Southern Seminary Magazine (Vol. 91.2) Pastoral Ministry in a Changing World

NEWS & FEATURES
that leads people to believe they
can construct their own reality
rather than existing in a world
governed by God. “If we can reach
more people with the gospel,
praise God!” Thacker said. “But
what happens when people are
addicted to their phones and more
comfortable in virtual worlds
rather than fellowshipping with
embodied human beings?”
“The Gospel message has always
been more than an information
transfer,” Thacker said. “The gospel
message is about a whole person's
transformation that takes place in
an embodied community. We serve
an embodied savior who suffered
a real, not spiritual, death and was
physically resurrected. Hope is real
and is alive.”
“So what do we do and how do
we respond?” Thacker asked. “We
go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, even in a digital age.”
Michael Horton
Delivers Norton
Lectures at Southern
Seminary
By Travis Hearne
The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary was excited to host
distinguished theologian, author,
and professor Michael Horton for
the 2023 Norton Lecture series,
September 12–13. Horton is the
J. Gresham Machen Professor
of Systematic Theology and
Apologetics at Westminster
Seminary and host of the White
Horse Inn radio show and podcast.
Horton’s three lectures defended
the doctrine of justification in its
Michael Horton delivered the Norton Lectures on the doctrine of justification
historical and theological context as
“the great exchange.” According to
Horton, the Reformation teaching
of Solus Christus, or the teaching
that salvation is through Christ
alone, must stand at the center for
a true and liberating understanding
of justification.
“Everybody understands God’s
righteousness and his punishment
for sins in their conscience and
by nature,” Horton said. “It’s the
gospel that is surprising. It’s the
‘but God’ that interrupts karma.
As the Law mediated the Old
Covenant, Christ as the new Adam
mediates the New Covenant and
provides his righteousness for
those who believe.”
Horton believes contemporary
challenges to the biblical doctrine
of justification undermine the
sufficient work of Christ by falling
into legalism and antinomianism.
A particular error Horton
corrected was the teaching of the
so-called new perspective on Paul,
which is commonly associated with
James Dunn, E.P Sanders, and N.T.
Wright. Contrary to proponents
of the new perspective on Paul,
the Reformers understood Paul’s
teaching on justification correctly
as a great exchange where Christ’s
righteousness is imputed to
the faithful.
“Justification is not about the
ethnic problem of inclusion or how
to get in and stay in the covenant,”
Horton said. “It’s the opposite. The
question of the true nature of Israel
is provoked by the coming wrath
of God, not whether Jews must
circumcise Gentiles. The questions
they were asking were, 'How
must we be saved? Am I among
that Israel?”
Therefore, according to Horton,
Paul’s concern with legalism was
a secondary concern to his main
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