Comments in ‘[]’ are mine.
“Over at TGC, Michael Horton reviews N.T. Wright’s The Day the Revolution Began. Quite a positive review in many ways, Horton comments at one point:
My impression is Wright has somewhat moderated his own view of justification. Deuteronomy makes clear, he observes, that in covenant justice God punishes his people, hence the exile (304).
In Romans 3:21, dikaiosynē theou means “God’s covenant justice,” and sinners are “freely declared to be in the right [dikaioumenoi], to be members of the covenant, through the redemption which is found in the Messiah, Jesus” (305).
So God’s righteousness condemns as well as saves; it’s not only God’s covenant faithfulness or our covenant membership, but also a verdict God declares now over all who are in Christ through faith.
Wright even emphasizes that this justification is the verdict of the final judgment rendered in the present, which seems different [No. Contra Horton. Wright has been saying this all along.] from arguments elsewhere distinguishing a present justification by faith and a future justification according to works.
Horton does push back on some of Wright’s presentation of traditional views of imputation and objects to Wright’s articulation of a covenant of works [I’ve written a review which addresses Horton’s COW here], however, in the end, Horton is upbeat about Wright’s book.
Bearing these caveats in mind, I found The Day the Revolution Began exhilarating and stimulating. The last two chapters are especially stirring in their vision of a church shaped by the cross, avoiding both triumphalism and despair. Even if one judges that Wright recoils from premillennialism only to veer too closely to postmillennialism, his defense of an inaugurated kingdom is enough to cheer the heart of any amillennialist. Even if its provocations strike one as reactionary at times, they should be allowed to strike home nonetheless. If they’re sometimes overcorrections, perhaps they may be allowed at least to correct our distortions, exaggerations, and reductions.”
Source: Michael Horton Reviews N.T. Wright’s The Day the Revolution Began
