Lancelot Ridley on Ephesians 2:8 To faith, in the Scripture, is attributed our justification, not because faith is the author of our justification, for the author of our justification is Christ, but justification is attributed to faith because faith receives the mercy of God and believes the promises of God made to just people and…

What happens when you put two world-class New Testament scholars in a room to argue over one of the most contentious topics in NT studies in recent years? Thought-provoking insight, exegetical depth, innovative theological inquiry, a few animated exchanges, and a handful of laughs. In others words, the latest installment of the Trinity Debate, one…

All of the theological difficulties and problems of Justification Theory (JT), which we have summarized in the previous post, are, according to Campbell, generated from a prospective reading of Romans 1:18–3:20. According to Campbell, most interpreters argue (and for him Moo is one of the clearest examples) that Paul builds “from an account of a…

I suspect there will be many readers of the previous posts who have found little with which to disagree or criticize, and this is not surprising given that this basic construal of Paul has dominated both church and academy since at least the Protestant Reformation. It is not for nothing, after all, that references to…

If humanity is incapable of rendering the obedience that the law—whether natural or revealed—demands, then how can humanity be saved from God’s holy wrath against their sin and the eternal consequences thereof? How, in other words, can humanity find a gracious God when it simply deserves divine wrath and condemnation? Enter in the doctrine of…

Before we look at the most vocal and serious revisionist account of Pauline theology, it will be helpful to get our bearings by providing a sketch of the so-called traditional interpretation of Paul. Douglas Moo provides one of the clearest, most nuanced, and exegetically rigorous accounts of this take on Paul’s theology. Paul’s theology, on…

How can sinners find a gracious God? How can the unrighteous be made or declared righteous in the presence of a holy and perfect God? These questions, of course, presume that humanity has—to put it mildly—a problem, an incredible and desperate plight that can only be rectified by God. Traditional Protestant interpretations of Paul generally…