Chapter 5, The Future of Justification
Posted by theologyandsteak on January 9, 2008
Chapter 5 is entitled, “Justification and the Gospel: When is the Lordship of Jesus Good News?” This is a great chapter because it brings balance to Wright’s noble effort to see more clearly the historical and global sweep of God’s purpose in the gospel. The lordship of Jesus over all is an important aspect of the gospel that is often overlooked in today’s preaching to the me-oriented consumer-driven audience. Yes, Jesus is not only Lord over my personal problems, but Lord over the entire universe! However, Piper points out in this chapter that Wright’s overemphasis on the historical/global lordship of Christ marginalizes, perhaps even negates, the aspects of the gospel that pertain to the individual.
Wright is not eager to equate the message of the gospel with justification by faith alone, and neither does he accept that the gospel is an account of how people get saved. However, Piper points out that exegetically, this argument is unsound. Paul in the book of Acts seems to contradict what Wright says. As examples, look at Acts 13:14 where Paul is speaking to Jews in Pisidian Antioch. Paul lays out all of the historical information that the Jews would certainly understand and announces that the event of Jesus’ death and resurrection, this “good news,” clearly pertains to personal salvation, eternal life, and justification. Even though there are different contexts where Paul makes justification understandable to both Jews and Gentiles, Acts makes plain that this same salvation that Paul is preaching to both Jews and Gentiles. I would also look at Acts 17 and Acts 28 as other examples.
Piper, I believe, argues that Wright’s gospel is very ambiguous, and falls into the trap of the modern evangelical notion to believe on Jesus rather than to believe what Jesus said. If we believe mere in the death and resurrection of Jesus, as Wright claims we should, this saves no one because it is undefined. These are historical facts, and with no doctrine or meaning attached to them, they do not save anyone. This is I think what Piper is arguing, and parallels arguments made by Gordon Clark in his book on the Atonement. The death and resurrection are facts o history without meaning as such. It is the doctrine of justification by faith alone and other doctrines, explained by Scriptures, that provide the answer to the questions “why” and “what for.”
Additionally, Piper explains that the lordship of Jesus is actually terrifying to those who are convicted of sin and understand their standing before God. Piper states, “The announcement that Jesus is the Messiah, the imperial Lord of the universe, is not good news, but is an absolutely terrifying message to a sinner who has spent all his life ignoring or blaspheming the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and is therefore guilty of treason and liable to execution.” When Paul was floored by Christ on the road to Damascus, I am sure his first thoughts were not an intellectual analysis of the new doctrine and a million questions of what Christ was telling him. I would imagine that his first thoughts were about survival. Knowing that the Person whose followers he was persecuting was indeed the God of the universe, and that he was a sinner before him, and subject to divine punishment, Paul I am sure was not happy with his new found knowledge that Jesus was Lord. The consequences of this fact were in full view for Paul.
However, that is what makes justification good news for me personally. The good news was that God grants mercy through his Son and Lord Jesus Christ, and makes a way for sinners to be reconciled back to God. John Piper states, “The personal realities of knowing oneself loved, forgiven, and justified are not subordinate to the global wonders of the universal lordship of Jesus. Without these personal realities being known and received that lordship is terrifying.”
John Piper asks this question: “Why should a guilty sinner who has committed treason against Jesus consider it good news when he hears the announcement that this Jesus has been raised from the dead with absolute sovereign rights over all human beings?”
He then answers it this way: “If the gospel has no answer for this sinner, the mere facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus are not good news. But if the gospel has an answer, it would have to be a message about how the rebel against God can be saved-indeed, how he can be right with God and become part of the covenant people. I do not think Wright needs to marginalize these essential and glorious aspects of the gospel in order to strengthen his case that the gospel has larger global implications.”
The Lordship of Christ is indeed good news when connected to justification.
