How Wide Justification?

During the ETS discussion, Wright made a point of emphasizing that justification in Paul is one narrow slice of his theology and not the whole. Wright has been protesting for years against the expansion of “justification” to include everything that Paul says about salvation.

At one level, he’s got a point. We should try to capture the precise contours of Paul’s usage and meaning. Justification is, as Wright continuously emphasizes (following the Reformed tradition!) that justification is the forensic dimension of salvation, not the whole of salvation.

On the other hand: This narrow sense of justification holds only if we are still reading Paul in individualistic terms, and if we are still thinking of justification in an ordo salutis sense. Consider these links:

1) In his lecture, Thielman neatly pointed to the parallels between Romans 1:17-18 and Psalm 98. Yahweh’s judgment of the nations, hoped for and celebrated in the Psalm, is now realized in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. In that context, Paul announces the gospel that is about “the righteousness of God” now revealed.

2) Judgment, putting things right, is (as Wright knows) is hardly a small piece of Paul’s gospel. Yahweh promised that through Abraham’s seed, he would bring peace and justice to the nations. Shalom is the ultimate hope of Israel, but there is no shalom without zedekah and mishpat.

3) Justification is not detached from this concern for justice and shalom (again, as Wright himself has emphasized). Romans 1:17-18 makes any such detachment impossible – the gospel announces the revelation of Yahweh’s righteousness, and Paul immediately follows with one of his key justification texts. Whatever it means for the just to live by faith, it is intimately connected to the justice of God revealed in the gospel. Indeed, justification by faith is at the heart of the gospel of righteousness that is as wide as the sea of nations, as broad as east is from the west.