Sublime

Kähler’s more famous slogan: “This real Christ is the Christ who is preached. The Christ who is preached, however, is the Christ of faith.”

That is not only what the Old Testament usage would demand;27 it is not only what is indicated by the post-biblical second-temple literature of which John Piper is so cautious. It is massively indicated by the argument of Romans itself to this point, provided we actually read what Paul says, particularly in 2:17-3:8, rather than merely assuming tha

Paul’s argument in Romans is that it was God’s will all along to justify all human beings by faith, not by works of the Mosaic Law. This is proven for Paul by the fact that Abraham, the father of the Jews, was himself justified by his faith before he was circumcised and before Moses had given the law.

In the modern world of theology and biblical studies, scholars began believing that they had to establish first the ancient “meaning” of the text and only after that ask what doctrine, theology, or ethics modern Christians should derive from those ancient texts today.

It is the “although [x] not [y] but [z]” that makes justification central to Paul. It bears this form and plays this song; to put it simply, although [x] God is righteous, this righteousness does not [y] leave God to abandon us but [z] becomes sin for us so that God might minister to us (2 Cor. 5:21).