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 length to which they carry those principles in their explanation of Christian doctrine, they agree, first, in rejecting the Church view of the plan of salvation ; they deny that Christ obeyed the law and bore its penalty vica- riously, or as the substitute of sinners ; they deny that his right- eousness is imputed to the believer as the ground of his justifica- tion ; they deny that saving faith consists in receiving and resting on the righteousness of Christ as something objective ; they deny that justification is a forensic or judicial act in which God pro- nounces the sinner just, not on the ground of his subjective state or character, but on the ground of what Christ has done for him. All this they pronounce mechanical, external, magical, unreal, and unsatisfactory. On the other hand, they agree in represent- ing justification as an act by which the sinner is made inherently or subjectively just ; and consequently that his acceptance with God, and his title to eternal life, are founded on what he is ; they agree in regarding faith as that state of mind which renders the sinner receptive of the infusion of whatever it is that renders him thus subjectively righteous in the sight of God. What that is, is the main point on which their representations differ. Those who regard man as only a form of the manifestation of God, say that one man's being justified and not another, means that God is more fully developed in the one than in the other ; or that the one realizes more truly the idea of man than the other ; and this, after all, consists in one's coming to the consciousness of his oneness with God, which others have not attained. " The most universal and essential idea of redemption and reconciliation is man's becoming one with God. The necessary objective assump tion, on which alone the individual can be one with God, or re- deemed and reconciled, is the truth, that man as such is one with God (dass der Mensch an sich mit Gott Eins ist)."1 This, ac- cording to one view, is an eternal process ; God is ever becoming man, and man is ever returning into God. According to Schleier- macher, as already repeatedly stated, this manifestation of God in man was hindered and could never become perfect by a process
1 Baur, Die Christliche Lehre von der Versdhnung, Tubingen, 1838, p. 628.
200 PART in. Ch. XVII. — JUSTIFICATION.
of natural development j and, therefore, by a new creative act Christ was produced, in whom the idea of man was fully real- ized, or in whom the oneness of God and man was clearly exhib- ited, and from Him a new process of development commenced as perfectly natural as the process before his advent, and the re- demption of man consists in the communication of the sinlessness and blessedness of Christ to the individual. This is expressed commonly by saying that the life of Christ, — not the Holy Spirit as derived from Him ; not his divine nature , not his humanity ; but his divine-human life, — is communicated to the Church and to all its members. In other words, as Christ is God in human form, so is every believer. The incarnation goes for- ward in the Church. In the language of the older mystics, what is communicated is " the essential righteousness of God," or " the essence of God," the life of God, or God Himself.
According to this view the objective work of Christ, what He did and suffered is of no avail for us ; it is not that which makes us righteous, or by which we are redeemed. Redemption and reconciliation are a purely subjective process ; something which takes place in the sinner's own soul, and not something which was done for him. It matters little whether there was a histor- ical Christ or not ; or, at least, whether the facts recorded of Him be true or untrue ; whether the Gospels are historical or mythical.
According to another view, the work of Christ was in no sense a satisfaction to divine justice ; neither his obedience nor his suf- fering was designed to be set over to his people with its merit, as the ground of their justification. The Word became flesh. He- assumed our fallen humanity into personal union with Him self. This necessitated conflict and suffering as the only way in which the new life could triumph over the law of sin and death which belonged to our fallen humanity. This was the atone- ment of Christ, the triumph of health over disease. This was the victory of Christ over sin and hell. Thus He becomes the author of salvation to men. Humanity in Christ suffered and died, and rose again. That humanity is our nature. It is that which constitutes us what we are. By union with the Church, which is the body of Christ animated by his theanthropic nature or life, we become one with Him. What is communicated to us is not his merit, nor his Spirit, but his essence, his substance, his life. There is no dualism between the soul and body. They are one life. The soul externalizes itself in the body, they are