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Two hundred pages into this tome consisting of the collected articles by Dr. Richard Gaffin (P&R 2023), I had three enduring impressions.
First, compared to Gaffin, I am an inexact and impatient thinker who takes giant steps to get from A to E, while he is a meticulous and patient thinker who works his way to a conclusion through scholarly small steps. His careful advance didn’t invoke boredom. On the contrary, it brought conviction to this reader. Gaffin is so patient and generous when writing about those who disagree with him. He is so careful not to misrepresent, not to exaggerate, but instead even to appreciate some aspects of their presentations before identifying his points of difference. That attitude is found consistently in writings spanning decades, making this collection an unintended modeling of Gaffin’s central life thesis: union with Christ and all his benefits. I should have been prepared for the impact of his example after reading the foreword by his sons, Richard and Steven. The man’s sons, the members of his family who lived with him, testified to his character! I’ve never before seen such a foreword.
Second, I had the impression that this collection of articles was rather like reading the Psalms. By that, I mean the Psalms have a certain amount of repetition. David, and the other psalmists, didn’t just dust off an old psalm when facing a new situation. They spoke out of what they knew to be true and applied what they knew to the new danger, the new concern. Likewise, in these articles, Gaffin addresses different audiences, through different publications, from the core of his wonderment over the eschatological fulfillment in Christ. We hear many times the structural importance of Hebrews 1:1–2 and 1 Corinthians 15:45. We hear again quotes from Vos about the church as a covenant rather than a school and that revelation is a function of redemption. Gaffin frequently repeats his own insistence that all exegesis ought to be biblical theological. (The way I’d phrase it is that a text ought not to be treated as an isolated snapshot but rather a frame in a movie heading toward a grand climax.) Read as a whole, the repetition is not tiring but more like a series of ongoing conversations in which we anticipate and enjoy a rephrasing and an elaboration on themes we have previously heard, in order to throw more light on a present subject.
The way in which Geerhardus Vos is revered illustrates both Gaffin’s humility and his creativity. He lectured and wrote as if the sole genius was Vos, and Gaffin was but his pupil—as if Vos was Dr. Johnson and Gaffin only his Boswell. Gaffin was self-effacing, pointing us to the greater Vos and through him to the greater Christ. He made it seem as if all he ever did could be called but footnotes to Vos. However, the very fact that this volume was put together indicates that Richard Gaffin has not been simply a disciple or a parrot of a past dignitary. He has made insightful contributions to the study of biblical theology that his own humility has been unable to acknowledge fully. To me, Dick Gaffin represents those sheep in Matthew 25 who when recognized by their Shepherd-King say, “When saw we thee . . .” I can just hear Gaffin saying, “It was Vos, not me. It was Christ through Vos, not me.” The sheep never really appreciate what they have done. It is the Shepherd, and through him, we the other sheep, who can do the appreciating.
The third impression I had was how much I am like the men on the road to Emmaus who heard Jesus say, “Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart.” I’d be embarrassed to say that at my advanced age I’m still learning, were it not for the words of Jesus that every scribe of the kingdom is like one who brings out of his treasure chest things both old and new. It amazes me how a few simple sentences from a Gaffin article expresses so succinctly what I have struggled to say in the past. For instance, in explaining that the very doctrine of justification itself is the gateway into an eschatological appreciation of the New Testament, Gaffin wrote: “The Reformation doctrine of justification recaptures the eschatological heart of the gospel. . . . The Reformers grasped that the verdict, belonging to the end of history, has been brought forward and already pronounced on believers” (629).
I am also profoundly grateful for Gaffin’s clear and needed exposition of Philippians 3 about the relationship between resurrection power and conformity to the sufferings of Christ. Again, he has said so succinctly what I have been bumbling around to express to the people I have served. Of course, there were also a few topics I wish he would have expanded upon more. That whole Colossians 1:24 message about filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ reminds me that I am still “slow of heart” and could have used another conversation or two about it.
In this collection, we see that Richard Gaffin is not to be regarded as a remarkable combination of allegiance to Calvin, the Westminster Standards, Vos, and the Apostle Paul. Instead, we see that Gaffin is to be regarded as one who has demonstrated that Paul (and the New Testament as a whole) is, indeed, the foundation for Calvin, Westminster, and Vos. One does not come away from this collection of articles thinking, I now know something more about the theology of Richard Gaffin. Instead, one comes away convinced that one knows more about the Christ who has revealed himself through his Spirit in the writings of Paul. I can think of no higher praise for an author.
It’s wonderful to have all these articles gathered together in one volume, but I certainly hope that doesn’t mean Richard Gaffin will stop writing.
Word and Spirit: Selected Writings in Biblical and Systematic Theology by Richard B. Gaffin Jr., edited by David B. Garner and Guy Prentiss Waters. Westminster Seminary Press, 2023. Hardcover, 800 pages, $35.99.
The author is a retired PCA minister.
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