The doctrine on which the church stands or falls—how a guilty person is declared righteous before God, and why the Reformers thought everything hung on getting it right.
Two questions run through most of this. The first is exegetical—what Paul, and Jesus, and the story of Abraham actually teach about being counted righteous, pressed hard by the New Perspective on Paul. The second is historical and systematic—the Reformation’s sola fide, and the long argument over faith, works, and imputed righteousness. The papers survey the whole history; the posts work the particular texts; the two reviews are the books that state the doctrine best.
Papers 3
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The Righteousness of God, Part 1
Paper
A historical and theological survey of the major Christian positions on justification, from the Fathers through the Reformation.
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The Righteousness of God, Part 2
Paper
The survey carried forward—the major positions on justification after the Reformation.
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A New Testament Theology of Human Righteousness
Paper
What the New Testament means when it calls a person righteous.
The New Perspective on Paul 8
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Post · November 2006
First notes on the movement reshaping how justification is read.
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Paradigm Shift—Paul’s Use of Σάρξ
Post · October 2006
How a single Pauline word gets redefined under the New Perspective.
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Post · December 2006
Where N. T. Wright parts ways with the Reformers on imputed righteousness.
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Post · June 2007
Weighing Wright’s method against the text he’s reading.
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Post · April 2008
Wright in his own words on justification and the gospel.
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Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul (Guy Prentiss Waters)
Post · May 2007
Notes on Waters’s critical survey of the movement.
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Westerholm on Righteousness and Covenant
Post · February 2007
Westerholm on the oddity at the center of the New Perspective: Paul’s righteousness language never actually attaches itself to “the covenant.”
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Garlington’s Galatians Commentaries
Post · May 2007
A New-Perspective reading of Galatians, and what to make of it.
Abraham, Faith, and Righteousness 6
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When Was Abraham Justified? Part 1Series pt. 1
Post · April 2007
The test case for justification by faith—when exactly was Abraham counted righteous?
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Sources on the Timing of Abraham’s Justification
Subject Study · April 2007
Every commentator and theologian I could find on the question, quoted at length and sorted by the view each one takes.
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The Merit of Faith: Genesis 15:6 in JPS
Post · September 2007
How one translation quietly turns Abraham’s faith into a merit.
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Post · November 2006
Faith as the empty hand that receives a righteousness it did not earn.
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Post · April 2007
Justifying faith is alone in justifying, but never alone in the believer.
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What Is the Righteousness Required to Enter the Kingdom?
Post · February 2013
Jesus’ demand for a righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees’—and where it comes from.
Faith, Works, and Sola Fide 4
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Luther on the Necessity of Good Works
Post · June 2010
Even Luther insisted good works follow—just not as the ground of justification.
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Edwards on Faith and Works in Justification
Post · June 2010
Edwards on how works relate to a faith that alone justifies.
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Justification by Works and Faith in 1 Clement
Post · April 2012
Reading an early church father who seems to hold both together.
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Post · April 2007
Is justification a once-for-all verdict or a daily renewal? A caution.
Book Reviews 2
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Review · 2008
Sproul on sola fide against the pressure to treat justification as a doctrine two churches can differ on and still be one.
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The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar
Review · 2008
Bonar’s How Shall Man Be Just With God?—the imputed righteousness of Christ as the only relief a conscience gets.
Looking for the best of what others have written on this? See the Justification bibliography →