We have thus to return to St. Paul, and ask how he met this dilficulty. He does it by opening a new line of argument, in which he presents a fresh view of the death and resurrection of Christ, where these acts appear in the ethical sense of a death to sin and a resurrection to a new life unto God (Ro 6iO), and where, further, Christ in His death and resurrection appears as inclusive of all for whom He died (2 Co 51*). In correspondence with this view, faith also takes on a new significance. It is still a receptirity and an obedience ; but as that which it receives is different, it appears with union with Clurist in His symbol of which is bapti-^i union St. Paul draws th- being dead with Christ
e, that the believer Him to God, should .rallel line of argu- :is the Spirit
accordingly (Ro O-* ' - , ' ment presents the view mi :m,, i; S''^), and faith correspondin'4l\- as 1 Spirit (Gal 32, cf. Ro S'"). by which the believ into the likeness of Christ (2 Co 313). But aga . . _ . . of the Spirit demands a life according to the Spirit (Gal 525, ^12. 13). Along these lines, then, St. Paul makes provision lor Christian morality. He presents, as we see, his total thought on the salvation of the individual through the work of Christ in two hemispheres— the former doctrine of justification and this further doctrine which corresponds to the ecclesiastical doctrines of regeneration and sanctification. St. Paul passes continually from the one hemisphere to the other in a way that shows that he feels them to be vitally related ; and there are not wanting points of contact between them, amount which we may note especially the fact that the idea of faith is common Ui both hemispheres, as is also that of the Spirit, who appears in con- nexion with justification and adoption as diffusing the con- sciousness of the love of God (Ro 55) and as witnessing to our adoplion (S'^), as well as in connexion with regeneration and sanctification as the potency of the new life. Further, there is a c\iie of passages in which there appears a tendency to the unification of the two hemispheres of thought, by making justification conditional on regeneration and sanctification, and thus still future and the object of effort (Ro S". Gal 21', 1 Co 4* 92' 2r, ph Sio-U). See on the whole subject Holtzmann, ycutext. TIteol. ii. p. 137 ff. In the main, however, St. Paul keeps the two hemispheres apart. Holtzmann (p. 137, n. 1) quotes Pfleiderer, who, using another figure, speaks of ' the two streams which unile in PauUnism in one bed, without, however, inwardly blending."
II. Historical. --l.TAe Catholic doctrine.— St. Paul's doctrine of justification remained after his death in practical abeyance, until it was revived at the Reformation. There is little trace of it in the NT outside of his own Epistles {i.e. of the .specific Pauline form of the doctrine of forgiveness). Only uncertain echoes of it are found in the post- Apostolic age, and under the re^me of Catholicism, both ancient and mediseval, it remained practi- cally a dead letter. Common Catholicism, in fact, returned substantially to the Pharisaic doctrine of salvation by merit, against which St. Paul had fought, with its accompanying atmosphere of fear of comin" short at last. According to Gregory the Great, who is here typical, assurance is the mother of indolence, and the fear of Divine judgment is the only fit attitude for the Christian till his last day on earth (Hamack, Dogtnengeschichte', iii. p. 250, n. 1). In sucli an atmosphere the words of the Patdine vocabulary necessarily lost tlieir original meaning, and took on a new significance. Faith came to mean, not trust, but intellectual assent to revealed truth ; grace, not the unmerited love ot (;o,|. liut the Holy Spirit, as sacramentally coiiiiiiiHiii ;i!,-,l Mr infused (so TertuUian ; see Loofs, i'l'/"'. || 1"4(. It was the work of Au"ustine to creati- :i n.\\ rloctrine of justification by the combination ot tlit-e ideas. First he interpreted the word ■ ju-tilii ution ' itself U> mean not 'a declaring riuhteoii,.' l.iu 'a making righteous ' ; •what eke is Justi/icali tlian jiisfi facfi ■> [rh S/,. et Litt. 26, 45). Then, furtli.-r. ho'coinhinf..! fl„. idea of justification in thi- mh-h with th.ii of ' infused ' gi-ace. Augustine tcai he, tliat it i> thi>
infused grace which justifies or makes righteous by renewintr the nature. He is able thus, with St. I'aiil, to .•..iicoive righteousness as a gift ; the gift, ho\\i'\(i, 1, not of forensic, but of inherent right- eon, ne-s. riiis idea of justification by infused grace, it is to be noted, lacks that immediate and necessary connexion with the work of Christ which lies at the base of the Pauline doctrine. Augustine, indeed, regards the forgiveness of .sins as an effect of grace, parallel ^^•ith the renewal of the nature ; but faith IS not brought into the connexion. The idea of faith remains with Augustine simply the common Catholic idea of assent to revealed truth ; so that faith is no more than a presupposition of salvation. Only as it is completed by hope and love through the infusion of grace, is it Chris- tian and sa\-ing faith (Seeberg, Dogmengeschichte, i. 276). It is obvious how far Augustine is here from St. Paul, though he constantly uses the Apostle's formula ' justification by faith ' (Seeberg, p. 277). The climax of his departure from Pauline doctrine, however, is reached when the idea of merit is drawn into the scheme. The combination is thus effected. Grace alone renders merit pos- sible. God in His condescension accepts as meri- torious the works which are really Hus own gifts : 'wliat are called our merits are His gifts' (de Triititate, xiii. 10, 14).