— Edited

Good morning! I just completed Dr. Moo”s course, NT341, Galatians, and it raised for me a question about Dr. Moo’s view on justification in the book of Romans. In the Galatians course, Dr. Moo states, to the effect, that when he wrote his 1st Ed. commentary on Romans, he concluded that in Romans, the idea of justification is always something that is either present or past. Justification is God’s act by which He first brings us into relationship with Christ and declares us right before Him. But when he began his work on Galatians, he came to Gal 5:5 and he concluded that in that context, justification or righteousness also had a future component. He then said he was going to go back and rewrite parts of his Romans commentary, which he did. My question is, does he address this future component of justification in NT331 Romans, or does he express in NT331 his previous conclusions, that justification is always present or past? Thank you! .

  2. Will do! I plan to take NT331, but I probably won't be able to start until early 2026, God willing.

  3. Dr. Moo does explain his change of view in this course. It's in Segment 26. I'm going to try and summarize, but I probably won't be able to do him justice: Dr. Moo explains that he wrote his Romans commentary first. He considered justifcation something that happens completely at conversion, based on Romans 5:1 and 5:9. Then, while he was writing his Galatians commentary, his view changed slightly, based on Galatians 5:4-6. He now considers us to be justified at conversion, but that there will also be a future element of justification, "the righteousness for which we hope" which is something that we will achieve in the last day. He uses the "already/not yet" tension to help explain this. To be certain, you will need to take the course or read his writings on the topic to get the full understanding of what he is communicating. It won't make sense until he explains it to you. :-)

  4. Dante - it appears that you have definitely started NT331, based on your reference to Segment 26. How far along are you? I've started the course many times over the past fifteen years or so, but am committed to plugging through this time. I'm only in Segment 7, but that's further than I've gone before. I'm not trying to hurry through, but am trying to stay consistent. BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) is doing Romans in September, and hopefully I'll be somewhere near the Midterm Exam by then. There's never been much activity in this group - hopefully other's might jump on.