justification – The Two Cities

Book Review and Essay on The Role of Works at the Final Judgment, edited by Alan P. Stanley.

Sep 28, 2024

Four Views On the Role of Works at the Final Judgment. Edited by Alan P. Stanley. Counterpoints: Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. Paperback ISBN: 0310490332. Contains contributions by Robert N. Wilkin, Thomas R. Schreiner, James D. G. Dunn, Michael P. Barber, and Alan P. Stanley. Here, in this well-conceived 275-page book (page numbers are from the Kindle edition which roughly approximates the print version), four prominent scholars advance different views on the role...

Talking About The Gospel (Podcast)

Apr 29, 2020

How should we define the gospel? Recently, there have been some heated discussions about the nature of the gospel. What should the central identifying feature be? Should it be the legal declaration of Justification by Faith? Or should it be the regal proclamation that Jesus is King? In this episode, Amber Bowen, John Anthony Dunne, Chris Porter, Kris Song, and Logan Williams call into question whether identifying a “center” to the gospel is even helpful...

Review of Andrew K. Boakye, Death and Life: Resurrection, Restoration, and Rectification in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

Jan 29, 2018

Death and Life is the published PhD Thesis of Andrew K. Boakye (PhD, University of Manchester), who is currently Lecturer in Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester. I was first introduced to Dr. Boakye’s research at the 2012 Galatians & Theology Conference held at my alma mater (University of St Andrews), where he gave a paper just before I gave mine, entitled, “If the Law Could Make Alive: Justification as Resurrection in Galatians.” Ever since...

Review of Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme by Stephen Westerholm

Jul 19, 2014

There continues to be a swirl of popular interest in the now not-so-new “New Perspective on Paul.” In Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme, Stephen Westerholm attempts “to update and to make more widely accessible earlier work” (viii), and thus demonstrate why he has not been persuaded by recent “revisionist” readings of Paul. The concise work consists of six chapters, each of which attempts to briefly describe key proposals from six scholars associated with the...

Review of The Role of Works at the Final Judgment edited by Alan P. Stanley.

Jul 10, 2014

Wilkin, Robert N., Thomas R. Schreiner, James D. G. Dunn, Michael P. Barber, and Alan P. Stanley.Four Views On the Role of Works at the Final Judgment. Edited by Alan P. Stanley. Counterpoints. Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. 234 pages. Softcover. Retail: $17.99. ISBN: 9780310490333 “The Role of Works at the Final Judgement,” edited by Alan Stanley admirably expands Zondervan’s “Counterpoints” series. For those unfamiliar with the series, these volumes bring together divergent...

Top Galatians Commentaries

Apr 23, 2013

I’m nearly halfway through the first college course I’ve ever taught at Lincoln Christian University (the Las Vegas extension). Since the course is on Galatians, which is what my PhD research at the University of St Andrews under Prof. N. T. Wright focuses on, I thought it might be a good idea to provide a few comments on the commentaries I find most helpful for those of our readers who are planning on working through...

The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 2 (Guest Post)

Sep 5, 2012

Most of the readers of this blog will be familiar with the Law/Gospel distinction that is present in the New Testament. While this distinction grew out of a particular set of controversies involving a particular law code and its relevance to a particular cultural situation (something that we Protestants often forget to our own exegetical detriment), the New Testament also occasionally abstracts what we might call the principles of Law and Gospel as two ways of...

The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 1 (Guest Post)

Aug 29, 2012

It should go without saying that art is a powerful thing. When it is done well it can easily change the way we see the world, subverting our perspective in a way where other forms of communication would struggle or fail. We are surrounded by well executed art, yet it is an exhilarating rarity to find a piece art that is not only aesthetically exquisite, but also serves as an incarnation of the gospel for...

Birthday Resolutions

Jun 20, 2012

Today is my birthday. I’ve always considered it my own personal New Year. Billions of people celebrate new beginnings on January 1st, but on June 20th that number drops to mere millions. (Two worth noting: fellow blogger Caleb Johnson and my dad.) So, in honor of another year, here are some of my birthday resolutions: 1. Stay amazed The world has enough beauty to blow my mind every day, if only I’d consider how fascinating...

Is the aNTi Wright Polemic Justified?

Oct 4, 2011

We all know Wright has received a bad wrap from many conservative Christians over the years. I can remember being introduced to Wright’s view on Justification in a context in which I was told how detrimental his ideas were. Furthermore, one of the most influential figures for my theological thinking, John Piper, wrote an extensive rebuttal to N. T. Wright with The Future of Justification. Throughout the blogosphere there are many critical reviews of Wright’s work,...