This post was originally written at 2.30 in the morning. Please do not expect coherence or depth of thought. I will write a fuller series on justification some time in the New Year, so expect coherence and depth of thought there

Probably the most important word in a Christian's vocabulary!!!

Something is happening in evangelicalism which is getting on my nerves and I figure to use my sleepless night to address it. As those of you who, like myself, are long-term sufferers with the theology bug will bear witness, we are (still) in the throes of a major discussion regarding what is justification. In one corner, with mostly Reformed constituents,  you find a defense of sola fide as held by such venerated names in church history as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Martin Bucer, Theodore Beza to name a few from antiquity, and most notably in modern evangelicalism, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Mark Dever and J.I. Packer (even if, like me, you have strong disagreements with the man). In the other corner, you have what is referred to as the New Perspective on Paul which fundamentally argues that sola fide is off the mark, primarily because of a misreading of the Pauline corpus. The towering name in this camp (though by no means the only name or the only perspective) is Bishop Nicholas Thomas Wright, better known as N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop of Durham.

This is not a post to discuss the chasm of issues dividing the two camps – however here is what is getting on my nerves. Wherever this discussion on justification rears its head, be it in Christianity Today, be it on blogs or even on forums, it always boils down to the same two names – John Piper, Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church, and the aforementioned Bishop N.T. Wright. Now, for whatever reason, those who hold to the Reformational understanding of sola fide are always said to be “Piper-ites” or “Piperian” or followers of Piper, while those who hold to the NPP understanding are said to side with Wright.

Let me say this – as an 18-year-old kid from nowhere (OK, maybe London is not nowhere, but anyway…), I am not overly impressed by the labelling. I didn’t learn the doctrine of justification by reading The Future of Justification (even though I have read it and did agree with much of it) – I learnt it from reading and studying Scripture, from reading the giants of the faith like Calvin, Luther, the Westminster divines, the Puritans, and from modern preachers such as Spurgeon, Boice, Sproul, MacArthur, Dever and Packer to name a few, from hearing it proclaimed in the pulpit of my own church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. By the time, I picked up The Future of Justification (many thanks to Joshua Coover over at 9Marks, Duncan Forbes and Paul “Dayper” Hill from New Life Church and Reuben Hunter from Oak Hill College for getting that heap of books to me from T4G ’08 – including the aforementioned volume)

Let be clear, friends, I could care little for Dr. John Stephen Piper or The Right Reverend Dr. Nicholas Thomas Wright. I care for the Scriptures – where they lead is where I go, not where Piper leads, or Wright for that matter. Please – can we drop the immaturity witnessed on many a blog post, article, etc. and quit painting the discussion over justification as some war between two men. It’s getting a tad tiring…

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