Summary of the NPP Five Points

These are directly from N. T. Wright’s paper New Perspectives in Paul.

Stating the five points in the positive.

1. When Paul refers to ‘the gospel’, he is to the proclamation that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth has been raised from the dead and thereby demonstrated to be both Israel’s Messiah and the world’s true Lord.
2. Paul always uses the phrase ‘the righteousness of God’, (dikaiosune theou), to denote the righteousness of God himself.
3. Paul affirms that God’s final judgment will be in accordance with the entirety of a life led – in accordance, in other words, with works.
4. For Paul, ‘justification’ is something that follows on from the ‘call’ through which a sinner is summoned to turn from idols and serve the living God, to turn from sin and follow Christ, to turn from death and believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead.
5. Paul uses ‘vindication’ language, i.e. the dikaioo word-group, when he is describing the verdict which God pronounces consequent upon that event.

Restating each of the five in the negative.

1. When Paul refers to ‘the gospel’, he is not referring to a system of salvation, though of course the gospel implies and contains this, nor even to the good news that there now is a way of salvation open to all.
2. Paul is not using the phrase ‘the righteousness of God’, (dikaiosune theou) to denote the status which God’s people have from him or in his presence.
3. The righteousness of the law has been mistreated as a hypothetical position which Paul then undermines by showing that nobody can actually achieve it.
4. To ‘justify’ does not mean to ‘become a Christian’.
5. Justification is not conversion itself nor is it the establishment of a ‘relationship’ between a person and God.