Participating in the Righteousness of God: Justification in Pauline Theology

A groundbreaking study of justification

Debates about justification by faith have animated Pauline scholarship for generations. Yet the three views that currently hold sway--justification as acquittal, as covenant membership, or as rectification--remain so bound to Reformation-era disputes that they overlook Paul's primary claim: "The one righteous by faith will live."

In Participating in the Righteousness of God, Ben C. Blackwell argues that the heart of Paul's justification theology is not forgiveness, adoption, or liberation but the reality of new life. Against readings that treat justification as the answer to guilt, exile, or slavery, Blackwell shows that Paul confronts a deeper problem--death--and that to be justified is to be made alive (zōopoiēsis) with the risen Messiah by the Spirit as a new covenant renewal.

Advancing a Participationist perspective, Blackwell traces how justification became severed from life in the interpretive tradition--from Augustine through Luther, Calvin, and the Council of Trent--and shows how that division still constrains Pauline scholarship today. Grounding theology in careful exegesis, he reunites the forensic and participatory dimensions of Paul's gospel and reframes the relationship between justification and sanctification: You have been made alive, therefore live.

This landmark study of justification and new life across Paul's letters skillfully recovers a forgotten perspective that bridges Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions. A must read for scholars of the New Testament and Pauline theology.