Adrian and Grudem 8

Adrian Warnock’s eternal interview with Wayne Grudem continues.  Today: Feminism and the Church’s future. Adrian’s Blog: INTERVIEW – Wayne Grudem, Part Eight – What Does the Future Hold for the...

Adrian and Grudem 7

Part 7 of the interview series:  why Grudem believes the cessationism issue is a dead one for cessationists (I disagree with his interpretation – but think his irenic attitude is healthy) and how he has rethought his view of baptism as a requirement for church membership. Adrian’s Blog: INTERVIEW – Wayne Grudem, Part Seven – Things We Can Agree to Disagree...

Adrian and Grudem 6

This has been a long interview series by Adrian, but a good one.  Today, Grudem on penal substitution and the church caving to culture. Adrian’s Blog: INTERVIEW – Wayne Grudem, Part Six – Did Steve Chalke Blaspheme About the...

God’s Saving Righteousness

From Schreiner on Paul’s theology of righteousness: Regarding Righteousness “. . . justification should not be accepted as the center of Pauline theology . . . . The foundation of his theology is the glory of God in the work of Christ” (193) “This righteous status with God is no fiction but a reality. Further, because believers are right in God’s sight, God grants them his Spirit and power to live a new life. Hence, the forensic gift of righteousness becomes the basis (and is the only basis) on which believers receive God’s powerful Spirit that transforms their lives” (194). “In the death of Jesus Christ, therefore, the saving righteousness and the judging righteousness of God meet. God vindicates his judging holiness since God in Christ absorbs his wrath at his crucifixion (203). Schreiner demonstrates a rare humility in scholarship today when he acknowledges changing his position regarding the righteousness of God. He once saw it not as forensic, but reformative. He has changed his position and acknowledges those who helped him in the process. (205-206). “Paul is arguing that the forensic work of Christ is the basis of God’s transforming work, but it does not follow from this that the forensic and transforming work are the same thing. What this verse does indicate is that Christ’s forensic work is not separated from a changed life but is the basis for such a change” (207). “To sum up, righteousness is an end-time gift (Gal 5:5), a verdict from the day of judgment, which has now been pronounced in the lives of believers on the basis of the death and...