah. Observing Torah would hasten the time of

fulfillment (WSPRS, p. 31; my emphasis).

Gaffin: If righteousness constitutes covenant fidelity, what is the standard of

fidelity, or of infidelity?Wright: The obedience of faith. What is the sign of your being faithful to the

covenant [in the Old Testament]? The Shema. The obedience which consists in

faith. This is the Israel-obedience or fidelity: confessing Jesus is Lord. . . . We need

to be unshackled from this works-righteousness view of obedience. The gospel is a

command: bow the knee and obey this Lord - [that is] submit to the statement that

Jesus is Lord. It's an obedience - not meritorious, but the badge of believing.(Auburn Avenue Conference 2005, day 3, session 13; from notes by Tim Gallant, www.RabbiSaul.com)

(Covenantal Nomism)

Election






This is the patternor the storylineof Pauls thought prior to his conversion.Jews like Saul of Tarsus were not interested in an abstract,

timeless, a historical system of salvation. They were not

even primarily interested in, as we say today, going to

heaven when they died. (They believed in the resurrection,

in which God would raise them all to share in the life of the

promised renewed Israel and renewed world; but that is very

different from the normal Western vision of heaven).

The purpose of the covenant, in the Hebrew Bibleand in some subsequent writings, was never simply

that the creator wanted to have Israel as a special

people, irrespective of the fate of the rest of the

world. The purpose of the covenant was that,

through this means, the creator would address and

save his entire world.

What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 33.

(Covenantal Nomism)







DAMASCUS ROAD ENCOUNTERWITH

CRUCIFIEDAND RESURRECTED

LORDThe GOSPEL:

Proclamation of Crucified, Risen King and Lord

(Covenantal Nomism)









LORDThe crucified Jesus: ...it was the fulfilment of Gods promise that through Abraham

and his seed he would undo the evil in the world. God established his covenant with

Abraham in the first place for this precise purpose... And always the fulfilment focuses

on the death of Jesus, the covenant-fulfilling act, the moment when God executedjudicial sentence on sin itself..., the moment when Gods astonishing love was unveiled

in all its glory... This is fulfilment, not abrogation... Israels fate, in other words -- the

suffering at the hands of the pagans -- had not been swept aside. It was not irrelevant. It

had reached its climax precisely in the death of Jesus, the representative Messiah of

Israel (WSPRS, p. 48).

(Covenantal Nomism)

















The risen Jesus: When Paul was faced with the fact of Jesus resurrection, he

concluded that the return from exile had in fact happened. Exile had reached its height

in Jesus death; now he had come through death, through the ultimate exile, and wasset free not just from Greece or Rome, from Herod, Pilate and Caiaphas, but from sin

and death, the ultimate enemies (1 Cor 15:25-6)... This meant that the Age to Come,

the Eschaton of Jewish expectation, had already arrived, even though it didnt look like

Paul expected. It meant that the Gentiles were now to be summoned to join Israel in

celebrating the new day, the day of deliverance (WSPRS, p. 51).

(Covenantal Nomism)

















The risen Jesus: When Paul was faced with the fact of Jesus resurrection, he

concluded that the return from exile had in fact happened. Exile had reached its height

in Jesus death; now he had come through death, through the ultimate exile, and wasset free not just from Greece or Rome, from Herod, Pilate and Caiaphas, but from sin

and death, the ultimate enemies (1 Cor 15:25-6)... This meant that the Age to Come,

the Eschaton of Jewish expectation, had already arrived, even though it didnt look like

Paul expected. It meant that the Gentiles were now to be summoned to join Israel in

celebrating the new day, the day of deliverance (WSPRS, p. 51).

King Jesus: There are many Jewish texts in which the historical sequence of thought,

in answer to the question how will God be true to his promises to Abraham?, reachesits answer and fulfilment as in the Son of David, the Messiah Central to his argument

is the idea of the seed: the true seed of Abraham, the fulfillment of the promises

Within his overall argument about Abraham, Paul is operating with an implicit royal

theology and exegesis Christos can best be explained in terms of incorporation intothe people of the Messiah. (WSPRS, p. 54).

(Covenantal Nomism)


17/27









LORDThe GOSPEL:


This means everything is different now!

(Covenantal Nomism)









LORDThe GOSPEL:



Eschatology RedefinedElection RedefinedMonotheism Redefined

(Covenantal Nomism)









LORDThe GOSPEL:




Fulfillment in the middle of time

Eschatological purpose of

covenant achieved: inclusion ofGentiles

Gods people marked by

faith, not works of the law

Israels failure: to see

temporary function of law

Jesus and the Spirit seen to

be within the inner being of God

1 Cor 8; Phil 2; Col 1;Gal 4; 1 Cor 12; Rom 8

(Covenantal Nomism)









LORDThe GOSPEL:






covenant achieved: inclusion of

Gentiles







1 Cor 8; Phil 2; Col 1;

Gal 4; 1 Cor 12; Rom 8

(Covenantal Nomism)

For Paul, all this had now come to pass in Messiah Jesus. Paul's eschatology remains deeply

Jewish, with a retelling of the same key texts. Through his high Christology, Paul details how

God's own future has burst in; through his incorporative Christology, he describes how

Israel's future has burst in.

(NTW: Auburn Avenue conference 2005, day 2, session 10; from notes by Tim Gallant, www.RabbiSaul.com).

For the majority of Jews of this period, theirs was a long story in search of an ending. The

story has somehow "got stuck" - they are still enslaved to the pagans; they are still in exile.

Daniel 9 suggests that notwithstanding the passing of the requisite 70 years, there is going to

be much more: 70x7 (a Jubilee theme). Forgiveness of sins will mean the end of exile, butIsrael will need to wait for it. Many Jews made calculations on the basis of this text.

The end of slavery was seen in terms of a new exodus: God would again rescue Israel; this

was a warning to the pagans and comfort for Israel. This is to be God's future. God will "come

into His own:" "In that day Yahweh will be king of all the earth" (Zech 13.1).

A Long Story in Search of an Ending









LORDThe GOSPEL:







Gentiles









(Covenantal Nomism)




Israel's future has burst in (NTW: Auburn Ave conference, day two, session ten; notes by Tim Gallant).










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LORDThe GOSPEL:




covenant membership law court eschatology

(Covenantal Nomism)

1. Righteousness of God

2. Justification


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26/27








LORDThe GOSPEL:




1. Righteousness of God

2. Justification

covenant membership law court eschatology

(Covenantal Nomism)


27/27

Adam, Israel, Servant, Christ:Does Covenant Theology

Get It Wright?

Next week.

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