If I can ask tangentially, I really don’t have a clue as to what N.T. Wright is about. His writing strikes me as the sort that you can’t really get a handle on without diving in and reading the whole thing. And I just don’t have the time. All summaries I have heard of him leave me clueless as to what he is saying. Would it be possible for someone brighter and more informed than I to put together a sort of “four spritual laws”-type summary of what he is saying about justification? Thanks.

Yikes! I am comforted however by Anthony Mator’s comment: “Justification is God’s work. Obedience is ours.”

FWIW, here’s what I posted over at Rev. DeYoung’s blog:

“C. Michael Patton of the Parchment and Pen blog wrote this:

“I believe that faith alone saves a person, not an adherence to the belief in salvation by faith alone. Having said this, I believe that it is a primary part of the discharge of the Gospel to proclaim strongly and loudly that salvation is by faith alone. Those who deny such are in great danger in many ways. Paul exhorted the Galatians not to fall back into a worthless system of works. The means by which they were saved (faith) is also the means by which they are kept (faith). When man attempts to add anything to the faith, they have denied the Gospel by which they were saved. This is tragic.”

I.e., belief in Sola Fide is essential for (protestant) orthodoxy, but beliefe in Sola Fide is not essential for salvation.

In this post by Steve Scott titled “Protestantism’s False Gospel”:

“Protestantism’s false gospel: Justification by faith alone.

Okay, now I’ve got some splainin’ to do, as Ricky Ricardo would say. At the center of the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. But some Protestants make such a big deal out of the doctrine of justification by faith alone that they would substitute this doctrine and place it at the center of the gospel. The result? One is justified by their belief in the doctrine of justification by faith alone rather than by their faith in Christ, alone. See the difference? Belief in the doctrine is superior to belief in Christ.

I believe we are justified by faith in Christ. But this can be true without having a deep understanding of the doctrine of justification by faith alone as Protestant theologians have hashed it out. When we place upon others the burden of understanding something the same way we do, there is a tendency to discount their faith. The doctrine becomes our point of superiority. Our understanding of a doctrine becomes the object of our faith, rather than Christ as the object of our faith. I’m sure there will be many on Judgment Day who knew the doctrine of justification by faith inside and out, and believed it, but who really didn’t have faith in Christ. I hope that’s not true for you or me.”

Justification is God’s work. Obedience is ours.

For me, the teaching of Christ is that simple. And there’s not even a need to get into squabbles over free will and predestination, because whichever way you look at it, we still have a responsibility to obey, and we obey knowing that we are justified by God.

There was not even an agreed doctrine of justification among the first generation of Protestant Reformers. Just compare Zwingli, Bucer, Melanchthon, Luther and Oecolampadius and the differences will emerge.

Much of the impotence of American churches is tied to a profound ignorance and apathy about justification.

Excellent. Let’s add a mis-founded
(is that a word?) assurance of justification.