Is this NPP?

[hammondjones]

Here are some quotes from a sermon I'm critiquing on Luke 18:9-14. With the understanding that you don't have the entire context, would you agree with me that this is NPP, or at least very close? I say that because he seems to view justification as belonging, more as ecclesiology and less as soteriology.

There are two words used in this parable, and they’re used almost interchangeably. One is ‘Righteousness’, and the other is ‘Justification’. Ok? Righteousness, justification… The Pharisee trusts in his righteousness, but the tax collector walks away justified in our scripture. Or, the Pharisee believes that he is justified, but, in fact, the tax collector walks away righteous before God.

Now these words meant a lot to them, and too bad it doesn’t mean as much for us today. Unless, you’ve been raised in church, you probably don’t know what those words mean, or why it’s a problem. ‘Righteousness’ and the ‘Justification’ sound like church words, or, maybe for people in an ancient theocratic society, a God-Centered society, right? But, does the normal man or woman who is right now walking through some Wal-Mart looking for a deal on a winter jacket, what do they care about those words? Why would they concern themselves with those words?

Now my challenge for you this morning is to at least consider that those words bear just as much weight today, mean just as much to every human being, whether those human beings are inside this church, or outside the church, then at any other time in the history of mankind. Because these are what those words mean. Those words simply mean this, it means approval. It means acceptance. It means to pass scrutiny. Being selected, being accepted, scrutinized. Found not lacking. Passing. Getting in.

Listen. They called it justification, they called it righteousness. But we have different words for it. Every generation, however, in every culture in the history of mankind needs to feel like they’ve been justified. You know, at some point in history, and we’ve talked through the Old Testament, in ancient cultures you were justified because you were born a male. That was a way to feel justified, to feel accepted and approved of. And if you didn’t get that ticket, you couldn’t be justified.

 

[timmopussycat]

As presented, the quotes themselve are not necessarily NPP for NPP deals not with what justification and / or righteousness are but instead differs from the historical reformed view in how one arrives at the state being justified before God.