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 Christ to the Church ; and this takes place in the way of history, growth, and development. Partaking thus of the life of Christ, we partake of its righteousness, its holiness, and its glory. Thus redemption is purely subjective. It is wrought in us, although the source is without us. As we partake of Adam's sin and condemnation, because we partake of his nature ; so we partake of Christ's righteousness and holiness because we partake of his divine-human life, or of humanity as healed and exalted in Him.1
Ebrard of Erlangen.
There is an important class of modern theological writers, of whom Dr. J. H. A. Ebrard of Erlangen may be taken as a representative, who consider themselves faithful to the doctrines of the Reformation, while developing them into new forms. As Ebrard represents this class of writers among the Reformed, so Delitzsch does the same for the Lutheran theologians. These writers are abundantly orthodox in their exposition of the nature of Christ's work. This is especially true of Delitzsch in his ad- mirable treatise on " The Vicarious Satisfaction of Christ." 2 As these writers identify regeneration and justification, their views may be found briefly stated in the chapter on regeneration.
Christ, it is admitted, made expiation for sin and satisfied the justice of God as our substitute by his vicarious obedience and sufferings. This righteousness, however, becomes ours not by. being received by faith and imputed to us by the just judgment of God, but by regeneration, whereby we become partakers of the life, substance, or essence, however it may be designated, of Christ. On this subject Ebrard says : " Regeneration is the substantial objective ground both of the transient act of justifi- cation, and of the progressive work of sanctification ; whereas conversion (repentance and faith) is the subjective condition of both. And justification as the act of the Father, is a forensic judicial act ; as the act of Christ, it is identical with regenera-
1 See Mystical Presence, by JohnW.Nevin, D. D. ; Morell's Philosophy of Religion, and Princeton Review, April, 1848.
2 Ueber den festen Schriftgrund der Kirchenlehre von der stellvertretenden Genug- ihnung, printed as a second Appendix to his elaborate commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.
202 PART HI. Ch. xra— justification.
tion, t. <?., with the real implantation of Christ in us and of us in Christ." Both propositions, therefore, he says, are equally true, namely, " Christ justifies us ; and faith justifies us." In explaining this, he says : " Ai/catos before God is one who does not merit punishment ; who is free from guilt in the sight of God's eternal law, either because he is absolutely sinless, or holy, never having contracted guilt, as in the case of Christ ; or be- cause his guilt has been expiated, and his lack of the righteous- ness demanded by the law is covered. Ai*aow means either to acknowledge as SiWos one who is SiWos ; or to make SiWos one who is not SiWos." The latter is its sense when used in refer- ence to sinners. In their case, " The act of SiKaiWts consists, (1.) In the gift of the expiation (Siihne) made by Christ with- out the sinner's cooperation ; and (2.) In the gift of the absolute righteousness of Christ, in such sense that God does not regard the sinner as he is by nature, and by self -development, but as he is as implanted in Christ." There is, therefore, a clear distinction to be made between the appropriation of righteousness, and the procuring of righteousness. " Christ has procured and merited (erworben hat) righteousness by his historical life and suffer- ings ; it is applied by Christ's being born in us." " The Scrip- tures," he says, "do not speak of Christ's righteousness being imputed to us. They teach that it comes upon us (Rom. v. 18), and becomes our own. It is our own, however, because the per- son of Christ becomes ours in the strictest possible (allerrealsten, the most literal) sense of the terms." What Ebrard contends for is (die substantielle Lebenseinheit mit der Person Christi), the substantial oneness of life with Christ ; 2 or, as he often else- where expresses it, " the mysterious, mystical communication of the substance of Christ to the central substance of man." 2 Dr. Alexander Schweizer of Zurich,8 although differing much in other points from Ebrard, agrees with him in this. The essen- tial element in the work of Christ, he says, " is the founding and upholding a community animated or pervaded by his thean- thropic life (gottmenschlichen Lebenspotenz). Dr. Kevin4 says, " Our nature reaches after a true and real union with the nature of God, as the necessary complement and consummation of its own life. The idea which it embodies can never be fully actual- ized, under any other form. The incarnation is the proper com-
1 Christliche Dogmatik, n. i. 2, § 443; Konigsberg, 1852, vol. ii. pp. 311, 312, 314.
« Ibid. p. 310.
« Glaubenslehre, Zurich, 1847, vol. ii. p. 385.
* Mystical Presence, Philadelphia, 1846, pp. 200, 201.