Arnold H. De Graaff: THE EDUCATIONAL MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH. A Perspective. (Doctoral dissertation, Free University, Amsterdam. December, 1966) 175 pages, paper-bound. Printed at Delft, the Netherlands, by Judels and Brinkman, 1966. In the first chapter of this dissertation, entitled Orientation, the author discusses the concept “religious education,” and considers especially the nature and place of […]

As we come to the end of this five hundred anniversary year of the Protestant Reformation, I’d like to delve into a crucial theological issue that is so practical for us. If you have your Bible you can turn to Paul’s letter to the Romans. One of the doctrinal issues that is clear in Romans is that what he declares us to […]

With this article, I am beginning a brief series of articles on the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. These articles are adapted from two public addresses given at a Banner of Truth Conference in May, 1998.1 Though they have been edited for The Outlook, they still retain something of their character […]

Any evaluation of the new perspective on Paul faces a number of daunting challenges. Since a considerable part of the argument for a new approach to the teaching of the apostle Paul rests upon E. P. Sanders’ historical reconstruction of the pattern of religion known as “second temple Judaism,” some evaluation of this reconstruction is […]

Part 2 WHAT IS MEANT BY THE “WORKS OF THE LAW”? Within the richness and complexity of Paul’s use of the language of the law, the most pressing question raised by the new perspective is: what is the meaning in Paul’s epistles of the expression, “the works of law,” and of a more general, but […]

Part 3 “WORKS” AND “WORKS OF THE LAW” IN ROMANS The book of Romans also uses the expression, “works of the law,” as well as the general term, “works,” but in a way that quite clearly goes beyond the limitations of certain boundary marker requirements of the law. Even though it is plausible that the […]

‘Works of the Law’, Human Inability and Boasting In my previous articles, I noted that, in order to evaluate the claims of the new perspective regarding the interpretation of the apostle Paul, we need to begin by considering three distinct, though related, questions: First, what does the apostle Paul mean by the language of “works […]

The last question we consider regarding Paul’s view of the law is whether he articulated his doctrine of justification over against a legalistic teaching of salvation upon the basis of works performed in obedience to the law. Though the new perspective argues that this was not a significant problem in Paul’s day, there is evidence […]

The “Righteousness of God” in Romans To assess the validity of the new perspective’s understanding of the language of the “righteousness of God” and “justification” is not an easy task. A full assessment would require a series of studies of the use of this language in the Old Testament, in Second Temple Judaism, and in […]

Romans 3:21–26 A second passage in Romans that uses the expression, “the righteousness of God,” is Romans 3:21–26. Like Romans 1:17, this passage plays a pivotal role in outlining the major theme of the epistle, and summarizes the argument of the apostle up to this point. In this passage, Paul returns to the theme of […]