TILL HE COMES Blog

Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision (IVP: 2009) is N.T. Wright’s attempt to explain once again his view on Paul’s use of justification. He wrote it as a summary of his view, and as a response to critics (primarily John Piper) who seem to not understand what he is saying.

The book is written with ironic humor and remarkable restraint, but the most amazing feature is the Biblical paradigm shift that Wright presents to his readers regarding justification. Though most of what Wright explains in this book he has written elsewhere, this book puts it all together in nice, orderly fashion, so that even if one does not agree with Wright, we can hope that they will now be able to critique his view with understanding.

As for myself, I am not yet fully persuaded of Wright’s view. His basic view is that justification is God’s law-court declaration that a person is in right standing (so far, so good) with God’s covenant. It’s that covenant part that raises questions, particularly since Wright’s definition of justification does away with the doctrine of imputed righteousness. Wright does not believe that through justification we receive the righteousness of Christ (p. 135).

And yet, what Wright takes away with one hand, he gives back with another. Wright argues that issues related to deliverance from the penalty and power of sin in our lives come through resurrection, not through justification (pp. 231-235). This, however, though a major doctrine, is a minor point in Wright’s book.

His main concern is to show how his view of justification makes more sense of the Pauline passages that speak of it. And with this, he is more than a conqueror. If, for example, you’ve ever struggled with what Romans 9-11 has to do with the rest of the letter, Wright’s view makes these chapters not only fit within the flow of Paul’s argument, but actually become the pinnacle and the climax of Romans. Wright’s strength in this is due to his insistence on reading the biblical text, not with twenty-first century eyes and sixteenth-century questions, but with first-century eyes and first-century questions. This, it seems to me, is the best way to read and study Scripture, and Wright does an excellent job leading the way.

If you want to understand some of the nuances to the current debate on justification, I recommend this book. If, however, you want to understand the thought flow of some of Paul’s letters (like Galatians, Ephesians, and Romans), this book must not be ignored. Take it up, and read.

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I have a confession to make.

I just finished reading a book by Brian McLaren.

Yes, yes, I know. Many of my old friends and acquaintances have long thought that I was sliding into apostasy, and now their suspicions are confirmed.

So since there is no chance of persuading them otherwise, let me go further and make another confession: I not only read the book; I enjoyed it.

As long as I’m making confessions (this feels good to get some of this off my chest), I might as well come out with all of it. I read the book, I enjoyed the book, and (gasp) I agreed with much of what McLaren said! I even cried at one point, and reread the chapter – out loud – to my wife!

Oh, and I guess that leads me to another confession, this one directed to Brian. I am sorry that in the past, I condemned you and your writings as “heresy” without ever actually reading or listening to anything you wrote or said, or trying to understand your views. That was wrong of me. I am planning on obtaining and reading more of your books, because even though I may not agree with everything, I like to read books that challenge me to think. Your books certainly do that.

The book I read was Adventures in Missing the Point by Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo. The book contains individual chapters on various topics, such as salvation, the Bible, evangelism, seminary, homosexuality, environmentalism, worship, sin, and postmodernism. Brian and Tony argue that many of us Christians approach these topics in the wrong way, and are therefore neutering the gospel of much of it’s redemptive power.

Aside from the fact that the book makes you think about these topics, one nice feature of the book is that the authors give you permission to disagree with them. They want the reader to think through the traditional views on these topics in a new light, so that we hold our views more lightly, with humility and grace. They help the reader do this through the format of the book. Each topic is assigned to one author, but the chapter concludes with a response from the other author. On nearly every topic, the two authors disagree with each other in some way, but they do so with gentleness and respect.

Christians are never going to universally agree on how to approach the “hot topics.” Personally, I am not sure that in this life, 100% agreement would be glorifying to God. What if God purposefully left things vague in Scripture and in life for a purpose? Maybe if we can learn to disagree in love, to maintain unity despite differences of opinion, to discuss tough issues with humility and grace, then we will no longer be “missing the point.”

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When I came down to Texas for Seminary three years ago, I brought 150 shelf-feet of books with me. In other words, my books took up 150 feet of bookshelf space.

I just added it all up again, and in three years, I have added over 60 feet of books! 20 feet a year! I am now up to over 210 feet of bookshelf space. Yes, I have an addiction.

Of course, having lots of books means nothing except that I’ve bought a lot of books. It’s reading them that is the key! But I also have a reading addiction (which my wife shares also, and which we successfully passed on to our three girls), so I’m okay. Is that rationalizing?

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I read my last seminary book ever yesterday! I finished off with Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World. Now I just have to put the finishing touches on one more paper, fill out a couple forms, and I AM DONE. Woohoo!!

I am so ready to be done with seminary, I’m not even going to walk. I’m ready to be away from those “Hollowed Halls” forever. Yes, that misspelling was intentional.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed seminary. More on that after I graduate…

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One of the books I read this week was Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. Though I was excited to read it, and agree in principle with the “Simple Church” concept, that every church needs to drastically simplify what it is doing so that it can do a better job of making disciples, I was a tiny bit disappointed with some of the approach used by the authors.

The book is based on a survey of hundreds of growing churches across the country which experienced at least 5% growth each year for at least three years. They surveyed these churches on what they were doing and how they were doing it. Here are my complaints:

First, it does not appear that they asked the growing churches they surveyed where their “growth” was coming from. Much of it could have been transfer growth. I don’t mind “transfer growth” if Christians are leaving sick churches to attend healthy ones, but that is not the reason most Christians transfer. Most just want to go where the best show is.

Second, it seems they only surveyed larger churches (of 300 or more) and churches with buildings. This is odd since about 90% of the 485,000 US churches are under 80 people. Also, the most “simple” churches in the country are house churches (of 30 or less). It would be interesting to see if his stats fit with house churches.

Finally, it seems that there is a real break down in the ability of the churches that were surveyed to get their people into community service (mission). Though the people may be progressing through the simplified discipleship track, few make it to the goal of mission involvement. I wonder if this isn’t because Mission should be placed first, as suggested by other books on the market (e.g. The Forgotten Ways).

Of course, despite these “complaints” of mine, I do think it is a really good book since most churches desperately need simplification.

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I love my new job. It pays me beans, but I basically get paid to read while I work. Last week, I read three books. So far (it’s Tuesday), I’ve read two more.

I’m realizing that while I’ve been in seminary, my mind went into reverse. There is something about my rebellious flesh that cannot enjoy a book if I am required to read it. Though, if truth be told, most of the assigned reading at seminary is mind-numbingly boring. Not all, but most.

Anyway, since I got this new job, I’ve been reading about two books a week, and I can feel my mind starting to reawaken with creativity and life. I love it. I don’t want to sleep or eat. I just want to read, think, and write. My mind is on fire with ideas. It’s my resurrection from the land of the dead.

I’m not sure what job I will get next (this job ends in mid May), but whatever it is, I need to keep reading (even if it’s not at work). I also don’t think I’ll go on for a Ph.D.  I’d get Permanent Head Damage, and I’m not sure I’d pull out of that kind of tailspin.

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I finished reading Vince Antonucci’s book I Became a Christian and all I got was this Lousy T-shirt with my wife tonight. We read through it out loud together. We laughed. We cried. We talked. It was great.

Vince’s book is unique in that he includes Greek word studies about as often as he uses the word “crap.”

Though Vince is already writing his next book (called Guerilla Lovers), I think the third book he should write should be called “Holy Crap.” It would be about how our lives are a mixture of holiness and crapiness, and sometimes, it’s hard to determine which is which. But if we focus on living for Jesus and loving Him, Jesus can take even the crap of our lives, and use it for good. Maybe as fertilizer to help others grow, or for use in the annual Alaskan Moose Poop Festival  (I have just put this on my Bucket List. …Do you think they really drink out of those Moose Poop Mugs?).

I don’t know what Jesus can do with the crap in your life, but if your life is like mine, He’s got a lot to work with.

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I received a book in the mail yesterday, and when I opened it up, thought, “I don’t remember ordering this. I know it was on my Amazon Wish List but I didn’t think I had bought it.”

Then I checked the invoice, and it had a note from Carl, saying he had bought it for me and hoped I enjoyed it. So thanks Carl! Once I finish it, I will post a blog review about it.

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Ok, so I have a problem. It’s more than a problem; it’s an addiction. There I said it. The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem, right? Of course, I’m not sure I want to recover from this problem. That’s probably another problem.

I have a book addiction.

But it gets worse. My wife has the same addiction. So do my three daughters. We are doomed. When we moved from Montana to Texas three years ago, our moving van was half filled with books…over 100 boxes. While in seminary, I have easily added another 10-15 boxes. In my study, I have ten bookshelves crammed with books, and on top of every shelf is a pile of books almost to the ceiling. Out in the garage, there are 20-30 boxes of books that I was not able to unpack  because there wasn’t room in my study.

And I am not just a “book collector.” There is not a single book I own that I don’t want to read. The ones I don’t want to read, I give away, throw out, or sell on Amazon. I want to read every single book I own.

Here’s why I am posting this. I counted today, and in my pile of books that I absolutely MUST read as soon as possible, there were 191 books. With a lot of pain and heart-wrenching agony, I was able to narrow it down to just 40. As I looked over these 40 books, I realized that they fell into three categories: Bible backgrounds, church planting/leadership, and missional living.

That tells me a lot about what I want to do with my life and where I am headed. I want to understand the Bible so that I can take what it says and lead a church to reach out into this world with the love of Jesus Christ. Even as I think about this, it gets me excited.

So what’s on your reading list, and what does it tell you about who you are?

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