Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Doug Moo

Doug Moo on Justification in Romans

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In Douglas J. Moo’s concise article on Romans in the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, he highlights “six aspects of justification in Romans”:

  1. “God justifies people through faith and not through ‘works of the law,’” which “refer to obedience to the OT law, the Torah” and “exclude all works.”
  2. “Justification is available for all human beings, Jew and Gentile, on the same basis of faith.”
  3. “God justifies people by a completely free act of his will: in a word, by ‘grace.’”
  4. “Justification by faith is rooted in the OT.”
  5. “Justification is the product, or extension, of ‘the righteousness of God,’” which “refers to an activity of God: his acting to put people in right relationship to himself.”
  6. “Justification by faith is based in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. . . . In a bold metaphor, Paul claims, in effect, that Christ is now the final, eschatological ‘mercy seat,’ the place where God draws near to human beings for their redemption.”

Moo concludes,

While not the centre of Romans, justification by faith is nevertheless a critical component of Paul’s presentation of the gospel in Romans. The doctrine expresses, in the sphere of anthropology, a crucial element in Paul’s understanding of God’s work in Christ: its entirely gracious character. Not only, then, does justification by faith guard against the Jewish attempt to make works of the law basic for salvation in Paul’s day; it expresses the resolute resistance of Paul, and the NT authors, to the constant human tendency to make what people do decisive for salvation.

I can’t wait to sing about this tomorrow morning with my church!

Righteousness by Faith Is Accessible!

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Douglas J. Moo concisely summarizes the meaning of Romans 10:6–8 in the NLT Study Bible:

10:6-8 Here Paul quotes three phrases from Deut 30:12–14 dealing with the law, and he applies them to the Good News about Christ. We do not need to go up to heaven to find Christ (and thus to be made right with God), because God has already brought him down to earth as a man. Nor do we need to go down to the place of the dead to find Christ, because God has already raised him from the dead. To find Christ, we must simply believe in the message that is close at hand.

Doug Moo on Colossians and Philemon

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Doug Moo‘s The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon is hot off the press, and I enjoyed spending some time surveying it this morning. It’s another outstanding addition to the Pillar NT Commentary series. (See my review of the PNTC series, which also notes the authors slated for the forthcoming volumes.)

From D. A. Carson’s “Editor’s Preface”

For many years Doug Moo and I served on the same faculty. His move from Trinity to Wheaton, however much a gain for the latter, was a personal loss. Mercifully, we have continued to collaborate on various projects, and he is surely among the two or three scholars with whom I am most happy to work in close association. Readers of this series will already be familiar with his Pillar commentary on James—and that after writing, for another series, what is still the best English-language commentary on Romans.

[Read more…] about Doug Moo on Colossians and Philemon

Fall 2007 SBJT: Romans

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The fall 2007 Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (vol. 11, no. 3) is devoted to the epistle to the Romans. It includes eight articles, two of which are available as PDFs (linked below).

  1. Editorial: Stephen J. Wellum: “Learning from the Epistle to the Romans“
  2. John Polhill, “The Setting of Romans in the Ministry of Paul”
  3. Benjamin L. Merkle, “Is Romans Really the Greatest Letter Ever Written?“
  4. A. B. Caneday, “‘They Exchanged the Glory of God for the Likeness of an Image’: Idolatrous Adam and Israel as Representatives in Paul’s Letter to the Romans”
  5. Robert W. Yarbrough, “The Theology of Romans in Future Tense”
  6. Douglas Moo, “Paul’s Universalizing Hermeneutic in Romans”
  7. Mark A. Seifrid, “The Gospel as the Revelation of Mystery: The Witness of the Scriptures to Christ in Romans”
  8. Thomas R. Schreiner, “Sermon: Loving One Another Fulfills the Law: Romans 13:8-10″

Update: See “Fall SBJT studies significance of Paul’s epistle to the Romans,” published by Towers Online, SBTS’s news service.

Carson and Moo on the Contribution of Revelation’s Eschatology

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D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), pp. 721–22 (bold emphasis added):

If, as we have argued, Revelation focuses on the end of history, then it is in the area of eschatology that it makes its most important contribution. Nowhere are we given a more detailed description of the events of the end; and while many interpreters have been guilty of finding far more specifics in John’s visions than his symbolism allows and of unwisely insisting that only their own circumstances fit those specifics, we should not go to the other extreme and ignore those details that John does make relatively clear.

But it is shortsighted to think of eschatology simply in the sense of what will happen in the end times. For the End, in biblical thought, shapes and informs the past and the present. Knowing how history ends helps us understand how we are to fit into it now. Particularly  is this so because the New Testament makes it clear that even now we are in “the last days.” Thus, Revelation reminds us of the reality and severity of evil, and of the demonic forces that are active in history. . . . At the same time, the degree to which Revelation exhorts believers should not be neglected. . . .

John’s visions also place in clear relief the reality of God’s judgment. A day will come when his wrath will be poured out, when sins will have to be accounted for, when the fate of every individual will depend on whether or not his or her name is “written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Equally clear, of course, is the reward that God has in store for those who “keep the word of endurance” and resolutely stand against the devil and his earthly minions, even at the cost of life itself. John’s visions are a source of comfort for suffering and persecuted believers in all ages.