The Relevance of Buchanan’s Justification: Part One

The next four post will be given by Dr. Bilkes from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There at PRTS he is the one of the assisant Professor’s in Old and New Testament as well as one of the Academic Deans. His Ph.D. is from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his dissertation was done on the Ezra-Nehemiah corpus. These next few post will be a review of the book by James Buchanan titled, “The Doctrine of Justification.” These next four post will be broken down into sections in how Buchanan deals with Justification biblically, theologically, historically and experientially.

Biblical

Buchanan treats the biblical foundation for the doctrine of justification in two steps: first, as it is found in the Old Testament, and secondly, as it was formulated during the age of the Apostles in the controversy with the Judaizers. Buchanan offers a lucid treatment of the controversy, which is rather relevant given the current debates. He traces the connection between the Judaizing controversy and the doctrine of justification.

Buchanan shows how this controversy was understandable given the times and the shift from the old, ceremonial economy to the new, spiritual economy. This controversy raised the important point whether obedience of any kind, both to the ceremonial and the moral law, can be part and parcel of a sinner’s merit before God. It occasioned the apostles’ clear delineation of justification without works of any kind, whether ceremonial or moral. Buchanan shows how this is clear not only from the explicit teaching of the apostles, but also from the insinuations of their detractors. Their charge, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Rom 6:1), shows, in the words of Buchanan, “that the Justification of which he [Paul] spoke was not understood on either side to be Sanctification, or to depend at all on Sanctification as its ground, — for there could be no room for the objection, if Paul was supposed to teach that men are justified by their infused or inherent righteousness” (74-75). This and many similar points show us the abiding value of Buchanan’s astute biblical analysis.