Thomas Schreiner is James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has written numerous books and articles on Paul’s theology. This book is a classic Reformed formulation of justification, sketching the topic from historical, biblical, and systematic perspectives.
Chapter 1 is dedicated to the historical survey of the doctrine throughout the church age. The sketch of the doctrine in the patristics is rather brief, with a heavy emphasis on the Reformers. The Finish interpretation of Luther in terms of deification receives a critical take. Schreiner claims that Luther espoused Melanchthon’s judicial view and later developed a more forensic perspective in comparison to an early perspective ( pp. 15–16). Luther’s rejection of Osiander’s view seems incompatible with the Finnish research. Likewise, Calvin taught infused and forensic justification, not transformative and intrinsic. The Roman Catholic response at the Council of Trent was to maintain the Augustinian view that mingles justification and sanctification and presupposes human and divine cooperation in salvation.
In chapter 2, the author focuses on justification in the Old Testament, touching on several paradigmatic passages—such as Gen 15:6 and Hab 2:4—though not exclusively. Schreiner concludes that God’s righteousness in the OT relates to his just judgment of the unrighteous and his saving mercy toward sinning Israel (e.g., Ps 98:2–3; Isa 40–66; Job 40:8).
In the chapter on Jesus and justification, the author claims that Paul did not invent the doctrine, but received it from the Lord, even though Jesus did not use the term a lot. Jesus’s unconditioned welcoming of a prodigal son, sinners, and tax collectors expresses his loving righteousness and their justification by grace. Healing and forgiving sins are also the result of saving faith and justification. In John, the language of “life” and “belief” corresponds to Paul’s language of “justification.”
Schreiner concedes that the term “justification” does not appear in every Pauline epistle, but the theme is nonetheless present. Wherever the apostle talks of salvation, forgiveness of sins, Christ’s death and resurrection, and the final judgment, justification is in view. Schreiner is against the position adopted by those in the new perspective on Paul camp who believe that “the works of the law” are ethnic boundary markers (p. 61). Instead, moral failure and slavery to sin make everyone guilty before the righteous God. In the debate on the translation of the Greek expression πίστις Χριστοῦ, Schreiner favors interpreting it as an objective genitive (i.e., faith in Christ, pp. 72–73). Justification has a forensic, declarative, and imputative meaning based on the OT usages of “righteousness” and Paul’s use of “count” or “reckon” (Rom 5:12–19; 2 Cor 5:21).
Justification is less prominent in the rest of the NT writers, but the concept is assumed in the context of saving faith, forgiveness of sins, and sanctification. Then goes a detailed discussion of apparent contradiction between Paul’s preaching on justification by faith without works and James teaching that faith without works is dead.
Chapter 6 is dedicated to contemporary challenges to the classic Reformed understanding of justification from the apocalyptic view of Paul and the new perspective on Paul. Schreiner defends the forensic view of righteousness against the transformative reading of the apocalyptic approach. Similarly, he confirms that justification presumes vertical salvific relations with God rather than horizontal ecclesiological.
The last chapter is dedicated to the systematic overview of the relationship between justification and other soteriological concepts, including the discussion of justification by works. Schreiner commendably asserts that union with Christ is an overarching topic that includes other topics like justification. Although works do not by themselves justify, they are “necessary evidence” of justification because they are a product of the Spirit’s work of renewal (pp. 134–39). Salvation is by faith; the final judgment is by works.
The nature of the series assumes an introductory level and brevity of presentation. This, however, does not preclude the author from touching the main features of the current discussion. Notably, the focus is dedicated to Pauline material, where justification takes a predominant role in such letters as Galatians, Romans, and Philippians. Other books of the Old and New Testaments are less abundant in justification language, though not in the conceptual idea, as Schreiner believes. On the one hand, it is commendable to go beyond the word study and reflect on the thematic orbit of justification. On the other hand, these connections are at times unclear (e.g., how do divine judgment, punishment, and saving activities in the Old Testament relate to the justification of the unrighteous in the New Testament?).
This book is essentially a defense of a Reformed view on justification with expected support of the judicial dimension of the doctrine. This assumption somewhat minimizes the participation-in-Christ dimension of salvation. Union with Christ for Schreiner is “the overarching category” (p. 3) and one of the “salvific realities” (p. 126), not the fundamental root or center of all soteriological concepts as Calvin believed (p. 127). In my view, it is more biblical to confirm with Calvin that by receiving Christ we receive all his blessings, including justification (Institutes 3.2.24) and that the connection between justification and sanctification creates “an indissoluble bond” (Institutes 3.16.1).
