N.T. Wright is the current Bishop of Durham, fourth in place of authority of the Church of England. Despite being a Protestant, his view of justification is neither Protestant or Catholic. The orthodox historical teaching of Christianity in both Protestantism and Catholicism is that through faith in Christ sinners receive alien righteousness--that is, righteousness from outside themselves--which justifies them in God's law-court. This transfer of righteousness occurs when a believer first puts faith in Christ. This is what we call "justification". On the contrary, N.T. Wright disagrees with this at two points. First, he does not believe any transfer of righteousness takes place but rather God sort of ignores our sin (an act possible because Christ sufficiently atoned for it through his death) and gives us a label or status of "being right". Second, he believes we are only truly justified ("declared right") on the Day of Judgement, and any talk of being justified in the present only anticipates when we will be justified in the future. You could think of it this way: whereas most of Christendom understands justification to be how we get into God's family in the present, Wright says justification is God declaring we're in His family on the Last Day.
To illustrate this let me use the example of Costco membership. If you are not familiar with Costco, it is a membership club retailer. Anyone can become a member if they pay membership dues. Upon paying the dues they are given a membership card which they must use to gain entry and when making purchases.
The historical orthodox understanding of justification is that upon paying my membership dues I am a justified Costco member. There is a monetary swap that takes place where I give Costco a dues payment and they give me membership benefits. The membership card is a seal of my membership and every time I walk into Costco I flash my card so they know I am a justified member. My card is proof my dues have been paid in full already. So, the justification event occurs when the monetary swap takes place and from then on I am justified and have access to full membership benefits.
In the above illustration, the membership dues are debt for sin. When Christ pays my debt, I am justified and given the membership card of faith. My faith is the evidence that I have been justified already.
In contrast, Wright's view of justification has nothing to do with paying dues (debt for sin) and actually assumes Costco grants membership in a slightly different manner. Imagine if Costco gave out free membership cards to whoever wanted one which allowed entry into the store but did not allow people to purchase anything yet. So upon receiving my card I could play with the products along with other cardholders but no one was actually declared a justified member yet which meant no one could experience the full benefits of membership yet. Everyone is told if they take a free card now at some point in the future their card will give them access to all membership benefits. They just have to keep the card until they are justified. When I flash my membership card today I am understood to be a future rightful member and allowed to window shop based on the expectation there will be a future event when Costco will justify me by declaring me a member. In effect I get to experience some membership benefits today on the expectation that I will be justified later.
In the latter illustration I possess a membership card of faith just like the first, but I must wait with the expectation and hope that my card will allow me to be justified in the future.
Are we just splitting hairs? Why does any of this matter? Whether you've ever thought deeply about justification before or not, consciously or subconsciously everyone deals with its implications at some point. Justification has everything to do with your relationship with God--whether you are right with God and how you become right with God. You may never use the label "justification", but whenever you consider your relationship with God you are considering your justification. Everyone will come to some conclusion as to whether they are "right" with God, and that conclusion will influence, if not define, their life. The assurance that we are reconciled with God and that God is for us and not against us should form the bedrock of our life as Christians.
For that reason, I think N.T. Wright's understanding of justification is ultimately dangerous for the Christian, and will actually undermine a Christian's faith. Here are two reasons why:
1. If my being declared right with God is a future event I will easily be tempted to
try to attain it through some work of my own before then. On the contrary, if my
justification is based upon a work already done by Christ, I know I
cannot do anything to earn it because it is already accomplished.
2.
If I can only hope I will be justified in the future, I must live my
life now merely hoping God is for me, but never with certainty. On the
contrary, if I have already been justified by the work of Christ, that
means I am reconciled to God today and He is absolutely, unequivocally
for me today.
To read more about Wright's views on justification:
http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_NDCT_Justification.htm
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/june/29.34.html?start=1
http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Becoming_Righteousness.pdf
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2007/11/19/trevin-wax-interview-with-nt-wright-full-transcript/
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