Joseph Scibbe
Puritan Board Junior
Would one be asked (forced) to leave the board if the adopted a Wrightian view of Justification?
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Would one be asked (forced) to leave the board if the adopted a Wrightian view of Justification?
3. Federal Vision. The Puritan Board forbids the membership of "Federal Vision" proponents on this board. Every major NAPARC body has ruled the Federal Vision to be an un-Scriptural and un-Confessional doctrinal error that fundamentally re-casts doctines that are core to the Christian religion. Those who are proponents of this doctrine should refrain from registering and any members who embrace this doctrine should have the integrity to forfeit their membership privileges. Members who violate this rule will be suspended or banned.
My question is why would anyone who hold's to NT Wright's view of justification want to be on a bored that requires a broad confessional subscription(though there is much diversity)?
Now where I see that Wright has problems though is that he believes that righteousness is merely a status. It is not a substance that can be infused or imputed. He finds the whole concept goofy. Thus when we are declared righteous, we are merely being declared "right" and are admitted membership into the covenant family. This declaration is based upon Christ's work on the cross, but absolutely no moral change occurs. We are still sinners through and through. He seemed to say that it would be impossible to have a fully corrupt nature and God's nature in us at the same time. God's nature could never be overruled by the sinful nature, thus if we had God's righteousness (as defined by Protestantism) that righteousness would overcome all evil and we would be walking around perfect. This is how he gets to the idea that all future works are solely brought about by the Spirit. If our nature has never morally changed, then everything we will do is still sinful.
Now where I see that Wright has problems though is that he believes that righteousness is merely a status. It is not a substance that can be infused or imputed. He finds the whole concept goofy. Thus when we are declared righteous, we are merely being declared "right" and are admitted membership into the covenant family. This declaration is based upon Christ's work on the cross, but absolutely no moral change occurs. We are still sinners through and through. He seemed to say that it would be impossible to have a fully corrupt nature and God's nature in us at the same time. God's nature could never be overruled by the sinful nature, thus if we had God's righteousness (as defined by Protestantism) that righteousness would overcome all evil and we would be walking around perfect. This is how he gets to the idea that all future works are solely brought about by the Spirit. If our nature has never morally changed, then everything we will do is still sinful.
I'm not sure this a correct reading either of Wright or of Protestant theology. In Protestant theology, justification is a status, or at least a change of status. Wright believes the same, although he includes in it what Protestant orthodoxy would call adoption (membership in the covenant family). He is correct that justification is not an ontological entity. The Reformation argued the same point about grace contra Catholicism. Grace isn't a "thing" you get; it's God's power acting in you. Further, Wright is correct that justification does not in and of itself entail moral change. This is the cornerstone of sola fide. It's also the basis of the duplex gratia in Calvin's theology. The moral change is sanctification or regeneration, and justification is neither based on nor causes it.
At the ETS annual conference a few weeks ago, Wright was absolutely clear that final justification is "in accordance with" works, not on its basis in a causal sense, and that justification is not a process. Thus, one can speak of past, present, and future justification, but present justification is in no way contingent upon future justification. Then, I believe that the denial of imputation is the only major problem in Wright's theology. Also, it's not a necessary conclusion of much of his exegesis. You can take the majority of the exegesis -- including the stuff about the exile and about God's mission through Israel -- and incorporate it into a thoroughly Reformed systematic theology.
Boliver, I think you are confusing imputation with infusion. Imputed means accounted, credited, etc., not inserted into us. It refers to standing (status) before God and not to sanctification. As far as justification is concerned, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, i.e. viewed as ours by God.
Boliver, I think you are confusing imputation with infusion. Imputed means accounted, credited, etc., not inserted into us. It refers to standing (status) before God and not to sanctification. As far as justification is concerned, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, i.e. viewed as ours by God.
If this is the case, then why does Wright argue against imputation by saying that righteousness is not a substance that can be infused or imputed? Is it that Wright has a faulty understanding of imputation?
I ask out of ignorance.
If we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense whatever to say that the judge imputes, imparts, bequeaths, conveys or otherwise transfers his righteousness to either the plaintiff or the defendant. Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom … To imagine the defendant somehow receiving the judge’s righteousness is simply a category mistake. That is not how the language works
Notice what has not happened, within this lawcourt scen. The judge has not clothed the defendant with his own "righteousness." That doesn't come into it. Nor has he given the defendant something called "the righteousness of the Messiah"
(Rom 10:3) For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
(Gal 2:15) We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
(Gal 2:16) Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
If we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense whatever to say that the judge imputes, imparts, bequeaths, conveys or otherwise transfers his righteousness to either the plaintiff or the defendant. Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom … To imagine the defendant somehow receiving the judge’s righteousness is simply a category mistake. That is not how the language works
What Paul Really Saidp. 98
Also in Justification p. 206 in reference to Romans 3:24-26 states,Notice what has not happened, within this lawcourt scen. The judge has not clothed the defendant with his own "righteousness." That doesn't come into it. Nor has he given the defendant something called "the righteousness of the Messiah"
So it would seem that Wright see imputation and impartation as somehow giving God's righteousness to us.
Justification P. 184But, though the idea of a final judgment is common to most Christian theologians, the idea that Paul would insist on such a judgment at which the criterion will be, in some sense, "works," "deeds" or even "works of the law," has naturally been anathema to those who have been taught that his sole word about judgment and justification is that, since justification is by faith, there simply cannot be a final "judgment according to works." I am frequently challenged on this point in public, after lectures and seminars, and my normal reply is that I did not write Romans 2: Paul did.
Wright says that the righteousness in Phil 3:9 is not God's righteousness that He passes over to the believer, but it is the righteousness from God that is the status which God gives us. p. 150 of Justification
Just adding to the discussion.
Dr. Clark nailed it. He pontificates as if he were an historical theologian, yet makes numerous rudimentary errors when trying to handle Reformation materials. Wright is a gifted writer, promoter, and has been in several of the "right places at the right times" to make a major impact on current scholarly thought. Many of the younger evangelicals have swooned under his teaching as the latest, nextest, bestest thing since the invention of the internet.