COMMENTS ON

I am most grateful for this volume which engages the current debate over justification in a way that is careful, clear, and decisive. What is in debate is no sideshow but goes to the very heart of what constitutes biblical Christianity. Here, in these pages, the dangers besetting the historic Protestant faith become very clear but so too do the magnificent truths which are at its heart, truths which have to be repossessed, affirmed, and defended in every generation. Here is a faculty which is standing tall in this task.

David F. Wells, Ph.D.
Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

For anyone wanting to know whether the Protestant doctrine of justification is still defensible, this is the place to go. Brimming with insights for theologians and pastors, counselors and lay Christians, this book shows that historic Protestantism is far from dead. More important, it demonstrates why justification is at the heart of what it means to be alive in Christ.

D. G. Hart, Ph.D.
Director for Partnered Programs
Intercollegiate Studies Institute

The New Perspectives on Paul and the Federal Vision have posed grave challenges to the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone and to the covenant theology taught by the Scripture. I am therefore extraordinarily grateful that the faculty of Westminster Seminary California has provided the church with this fine collection of essays. Readers will find in it able, thorough, and biblical responses to the New Perspectives and to the Federal Vision. They will find no ground – exegetical, theological, historical, homiletical – untraversed. Reformed ministers, elders, or students cannot afford to bypass careful study of this volume.

Guy Prentiss Waters
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies
Belhaven College
Jackson, Mississippi

With the historic Reformation understanding of the Bible's teaching on justification, imputation, active obedience, and covenant theology under assault from within sectors of the conservative evangelical and Reformed community, and with postmodern Protestants disinclined to quibble about it, it is to be welcomed that a number of confessional voices are speaking up. Indeed, in the book you are now holding, the faculty of Westminster Seminary in California has produced one of the most scholarly and comprehensive rejoinders to date. With unique insights into the preconditions of this debate in the conservative Reformed community, the authors effectively and exegetically critique “covenantal nomism,” and provide an impressive discussion of key aspects of classical covenant theology, from the standpoint of systematic theology, that puts the larger debate in perspective and vindicates the biblical fidelity of the Reformed confessional view of justification by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. The historical theological overviews in this volume are invaluable. Those who are relatively new to this discussion, and those thoroughly acquainted with it, will alike benefit from the penetrating insights of this timely book.

J. Ligon Duncan III, PhD
Senior Minister,
First Presbyterian Church,
Jackson, Mississippi
President,
Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
Adjunct Professor,
Reformed Theological Seminary

This collection of essays is a faithful, lucid, and detailed exposition and defense of sola fide, or the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is matched in its scholarly precision by its pastoral concern for the church. The faculty of Westminster Seminary California has given a clear testimony of where they stand on this most important doctrine, the heart of the gospel, the glorious exchange between sinful man and our righteous and holy God. This book should be read by anyone wanting a deeper knowledge of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

Rev. Mr. J. V. Fesko, Ph.D.
Pastor ,
Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Woodstock, Georgia.
Adjunct Professor ,
Reformed Theological Seminary, Atlanta

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