Future of Justification

A Response to N.T. Wright

De: John Piper

Narrado por: Robertson Dean

N. T. Wright, a world-renowned New Testament scholar and bishop in the Church of England, has spent years seeking "new" interpretations of the apostle Paul's writings. 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."

According to Piper, Wright's confidence that the church has gotten it wrong for 1,500 years, given his enormous influence, set off warning bells for Christian leaders such as himself, a pastor and New Testament scholar. According to Piper, if Wright's views 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. This book is a call from John Piper to all Christians, citing his warnings against "fresh" interpretations of the Bible and his plea to hold fast to what he considers the biblical view of justification.

©2007 John Piper (P)2008 Christian Audio

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.

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’

Scholarly exegesis

Piper's response to Wright is full of grace and respect for the scholarship of his brother in Christ. I loved that. So much of this book includes long excerpts from Wright's book to clarify each argument and to unpack them one at a time. Piper painstakingly exegetes scripture after scripture to explain why this "new interpretation" of Paul supports the very arguments Paul fought so hard to reject! These doctrines didn't start with the Reformation, They started with Christ, the Apostles, and the Living Word itself.

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!