Justification Under Fire

For those of you who know about the controversy about N.T. Wright, there's a nicely packaged Q and A that basically summarized the problem: Q & A

(via. Justin Taylor's blog)

For those of you who don't understand what the heck I'm talking about...

A very well-known and respected biblical and theological scholar, N.T. Wright, recently wrote about something called "The New Perspective on Paul". Basically, he is calling for a reformed view on Paul's understanding of justification (which has to do with propitiation). The problem with this view is that if you take what Paul says in Romans 9:30-32 to be anything but justification by faith alone, then being saved in Christ means nothing.

If you remember my sermon on The Eunuch, then you'd remember that I said that the doctrine of "substitutionary atonement" is under attack. If there is no justification by faith alone, then the penal substitution of Christ's death does not nail our personal sins to the cross (Colossians 2:14).

Be wary friends, because our temptation is to be too clever about how we know God and what Jesus has done for us. I'm reminded, by Pastor Sean, that Joshua Harris asked, "Are you trying to be right, or righteous?" In humility, correct others and stand for the truth. In humility, stand firm in the faith because Christ has counted us righteous.