Such, then, would seem to be the necessary re- statement of the Pauline doctrine of the revelation of the grace of God in Christ in view of the his- torical statements of the Gospels. To complete it, however, it is necessary to add that the function of the resurrection is to make the historical revela- tion permanent and abiding, by presenting Christ as the perpetual object of faith. This leads to the next point, which is that of the doctrine of faith, or the subjective appropriation of the revelation. There St. Paul's conception of faith as in the first place, on the side of the will, a species of obedience or submission to God, remains fundamental. It is in essential agreement, it may be observed, with the teaching of Jesus Himself, in which /xerdi/oia, or turning to God, is made the subjective principle of forgiveness. But in order that the subjective appropriation may correspond in all pDiiits with the objective revelation, faith must nut be limited psychologically to trust, b\it must includi' ]i(>iiitence also, in this way appearing as the proiiiT correla- tive of both the love and the holiness of forgive- ness. When the revelation of forgiveness in Ciirist awakens this faith in the heart, then the Divine act of forgiveness is completed, and forgiveness is fully
We turn next to forgiveness as an experience, where St. Paul gives ample guidance, and all that is necessary- is to explain some points in reference to the problems raised by later theologians. The first practical effect of justification is peace with God, or the removal of the consciousness of <;uilt which separated the sinner from God. This is removed by the appropriation of the DiWne forgive- ness, which is realized as the removal of guilt. Nor does conscience offer any obstacle to the realization of the reinovrl of yiii'lt in the conscious- ness of the l«'lie\ir; -'win- the holiness of the Divine forgi\ en.-, i~ a~ ui.mI by the very revela- tion which liiiiii:-. the knowledge of it. In fact, the peuiteiue whicii accompanies trust in the
Divine forgiveness as the result of the revelation in Christ, is an inward appropriation of the Divine condemnation of sin. Thus there is peace witli God as the result of faith, and that uipon the suie and certain basis of the knowledge of tiod's holy love, in which both the conscience and the heart find rest.
Forgiveness is also realized as the remission of the penalties of sin. The chief penalty of sin is etemal death, or separation from God. But further, of physical evils some are clearly the effects of sin ; and the rest, to the sinner conscious of separation from God, also tend to appear as the tokens of His displeasure. Forgiveness removes the fear of eternal death by the establishment of communion with God ; while, so far as physical evils are con- cerned, though the consequences of former sins may continue to abound, yet all these appear no longer as tokens of God's displeasure, out as fatherly chastisements, so that the believer's com- munion with God remains unbroken by them. Finally, the positive expression of the whole ex- perience is that the believer enjoys the privilege of Divine sonship, and has, in his communion \vith God, here and now, the gift of eternal life ; while his trust in God enables him confidently to leave to Him the maintenance of this privilege in the future. The negative statement of this experience is that the standing of the believer with God is not on terms of law or merit. In other words, to sum up the whole matter, the Christian religion is not a religion of law but a religion of grace. This is the real meaning of the article of justification by faith, which shows at once why it is so fundamental for Christianity, and why it is so necessary to maintain that justification is by faith alone.
We have now reached the end of the exposition of the subject-matter of the doctrine ; some neces- sary que.stions, however, remain to be discussed. The first is formal. With what point in time is the Divine act of justification to be connected? If the exposition above has been followed, it will be seen that the question is one of definition. Forgive- ness is revealed in Christ, and realized in faith. We may, therefore, connect the Di^-ine act more particularly with the death of Christ as the climax of the revelation, as Kaftan does (Dogmatik^-*, p. 523), which is, perhaps, most logical ; or we may, with Lipsius (Dogmatik, p. 696), connect it with the awakening of faith in the sense that then God by His Spirit speaks pardon to the soul. The one is the justificatio activa, the other the just ificatio passiva of Reformed theology ; each is simply an aspect of one process.
The next question is that of assurance. The Wew of Lipsius here seems most in accordance with the spirit of Paul, viz. that ' when faith becomes un- certain, there remains to us nothing but ever to return anew in believing trust to tlie objective message of grace, which meets us in the gospel or in the historical revelation in Christ, till the lost consciousness of salvation revives again.'
There leiji.iins the most difficult question of all, as Lipsius ( :ill, it, ' the master question of theology ' (Dv'iiii'i)il:. y. i\m). viz. the question of the relation o/ justi/iratiuii tu regeneration and the Christian life. The Pauline answer to this question is, as we have seen, that the same Divine revelation in Christ by whicli forgiveness is revealed, is also the revelation of an ethical ideal as an energizing spirit ; and that, as faith receives the revelation of grace in forgiveness, so it receives also at the same time the revelation of the ideal as a quickening influence upon the life. It is still an act of obedi- ence or submission to God, but, in this latter aspect, the act of obedience or sulirjiissiou to the Christian ideal, or the reception of the Spirit of Christ as the principle of life. It is one and the