I've just finished reading N. T. Wright's What Saint Paul Really Said and wow am I impressed.
I'll have to admit - I've never really enjoyed Paul's writings. I've read them. I've studied them. I've preached from them. But never really enjoyed or appreciated them in the same way that I've enjoyed reading and studying the gospels or the prophets... Paul never really stirred me the way that Jeremiah does or the way that Mark does.
But having read Wright's book, I'm ready to re-evaluate my ambivalence towards the Apostle Paul.
Here are a couple quotes about 'the gospel' and 'justification' in Paul's letters.
... Paul's conception of how people are drawn into salvation starts with the preaching of the gospel, continues with the work of the spirit in and through that preaching, and the effect of the spirit's work on the heart of the hearers and concludes with the coming to birth of faith, and entry into the family through baptism. 'No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:3). But when that confession is made, God declares that this person who (perhaps to their own surprise) believes the gospel, is thereby marked out as being within the true covenant family. Justification is not how someone becomes a Christian. It is the declaration that they have become a Christian. - page 125
...'the gospel' is not an account of how people get saved. It is ... the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus Christ... Let us be quite clear. 'The gospel' is the announcement of Jesus' lordship, which works with power to bring people into the family of Abraham, now redefined around Jesus Christ and characterized solely by faith in him. 'Justification' is the doctrine which insists that all who have this faith belong as full members of this family and no other. - page 133
'The gospel' creates the Church; 'Justification' defines it. - page 151
Also... It cracks me up that the illustration on the cover of this book about the Apostle Paul is credited as Saint Peter.
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