By Faith, Not by Sight

I have finished reading a book called By Faith, Not By Sight : Paul and the Order of Salvation by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.  If I had to rate this book on a scale of 1 to 5 for difficulty in reading, I would rate it a 5.  That doesn't mean I wouldn't suggest reading the book.  It just means that the book is really complicated to understand.  Part of that is because it takes Gaffin too many words to get his point across.  It isn't that his thought is profound or complicated or written in a Greek or Latin mindset (such as Edwards or Owens or some of the other great theologians).  It is more because he seems to be a bit disorganized and wastes words apologizing instead of being apologetic.  The book is definitely on a graduate school level, making it a hard read for someone like me who has no desire to go to seminary.  My main critism of the book in this respect is that it is lacking in the passion that it needs for a lay person to want to spend the time to read it, and is a little too textbook-ish.

The overall purpose of the book seems to be to show that Paul valued individual salvation.  It is an attack on the new perspective of Paul that suggests that Paul was not concerned by an individual's experience of salvation.  I purchased the book, in part because it was on sale, but also because I thought that the ordo salutis would be addressed.  However, when Gaffin uses the term order of salvation, he does not mean the ordo salutis that I was thinking of but a more general order really just focusing on the three areas of justification, sanctification, and glorification.  I did not come away learning more about what I consider to be ordo salutis, but I did learn that there is a branch trying to read Paul in a way that is contrary to what I believe.

I think it is important to read books about issues such as this because we must always be ready to give a defense.  I have noticed that it helps me to be able to give a defense by reading how others defend.  Ultimately, any defense needs to depend upon Scripture above all else.