The next essay in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry is by Bryan Estelle, and is entitled “The Covenant of Works in Moses and Paul.” Estelle is plainly acquainted with a vast amount of theological and biblical studies literature, and his close handling of that literature is obviously competent. If footnotes were biceps, this thing would …
In Which I Give Merit Demerits
I honestly do not see how it can be considered possible to separate Christ from His benefits. So when I speak of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ, this means that I am ultimately speaking of the imputation of Christ Himself, and there is no way to understand this apart from the Pauline …
Some Headway, Maybe
Green Baggins is reviewing a new book on the Federal Vision, and, if you check out the comments section of this entry, you will find that an ecumenical dialogue of sorts has broken out. Well, not exactly, but I think the exchange was more productive than not.
Not Exactly Joy Upon Joy
The third essay in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministy is by Iain Duguid, and is entitled “Covenant Nomism and the Exile.” It is really quite good overall, and my critical comments will not be extensive at all. There is one place where he has a superb interaction with N.T. Wright’s confusion about courtroom imputation. In …
Westminster XXXII: Of the State of Men After Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead
1. The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption (Gen. 3:19; Acts 13:36): but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them (Luke 23:43; Eccl. 12:7): the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the …
Johnnie, M’Boy
The book I have been commenting (Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry) on makes it very clear that the imputation of the active obedience of Christ (which I hold) has to be considered a sine qua non of Reformed orthodoxy concerning justification (which I don’t hold). If you would like to read a very short article …
Kind of Tacky to Point Out
In Chapter Two of Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, David VanDrunen continues to sound the alarm. The doctrine of justification is “under fire” (p. 25), being attacked (p. 25), there are “three distinct lines of attack” (p. 26), and he concludes that “justification is indeed under attack” (p. 57). He desires to describe the views …
Like a Man Dragging a Rope
I am afraid that Westminster West is disgracing itself. I finally had a chance to begin reading Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, edited by R. Scott Clark, and released by Presbyterian and Reformed, proud publishers of Norman Shepherd’s Call of Grace. The first essay in this new bucket of fruit is by Clark, and is …
Personal Loyalty
A few weeks ago, I made the point that leaders among the anti-FVers have been extremely reluctant to admit the obvious, which is that I hold to the historic Reformed view of justification and so on. The reason for this, I suggested, was political. In other words, to admit publicly that I had a clean …
A Caveat
As the previous post made clear, I genuinely appreciate a lot of what N.T Wright writes. Not only do I think it is true, but I believe that many in the Reformed world desperately need to learn many things from him. That said, I have been recently looking again at some of the issues we …