St. Paul and Justification

by Frederick Westcott

Publisher:

Macmillan and Co.

, 1913

Overview

How do we establish right relationship with God? And, having received God’s favor, how to we maintain right relationship with God? The Israelites in the Old Testament achieved relationship with God through God’s covenant and by keeping the law. But the New Testament Christians were faced with a far more difficult question: How do I become right with God in Jesus Christ? The doctrine of justification outlined in the books of Romans and Galatians articulates Paul’s answer to this theological dilemma, and has prompted reflection by nearly every theologian ever since.

In St. Paul and Justification, Frederick Brooke Westcott offers an exposition of Romans 1–11 and the entire book of Galatians—the key Pauline texts on the doctrine of justification. Westcott explains the seemingly-contradictory depictions of justification in Romans and Galatians, but shows how, together, these two epistles present a unified and coherent whole. He also writes at length about the influence of the Old Testament law on Paul’s doctrine of justification. Along the way, Westcott offers grammatical and literary analysis, as well as possible solutions to interpretive difficulties with regard to Greek, Latin, and English words for justice.

St. Paul and Justification is ideal for New Testament scholars, for anyone interested in the interpretive history of the Greek words for justice and righteousness, and for anyone seeking to understand one of the central doctrines of both Paul’s writings and the Christian faith.

Contents

Top Highlights

“No more would he go about (as he did in these old days) to keep himself ‘right with God,’ by doing and doing and doing. He would not even assume that he started ‘right with God,’ and only had to keep so, by loyalty to the Covenant. His point of view was transformed. All was merged in one great question, How shall I become right with God—right once for all? And the answer came, ‘Through Christ.’ Here was the new way, the God-appointed way.” (Pages 15–16)

“I have said, that Religion offers (the existence of God being taken as certain; though not to be established by any logical process) two problems for man’s solution; How shall I be set right with God? and, How shall I keep myself right? Historically it is the latter which is the problem of ‘justification.’” (Page 14)

“They set to work with vigour to ‘make their calling and election sure,’ by indefatigable attention to the keeping of the Law.” (Page 13)

“Israel, when the days of exile were over. Some stalwarts, doubtless, maintained that” (Page 13)

“justification’ is the problem, how to establish originally right relations.” (Page 14)

Product Details

• Title: St. Paul and Justification: Being an Exposition of the Teaching in the Epistles to Rome and Galatia
• Author: Frederick Brooke Westcott
• Publisher: Macmillan and Co.
• Publication Date: 1913
• Pages: 397

About Frederick Westcott

Frederick Brooke Westcott (1857–1918) was headmaster of Sherborne School Canon of Norwich, and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.