John Piper’s T4G2010 message “Did Jesus Preach Paul’s Gospel?” defended the unity of Paul and Jesus in their understanding of justification and imputation.

After his message John joined a panel discussion with Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, John MacArthur, and me. The following is an excerpt from that panel discussion.

Ligon Duncan: John, let’s suppose that there is someone here tonight that was wrestling with precisely the issue that you have been thinking about and wrestling with for many years in terms of how to articulate this [imputation/justification] and how to ground it not only in Paul’s teaching, but in Jesus’ revelation of himself and the gospel writers’ revelation of the way of salvation in Jesus. … Where would be some other places that you would point him to read and study and reflect, either in the Scriptures themselves or in the material that you found most helpful, so that he can keep on going?

John Piper: The cluster of texts that I think are most helpful about imputation would be Philippians 3:7–9, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Corinthians 1:30, the flow of thought from Romans 3:20–4:6, especially 4:4–6. Galatians 2:16 and all of chapter 3. As far as biblical texts, that is where I would go.

John Owen is exhaustive on everything and so is his book on Justification. If you can handle the kind of density that Owen writes with, I would go there before I would go to Edwards. Edwards becomes so philosophical at a few points that he ties himself in knots I am afraid. So I think Owen is probably a better guide. …

So many of the books on justification are so doctrinally-oriented rather than exegetically-oriented that a person might do better to take the key texts and then read really faithful Don Carson-like commentaries on them. What happens when you read a big book like Owen or [James] Buchanan is that you just take several steps back from the text and things start to get hazy. Not many people are wired to handle the complexities that these guys go into.

And the texts—when you read them all by themselves, with just a little help—they don’t feel that complex. For the average person—this includes me—I need to be right there. I need the text staring me in the face because I get less confident as I move steps away.

Those texts have had a lot of eye-to-eye time with Piper as evidenced in the two important books he has written on the topic. In 2002 Piper published Counted Righteous: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness? In an interview from that year he provided an extensive overview of other foundational texts on justification and imputation.

He also discussed many of these same texts in his 2007 book The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright. Both books are available online as free PDF downloads and printed books. See the links here:
• Counted Righteous: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness? (Crossway, 2002) [PDF download | Amazon]
• The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright (Crossway, 2007) [PDF download | Amazon]

This article first appeared on the Sovereign Grace Ministries Blog, “C.J. Mahaney’s View From The Cheap Seats” and is reprinted with permission.

Source: http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Further-Reading-on-Justification-and-Imputation.aspx

[Editor’s note: An original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]