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Wright on Imputation
I found this selection from Wright (see the whole lecture) to be helpful in clarifying his view on imputation:
The covenant plan of God has what may loosely be called a ‘participationist’ aspect, and this, too, is part of the glorification of God, as I have already shown from Romans 15. Abraham’s true family, the single ‘seed’ which God promised him, is summed up in the Messiah, whose role precisely as Messiah is not least to draw together the identity of the whole of God’s people so that what is true of him is true of them and vice versa. Here we arrive at one of the great truths of the gospel, which is that the accomplishment of Jesus Christ is reckoned to all those who are ‘in him’. This is the truth which has been expressed within the Reformed tradition in terms of ‘imputed righteousness’, often stated in terms of Jesus Christ having fulfilled the moral law and thus having accumulated a ‘righteous’ status which can be shared with all his people. [Read more…] about Wright on Imputation
RapidShare
Have you ever wanted to email a file to someone but couldn’t because your email server restricts the size of emails that you can send (e.g., Gmail’s max is 10 MB)? I recently came across RapidShare—a free site that will let you upload files (up to 100 MB each) to their server and give you a link that you can share with others. Here’s an example of a file I uploaded and the link that I received: http://rapidshare.com/files/5587830/02_Plantinga.mp3.html. Here’s some additional info that may interest you. I’m sure there are other sites like it, but if you’ve ever found yourself needing something like this, you might want to bookmark it for future reference.
“New Perspectives on Paul”
I just finished reading what is probably the best summary and most mature exposition of the contours of N. T. Wright’s theology of justification that I have read so far: “New Perspectives on Paul” by N. T. Wright, the final essay in the new volume Justification in Perspective: Historical Developments and Contemporary Challenges (2006), edited by Bruce L. McCormack. Wright responds to the numerous critiques that have been leveled against him over the past several years. The result is a more carefully nuanced and cogently expressed discussion of the central issues.
One thing I found very interesting was Wright’s assertion that the essence of his views on Paul was pre-Sanders. In other words, Wright didn’t rely on Sanders for his ideas. Rather, Wright came to his convictions independently—many of Sanders’s central points merely confirming what Wright had already been thinking (245–46).
ESV Bible Refalizer
James Anderson has created a very handy Firefox extension that automatically turns any Bible reference into a hyperlink to the ESV website. Very nice. I recommend it. He also has an NIV version that will take you to BibleGateway.com. Check it out.
By Faith, Not By Sight
Richard B. Gaffin Jr., By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation. Paternoster, 2006. 114 pp.
[rate 4.5]
I’ve been reading portions of Richard Gaffin’s new book, By Faith, Not By Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation (WTSBooks), and have found it helpful. Particularly insightful are his comments on (1) justification and the center of Paul’s theology and (2) the concept of eschatological justification.
The Center of Paul’s Theology
This selection summarizes his position well:
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Fighting for a Clean Conscience
I just posted an excerpt from John Ensor’s The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God’s Grace. It’s an encouraging read that I needed. I commend it to you. Here is a portion of that excerpt:
INSTRUCTING OUR CONSCIENCE ABOUT THE CROSS
Not that this sense of liberty is always there and never flags. It surely does. One problem is that our conscience is not sufficiently informed about the gospel. It needs training in righteousness. In terms of human experience, we must often “reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart” (1 John 3:19-20). I take this to mean that we need to bring the work of God in Christ to bear on our stubborn conscience. We must grasp the truth of the cross and wrestle our conscience into alignment and conformity. We must instruct our conscience about the cross until our conviction of guilt gives way to joy and confidence. Hebrews 10:22 calls this having “our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil [burdened] conscience.”