The Future of Justification

A Response to N. T. Wright

By: John Piper

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

N. T. Wright, a world-renowned New Testament scholar and bishop of Durham in the Church of England, has spent years studying the apostle Paul's writings and has offered a "fresh perspective" on Paul's theology. Among his conclusions are that "the discussions of justification in much of the history of the church - certainly since Augustine - got off on the wrong foot, at least in terms of understanding Paul - and they have stayed there ever since."

Wright's confidence that the church has gotten it wrong for 1,500 years, given his enormous influence, has set off warning bells for Christian leaders such as John Piper, a pastor and New Testament scholar. If Wright's framework for interpreting the New Testament text and his understanding of justification find a home in the church, not only could the doctrine of justification be distorted for generations to come, but the New Testament writers' original intent could be silenced. So Piper is sounding a crucial warning in this audiobook, reminding all Christians to exercise great caution regarding "fresh" interpretations of the Bible and to hold fast to the biblical view of justification.

©2007 John Piper (P)2009 christianaudio.com

Great Message Throughout …

We have absolutely no clue how much internal squabbling over denominational doctrine has tinted the raw gospel doctrine of Christ Jesus as The Messiah spoke it. It has fragmented Christianity and for what !??!! Christ will end this senseless bickering when he soon comes and we will all then see what true doctrine is of which we have not a clue trust and believe that … ‘Amen’

Well written and gracious

I appreciated John Piper’s efforts to call NT Wright to clarify his meaning that justification is the declaration of one becoming a Christian and not part of the gospel message itself. The danger seems to lie in obscuring the basis of our favor with God as on our own merits rather than on satisfying God’s justice through the death and obedience of Christ Jesus. Seemed repetitive at times but likely the result of being thorough. It was written well and with a spirit of humility and brotherly love.

A Clarion Call For Gospel Clarity

I truly enjoy listening to audiobooks and studying writings from all Christian traditions and theological perspectives. I certainly find NT Wright’s books more engaging and stimulating than most religious authors of our day. However, it is impossible to overstate the current need for clear biblical exposition and clarion proclamation of justification by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness alone. God raise up workers to rebuild the foundation of biblical justification to displace religious self righteousness swallowing Your people.

Challenge to NT Wright?!

I have listened to a great deal of Bishop Wright's work & thought I should listen to a supposed scholarly challenge to that work.

While John Piper says repeatedly in his Introduction that he had no need to "score debate points", that seems to be exactly what he is trying to do.

Most of his pontification not only misrepresents what I have understood from Bishop Wright's perspectives, it seems as though Mr Piper has either not read Wright's works or has merely skimmed them.

This was disappointing & very much read like an envious colleague.

Narrator Issues

Was looking forward to this one but returned it right away due to problems with the narration.

There is the lessor issue of stopping to give the Bible reference every time there is one. It is hugely important that everything be backed by scripture! But in an audiobook where you have to break up every train of thought to list the reference it doesn't work too well.

But more importantly, in the book Piper is interacting with Wright's words and quoting him a LOT. It seems to be the general flow of the whole book, but the way it is narrated I can't keep track of when PIper is speaking or when he is quoting Wright. This makes it very difficult to follow. There is this back and forth with complicated ideas but it is very hard to delineate who is saying what, and a lot of times what the two are saying though different fundamentally, can sound very similar. It would have been very helpful to use a different tone of voice, or say 'quote unquote' or at least PAUSE a little more in between!

Returned this and decided to download it via PDF on Desiring God for free!

Faith alone

The Faith alone slogan that he mentions constantly has become old and tiresome. The focus should move from the Reformation battle against the church's problems of the day to the context of first century and Jesus' true message of our priestly role in God's good creation. I believe he means well, but just argues from the wrong place, as do most others in his tradition.

Missing Lots of Text

The narration of (parts of) this book left much to be desired. This should not be called an unabridged version of the text. There are words, phrases, sentences, and even entire paragraphs omitted from the audio version which I noticed while trying to listen as I read along with the print version.