PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Systematic Theology — Volume 3
Hodge, Charles, 1797–1878 · 407,138 words · 462 reading sections
§ 7.] ITS OBJECT. 101
or believes that the promise is made to him. On this point the early Reformed and Lutheran theologians were agreed in teaching that when the sinner exercises saving faith He believes that for Christ's sake he is pardoned and accepted of God. In other words, that Christ loved him and gave Himself for him. We have alread…
873 wordsSECTION 62§7.] ITS OBJECT. 103
thing more than that Christ loved all men and therefore him among the rest. He evidently believed himself to be a special object of the Saviour's love. It was this conviction which gave power to his faith. And a like conviction enters into the faith of every true believer. But to this it is objected that faith must hav…
905 wordsSECTION 63§8.1 ITS EFFECTS. 105
Justification an Effect of Faith. The proximate effect of this union, and, consequently, the sec- ond effect of faith, is justification. We are " justified by the faith of Christ." (Gal. ii. 16.) " There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." (Rom. viii. 1.) "He that believeth on him is no…
868 wordsSECTION 64§8.] ITS EFFECTS. 107
fusing to recognize as brethren those who do not agree with them ; and sometimes they are antinomian. At the same time, Scripture and experience teach that assur- ance is not only attainable, but a privilege and a duty. There may indeed be assurance, where there is no true faith at all ; but where there is true faith,…
928 wordsSECTION 65§8.] ITS EFFECTS. 109
and mysteriously constituted person, as God manifest in the flesh ; his finished work for our redemption ; his constant intercession ; his intimate relation to us not only as our prophet, priest, and king, but as our living head in whom our life is hid in God, and from whom it flows into our souls. We are thus sanctifi…
1,459 wordsSECTION 66Part 66
Paul's fifth argument is from the love of God. As stated above,1 the Apostle argues from the greatness, the freeness, and the immutability of that love that its objects never can be lost. " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things." If He …
417 wordsSECTION 67§8.] ITS EFFECTS. 113
ence of the Spirit, and partly by all the means adapted to secure that end — instructions, admonitions, exhortations, warnings, the means of grace, and the dispensations of his providence. Having, through love, determined on the end, He has determined on the means for its accomplishment. The sixth argument of the Apos…
235 wordsSECTION 68JUSTIFICATION.
§ 1. Symbolical Statement of the Doctrine. Justification is defined in the Westminster Catechism, "An act of God's free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. " The Heidelbeig Catechism in a…
298 wordsSECTION 69§1.] SYMBOLICAL STATEMENT OF THE DOCTKINE. 115
peccatis, morte vel condemnatione, justi denique ac haeredes vitas aeternae. Proprie ergo loquendo, Deus solus nos justificat, et dun- taxat propter Christum justificat, non imputans nobis peccata, sed imputans ejus nobis justitiam.,, 1 These are the most generally received and authoritative stand- ards of the Reforme…
795 wordsSECTION 70§1.] SYMBOLICAL STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 117
eousness of Christ is accepted for us, and admitted instead of that perfect inherent righteousness that ought to be in ourselves : Christ's perfect obedience shall be reckoned to our account, so that we shall have the benefit of it, as though we had performed it ourselves : and so we suppose that a title to eternal lif…
913 wordsSECTION 71§2.] JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT. 119
purely subjective, consisting in the destruction of sin and the infu- sion of holiness. In opposition to this doctrine, the Reformers maintained that by justification the Scriptures mean something different from sanctification. That the two gifts, although insep- arable, are distinct, and that justification, instead of…
875 wordsSECTION 72§ 2.] JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT. 121
fied of her children." Galatians ii. 16, "A man is not justi- fied by the works of the law." v. 6, " Whosoever of you are justified by the law ; ye are fallen from grace." Thus men are said to justify God. Job xxxii. 2, " Because he justified himself, rather than God." Psalms li. 4, " That thou might- est be justified …
881 wordsSECTION 73§2.J JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT. 123
condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. v. 18.) It was Kpt/xa, a judicial sentence, which came on men for the. offence of Adam, and it is a judicial sentence (justification, a SuccuWis) which comes for the righteousness of Christ, or, as is s…
917 wordsSECTION 742.] JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT. 125
Argument from the Ground of Justification. 5. The nature of justification is determined by its ground. This indeed is an anticipation of another part of the subject, but it is in point here. If the Bible teaches that the ground of justi- fication, the reason why God remits to us the penalty of the law and accepts us a…
850 wordsSECTION 75JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT.
127 Argument from the Nature of our Union with Christ. 7. The theory which reduces justification to pardon and its consequences, is inconsistent with what is revealed concerning our union with Christ. That union is mystical, supernatural, repre- sentative, and vital. We were in Him before the foundation of the world (…
960 wordsSECTION 76§2.] JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT. 129
of the law (t. £., all its righteous requirements) has been fulfilled in him ; because thereby he is so united to Christ as to become a partaker of his life ; because no one can lay anything to the charge of those for whom Christ died and whom God has justi- fied ; and because such believers being justified are reveale…
939 wordsSECTION 77§2.] JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT. 131
fused, the degree of holiness imparted, does not render us the ob- jects of divine complacency and love. His love to us is of the nature of grace ; love for the unlovely. We are reconciled to God by the death of his Son. That removes the obstacle arising from justice to the outflow toward us of the mysterious, unmer- i…
912 wordsSECTION 78§2.] JUSTIFICATION A FORENSIC ACT. 133
this is the doctrine of Protestants, both Lutheran and Reformed, cannot with any show of reason be disputed. Calvin's Doctrine. It is true, indeed, that by the earlier Reformers, and especially by Calvin, justification is often said to consist in the pardon of sin. But that that was not intended as a denial of the ju…
839 wordsSECTION 79§3.J WORKS NOT ITS GROUND. 135
to teach was the reverse of that proposition. He is to be un- derstood as saying that the observance of Jewish rites and cere- monies is not essential to salvation ; that men are not made right- eous or good by external ceremonial works, but by works morally good. This is the ground taken by Pelagians and by most of th…
897 wordsSECTION 808.] WORKS NOT ITS GROUND. 137
as a permanent and controlling state of mind. And therefore it is often said that we are justified by a " fides obsequiosa," an obedient faith ; a faith which includes obedience. At other times, it is said that we are justified by evangelical obedience, i.e., that kind and measure of obedience which the Gospel requires…
1,365 wordsSECTION 81Part 81
7. This still further and most decisively appears from the grand objection to his doctrine which Paul was constantly called upon to answer. That objection was, that if our personal good- ness or moral excellence is not the ground of our acceptance with God, then all necessity of being good is denied, and all motive to …
469 wordsSECTION 82§4.] THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST ITS GROUND. 141
not until reconciled unto God by the death of his Son, that we bring forth fruit unto righteousness ; that when justified by the righteousness of Christ, we are made partakers of his Spirit; being justified we are sanctified ; that union with Christ by faith secures not only the imputation of his righteousness to our j…
479 wordsSECTION 83part m. Ch. xvn. — justification.
claims of justice against him are satisfied, and that he is enti- tled to the reward promised to the righteous. When God jus- tifies the ungodly, he does not declare that he is godly, but that his sins are expiated, and that he has a title founded in justice to eternal life. In this there is no contradiction and no abs…
485 wordsSECTION 84§4.] THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST ITS GROUND. 143
might redeem those who were under the law. We are freed from the law by the body of Christ. He was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He is the end of the law for righteousness to all them that believe. It is by his obedience that many are made righteous. (Rom. v. 19.) We obeyed in Him, acc…
920 wordsSECTION 85§5.] IMPUTATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 145
or in any way so imparted to him as to change, or constitute his moral character. Imputation never changes the inward, subject- ive state of the person to whom the imputation is made. When sin is imputed to a man he is not made sinful ; when the zeal of Phinehas was imputed to him, he was not made zealous. When you imp…
456 wordsSECTION 86VOL. III. 10
146 PART III. Ch. XVII. — JUSTIFICATION. nisi Christi meritum et satisfactionem, in qua sola, peccatorum conscientia territi, tutum adversus iram divinam perfugium, et animarum nostrarum pacem invenire possumus." 1 On the following page he refers to Bellarmin,2 who says, " Si [Protestantes hoc] solum vellent, nobis i…
432 wordsSECTION 87§ 5.] IMPUTATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. HI
Scriptura actum judicis, quo causam alicujus in judicio justam esse declarat ; sive eum a crimine, cujus postulatus est, absolvat (quae est genuina, et maxime propria vocis significatio), sive etiam jus ad hanc, vel illam rem ei sententia addicat,et adjudicet." "17. Per justificationem peccatoris intelligimus actum De…
913 wordsSECTION 88§5.J IMPUTATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 149
as his suffering the penalty of the law." He then goes on to argue that there is the same necessity for the one as for the other. Dr. Shedd says, " A second difference between the Anselmic and the Protestant soteriology is seen in the formal distinction of Christ's work into his active and his passive righteousness. B…
934 wordsSECTION 89PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE.
151 the sinner. (Rom. iv. 6, 24.) By righteousness every one admits is meant that which makes a man righteous, that which the law demands. It does not consist in the sinner's own obedience, or moral excellence, for it is said to be " without works ; " and it is declared that no man can be justified on the ground of hi…
937 wordsSECTION 90§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 153
of that promise. (Rom. iv. 3, 9, 24.) It was not Abraham's believing state of mind that was taken for righteousness. It is not faith in the believer now ; not faith as a virtue, or as a source of a new life, which renders us righteous. It is faith in a spe- cific promise. Righteousness, says the Apostle, is imputed to …
963 wordsSECTION 91§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 155
thyself wholly in this death. And if God would judge thee, say, Lord, I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment ; and otherwise I will not contend, or enter into judgment with thee. And if He shall say unto thee, that thou art a sinner, say, I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ be- tw…
940 wordsSECTION 92§6.J PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 157
The Apostle says (1 Cor. i. 30), Christ " of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- demption." In this enumeration sanctification and righteous- ness are distinguished. The one renders us holy ; the other renders us just, i. e., satisfies the demands of justice. As Christ is to us th…
1,449 wordsSECTION 93Part 93
In the fifth place, the condition on which our participation of the benefits of redemption is suspended, is inconsistent with any form of the doctrine of subjective justification. We are never said to be justified on account of faith, considered either as an act or as a principle, as an exercise or as a permanent state…
480 wordsSECTION 94§ 7.] CONSEQUENCES OF IMPUTATION. 161
liever himself. It was not any moral excellence in man, that determined God to interpose for his redemption, while He left the apostate angels to their fate. This was a matter of grace. To deny this, and to make the provision of a plan of salvation for man a matter of justice, is in such direct contradiction to every- …
937 wordsSECTION 95§ 7.] CONSEQUENCES OF IMPUTATION. 163
infusion of righteousness, as darkness is banished by the intro- duction of light. It is thus, as remarked above, that guilt is either ignored, or reduced to a minimum by the Romish theory of justification. There is really no satisfaction of justice in the case. The merits of Christ avail to secure for man the gift of …
934 wordsSECTION 96§8.] RELATION OF FAITH TO JUSTIFICATION. 165
every such believer has as valid a claim to eternal life as he would have had, had he personally done all that the law demands. Thus broad and firm is the foundation which God has laid for the hopes of his people. It is the rock of ages; Jehovah our righteousness. § 8. Relation of Faith to Justification. All who prof…
842 wordsSECTION 97§8.] RELATION OF FAITH TO JUSTIFICATION. 167
omnium sententia, opera bona justorum vere, ac proprie esse mer- ita, et merita non cujuscunque praemii, sed ipsius vitas aeternae." The thirty-second canon of the Tridentine Council at this sixth session anathematizes any one who teaches a different doctrine. " Si quis dixerit, hominis justificati bona opera ita esse …
928 wordsSECTION 98§8.] RELATION OF FAITH TO JUSTIFICATION. 169
Unless such be the meaning of the Apostle, it is hard to see how there is any coherence or force in his arguments. His ob- ject is to prove that men are justified, not by works, but gratu- itously ; not for what they are or do, but for what is done for them. They are saved by a ransom ; by a sacrifice. But it is absurd…
940 wordsSECTION 99§ 9.J OBJECTIONS. 171
other view of the case is inconsistent with the gratuitous nature of justification, with the honour of Christ, and with the comfort and confidence of the believer. § 9. Objections to the Protestant Doctrine of Justification. It is said to lead to Licentiousness. 1. The first, most obvious, and most persistently urged…
928 wordsSECTION 100§ 9.] OBJECTIONS. 173
tion, that logical order and chronological succession are different things ; or that the order of nature and order of time are not to be confounded. Many things are contemporaneous or co-instan- taneous which nevertheless stand in a certain logical, and even causal relation to each other. Christ commanded the man with …
972 wordsSECTION 101§ 9.] OBJECTIONS. 175
necessary to render its exercise consistent with the other perfec- tions of the divine nature. It was indispensable that God should be just in justifying the ungodly, but He does not thereby cease to be gracious, inasmuch as it was He who provided the ran- som by which the objects of his love are redeemed from the curs…
921 wordsSECTION 102§ 9.] OBJECTIONS. 177
for the sins of the whole world. Our Lord told his disciples, " Ye are of more value than many sparrows." If, then, in the sight of God a man is of far greater value than irrational creatures, why should it be thought incredible that the blood of the eternal Son of God should cleanse from all sin ? What a man does with…
1,146 wordsSECTION 103§10.] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 179
legal relations ; disregards the true nature of the mystical union ; and represents Christ and his righteousness as purely objective, instead of looking upon Christ as giving Himself, his life to become the life of the believer, and with his life conveying its merits and its power. We are not concerned at present with …
893 wordsSECTION 104§10.] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 181
and that they should protest against confounding justification with sanctification. Osiander's cast of mind made him revolt at this, and carried him completely over to the Romish side, so far as the nature of justification is concerned. He said that the Protestant doctrine of justification is " colder than ice." It is …
863 wordsSECTION 105§10.] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 183
the Lutheran Church, to whose service his first ministerial and professional labors were devoted. It coming to the knowledge of the ecclesiastical authorities that in his exposition of the Epistle to the Philippians he denied the ubiquity of the human nature of Christ, and taught the doctrine of predestination, he was …
931 wordsSECTION 106I 10.] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 185
that this innovation of Piscator prepared the way for the rejec- tion of the whole Scriptural doctrine of satisfaction. Certain it is that both Lutherans and Reformed united, with scarcely a dissenting voice, in the condemnation of Piscator's doctrine. It was judicially repudiated by the national Synod of France on sev…
854 wordsSECTION 107§10] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 187
lieved, is not controverted, that irresistible is here used in the sense of certainly efficacious. The Holy Spirit operates on the hearts of all men. Some are thereby renewed and brought to faith and repentance ; others are not. This difference, according to the Remonstrants, is not to be referred to the nature of the …
881 wordsSECTION 108§10.] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 189
it was npt a real equivalent, which by its intrinsic value met the obligations of the sinner, but it was something graciously ac- cepted as such. Although Grotius rejects the use of the word " acceptilatio," and endeavours to show that it does not express his meaning, nevertheless, though he repudiates the word, he ret…
947 wordsSECTION 109§ 10.] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 191
If therefore, pardon and justification are distinct things, the one the executive act of a ruler, the other a judicial act ; the one setting aside the demands of justice, the other a declaration that justice is satisfied ; then those who reduce justification to mere pardon, deny the doctrine of justification as underst…
878 wordsSECTION 110§10.] DEPARTURES FROM PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 193
Under the covenant of works as made with Adam, perfect obedience was the condition of acceptance with God and of eternal life ; under the Gospel, for Christ's sake, imperfect, or evangelical obedience, is the ground of justification, i. e., it is that (propter quam) on account of which God graciously grants us the remi…
437 wordsSECTION 111VOL. III. 13
194 PART in. Ch. XVIL — JUSTIFICATION. the Spirit of life ; and for his care, guidance, and intercession. He must look to Him continually ; and continually exercise faith in Him as an ever present Saviour in order to live. According to the other schemes, Christ has merely made the salvation of all men possible. There …
1,267 wordsSECTION 112§11.] MODERN THEORIES. 197
subjective, so in the sphere of religion and morality he exalted the power and authority of the practical reason. Everything was subordinate to moral excellence. Happiness was not the end. It was only a means of promoting and rewarding what is morally good. The attainment of the highest amount of moral excellence requi…
916 wordsSECTION 113§11.1 MODERN THEORIES. 199
Speculative Theologians. The views of the speculative theologians on these points have already been presented in the chapters on the person of Christ and on his work, as fully as is proper in such a work as this. However much this class of theologians may differ as to their philosophical principles, or as to the leng…
925 wordsSECTION 114§11.] MODERN THEORIES. 201
one. So there is no dualism in Christ ; not a divine and human substance ; not a divine and human life ; but one life which is simply and purely human and yet divine ; for God and man are one ; and humanity reaches its completion only when thus iden- tified with the divine. This divine-human life passes over from Chris…
894 wordsSECTION 115§11.] MODERN THEORIES. 203
pletion of humanity. Christ is the true ideal man." " The incarnation was no mere theophany ; no transient wonder ; no illusion exhibited to the senses The Word became flesh ; not a single man only, as one among many ; but * flesh,' or hu- manity in its universal conception. How else could He be the principle of a ge…
931 wordsSECTION 116§11.] MODERN THEORIES. 205
idea of humanity, under its ultimate and most comprehensive form. Without any loss or change of character in the first view, his life is carried over in this last view continually into the per- sons of his people. He lives in Himself, and yet lives in them really and truly at the same time." As we participate in Adam's…
979 wordsSECTION 117§11. J MODERN THEORIES. 207
development. As we are fallen men by partaking of the nature or generic life of Adam, we are God-men, and therefore redeemed by partaking of the divine human nature or generic life of Christ. That the oneness of God and man is the ultimate principle on which fhis hepov evayyiXtov rests, is obvious not only from the ge…
950 wordsSECTION 118§11.] MODERN THEORIES. 209
which aspect the work of Christ is so prominently presented in the Scriptures. Again, Christ saves us as a sacrifice ; but a sacri- fice is a substitute ; it bears the sins of the offender ; dies in his stead, and by its vicarious death delivers the offerer from the penalty which he had incurred. A sacrifice is not a s…
462 wordsSECTION 119VOL.. III. 14
210 part m. Ch. xvn.— justification. the Bible, and with the experience of the people of God in all ages and under all dispensations. In no instance are believers represented as trusting to what is within them, but to what is without them. The Protestant doctrine, as we have seen, makes full provision for an inward wo…
497 wordsSECTION 120§ 11.] MODERN THEORIES. 211
imputation of righteousness to begin with ; a process of sanctifica- tion carried forward by the help of proper spiritual machinery brought to bear on the soul, including perhaps, as its basis, the notion of an abrupt creation ' de novo,' by the fiat of the Holy Ghost ; and finally, to crown all, a sudden unprepared re…
648 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1872). Text from OCR of an original Internet Archive scan; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.