The phrase ‘New Perspective on Paul’, referred as NPP for short, is coined by one of its proponents as a way of looking at first-century Judaism and Paul’s writings that differ significantly from traditional Reformed and evangelical interpretations.

NPP has radically redefined several theological concepts that evangelical Christians have long understood and taught. These include ‘gospel’, ‘justification’, ‘faith’, ‘works of the law’ and even the nature of ‘grace’. Justification, and the status of an individual sinner with a holy God, has been moved out of the centre of both Pauline and biblical teaching. Grace, while remaining central to the NPP, has lost much of the nuance and specificity that it has garnered in the Reformed tradition. ‘Grace’, in their writings, often looks very much like a synergistic (‘working together’) movement, in which God helps sinful human beings to cooperate in salvation, rather than a monergistic (God working alone) rescue operation in which God pulls helpless sinners out of the fire of hell.

The NPP has brought much confusion to the church of Jesus Christ. Confused Christians lack assurance, prove to be unfruitful and are in a place of spiritual danger. Likewise, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation, but when that gospel is watered down or distorted it becomes ineffective. It loses its power to save. Thus, when anyone comes along proclaiming a different gospel (including a different definition of what ‘the gospel’ is), it must be carefully examined and rebuffed.

According to NPP, Paul was not driven by the question of how a sinner can be in a right relationship with God. Rather, the driving force in Paul’s life was his call to be the apostle to the Gentiles, and the key question was how Gentiles can be ‘grafted in’ in what is at its root the Jewish religion. The primary issue for Paul, then (according to NPP), was not one’s standing with God but he was wrestling with questions of community and the creation of one body – comprised of Jews and Gentiles – living together in unity. To them, when Paul places ‘justification by faith’ over against ‘works of the law’, he is not battling against legalism. Rather, he was in contention with those who want to uphold Jewish boundary markers that set Jews apart from Gentiles. The weight in reading Paul falls strongly on communal concerns. Justification is not about how one establishes a relationship with God nor is it about how one becomes a member of the covenant people. Rather, it is about how you could tell who was in; the gospel is not the good news that sinners can be right with God by trusting in Jesus Christ and His finished work but rather the gospel is just the proclamation that Jesus is Lord.

For the evangelicals, justification is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. The most important question that a person can ask is, ‘How can a sinner be in a right relationship with a holy and just God?’ – this is the central theme of the Bible. This is not to downplay the corporate and cosmic nature of God’s redemptive work. But the communal and cosmic aspects cannot take precedence over the question of how an individual sinner, whose life has been an affront to a holy God, can be reconciled to God and become a part of the redeemed and renewed people of God. Christ builds His church as individuals repent, turning from their sin, and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. The coming of the new creation begins with the transformation of the human heart.

According to E.P. Sanders (one of the proponents of NPP – the others include Dunn and N.T. Wright), Jews were saved because they were part of the covenant people – the pattern of religion of first century Judaism was that of ‘covenantal nominism’ (nominism, from the Greek word meaning law). To Sanders,the Jews kept the law for two reasons – firstly, it was a response to God’s gracious act in choosing them to be His people and secondly the keeping of the law maintained their status in the covenant. Hence, as Sanders put it, obedience to the law does not get you in, but it does keep you in.

Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus was not just a call to be an apostle to the Gentiles (as expounded by NPP) but it was a dramatic conversion. After this incident, Paul consistently contrasts his own experience in Judaism, as well as that of his fellow Jews, with his new experience of grace in Christ. In Galatians 2, Paul asserts, ‘I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose’ (vs21). The grace revealed in Christ far exceeds Paul’s previous experience of grace in Judaism (we are in accord that there is also grace in the teachings in the OT and Judaism). Similarly, in Romans 11:6, Paul states, ‘But if it is by grace, it is no longer o n the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.’ (it is possible even for those who speak of grace to turn grace into its opposite). For Paul, the grace of the law is incomplete and insufficient without the grace revealed in Christ. The classic passage that supports that justification does not come through rigorous law-observance in Philipp. 37-9:- Paul states his desire to be found in HIm, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (vs9).

The writings of NPP have recently taken hold and they are not easily recognised by believers to be departing from traditional evangelical understandings of the gospel and salvation.The leading proponents of the NPP are outstanding scholars and good communicators. The development of thought within the NPP has a certain logic to it that cannot be easily dismissed. In essence, the NPP has moved justification out of the centre of Paul’s thought and applied it more to the horizontal issue of ethnic unity than to the vertical relationship between God and man. They, at best, de-emphasize substitutionary atonement and propitiation, and at worst deny them altogether. What is worrying is that many leaders in the church have not heard of NPP and they are not even aware of the dangers their teachings present. It is all the more important for us believers to understand clearly what constitutes the main teachings in the gospel and what salvation in Christ entails. Distortions of truth can begin in apparently insignificant aspects of truth but oftentime, heresy and false teachings are coloured by portions which are not untrue from one point of view, without thorough examination.

NPP and its teachings have been challenged by well known theologians like D.A. Carson, William B. Barcley and Ligon Duncan. John Piper has also written a book to graciously counter the teachings of N.T. Wright on the subject of justification by faith. For more details, we should look at their writings, as they seek to uphold the doctrinal truths in evangelical Christianity.