The Desiring God folks have some video clips up promoting their national conference, and you can look at them here. The first is John Piper explaining, when he first had the thought of inviting me, why he didn’t lie down with a cold compress on his forehead until the feeling went away. In the second …
Kinder, Gentler Principalities and Powers
Craig Blomberg has a post here, reviewing N.T. Wright’s book-length response to John Piper’s book. Justin Taylor has some good comments on the related issue of active obedience here. And now I have some comments, with no link necessary, because as it turns out, you are already where you need to be. Just scroll down. …
Why the Devil Won’t Argue Like a Gentleman
So let me ask those of you who are interested in this kind of thing to watch this clip of an interview with N.T. Wright on the subject of homosexuality, and why he hasn’t written on it. (HT: Justin Taylor, Denny Burk) Watch it a couple times, and then read on. Let me begin by …
An Adam is Never Off the Clock
Almost done with Wright’s book. Just one more installment after this. One of Wright’s arguments is that righteousness is not imputed to us because righteousness “is not that kind of thing.” But this is just modernist reductionism. And because Wright is an orthodox Christian, he refuses to give way to that kind of reductionism elsewhere. …
Hans Brinker and the Text
I am listening through a series of lectures by N.T. Wright on Jesus, and am enjoying them very much. I am working through this book of his on justification, and am frequently bewildered at how someone as astute as Wright could be missing the kinds of things he is missing. I have said something like …
Paul Right Off the Grill and Still Hot
In the next section (pp. 185-190), I continue to be edified by what Wright affirms, and mystified by what he denies. This is the section where he discusses the surrounding context of Romans 3:28, which says, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Describing the run-up …
A Little Theological Stir Fry
I got some questions on this N.T. Wright business last night that made me think of a couple things, things that should be tossed into the theological hopper. So here goes. The first is that the theological criticisms I have made of the “union with Christ” model as a stand-alone model for imputation are criticisms …
Tea Kettle Charges of Heresy
One of the things I appreciated about John Piper’s critique of Wright was that he didn’t go straight to tea-kettle charges of heresy just because he encountered something in Wright on the subject of justification that he thought was unclear, for whatever reason. And after looking at it closely, Piper concluded that Wright was a …
No Need to Replace the Furniture
The next section of Wright’s book (pp. 169-176) was glorious in what it affirmed, and weirdly disappointing in what it denied. He does a fantastic job in situating the point of the discussion that swirls around “let God be true, and every man a liar.” As Wright puts it, the problem with Israel’s sin is …
Part of the Temple Belonged to Them
I don’t really have a lot to say about Wright’s next section (pp. 158-168), a section focused largely on Romans 2. Just a few things. Wright makes some worthy points about the general neglect of Paul’s eschatology of justification. The doers of the law will be justified (Rom. 2:13). Might not mean what it appears …