Ian & Jocelyn Barker

In continuing his discussion on justification by faith, Wright turns to some key Pauline texts to prove his point. He first looks at Galatians which is a central letter in our understanding of justification. Wright claims that the topic is not about how a person is saved, but, Should ex-pagans be circumcised?

The Gentiles were being saved and some Jewish Christians were insisting that they be circumcised. Wright says that the Jewish idea of “works” was not about moral effort, but was seen as the badge of the Torah that defined the Jewish people from the pagans. So circumcision was such a badge and not a moral effort. “Who is a member of the people of God? Are ex-pagan converts full members or not?”

He writes, “The context is irrevocably covenantal” (121). Galatians 3 and the discussion about Abraham is placed there to answer the question of who is included in the his family (see 3:29). Paul doesn’t view the law as evil, but as one stage in God’s plan. The new stage had come in Christ bringing salvation to all so the Law has been set aside. The cross has destroyed the distinction between Jew and Gentile bringing justification — that is, the badge of who is in the family of God. Not as the means of how they get in the family, but the identifier of who is in the family.

“Justification, in Galatians, is the doctrine which insists that all who share faith in Christ belong at the same table, no matter what their racial differences, as together they wait for the final new creation” (122).

This makes a lot of sense to me, but I had more difficulty with accepting his understanding of Philippians 3:2-11. Perhaps I need more time or didn’t understand it completely. This passage is an outworking of his desire that they imitate him, as he has imitated Christ, by abandoning their privileges. He possessed “covenant membership according to the flesh” but chose not to use or exploit it. Instead, he laid it aside and gained covenant membership in Christ. 3:9 is a clear statement of how justification works.

1. “It is membership language.” The righteousness he is speaking of is a status within the people of God because of his zeal as a Pharisee. He is refusing “the status of orthodox Jewish covenant membership,” not a “self-help righteousness” (124).
2. “The covenant status Paul now enjoys is the gift of God” (124). This gift is covenant membership that is given because of the faith. It is not God’s own righteousness but a status that He gives. Within justification-language, “faith” is no longer something we do to earn God’s favor because it is not about how we are saved. Rather, faith becomes “the badge of covenant membership” (125).

“Justification is not how someone becomes a Christian. It is the declaration that they have become a Christian” (125).

I had a hard time with this passage because I find it hard to see that Paul was laying aside his privileges when those privileges were outside of salvation in Christ. Next, we’ll look at Romans and conclude the chapter.