Wright On, En Tizzle

As you may have noticed, I've been reading Wright's book, What Saint Paul Really Said, for some time now (yeah, I'm a slacker). I'm finally getting around to finishing it, and I want to say a just a couple of things about it.

First of all, Wright's points are easy to understand, well established, and generally sound. He also has an uncanny ability to grip your attention as he takes you through technical arguments, using the fluid and beautiful rhetoric that has come to be expected of him, yet which nonetheless impresses every time. In short, this book is convincing and winsome. It is scholarly and captivating.

Second, as I read and interact with Wright's arguments regarding Paul and his original message, I am baffled that this book is considered to be so controversial. It seems that, especially for those of us who are reformed, Wright's conclusions regarding the covenant, the righteousness of God, jusification, and eschatology, don't undercut our historic faith, rather they broaden it, and deepen it, and clarify it. For me, it's not like going from one channel to another, it's more like going from black and white to color TV, or maybe (as my buddy Rob added) it's like going from standard broadcast TV to HDTV.

Furthermore, I have attended conferences where I have heard well known pastors claim that Wright and his conclusions about Paul are not only wrong, but unorthodox and even heretical. Are you kidding me? Well, in an attempt to set the record straight, let me post a couple of quotes from this great book, and I'll let you be the judge.

"I must insist, right away, that if you come upon anyone who genuinely thinks that they can fulfil Pelagius' programme, in whichever form or variation you like, you should gently but firmly set them right. There is simply no way that human beings can make themselves fit for the presence or salvation of God" (116).

And if that isn't enough to relieve you, consider this:

"As I said earlier, Paul's conception of how people are drawn into salvation starts with the preaching of the gospel, continues with the work of the Spirit in and through that preaching, and the effect of the Spirit's work on the hearts of the hearers, and concludes with the coming to birth of faith, and entry into the family through baptism. 'No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:3). But when that confession is made, God declares that this person, who (perhaps to their own surprise) believes the gospel, is thereby marked out as being within the true covenant family" (125).

Now call me crazy, but I would consider these statements to be robustly evangelical and orthodox. But hey, you may just wish to call me worse than crazy: a heretic.