CHAPTER 2. THE RECONCILIATION OF MAN TO GOD, OR THE APPLICATION OF REDEMPTION THROUGH THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

SECTION 1. — THE APPLICATION OF CHRIST’S REDEMPTION IN ITS PREPARATION.

(a) In this Section we treat of Election and Calling, Section Second being devoted to the Application of Christ’s Redemption in its Actual Beginning, namely, in Union with Christ, Regeneration, Conversion, and Justification.

Section Third has for its subject the Application of Christ’s Redemption in its Continuation, namely, in Sanctification and Perseverance.

The arrangement of tonics, in the treatment of the reconciliation of man to God, is taken from Julius Muller, Proof-texts, 35. “Revelation to us aims to bring about revelation in us. In any being absolutely perfect, God’s intercourse with us by faculty, and by direct teaching, would absolutely coalesce and the former be just as much God’s voice as the latter’’ (Hutton, Essays). (b) In treating Election and Calling as applications of Christ’s redemption, we imply that they are, in God’s decree, logically subsequent to that redemption. In this we hold the Supralapsarian view, as distinguished from the Supralapsarianism of Beza and other hyper-Calvinists, which regarded the decree of individual salvation as preceding, in the order of thought, the decree to permit the Fall. In this latter scheme, the order of decrees is as follows: 1. The decree to save certain ones and to reprobate others. 2. The decree to create both those who are to be saved and those who are to be reprobated. 3. The decree to permit both the former and the latter to fall. 4. The decree to provide salvation only for the former, that is, for the elect.

Richards, Theology, 302-307, shows that Calvin, while in his early work, the Institutes, he avoided definite statements of his position with regard to the extent of the atonement, yet in his latter works, the Commentaries, acceded to the theory of universal atonement. Supralapsarianism is therefore hyper-Calvinistic, rather than Calvinistic. Supralapsarianism was adopted by the Synod of Port (1618, 1619). By Supralapsarian is meant that form of doctrine which holds the decree of individual salvation as preceding the decree to permit the Fall; Supralapsarian designates that form of doctrine which holds that the decree of individual salvation is subsequent to the decree to permit the Fall.

By comparing some of his earlier statements with those of his later utterances, the progress in Calvin’s thought may be seen. Institutes, 2:23:5 — “I say, with Augustine, that the Lord created those who, as he certainly foreknew, were to go to destruction and he did so because he so willed.” But even then in the Institutes, 3:23:8, he affirms that “the perdition of the wicked depends upon the divine predestination in such a manner that the cause and matter of it are found in themselves. Man falls by the appointment of divine providence, but he falls by his own fault.”

God’s blinding, hardening and turning the sinner he describes as the consequence of the divine desertion , not the divine causation . The relation of God to the origin of sin is not efficient, but permissive. In later days Calvin wrote in his Commentary on 1 John 2:2 — “he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” Calvin goes on to say, “Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and in the goodness of God is offered unto all men without distinction, his blood being shed not for a part of the world only, but for the whole human race. For although in the world nothing is found worthy of the favor of God, yet he holds out the propitiation to the whole world, since without exception he summons all to the faith of Christ, which is nothing else than the door unto hope.”

Although other passages, such as Institutes, 3:21:5, and 3:23:1, assert the harsher view, we must give Calvin credit for modifying his doctrine with a more mature reflection and advancing years. Much that is called Calvinism would have been repudiated by Calvin himself even at the beginning of his career and is really the exaggeration of his teaching by more scholastic and less religious successors. Renan calls Calvin “the most Christian man of his generation.” Dorner describes him as “equally great in intellect and character, lovely in social life, full of tender sympathy and faithfulness to his friends, yielding and forgiving toward personal offenses.” The device upon his seal is a flaming heart from which is stretched forth a helping hand.

Calvin’s share in the burning of Servetus must be explained by his mistaken zeal for God’s truth and by the universal belief of his time that this truth was to be defended by the civil power. The following is the inscription on the expiatory monument which European Calvinists raised to Servetus: “On October 27, 1553, died at the stake at Champel, Michael Servetus, of Villeneuve d’Aragon, born September 29, 1511. Reverent and grateful sons of Calvin, our great Reformer, but condemning an error which was that of his age, and steadfastly adhering to liberty of conscience according to the true principles of the Reformation and of the gospel, we have erected this expiatory monument, on the 27th of October, 1903.”

John Dewitt, in Princeton Theol. Rev., Jan. 1904:95 — “Take John Calvin. That fruitful conception — more fruitful in church and state than any other conception, which has held the English speaking world — of the absolute and universal sovereignty of the holy God. As a revolt from the conception then prevailing of the sovereignty of the human head of an earthly church, was historically the mediator and instaurator of his spiritual career.” On Calvin’s theological position, see Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 1:409, note. (c) But the Scriptures teach that men as sinners, and not men irrespective of their sins, are the objects of God’s saving grace in Christ ( John 15:9; Romans 11:5,7; Ephesians 1:4-6; 1 Peter 1:2). Condemnation, moreover, is an act, not of sovereignty, but of justice, and is grounded in the guilt of the condemned ( Romans 2:6-11; 2Thess. 1:5-10). The true order of the decrees is therefore as follows: 1. The decree to create. 2. The decree to permit the Fall. 3. The decree to provide a salvation in Christ sufficient for the needs of all. 4. The decree to secure the actual acceptance of this salvation on the part of some, or, in other words, the decree of Election.

That saving grace presupposes the Fall, and that men as sinners are the objects of it, appears from John 15:19 — “If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Romans 11:5-7 — “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained is and the rest were hardened.” Ephesians 1:4-6 — “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to ‘the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved”; 1 Peter 1:2 — elect, “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.”

That condemnation is not an act of sovereignty, but of justice, appears from Romans 2:5-9 — “who will render to every man according to his works...wrath and indignation...upon every soul of man that worketh evil.” 2Thess. 1:6-9 — “a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you... rendering vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment” Particular persons are elected, not to have Christ die for them, but to have special influences of the Spirit bestowed upon them. (d) Those Supralapsarians who hold to the Anselmic view of a limited Atonement, make the decrees #3 and #4 just mentioned, exchange places, the decree of election thus preceding the decree to provide redemption.

The Scriptural reasons for preferring the order here given have been already indicated in our treatment of the extent of the Atonement (pages 771-773).

When #3 and #4 thus change places, #3 should be made to read: “The decree to provide in Christ a salvation sufficient for the elect” and #4 should read: “The decree that a certain number should be saved or, in other words, the decree of Election.” Supralapsarianism of the first sort may be found in Turretin, loc. 4, quæs. 9; Cunningham, Hist. Theol., 416-439. A. J. F. Behrends: “The divine decree is our last word in theology, not our first word. It represents the terminus ad quern, not the terminus a quo. Whatever comes about in the exercise of human freedom and of divine grace — that God has decreed.” Yet we must grant that Calvinism needs to be supplemented by a more express statement of God’s love for the world. Herrick Johnson: “Across the Westminster Confession could justly be written: ‘The Gospel for the elect only.’ That Confession was written under the absolute dominion of one idea, the doctrine of predestination. It does not contain one of three truths: God’s love for a lost world, Christ’s compassion for a lost world and the gospel universal for a lost world.”

I. ELECTION.

Election is that eternal act of God. It is by which in his sovereign pleasure and on account of no foreseen merit in them, he chooses certain out of the number of sinful men to be the recipients of the special grace of his Spirit and so to be made voluntary partakers of Christ’s salvation. 1. Proof of the Doctrine of Election.

A. From Scripture.

We here adopt the words of Dr. Hovey: “The Scriptures forbid us to find the reasons for election in the moral action of man before the new birth, and refer us merely to the sovereign will and mercy of God, that is, they teach the doctrine of personal election.” Before advancing to the proof of the doctrine itself, we may claim Scriptural warrant for three preliminary statements (which we also quote from Dr. Hovey), namely:

First, that “God has a sovereign right to bestow more grace upon one subject than upon another, grace being unmerited favor to sinners.” Matthew 20:12-15 — “These last have spent but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us...Friend, I do thee no wrong...Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?” Romans 9:20,21 — “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one pan a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”

Secondly, that “God has been pleased to exercise this right in dealing with men.” <19E720> Psalm 147:20 — “He hath not dealt so with any nation; And as for his ordinances, they have not known them”; Romans 3:1,2 — “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way: first of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God”; John 15:16 — “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit”; Acts 9:15 — “he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel.”

Thirdly, that “God has some other reason than that of saving as many as possible for the way in which he distributes his grace.” Matthew 11:21 — Tyre and Sidon “would have repented,” if they had had the grace bestowed upon Chorazin and Bethsaida; Romans 9:22-25 — “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory?”

The Scripture passages, which directly or indirectly support the doctrine of a particular election of individual men to salvation, may be arranged as follows: (a) Direct statements of God’s purpose to save certain individuals:

Jesus speaks of God’s elect, as for example in Mark 13:27 — “then shall he send forth the angels, and shall gather together his elect”; Luke 18:7 — “shall not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night?” Acts 13:48 — “as many as were ordained tetagmenoi to eternal life believed” — here Whedon translates: “disposed unto eternal life,” referring to kathrtisme>na in verse 23, where “fitted” “fitted themselves.” The only instance, however, where ta>ssw is used in a middle sense is in 1 Corinthians 16:15 — set themselves”; but there the object, eJautou>v , is expressed. Here we must compare Romans 13:1 — “the powers that be are ordained tetagme>nai of God “; see also Acts 10:42 — “this is he who is ordained wJrisme>nov of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.” Romans 9:11-16 — “for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth...I will have mercy upon whom I have mercy...So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy”; Ephesians 1:4,5,9,11 — “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, [not because we were, or were to be, holy, but] that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will...the mystery of his will, according to ha good pleasure...in whom also we were made a heritage having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will”; Colossians 3:12 — “Gods elect”; 2Thess. 2:13 — “God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” (b) In connection with the declaration of God’s foreknowledge of these persons, or choice to make them objects of his special attention and care: Romans 8:27-30 — “called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son” 1 Peter 1:1,2 — “elect ... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” On the passage in Romans, Shedd, in his Commentary, remarks that “foreknow,” in the Hebraic use, “is more than simple prescience and something more also than simply ‘to fix the eye upon,’ or to ‘select.’ It is this latter, but with the additional notion of a benignant and kindly feeling toward the object.” In Romans 8:27-30, Paul is emphasizing the divine sovereignty. The Christian life is considered from the side of the divine care and ordering, and not from the side of human choice and volition. Alexander, Theories of the Will, 87, — “If Paul is here advocating indeterminism, it is strange that in chanter 9 he should be at pains to answer objections to determinism. The apostle’s protest in chapter 9 is not against pre — destination and determination, but against the man who regards such a theory as impugning the righteousness of God.”

That the word “know,” in Scripture, frequently means not merely to “apprehend intellectually,” but to “regard with favor,” to “make an object of care,” is evident from Gen. 18:19 — “I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep thy way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice”; Exodus 2:25 — “And God saw the children of Israel, and God took knowledge of them” cf. verse 24 — “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob”; Psalm 1:6 — “For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; But the way of the wicked snail perish”; 101:4, margin — “I will know no evil person”; Hosea 13:5 — “I did know thee in the wilderness in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled”; Nahum 1:7 — “he knoweth them that take revenge in him”; Amos 3:2 — “You only have I known of all the families of the earth”; Matthew 7:23 — “then will I profess unto them, I never knew you”; Romans 7:15 — “For that which I do I know not”; 1 Corinthians 8:3 — “if any man loveth God, the same is known by him”; Galatians 4:9 — “now that ye have come to know God, or rather, to he known by God”; 1 Thess. 5:12,13 — “we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you n the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their work’s sake.” So the word “foreknow”: Romans 11:2 — “God did not cast off his people whom he foreknew”; 1 Peter 1:20 — Christ, “who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world.”

Broadus on Matthew 7:23 — “I never knew you” — says; “Not in all the passages quoted above nor elsewhere, is there occasion for the oftrepeated arbitrary notion, derived from the Fathers, that ‘know’ conveys the additional idea of approve or regard. It denotes acquaintance with all its pleasures and advantages; ‘knew,’ i.e., as mine, as my people.”

But this last admission seems to grant what Broadus had before denied.

See Thayer, Lex. N. T., on ginw>skw : “With acc. of person, to recognize as worthy of intimacy and love; so those whom God has judged worthy of the blessings of the gospel are said uJpo< tou~ qeou~ ginw>skesqai ( Corinthians 8:3; Galatians 4:9); negatively in the sentence of Christ: oujde>pote e]gnwn uJmav , “I never knew you,” “never had any acquaintance with you.” On proginw>skw , Romans 8:29 — ou\v proe>gnw , “whom he foreknew,” see Denney, in Expositor’s Greek Testament, in loco: “Those whom he foreknew — in what sense? As persons who would answer his love with love? This is at least irrelevant and alien to Paul’s general method of thought. That salvation begins with God and begins in eternity are fundamental ideas with him, which he here applies to Christians without raising any of the problems involved in the relation of the human will to the divine. Yet we may be sure that proe>gnw has the pregnant sense that ginw>skw often has in Scripture. e.g., in Psalm 1:6; Amos 3:2; hence we may render: ‘those of whom God took knowledge from eternity (Ephesiansl:4).’” In Romans 8:28-30, quoted above, “foreknew” = elected — that is, made certain individuals, in the future, the objects of his love and care; “foreordained” describes God’s designation of these same individuals to receive the special gift of salvation. In other words, “foreknowledge” is of persons and “foreordination” is of blessings to be bestowed upon them.

Hooker, Eccl. Pol., appendix to book v, (vol. 2:751) — “‘whom he did foreknow’ (know before as his own, with determination to be forever merciful to them) ‘he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son’ — predestinated, not to opportunity of conformation, but to conformation itself.” So, for substance, Calvin, Ruckert, DeWette, Stuart, Jowett, Vaughan. On 1 Peter 1:1,2 see Com. of Plumptre. The Arminian interpretation of “whom he foreknew” ( Romans 8:29) would require the phrase “as conformed to the image of his Son” to be conjoined with it. Paul, however, makes conformity to Christ to be the result, not the foreseen condition, of God’s foreordination; see Commentaries of Hodge and Lange (c) With assertions that this choice is matter of grace, or unmerited favor, bestowed in eternity past: Ephesians 1:5-8 — “foreordained...according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved... according to the riches of his grace”; 2:8 — “by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” — here “and that” (neuter tou~to , verse 8) refers, not to “fall” but to “salvation.” But faith is elsewhere represented as having its source in God, see page 782, (k) . 2 Timothy 1:9 — “his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.”

Election is not because of our merit. McLaren: “God’s own mercy, which is spontaneous, undeserved and condescending, moved him. God is his own motive. His love is not drawn out by our “loveableness” but wells up, like an artesian Spring, from the depths of his nature.’’ (d) That the Father has given certain persons to the Son, to be his peculiar possession: John 6:37 — “All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me”; 17:2 — “that whatsoever thou hast given him, to them he should give eternal life”; 6 — “I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the ‘world: thine they were, and thou gave them to me”; 9 — “I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou but given me; Ephesians 1:14 — “unto the redemption of God’s own possession”; 1 Peter 2:9 — “a people for God’s own possession.” (e) That the fact of believers being united thus to Christ is due wholly to God: John 6:44 — “No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him”; 10:26 “ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep”: Corinthians 1:30 — “of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus” = your being, as Christians, in union with Christ, is due wholly to God. (f) That those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life, and they only, shall be saved: Philippians 4:3 — “the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life”; Revelations 20:15 — “And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire”; 21:27 — “there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean...but only they that are written in the Lamb’s book of life” God’s decrees of electing grace in Christ. (g) That these are allotted, as disciples, to certain of God’s servants: Acts 17:4 (literally) — “some of them were persuaded, and were allotted [by God] to Paul and Silas” — as disciples (so Meyer and Grimm); 18:9, 10 — “Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee: for I have much people in this city.” (h) Are made the recipients of a special call of God: Romans 8:28,30 — “called according to his purpose whom he foreordained, them he also called”; 9:23, 24 — “vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles”; 11:29 — “for the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of”; 1 Corinthians 1:24-29 — “unto them that are called...Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God...For behold your calling, brethren...the things that are despised, did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to naught the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God”; Galatians 1:15,16 — “when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mothers womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me”; cf. James 2:23 — “and he [Abraham] was called [to be] the friend of God.” (i) Are born into God’s kingdom, not by virtue of man’s will, but of God’s will: John 1:13 — “born, not of Wood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”; James 1:18 — “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” 1 John 4:10 — “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.” SS Times, Oct. 14, 1899 — “The law of love is the expression of God’s loving nature, and it is only by our participation of the divine nature that we are enabled to render it obedience. ‘Loving God,’ says Bushnell, ‘is but letting God love us.’ So John’s great saying may be rendered in the present tense: ‘not that we love God, but that he loves us.’ Or, as Madame Guyon sings: ‘I love my God, but with no love of mine, For I have none to give; I love thee, Lord, but all the love is thine, For by thy life I live’.” (j) Receiving repentance, as the gift of God: Acts 5:31 — “Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins”; 11:18 — “Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto life”; 2 Timothy 2:25 — “correcting them that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth.” Of course it is true that God might give repentance simply by inducing man to repent by the agency of his word, his providence and his Spirit. But more than this seems to be meant when the Psalmist prays: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me” ( Psalm 51:10). (k) Faith, as the gift of God: John 6:65 — “no man can come unto me, except it be given unto him of the Father”; Acts 15:8,9 — “God...giving them the Holy Spirit...cleansing their hearts by faith”; Romans l2:3 — “according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith”; 1 Corinthians 12:9 — “to another faith, in the same Spirit”; Galatians 5:22 — “the fruit of the Spirit is...faith” (A.V.); Philippians 2:13 In all faith, “it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure”; Ephesians 6:23 — “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” John 3:8 — “The Spirit breatheth where he wills, and thou [as a consequence] hearest his voice” (so Bengel); see A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 166; Corinthians 12:3 — “No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit — but calling Jesus “Lord” is an essential part of faith and faith, therefore, is the work of the Holy Spirit; Titus 1:1 — “the faith of God’s elect” = election is not in consequence of faith, but faith is in consequence of election (Ellicott). If they get their faith of themselves, then salvation is not due to grace. If God gave the faith, then it was in his purpose, and this is election. (1) Holiness and good works, as the gift of God: Ephesians 1:4 — “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy”; 2:9, 10 — “not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them”; Peter 1:2 — elect “unto obedience.” On Scripture testimony, see Hovey, Manual of Theol. and Ethics, 258-261; also art. on Predestination, by Warfield, in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible.

These passages furnish an abundant and conclusive refutation, on the one hand, of the Lutheran view that election is simply God’s determination from eternity to provide an objective salvation for universal humanity and, on the other hand, of the Arminian view that election is God’s determination from eternity to save certain individuals upon the ground of their foreseen faith.

Roughly stated, we may say that Schleiermacher elects all men subjectively, Lutherans elect all men objectively, Arminians elect all believers, Augustinians elect all foreknown as God’s own. Schleiermacher held that decree logically precedes foreknowledge and that election is individual, not national. But he made election to include all men, the only difference between them being that of earlier or of later conversion. Thus, in his system, Calvinism and Restorationism go hand in hand. Murray, in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, seems to take this view.

Lutheranism is the assertion that original grace preceded original sin and that the Quia Voluit of Tertullian and of Calvin was based on wisdom in Christ. The Lutheran holds that the believer is simply the non-resistant subject of common grace while the Arminian holds that the believer is the cooperant subject of common grace. Lutheranism enters more fully than Calvinism into the nature of faith. It thinks more of the human agency, while Calvinism thinks more of the divine purpose. It thinks more of the church, while Calvinism thinks more of Scripture. The Arminian conception is that God has appointed men to salvation, just as he has appointed them to condemnation, in view of their dispositions and acts. As Justification is in view of present faith, so the Arminian regards Election as taking place in view of future faith. Arminianism must reject the doctrine of regeneration as well as that of election, and must in both cases make the act of man precede the act of God.

All varieties of view may be found upon this subject among theologians.

John Milton, in his Christian Doctrine, holds that “there is no particular predestination or election, but only general...here can be no reprobation of individuals from all eternity.” Archbishop Sumner: “Election is predestination of communities and nations to external knowledge and to the privileges of the gospel.” Archbishop Whately: “Election is the choice of individual men to membership in the external church and the means of grace.” Gore, in Lux Mundi, 320 — “The elect represent not the special purpose of God for a few, but the universal purpose which under the circumstances can only be realized through a few.” R. V. Foster, a Cumberland Presbyterian opposed to absolute predestination, says in his Systematic Theology that the divine decree “is unconditional in its origin and conditional in its application.”

B. From Reason. (a) What God does, he has eternally purposed to do. Since he bestows special regenerating grace on some, he must have eternally purposed to bestow it, in other words, must have chosen them to eternal life. Thus the doctrine of election is only a special application of the doctrine of decrees.

The New Haven views are essentially Arminian. See Fitch, on Predestination and Election, in Christian Spectator, 3:622 — “God’s foreknowledge of what would be the results of his present works of grace preceded in the order of nature the purpose to pursue those works and presented the grounds of that purpose. Whom he foreknew — as the people who would be guided to his kingdom by his present works of grace, in which result lay the whole objective motive for undertaking those works — he did also, by resolving on those works, predestinate.” Here God is very erroneously said to foreknow what is as yet included in a merely possible plan. As we have seen in our discussion of Decrees, there can be no foreknowledge, unless there is something fixed, in the future, to be foreknown and this fixity can be due only to God’s predetermination.

So, in the present case, election must precede prescience.

The New Haven views are also given in N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 373-444; for criticism upon them, see Tyler, Letters on New Haven Theology, 172-180. If God desired the salvation of Judas as much as of Peter, how was Peter elected in distinction from Judas? To the question, “Who made thee to differ?” the answer must be, “Not God, but my own will.” See Finney, in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1877:711 — “God must have foreknown whom he could wisely save, prior in the order of nature to his determining to save them. But his knowing who would be saved must have been, in the order of nature, subsequent to his election or determination to save them and dependent upon that determination.”

Foster, Christian Life and Theology, 70 — “The doctrine of elections the consistent formulation, sub specie eternitatis, of prevenient grace... 86 — With the doctrine of prevenient grace, the evangelical doctrine stands or falls.” (b) This purpose cannot be conditioned upon any merit or faith of those who are chosen, since there is no such merit, faith, itself being God’s gift and foreordained by him. Since man’s faith is foreseen only as the result of God’s work of grace, election proceeds rather upon foreseen unbelief.

Faith, as the effect of election, cannot at the same time be the cause of election.

There is an analogy between prayer and its answer, on the one hand and faith and salvation on the other. God has decreed answer in connection with prayer and salvation in connection with faith. But he does not change his mind when men pray or when they believe. As he fulfills his purpose by inspiring true prayer so he fulfills his purpose by giving faith.

Augustine: “He chooses us, not because we believe, but that we may believe: lest we should say that we first chose him.” ( John 15:16 — “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you”; Romans 9:21 — “from the same lump; 16 — “not of him that willeth”).

Here see the valuable discussion of Wardlaw, Systematic Theol., 2:485- 549 — “Election and salvation on the ground of works foreseen are not different in principle from election and salvation on the ground of works performed.” Cf . Proverbs 21:1 — “The kings heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses; He turneth it whithersoever he will” — as easily as the rivulets of the eastern fields are turned by the slightest motion of the hand or the foot of the husbandman <19B003> Psalm 110:3 — “Thy people offer themselves willingly In the day of thy power.” (c) The depravity of the human will is such that, without this decree to bestow special divine influences upon some, all, without exception, would have rejected Christ’s salvation after it was offered to them and so all, with out exception, must have perished. Election, therefore, may be viewed as a necessary consequence of God’s decree to provide an objective redemption, if that redemption is to have any subjective result in human salvation.

Before the prodigal son seeks the father, the father must first seek him, a truth brought out in the preceding parables of the lost money and the lost sheep (Luke 15). Without election, all are lost. Newman Smyth, Orthodox Theology of Today, 56 — “The worst doctrine of election, today, is taught by our natural science. The scientific doctrine of natural selection is the doctrine of election, robbed of all hope, and without a single touch of human pity in it.”

Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2:335 — “Suppose the deistic view be true:

God created men and left them; surely no man could complain of the results. But now suppose God, forseeing these very results of creation, should create. Would it make any difference, if God’s purpose, as to the futurition of such a world, should precede it? Augustine supposes that God did purpose such a world as the deist supposes, with two exceptions: (1) He interposes to restrain evil. (2) He intervenes, by providence, by Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, to save some from destruction.” Election is simply God’s determination that the sufferings of Christ shall not be in vain, that all men shall not be lost that some shall be led to accept Christ, that to this end special influences of his Spirit shall be given.

At first sight it might appear that God’s appointing men to salvation was simply permissive, as was his appointment to condemnation ( 1 Peter 2:8), and that this appointment was merely indirect by creating them with foresight of their faith or their disobedience. But the decree of salvation is not simply permissive, it is efficient also. It is a decree to use special means for the salvation of some. A. A. Hodge, Popular Lectures, 143 — “The dead man cannot spontaneously originate his own quickening nor the creature his own creating nor the infant his own begetting. Whatever man may do after regeneration, the first quickening of the dead must originate with God.”

Hovey, Manual of Theology, 257 — “Calvinism, reduced to its lowest terms, is election of believers. It is not on account of any foreseen conduct of theirs, either before or in the act of conversion, which would be spiritually better than that of others influenced by the same grace. It is on account of their foreseen greater usefulness in manifesting the glory of God to moral beings and of their foreseen non-commission of the sin against the Holy Spirit.” But even here we must attribute the greater usefulness and the abstention from fatal sin, not to man’s unaided powers but to the divine decree: see Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” (d) The doctrine of election becomes more acceptable to reason when we remember first, that God’s decree is eternal, and in a certain sense is contemporaneous with man’s belief in Christ. Secondly, that God’s decree to create involves the decree of all that in the exercise of man’s freedom will follow. Thirdly, that God’s decree is the decree of him who is all in all, so that our willing and doing is at the same time the working of him who decrees our willing and doing. The whole question turns upon the initiative in human salvation; if this belongs to God, then in spite of difficulties we must accept the doctrine of election.

The timeless existence of God may be the source of many of our difficulties with regard to election, and with a proper view of God’s eternity these difficulties might be removed. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 349-351 — “Eternity is commonly thought of as if it were a state or series anterior to time and to be resumed again when time comes to an end. This, however, only reduces eternity to time again, and puts the life of God in the same line with our own, only coming from further back. At present we do not see how time and eternity meet.

Royce, World and Individual, 2:374 — “God does not temporally foreknow anything, except so far as he is expressed in us finite beings.

The knowledge that exists in time is the knowledge that finite beings possess, in so far as they are finite beings. And no such foreknowledge can predict the special features of individual deeds precisely so far as they are unique. Foreknowledge of time is possible only of the general, and of the causally predetermined, and not of the unique and free. Hence neither God nor man can foreknow perfectly, at any temporal moment, what a free will agent is yet to do. On the other hand, the Absolute possesses a perfect knowledge at one glance of the whole of the temporal order, past, present and future. This knowledge is ill called foreknowledge. It is eternal knowledge. And as there is an eternal knowledge of all individuality and of all freedom, free acts are known as occurring, like the chords in the musical succession, precisely when and how they actually occur.” While we see much truth its the preceding statement, we find in it no bar to our faith that God can translate his eternal knowledge into finite knowledge and can thus put it for special purposes in possession of his creatures.

E. H. Johnson, Theology, 2d ed., 250 — “Foreknowing what his creatures would do, God decreed their destiny when he decreed their creation and this would still be the case, although every man had the partial control over his destiny that Arminians aver, or even the complete control that Pelagians claim. The decree is as absolute as if there were no freedom, but it leaves them as free as if there were no decree.” A. H. Strong, Christ in Creation,40,42 — “As the Logos or divine Reason, Christ dwells in humanity everywhere and constitutes the principle of its being. Humanity shares with Christ in the image of God. That image is never wholly lost. It is completely restored in sinners when the Spirit of Christ secures control of their wills and leads them to merge their life in his. If Christ is the principle and life of all things, then divine sovereignty and human freedom, if they are not absolutely reconciled, at least lose their ancient antagonism. We can rationally ‘work out our own salvation’ for the very reason that ‘it is God that worketh in us, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure’ ( Philippians 2:12,13).” 2. Objections to the Doctrine of Election (a) It is unjust to those who are not included in this purpose of salvation.

Answer: Election deals, not simply with creatures, but with sinful, guilty and condemned creatures. That any should be saved, is matter of pure grace, and those who are not included in this purpose of salvation suffer only the due reward of their deeds. There is, therefore, no injustice in God’s election. We may better praise God that he saves any, than charge him with injustice because he saves so few.

God can say to all men, saved or unsaved, “Friend, I do thee no wrong...Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?” ( Matthew 20:13,15). The question is not whether a father will treat his children alike, but whether a sovereign must treat condemned rebels alike. It is not true that, because the Governor pardons one convict from the penitentiary, he must therefore pardon all. When he pardons one, no injury is done to those who are left. But, in God’s government, there is still less reason for objection for God offers pardon to all. Nothing prevents men from being pardoned but their unwillingness to accept his pardon. Election is simply God’s determination to make certain persons willing to accept in. Because justice cannot save all, shall it therefore save none?

Augustine, De Predest. Sanct., 8 — “Why does not God teach all?

Because it is in mercy that he teaches all whom he does teach, while it is in judgment that he does not teach those whom he does not teach.” In his Manual of Theology and Ethics, 260, Hovey remarks that Romans 9:20 — “who art thou that repliest against God?” — teaches not that might makes right but that God is morally entitled to glorify either his righteousness or his mercy in disposing of a guilty race. It is not that he chooses to save only a few shipwrecked and drowning creatures but that he chooses to save only a part of a great company who are bent on committing suicide. Proverbs 8:36 — “he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: All they that hate me love death.” It is best for the universe at large that some should be permitted to have their own way and show how dreadful a thing is opposition to God. See Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 1:455. (b) It represents God as partial in his dealings and a respecter of persons.

Answer: Since there is nothing in men that determines God’s choice of one rather than another, the objection is invalid. It would equally apply to God’s selection of certain nations, as Israel, and certain individuals, as Cyrus, to be recipients of special temporal gifts. If God is not to be regarded as partial in not providing a salvation for fallen angels, he cannot be regarded as partial in not providing regenerating influences of his Spirit for the whole race of fallen men. Psalm 44:3 — “For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arm save them; But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, Because thou wast favorable unto them”; Isaiah 45:1,4,5 — “Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him...For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me”; Luke 4:25 — “There were many widows in Israel... and unto none of them was Elijah sent, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel...and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian”; 1 Corinthians 4:7 — “For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? but if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” 2 Peter 2:4 — “God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell”; Hebrews 2:16 — “For verily not to angels doth he give help, but he giveth help to the seed of Abraham.”

Is God partial, in choosing Israel, Cyrus, Naaman? Is God partial, in bestowing upon some of his servants special ministerial gifts? Is God partial, in not providing a salvation for fallen angels? In God’s providence, one man is born in a Christian land, the son of a noble family is endowed with beauty of person, splendid talents, exalted opportunities and immense wealth. Another is born at the Five Points, or among the Hottentots, amid the degradation and depravity of actual or practical heathenism. We feel that it is irreverent to complain of God’s dealings in providence. What rights have sinners to complain of God’s dealings in the distribution of his grace? Hovey: “We have no reason to think that God treats all moral beings alike. We should be glad to hear that other races are treated better than we.”

Divine election is only the ethical side and interpretation of natural selection. In the latter God chooses certain forms of the vegetable and animal kingdom without merit of’ theirs. They are preserved while others die. In the matter of individual health, talent or property, one is taken and the other left. If we call all this the result of system, the reply is that God chose the system, knowing precisely what would come of it. Bruce, Apologetics, 201 — “Election to distinction in philosophy or art is not incomprehensible, for these are not matters of vital concern but election to holiness on the part of some, and to that which is unholy on the part of others, would be inconsistent with God’s own holiness.” But there is no such election, to that which is unholy, except on the part of man himself.

God’s election secures only the good. See (c) below.

J. J. Murphy, Natural Selection and Spiritual Freedom,73 — “The world is ordered on a basis of inequality. In the organic world, as Darwin has shown, it is of inequality — of favored races — that all progress comes; history shows the same to be true of the human and spiritual world. All human progress is due to elect human individuals, elect not only to be a blessing to themselves, but still more to be a blessing to multitudes of others. Any superiority, whether in the natural or in the mental and spiritual world, becomes a vantage-ground for gaining a greater superiority. It is the method of the divine government, acting in the provinces both of nature and of grace, that all benefit should come to the many through the elect few.” (c) It represents God as arbitrary. Answer: It represents God, not as arbitrary, but as exercising the free choice of a wise and sovereign will, in ways and for reasons which are inscrutable to us. To deny the possibility of such a choice is to deny God’s personality. To deny that God has reasons for his choice is to deny his wisdom. The doctrine of election finds these reasons, not in men, but in God.

When a regiment is decimated for insubordination, the fact that every tenth man is chosen for death is for reasons, but the reasons are not in the men. In one case, the reason for God’s choice seems revealed: Timothy 1:16 — “howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering” for an ensample of them that should thereafter believe on him unto eternal life” — here Paul indicates that the reason why God chose him was that he was so great a sinner: verse 15 — “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” Hovey remarks that “the uses to which God can put men, as vessels of grace may determine his selection of them.”

But since the naturally weak are saved, as well as the naturally strong, we cannot draw any general conclusion, or discern any general rule, in Gods dealings. In election, God seeks to illustrate the greatness and the variety of his grace, the reasons lying, therefore, not in men, but in God. We must remember that God’s sovereignty is the sovereignty of God — the infinitely wise, holy and loving God, in whose hands the destinies of men can be left more safely than in the hands of the wisest, most just and most kind of his creatures.

We must believe in the grace of sovereignty as well as in the sovereignty of grace. Election and reprobation are not matters of arbitrary will. God saves all of those he can wisely save. He will show benevolence in the salvation of mankind just so far as he can without prejudice to holiness.

No man can be saved without God, but it is also true that there is no man whom God is not willing to save. H. B. Smith, System, 511 — “It may be that many of the finally impenitent resist more light than many of the saved.” Harris, Moral Evolution, 401 (for substance) — “Sovereignty is not lost in Fatherhood, but is recovered as the divine law of righteous love. Doubtless thou art our Father, though Augustine be ignorant of us and Calvin acknowledge us not.” Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, 1:2 — “They err who think that of God’s will there is no reason except his will.”

T. Erskine, The Brazen Serpent, 259 — Sovereignty is “just a name for what is unrevealed of God.”

We do not know all of God’s reasons for saving particular men, but we do know some of time reasons, for he has revealed them to us. These reasons are not men’s merits or works. We have mentioned the first of these reasons: (1) Men’s greater sin and need 1 Timothy 1:16 — “that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering.” We may add to this: (2) The fact that men have not sinned against the Holy Spirit and made themselves unreceptive to Christ’s salvation; 1 Timothy 1:13 — “I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” = the fact that Paul had not sinned with full knowledge of what he did was a reason why God could choose him. (3) Men’s ability by the help of Christ to be witnesses and martyrs for their Lord. Acts 9:15,16 — “he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” As Paul’s mission to the Gentiles may have determined God’s choice, so Augustine’s mission to the sensual and abandoned may have had the same influence. If Paul’s sins, as foreseen, constituted one reason why God chose to save him, why might not his ability to serve the kingdom have constituted another reason? We add therefore: (4) Men’s foreseen ability to serve Christ’s kingdom in bringing others to the knowledge of the truth. John 15:16 — “I chose you and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit.” Notice however that this is choice to service and not simply choice on account of service. In all these cases the reasons do not lie in the men themselves, for what these men are and what they possess is due to God’s providence and grace. (d) It tends to immorality, by representing men’s salvation as independent of their own obedience. Answer: The objection ignores the fact that the salvation of believers is ordained only in connection with their regeneration and sanctification, as means and that the certainty of final triumph is the strongest incentive to strenuous conflict with sin.

Plutarch: “God is the brave man’s hope and not the coward’s excuse.”

The purposes of God are an anchor to the storm-tossed spirit. But a ship needs engine, as well as anchor. God does not elect to save any without repentance and faith. Some hold the doctrine of election but the doctrine of election does not hold them. Such should ponder 1 Peter 1:2, in which Christians are said to be elect, “in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”

Augustine: “He loved her [the church] foul, that he might make her fair” Dr. John Watson (Ian McLaren): “The greatest reinforcement religion could have in our time would be a return to the ancient belief in time sovereignty of God.” This is because there is lack of a strong conviction of sin, guilt and helplessness, still remaining pride and unwillingness to submit to God, imperfect faith in God’s trustworthiness and goodness. We must not exclude Arminians from our fellowship — there are too many good Methodists for that. But we may maintain that they hold but half the truth and that absence of the doctrine of election from their creed makes preaching less serious and character less secure. (e) It inspires pride in those who think themselves elect. Answer: This is possible only in the case of those who pervert the doctrine. On the contrary, its proper influence is to humble men. Those who exalt themselves above others, upon the ground that they are special favorites of God, have reason to question their election.

In the novel, there was great effectiveness in the lover’s plea to the object of his affection; he had loved since he had first set his eves upon her in her childhood. But God’s love for us is of longer standing than that. It dates back to a time before we were born, aye, even to eternity past. It is a love, which was fastened upon us although God knew the worst of us. It is unchanging, because founded upon his infinite eternal love to Christ. Jeremiah 31:3 — “Jehovah appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee”; Romans 8:31-39 — “If God is for us, who is against us?....Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” And the answer is, that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This eternal love subdues and humbles: <19B501> Psalm 115:1 — “Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, But unto thy name give glory For thy loving kindness, and for thy truth’s sake.”

Of the effect of the doctrine of election, Calvin, in his Institutes, 3:22:1, remarks that “when the human mind hears of it, its irritation breaks all restraint, and it discovers as serious and violent agitation as if alarmed by the sound of a martial trumpet.” The cause of this agitation is the apprehension of the fact that one is an enemy of God and yet absolutely dependent upon his mercy. This apprehension leads normally to submission. But the conquered rebel can give no thanks to himself, all thanks are due to God who has chosen and renewed him. The affections elicited are not those of pride and self-complacency but of gratitude and love.

Christian hymnology witnesses to these effects. Isaac Watts (1748): “Why was I made to hear thy voice And enter while there’s room, When thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come. ‘T was time same love that spread the feast That sweetly forced me in; Else I had still refused to taste, And perished in my sin. Pity the nations, O our God!

Constrain the earth to come; Send thy victorious word abroad. And bring the wanderers home.” Josiah Conder (1855): “‘T is not that I did choose thee, For, Lord, that could not be; This heart would still refuse thee; But thou hast chosen me; — Hast, from the sin that stained me, Washed me and set me free, And to this end ordained me That I should live to thee. ‘T was sovereign mercy called me, And taught my opening mind; The world had else enthralled me, To heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none above thee: For thy rich grace I thirst; This knowing, — if I love thee, Thou must have loved me first.” (f) It discourages effort for the salvation of the impenitent, whether on his own part or on the part of others. Answer: Since it is a secret decree, it cannot hinder or discourage such effort. On the other hand, it is a ground of encouragement, and so a stimulus to effort; for without election, it is certain that all would be lost (cf. Acts 18:10). “While it humbles the sinner, so that he is willing to cry for mercy, it encourages him also by showing him that some will be saved and (since election and faith are inseparably connected) that he will be saved, if he will only believe. While it makes the Christian feel entirely dependent on God’s power in his efforts for the impenitent, it leads him to say with Paul that he “endures all things for the elects’ sake, that they also may attain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” ( 2 Timothy 2:10).

God’s decree that Paul’s ship’s company should be saved ( Acts 27:24) did not obviate the necessity of their abiding in the ship (verse 31). In marriage, man’s election does not exclude woman’s election and so God’s election does not exclude man’s. There is just as much need of effort as if there were no election. Hence the question for the sinner is not “Am I one of the elect” but rather “What shall I do to be saved?” Milton represents the spirits of hell as debating foreknowledge and free will, in wandering mazes lost.

No man is saved until he ceases to debate, and begins to act. And yet no man will thus begin to act, unless God’s Spirit moves him. The Lord encouraged Paul by saying to him: “I have much people in this city” ( Acts 18:10) — people whom I will bring in through thy word. “Old Adam is too strong for young Melanchthon.” If God does not regenerate, there is no hope of success in preaching: “God stands powerless before the majesty of man’s lordly will. Sinners have the glory of their own salvation. To pray God to convert a man is absurd. God elects the man because he foresees that the man will elect himself” (see S. R. Mason, Truth Unfolded, 298-307). The doctrine of election does indeed cut off the hopes of those who place confidence in themselves, but it is best that such hopes should be destroyed and that in place of them should he put a hope in the sovereign grace of God. The doctrine of election does teach man’s absolute dependence upon God and the impossibility of any disappointment or disarrangement of the divine plans arising from the disobedience of the sinner, and it humbles human pride until it is willing to take the place of a suppliant for mercy.

Rowland Hill was criticized for preaching election and yet exhorting sinners to repent and was told that be should preach only to the elect. He replied that, if his critic would put a chalk-mark on all the elect, he would preach only to them. But this is not the whole truth. We are not only ignorant of those who are God’s elect but, we are set to preach to both the elect and non-elect. ( Ezekiel 2:7 — “Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.”) We preach with the certainty that to the former our preaching will make a higher heaven, to the latter a deeper hell. (2 Corinthians 15, 16 — “For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life”; cf. Luke 2:34 — “this child is set for the falling and the rising of may in Israel” = for the falling of some and for the rising up of others.)

Jesus’ own thanksgiving in Matthew 11:25,26 — “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight” — is immediately followed by his invitation in verse 28 — “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There is no contradiction in his mind between sovereign grace and the free invitations of the gospel.

G. W. Northrup, in The Standard, Sept. 19, 1889 — “ 1. God will save every one that he can of the human race and remain God. 2. Every member of the race has a full and fair probation, so that all might be saved and would be saved were they to use aright the light which they already have.”...(Private letter): “Limitations of God in the bestowment of salvation: 1. In the power of God in relation to free will. 2. In the benevolence of God which requires the greatest good of creation, or the greatest aggregate good of the greatest number. 3. In the purpose of God to make the most perfect self-limitation. 4. In the sovereignty of God, as a prerogative absolutely optional in its exercise. 5. In the holiness of God, which involves immutable limitations on his part in dealing with moral agents. Nothing but some absolute impossibility, metaphysical or moral, could have prevented him ‘whose nature and whose name is love’ from decreeing and securing the confirmation of all moral agents in holiness and blessedness forever.” (g) The decree of election implies a decree of reprobation. Answer: The decree of reprobation is not a positive decree like that of election but a permissive decree to leave the sinner to his self-chosen rebellion and its natural consequences of punishment.

Election and sovereignty are only sources of good. Election is not a decree to destroy; it is a decree only to save. When we elect a President we do not need to hold a second election to determine that the remaining millions shall be non-Presidents. It is needless to apply contrivance or force.

Sinners, if simply let alone will, like water, run down hill to ruin. The decree of reprobation is simply a decree to do nothing — a decree to leave the sinner to himself. The natural result of this judicial forsaking, on the part of God, is the hardening and destruction of the sinner. But it must not be forgotten that this hardening and destruction are not due to any positive efficiency of God, they are a self-hardening and a self-destruction and God’s judicial forsaking is only the just penalty of the sinner’s guilty rejection of offered mercy.

See Hosea 11:8 — “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?...my heart is turned within me, my compassions are kindled together”; 4:17 — “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone”; Romans 9:22,23 — “What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory” — here notice that “which he afore prepared” declares a positive divine efficiency, in the case of the vessels of mercy, while “fitted unto destruction” intimates no such positive agency of God, the vessels of wrath fitted themselves for destruction; 2 Timothy 2:20 — “vessels...some unto honor, and some unto dishonor”; 1 Peter 2:8 — “they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed”; Jude 4 — “who were of old set forth [‘written of beforehand’ — Am. Rev.] unto this condemnation”; Matthew 25:34,41 — “the kingdom prepared for you...the eternal fire which is prepared [not for you nor for men, but] for the devil and his angels” = there is an election to life, but no reprobation to death; a “book of life “(Revelations 21:27), but no book of death.

E. G. Robinson, Christian Theology, 313 — “Reprobation, in the sense of absolute predestination to sin and eternal damnation, is neither a sequence of the doctrine of election, nor the teaching of the Scriptures.” Men are not “appointed” to disobedience and stumbling in the same way that they are “appointed” to salvation. God uses positive means to save, but not to destroy. Henry Ward Beecher: “The elect are whosoever will, the nonelect are whosoever won’t” George A. Gordon, New Epoch for Faith, — “Election understood would have been the saving strength of Israel; election misunderstood was its ruin. The nation felt that the election of it meant the rejection of other nations. The Christian church has repeated Israel’s mistake.”

The Westminster Confession reads: “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life and others to everlasting death. These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.” This reads as if both the saved and the lost were made originally for their respective final estates without respect to character. It is Supralapsarianism. It is certain that the Supralapsarians were in the majority in the Westminster Assembly and that they determined the form of the statement, although there were many Supralapsarians who objected that it was only on account of their foreseen wickedness that any were reprobated. In its later short statement of doctrine the Presbyterian body in America has made it plain that God’s decree of reprobation is a permissive decree and that it places no barrier in the way of any man’s salvation.

On the general subject of Election, see Mozley, Predestination; Payne, Divine Sovereignty; Ridgeley, Works, 1:261-324, esp. 322; Edwards, Works, 2:527 sq .; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 446-458; Martensen, Dogmatics, 362-382; and especially Wardlaw, Systematic Theology, 485- 549; H. B. Smith, Syst. of Christian Theology, 502-514; Maule, Outlines of Christian Doctrine, 36-56; Peck, in Bapt. Quar. Rev., Oct. 1891:689- 706. On objections to election, and Spurgeon’s answers to them, see Williams, Reminiscences of Spurgeon, 189. On the homiletical uses of the doctrine of election, see Bibliotheca Sacra, Jan. 1893:79-92.

II. CALLING.

Calling is that act of God by which men are invited to accept, by faith, the salvation provided by Christ. The Scriptures distinguish between (a) The general or external call to all men through God’s providence, word and Spirit. Isaiah 45:22 — “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else”; 55:6 — “Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near”; 65:12 — “when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but ye did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not”; Exodus 33:11 — “As I live saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Matthew 11:28 — “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; 22:3 — “sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come”; Mark 16:15 — “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation”; John 12:32 — “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself” — draw, not drag; Revelations 3:20 — “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door; I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (b) The special, efficacious call of the Holy Spirit to the elect. Luke 14:23 — “Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may he filled” Romans 1:17 — “to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”; 3:30 — “whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified”; 11:29 — “For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of”; 1 Corinthians 1:23,24 — “but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumbling block, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God”; 26 — “For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called”; Philippians 3:14 — “I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high [margin ‘upward’] calling of God in Christ Jesus”; Ephesians 1:18 — “that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”; 1Thess. 2:12 — “to the end that ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory”; 2Thess. 2:14 — “whereunto he called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”; Timothy 1:9 — “who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal”; Hebrews 3:1 — “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling”; 2 Peter 1:10 — “Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure.”

Two questions only need special consideration:

A. Is God’s general call sincere?

This is denied, upon the ground that such sincerity is incompatible, first, with the inability of the sinner to obey and secondly, with the design of God to bestow only upon the elect the special grace without which they will not obey. (a) To the first objection we reply that, since this inability is not a physical but a moral inability, consisting simply in the settled perversity of an evil will, there can be no insincerity in offering salvation to all, especially when the offer is in itself a proper motive to obedience.

God’s call to all men to repent and to believe the gospel is no more insincere than his command to all men to love him with all the heart.

There is no obstacle in the way of men’s obedience to the gospel that does not exist to prevent their obedience to the law. If it is proper to publish the commands of the law, it is proper to publish the invitations of the gospel.

A human being may be perfectly sincere in giving an invitation which he knows will be refused. He may desire to have the invitation accepted, while yet he may, for certain reasons of justice or personal dignity, be unwilling to put forth special efforts, aside from the invitation itself, to secure the acceptance of it on the part of those to whom it is offered. So God’s desires that certain men should be saved may not be accompanied by his will to exert special influences to save them.

These desires were meant by the phrase “revealed will” in the old theologians, his purpose to bestow special grace, by the phrase “secret will.” It is of the former that Paul speaks, in 1 Timothy 2:4 — “who would have all men to be saved.” Here we have, not the active sw~sai , but the passive swqh~nai . The meaning is, not that God purposes to save all men but that he desires all men to be saved through repenting and believing the gospel. Hence God’s revealed will, or desire, that all men should be saved, is perfectly consistent with his secret will or purpose and to bestow special grace only upon a certain number (see, on Timothy 2:4, Fairbairn’s Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles).

The sincerity of God’s call is shown, not only in the fact that the only obstacle to compliance on the sinner’s part is the sinner’s own evil will but also in the fact that God has, at infinite cost, made a complete external provision upon the ground of which “he that will” may “come” and “take the water of life freely” ( Revelations 22:17); so that God can truly say: “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” ( Isaiah 5:4). Broadus, Com. on Matthew 6:10 — “Thy will be done” — distinguishes between God’s will of purpose, of desire, and of command. H. B. Smith, Systematic Theology, 521 — “Common grace passes over into effectual grace in proportion as the sinner yields to the divine influence. Effectual grace is that which effects what common grace tends to effect.” See also Studien und Kritiken, 1857:7 sq. (b) To the second, we reply that the objection, if true, would equally hold against God’s foreknowledge. The sincerity of God’s general call is no more inconsistent with his determination that some shall be permitted to reject it, than it is with foreknowledge that some will reject it.

Hodge. Systematic Theology, 2:643 — “Predestination concerns only the purpose of God to render effectual, in particular cases a call addressed to all. A sovereign may offer general amnesty on certain conditions to rebellious subjects. Although he knows that through pride or malice many will refuse to accept it and even though, for wise reasons, he should determine nor to constrain their assent, supposing that such influence over their minds were within his power. It is evident, from the nature of the call, that it has nothing to do with the secret purpose of God to grant his effectual grace to some and not to others. According to the Augustinian scheme, the non-elect have all the advantages and opportunities of securing their salvation, which, according to any other scheme, are granted to mankind indiscriminately. God designed, in its adoption, to save his own people but he consistently offers its benefits to all who are willing to receive them.” See also H. B. Smith, System of Christian Theology, 515-521.

B. Is God’s special call irresistible?

We prefer to say that this special call is efficacious, that is, that it infallibly accomplishes its purpose of leading the sinner to the acceptance of salvation. This implies two things: (a) That the operation of’ God is not an outward constraint upon the human will but that it accords with the laws of our mental constitution. We reject the term ‘irresistible,’ as implying a coercion and compulsion, which is foreign to the nature of God’s working in the soul. <19B003> Psalm 110:3 — “Thy people are freewill-offerings In the day of thy power: in holy array, Out of the womb of the morning of thy youth” — i. e., youthful recruits to thy standard, as numberless and as bright as the drops of morning dew; Philippians 2:12,13 — “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure” — i . e., the result of God’s working is our own working. The Lutheran Formula of Concord properly condemns the view that before, in and after conversion, the will only resists the Holy Spirit, for this, it declares, is the very nature of conversion that out of the non-willing, God makes willing persons (F. C., 60, 581, 582, 673). Hosea 4:16 — “Israel hath behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer,” or “or as a heifer that slideth back” = when the sacrificial offering is brought forward to be slain, it holds back, settling on its haunches so that it has to be pushed and forced before it can be brought to the altar. These are not “the sacrifices of God” which are “a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart” ( Psalm 51:17). E. H.

Johnson, Theology, 2d ed., 250 — “The N. T. nowhere declares, or even intimates...that the general call of the holy Spirit is insufficient. And furthermore it never states that the efficient call is irresistible.

Psychologically, to speak of irresistible influence upon the faculty of selfdetermination in man is express contradiction in terms. No harm can come from acknowledging that we do not know God’s unrevealed reasons for electing one individual rather than another to eternal life.” Dr. Johnson goes on to argue that if, without disparagement to grace, faith can be a condition of justification and faith might also be a condition of election.

Inasmuch as salvation is received as a gift only on condition of faith exercised, it is in purpose a gift, even if only on condition of faith foreseen. This seems to us to ignore the abundant Scripture testimony that faith itself is God’s gift, and therefore the initiative must be wholly with God. (b) That the operation of God is the originating cause of that new disposition of the affections, and that new activity of the will, by which the sinner accepts Christ. The cause is not in the response of the will to the presentation by God of motives nor is it in any mere cooperation of the will of man with the will of God. It is an almighty act of God in the will of man, by which its freedom to choose God as its end is restored and rightly exercised ( John 1:12,13). For further discussion of the subject, see, in the next section, the remarks on Regeneration, with which this efficacious call is identical. John 1:12,13 — “But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God.” God’s saving grace and effectual calling are irresistible, not in the sense that they are never resisted, but in the sense that they are never successfully resisted. See Andrew Fuller, Works, 2:373, 513, and 3:807; Gill, Body of Divinity, 2:121-130: Robert Hall, Works, 3:75.

Matheson, Moments on the Mount. 128, 129 — “Thy love to Him is to his love to thee what the sunlight on the sea is to the sunshine in the sky — a reflex, a mirror, a diffusion; thou art giving back the glory that has been cast upon the waters. In the attraction of thy life to him, in the cleaving of thy heart to him, in the soaring of thy spirit to him, thou art told that he is near thee, thou hearest the beating of his pulse for thee.”

Upton, Hibbert Lectures, 302 — “In regard to our reason and to the essence of our ideals, there is no real dualism between man and God but in the case of the will which constitutes the essence of each man’s individuality, there is a real dualism. Therefore, a possible antagonism between the will of the dependent spirit, man and the will of the absolute and universal spirit, God exists. Such real duality of will, and not the appearance of duality, as F. H. Bradley put it, is the essential condition of ethics and religion.”

SECTION 2. — THE APPLICATTON OF CHRIST’S REDEMPTION IN ITS ACTUAL BEGINNING.

Under this head we treat of Union with Christ, Regeneration, Conversion (embracing Repentance and Faith), and Justification. Much confusion and error have arisen from conceiving these as occurring in chronological order. The order is logical, not chronological. As it is only “in Christ” that man is “anew creature” ( 2 Corinthians 5:17) or is “justified” ( Acts 13:39). Union with Christ logically precedes both regeneration and justification and yet, chronologically, the moment of our union with Christ is also the moment when we are regenerated and justified. So, too, regeneration and conversion are but the divine and human sides or aspects of the same fact, although regeneration has logical precedence and man turns only as God turns him.

Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 3:694 (Syst. Poet., 4:159), gives at this point an account of the work of the Holy Spirit in general. The Holy Spirit’s work, he says, presupposes the historical work of Christ and prepares the way for Christ’s return. “As the Holy Spirit is the principle of union between the Father and the Son, so he is the principle of union between God and man. Only through the Holy Spirit does Christ secure for himself those who will love him as distinct and free personalities.” Regeneration and conversion are not chronologically separate. Which of the spokes of a wheel starts first. The ray of light and the ray of heat enter at the same moment. Sensation and perception are not separated in time, although the former is the cause of the latter. “Suppose a non-elastic tube extending across the Atlantic. Suppose that the tube is completely filled with an incompressible fluid. Then there would be no interval of time between the impulse given to the fluid at this end of the tube and the effect upon the fluid at the other end.” See Hazard, Causation and Freedom in Willing, 33-38, who argues that cause and effect are always simultaneous else, in the intervening time, there would be a cause that had no effect, that is, a cause that caused nothing, that is, a cause that was not a cause. “A potential cause may exist for an unlimited period without producing any effect and, of course, may precede its effect by any length of time. But actual, effective cause being the exercise of a sufficient power, its effect cannot be delayed for, in that case, there would be the exercise of a sufficient power to produce the effect, without producing it, involving the absurdity of its being both sufficient and insufficient at the same time. “A difficulty may here be suggested in regard to the flow or progress of events in time, if they are all simultaneous with their causes. This difficulty cannot arise as intelligent effort; periods of non-action may continually intervene. If there are series of events and material phenomena, each of which is in turn effect and cause, it may be difficult to see how any time could elapse between the first and the last of the series. If, however, as I suppose, these series of events, or material changes, are always effected through the medium of motion, it need not trouble us. There is precisely the same difficulty in regard to our conception of the motion of matter from point to point, there being no space or length between any two consecutive points, and yet the body in motion gets from one end of a long line to the other. In this case this difficulty just neutralizes the other. So, even if we cannot conceive how motion involves the idea of time, we may perceive that, if it does so, it may be a means of conveying events, which depend upon it through time also.”

Martineau, Study, 1:148-150 — “Simultaneity does not exclude duration” since each cause has duration and each effect has duration also Bowne, Metaphysics, 106 — “In the system, the complete ground of an event never lies in any one thing but only in a complex of things. If a single thing were the sufficient ground of an effect, the effect would coexist with the thing, and all effects would be instantaneously given. Hence all events in the system must be viewed as the result of the interaction of two or more things.”

The first manifestation of life in an infant may be in the lungs or heart or brain, but that which makes any and all of these manifestations possible is the antecedent life. We may not be able to tell which comes first but having the life we have all the rest. When the wheel goes, all the spokes will go. The soul that is born again will show it in faith and hope and love and holy living. Regeneration will involve repentance and faith and justification and sanctification. But the one life which makes regeneration and all these consequent blessings possible is the life of Christ who join himself to us in order that we may join ourselves to him. Anne Reeve Aldrich, The Meaning: “I lost my life in losing love. This blurred my spring and killed its dove. Along my path the dying roses Fell, and disclosed the thorns thereof. I found my life in finding God. In ecstasy I kiss the rod; For who that wins the goal, but lightly Thinks of the thorns whereon he trod?”

See A. A. Hodge, on the Ordo Salutis, in Princeton Rev., March, 1888:304-321. “Union with Christ,” says Dr. Hodge, “is effected by the Holy Ghost in effectual calling. Of this calling the parts are two: (a) the offering of Christ to the sinner, externally by the gospel and internally by the illumination of the Holy Ghost. (b) On our part the reception of Christ is both passive and active. The passive reception is that whereby a spiritual principle is ingenerated into the human will, whence issues the active reception, which is an act of faith with which repentance is always conjoined. The communion of benefits, which results from this union, involves a change of state or relation, called justification and a change of subjective moral character, commenced in regeneration and completed through sanctification.” See also Dr. Hodge’s Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, 340, and Outlines of Theology, 333-429.

H. B. Smith, however, in his System of Christian Theology, is clearer in the putting of Union with Christ before Regeneration. On page 502, he begins his treatment of the Application of Redemption with the title: “The Union between Christ and the individual believer as effected by the Holy Spirit. This embraces the subjects of Justification, Regeneration and Sanctification. In the underlying topic of which comes first, Election is to be considered.” He therefore treats Union with Christ (531-539) before Regeneration (553-569). He says Calvin defines regeneration as coming to us by participation in Christ and apparently agrees with this view (559). “This union [with Christ] is at the ground of regeneration and justification” (534). “The great difference of theological systems comes out here. Since Christianity is redemption through Christ, our mode of conceiving that will determine the character of our whole theological system” (536). “The union with Christ is mediated by his Spirit, whence we are both renewed and justified. The great fact of objective Christianity is incarnation in order to atonement; the great fact of subjective Christianity is union with Christ, whereby we receive the atonement” (537). We may add that this union with Christ, in view of which God elects and to which God calls the sinner, is begun in regeneration, completed in conversion, declared in justification and proved in sanctification and perseverance.

I. UNION WITH CHRIST.

The Scriptures declare that, through the operation of God, there is constituted a union of the soul with Christ different in kind from God’s natural and providential concursus with all spirits, as well as from all unions of mere association or sympathy, moral likeness, or moral influence.

A union of life, in which the human spirit, while then most truly possessing its own individuality and personal distinctness, is interpenetrated and energized by the Spirit of Christ. It is made inscrutably but indestructibly one with him and so becomes a member and partaker of that regenerated, believing, and justified humanity of which he is the head.

Union with Christ is not union with a system of doctrine nor with external religious influences nor with an organized church nor with an ideal man, but rather, with a personal, risen, living, omnipresent Lord (J. W. A.

Stewart). Dr. J. W. Alexander well calls this doctrine of the Union of the Believer with Christ “the central truth of all theology and of all religion.”

Yet it receives little of formal recognition, either in dogmatic treatises or in common religious experience. Quenstedt, 886-912, has devoted a section to it; A. A. Hodge gives to it a chapter, in his Outlines of Theology, 369 sq ., to which we are indebted for valuable suggestions. H.

B. Smith treats of it, not however, as a separate topic but under the head of Justification (System, 531-539).

The majority of printed systems of doctrine, however, contain no chapter or section on Union within Christ and the majority of Christians much more frequently think of Christ as a Savior outside of them than as a Savior who dwells within. This comparative neglect of the doctrine is doubtless a reaction from the exaggerations of a false mysticism. But there is great need of rescuing the doctrine from neglect. For this we rely wholly upon Scripture. Doctrines, which reason can neither discover nor prove, need large support from the Bible. It is a mark of divine wisdom that the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, is so inwoven with the whole fabric of the New Testament, that the rejection of the former is the virtual rejection of the latter. The doctrine of Union within Christ, in like manner, is taught so variously and abundantly, that to deny it is to deny inspiration itself. See Kahnis, Luth. Dogmatik-, 3:447-450. 1. Scripture Representations of this Union.

A. Figurative teaching. It is illustrated: (a) From the union of a building and its foundation. Ephesians 2:#22 20:22 — “being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”; Colossians 2:7 — “builded up in him” — grounded in Christ as our foundation; 1 Peter 2:4,5 — “unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house” — each living stone in the Christian temple is kept in proper relation to every other, and is made to do its part in furnishing a habitation for God, only by being built upon and permanently connected with Christ, the chief corner-stone. Cf. <19B822> Psalm 118:22 — “The stone, which the builders rejected, is become the head of the corner”; Isaiah 28:16 — “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not be in haste.” (b) From the union between husband and wife. Romans 7:4 — “ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God” — here union with Christ is illustrated by the indestructible bond that connects husband and wife and makes them legally and organically one; 2 Corinthians 11:2 — “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ”; Ephesians 5:31,32 — “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.”

Meyer refers (verse 31) wholly to Christ, and says that Christ leaves father and mother (the right hand of God) and is joined to the church as his wife, the two constituting thenceforth one moral person. He makes the union future, however, — “For this cause shalt a man leave his father and mother” — the consummation is at Christ’s second coming. But the Fathers, as Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Jerome, referred it more properly to the incarnation. Revelation 19:7 — “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”; 17 — “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”; cf. Isaiah 54:5 — “For thy Maker is thine husband”; Jeremiah 3:20 — “Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah”; Hosea 2:2-5 — “for their mother hath played the harlot” — departure from God is adultery. The Song of Solomon, as Jewish interpreters have always maintained, is an allegorical poem describing, under the figure of marriage, the union between Jehovah and his people.

Paul only adopts the Old Testament figure and applies it more precisely to the union of God with the church in Jesus Christ. (c) From the union between the vine and its branches. John 15:1-10 — “I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.” As God’s natural life is in the vine, that it may give life to its natural branches, so God’s spiritual life is in the vine, Christ, that he may give life to his spiritual branches. The roots of this new vine are planted in heaven, not on earth, and into it the half-withered branches of the old humanity are to be grafted, that they may have life divine. Yet our Lord does not say “I am the root.” The branch is not something outside , which has to get nourishment out of the root but rather, it is a part of the vine. Romans 6:5 — “if we have become united with him [su>mfutoi — ‘grown together’ — used of the man and horse in the Centaur, Xen., Cyrop. 4:3:18], in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection”; 11:24 — “thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree”; Colossians 2:6,7 — “As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and builded up in him” — not only grounded in Christ as our foundation, but thrusting down roots into him as the deep, rich, all-sustaining soil. This union with Christ is consistent with individuality, for the graft brings forth fruit after its kind, though modified by the tree into which it is grafted.

Bishop H. W. Warren, in S. S. Tunes, Oct. 17, 1891 — “The lessons of the vine are intimacy, likeness of nature, continuous impartation of life, fruit. Between friends there is intimacy by means of media, such as food, presents, care, words and soul looking from the eyes. The mother gives her liquid flesh to the babe, but such intimacy soon ceases. The mother is not rich enough in life continuously to feed the ever-enlarging nature of the growing man. This is not so within the vine, which continuously feeds.

Its rivers crowd all the banks. They burst out in leaf with blossom, clinging tendrils and fruit everywhere. In nature a thorn grafted on a pear tree bears only thorn. There is not pear-life enough to compel change of its nature. But a wild olive, typical of depraved nature, grafted on a good olive tree finds, contrary to nature, that there is force enough in the growing stock to change the nature of the wild scion.” (d) From the union between the members and the head of the body. 1 Corinthians 6:15,19 — “Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ?...know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?” 12:12 — “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ” — here Christ is identified with the church of which he is the head; Ephesians 1:22,23 — “he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” — as the members of the human body are united to the head, the source of their activity and the power that controls their movements, so all believers are members of an invisible body whose head is Christ. Shall we tie a string round the finger to keep for it its own blood? No, for all the blood of the body is needed to nourish one finger. So Christ is “head over a things to [for the benefit of] the church” (Tyler, Theol. Greek Poets, preface, ii). “The church is the fullness plh>rwma of Christ. As it was not good for the first man, Adam, to be alone, no more was it good for the second man, Christ” (C. H. M.). Ephesians 4:15,16 — “grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; from whom all the body...maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love”; 5:29, 30 — “for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherish it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body.” (e) From the union of the race with the source of its life in Adam. Romans 5:12,21 — “as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin...that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”; 1 Corinthians 15:22,45,49 — “as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive...The first man Adam became a living soul.

The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” As the whole race is one with the first man Adam, in whom it fell and from whom it has derived a corrupted and guilty nature, so the whole race of believers constitutes a new and restored humanity, whose justified and purified nature is derived from Christ, the second Adam. Cf. Gen. 2:23 — “This is now bone of my hones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” C. H. M. remarks here that, as man is first created and then woman is viewed in and formed out of him, so it is with Christ and the church. “We are members of Christ’s body, because in Christ we have the principle of our origin; from him our life arose, just as the life of Eve was derived from Adam. The church is Christ’s helpmeet, formed out of Christ in his deep sleep of death, as Eve out of Adam. The church will be nearest to Christ, as Eve was to Adam.”

Because Christ is the source of all spiritual life for his people, he is called, in Isaiah 9:6, “Everlasting Father,” and it is said, in Isaiah 53:10, that “he shall see his seed” (see page 680).

B. Direct statements. (a) The believer is said to be in Christ.

Lest we should regard the figures mentioned above as merely Oriental metaphors, the fact of the believer’s union with Christ is asserted in the most direct and prosaic manner. John 14:20 — “ye in me”; Romans 6:11 — “alive unto God in Christ Jesus”; 8:1 — “no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus”; 2 Corinthians 5:17 — “if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature”; Ephesians 1:4 — “chose us in him before the foundation of the world”; 2:13 — “now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.” Thus the believer is said to be “in Christ” as the element or atmosphere, which surrounds him with its perpetual presence and which constitutes his vital breath. In fact, this phrase “in Christ” is always meaning “in union with Christ,” is the very key to Paul’s epistles and to the whole New Testament. The fact that the believer is in Christ is symbolized in baptism — we are “baptized into Christ” ( Galatians 3:27). (b) Christ is said to be in the believer. John 14:20 “I in you”; Romans 8:9 — “are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” That this Spirit of Christ is Christ himself, is shown from verse 10 — “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness”; Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” Christ is said here to be in the believer, and so to live his life within the believer, that the latter can point to this as the dominating fact of his experience. It is not so much that he lives, as it is Christ that lives in him. The fact that Christ is in the believer is symbol in the Lord’s supper. “The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? ( 1 Corinthians 10:16). (c) The Father and the Son dwell in the believer. John 14:23 — “If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”; Cf. 10 — “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works.” The Father and the Son dwell in the believer, for where the Son is, there always the Father must be also.

If the union between the believer and Christ in John 14:23 is to be interpreted as one of mere moral influence, then the union of Christ and the Father in John 14:10 must also be interpreted as a union of mere moral influence. Ephesians 3:17 — “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”; 1 John 4:16 — “he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.” (d) The believer has life by partaking of Christ, as Christ has life by partaking of the Father. John 6:53,56,57 — “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves...He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me.” The believer has life by partaking of Christ in a way that may most inappropriately be compared with Christ’s having life by partaking of the Father. 1 Corinthians 10:16,17 — “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?

The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ?”

It is here intimated that the Lord’s Supper sets forth, in the language of symbol, the soul’s actual participation in the life of Christ; and the margin properly translates the word koinwni>a, not “communion,” but “participation.” Cf . 1 John 1:3 — “our fellowship koinwni>a is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Foster, Christian Life and Theology, 216 — “In John 6, the phrases call to mind the ancient form of sacrifice and the participation therein by the one who offers at the sacrificial meal — as at the Passover.” (e) All believers are one in Christ. John 17:21-23 — “that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one.” All believers are one in Christ, to whom they are severally and collectively united, as Christ himself is one with God. (f) The believer is made partaker of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4 — “that through these [promises] ye may become partakers of the divine nature.” Not by having the essence of your humanity changed into the essence of divinity, but by having Christ the divine Savior continually dwelling within and indestructibly joined to your human souls. (g) The believer is made one spirit with the Lord. 1 Corinthians 6:17 — “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”

Human nature is so interpenetrated and energized by the divine that the two move and act as one. cf. 19 — “know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?”; Romans 8:26 — “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.” The Spirit is so near to us, and so one with us that our prayer is called his, or rather, his prayer becomes ours. Weiss, in his Life of Jesus, says that, in the view of Scripture, human greatness does not consist in a man’s producing everything in a natural way out of himself, but in possessing perfect receptivity for God’s greatest gift. Therefore God’s Son receives the Spirit without measure and we may add that the believer in like manner receives Christ. 2. Nature of this Union.

We have here to do not only with a fact of life but with a unique relation between the finite and the infinite. Our descriptions must therefore be inadequate. Yet in many respects we know what this union is not; in certain respects we can positively characterize it.

It should not surprise us if we find it far more difficult to give a scientific definition of this union, than to determine the fact of its existence. It is a fact of life, with which we have to deal and the secret of life, ‘even in its lowest forms, no philosopher has ever vet discovered. The tiniest flower witnesses to two facts: first, that of its own relative independence, as an individual organism and secondly, that of its ultimate dependence upon a life and power not its own. So every human soul has its proper powers of intellect, affection, and will and yet it lives, moves and has its being in God ( Acts 17:28).

Starting out from the truth of God’s omnipresence, it might seem as if God’s indwelling in the granite boulder was the last limit of his union with the finite. But we see the divine intelligence and goodness drawing nearer to us, by successive stages, in vegetable life, in the animal creation and in the moral nature of man. And yet there are two stages beyond all these: first, in Christ’s union with the believer and secondly, in God’s union with Christ. If this union of God with the believer be only one of several approximations of God to his finite creation, the fact that it is, equally with the others, not wholly comprehensible to reason, should not blind us either to its truth or to its importance.

It is easier today than at any other previous period of history to believe in the union of the believer with Christ. That God is immanent in the universe, and that there is a divine element in man, is familiar to our generation. All men are naturally one with Christ, the immanent God, and this natural union prepares the way for that spiritual union in which Christ joins himself to our faith. Campbell, The Indwelling Christ, 131 — “In the immanence of Christ in nature we find the ground of his immanence in human nature. A man may be out of Christ but Christ is never out of him. Those who banish him he does not abandon.” John Caird, Fund. Ideas of Christianity, 2:233-256 — “God is united with nature, in the atoms, in the trees, in the planets. Science is seeing nature full of the life of God. God is united to man in body and soul; the beating of his heart and the voice of conscience witness to God within. God sleeps in the stone, dreams in the animal, wakes in man.”

A. Negatively. It is not: (a) A merely natural union, like that of God with all human spirits, as held by rationalists.

In our physical life we are conscious of another life within us which is not subject to our wills. The heart beats involuntarily, whether we sleep or wake but, in our spiritual life we are still more conscious of a life within our life. Even the heathen said: “Est Deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo,” and the Egyptians held to the identification of the departed with Osiris (Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 185). But Paul urges us to work out our salvation, upon the very ground that “it is God that worketh” in us, “both to will and to work, far be good pleasure” ( Philippians 2:12,13). This life of God in the soul is the life of Christ.

The movement of the electric car cannot be explained simply from the working of its own motor apparatus. The electric current throbbing through the wire and the dynamo, from which that energy proceeds are needed to explain the result. In like manner we need a spiritual Christ to explain the spiritual activity of the Christian. A. H. Strong, Sermon before the Baptist World Congress in London, 1905 — “We had in America some years ago a steam engine all whose working parts were made of glass. The steam came from without but being hot enough to move machinery. This steam was itself invisible and there was presented the curious spectacle of an engine, transparent, moving and doing important work, while yet no cause for this activity was perceptible. So the church, humanity and the universe are all in constant and progressive movement but the Christ who moves them is invisible. Faith comes to believe where it cannot see. It joins itself to this invisible Christ and knows him as its very life.” (b) A merely moral union, or union of love and sympathy, like that between teacher and scholar, friend and friend, as held by Socinians and Arminians.

There is a moral union between different souls: 1 Samuel 13:1 — “the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” The Vulgate here has: “Anima Jonathæ agglutinata Davidi.” Aristotle calls friends, “one soul.” So in a higher sense, in Acts 4:32, the early believers are said to have been “of one heart and soul.” But in John 17:21,26, Christ’s union with his people is distinguished from any mere union of love and sympathy: “that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also maybe in us; ...that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them.” Jesus’ aim, in the whole of his last discourse, is to show that no mere union of love and sympathy will be sufficient: “apart from me,” he says, “ye can do nothing” ( John 15:5). That his disciples may be vitally joined to himself, is therefore the subject of his last prayer.

Dorner says well, that Arminianism (and with this doctrine Roman Catholics and the advocates of New School views substantially agree) makes human a mere tangent to the circle of the divine nature. It has no idea of the inter-penetration of the one by the other. But the Lutheran Formula of Concord says much more correctly: “Damnamus sententiam quod non Deus ipse, sed dona Dei duntaxat, in credentibus habitent.”

Ritschl presents to us a historical Christ and Pfleiderer presents to us an ideal Christ, but neither one gives us the living Christ who is the present spiritual life of the believer. Wendt, in his Teaching of Jesus, 2:310, comes equally far short of a serious interpretation of our Lord’s promise, when he says: “This union to his person, as to its contents, is nothing else than adherence to the message of the kingdom of God brought by him.” It is not enough for me to be merely in touch with Christ. He must come to be “not so far as even to be near.” Tennyson, The Higher Pantheism: “Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet.” William Watson, The Unknown God: “Yea, in my flesh his Spirit doth flow, Too near, too far, for me to know.” (c) A union of essence, which destroys the distinct personality and subsistence of either Christ or the human spirit, as held by many of the mystics.

Many of the mystics, as Schwenkfeld, Weigel, Sebastian Frank, held to an essential union between Christ and the believer. One of Weigel’s followers, therefore, could say to another: “I am Christ Jesus, the living Word of God; I have redeemed thee by my sinless sufferings.” We are ever to remember that the indwelling of Christ only puts the believer more completely in possession of himself, and makes him more conscious of his own personality and power. Union with Christ must be taken in connection with the other truth of the personality and activity of the Christian otherwise it tends to pantheism. Martineau, Study, 2:190 — “In nature it is God’s immanent life, in morals it is God’s transcendent life, with which we commune.”

Angelus Silesius, a German philosophical poet (1624-1677), audaciously wrote: “I know God cannot live an instant without me; He must give up the ghost, if I should cease to be.” Lowde, a disciple of Malebranche, used the phrase “‘Godded’ with God, and ‘Christed’ with Christ,” and Jonathan Edwards, in his Religious Affections, quotes it with disapprobation, saying that “the saints do not become actually partakers of the divine essence, as would be inferred from this abominable and blasphemous language of heretics” (Allen, Jonathan Edwards, 224). “Self is not a mode of the divine: it is a principle of isolation. In order to religion, I must have a will to surrender...’wills are ours, to make them thine.’ Though the self is, in knowledge, a principle of unification; in existence, or metaphysically, it is a principle of isolation” (Seth).

Inge, Christian 24 mysticism, 30 — “Some of the mystics went astray by teaching a real substitution of the divine for human nature, thus depersonalizing man — a fatal mistake, for without human personality we cannot conceive of divine personality.” Lyman Abbott: “in Christ, God and man are united, not as the river is united with the sea, losing its personality therein, but as the child is united with the father or the wife with the husband whose personality and individuality are strengthened and increased by the union.” Here Dr. Abbott’s view comes as far short of the truth as that of the mystics go beyond the truth. As we shall see, the union of the believer with Christ is a vital union, surpassing in its intimacy any union of souls that we know. The union of child with father, or of wife with husband, is only a pointer, which hints very imperfectly at the interpenetrating and energizing of the human spirit by the divine. (d) A union mediated and conditioned by participation of the sacraments of the church, as held by Romanists, Lutherans, and High-Church Episcopalians.

Perhaps the most pernicious misinterpretation of the nature of this union is that which conceives of it as a physical and material one and which rears upon this basis the fabric of a sacramental and external Christianity.

It is sufficient here to say that this union cannot be mediated by sacraments, since sacraments presuppose it as already existing; both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are designed only for believers. Only faith receives and retains Christ and faith is the act of the soul grasping what is purely invisible and supersensible, not the act of the body submitting to Baptism or partaking of the Supper.

William Lincoln: “The only way for the believer, if he wants to go rightly, is to remember that truth is always two-sided. If there is any truth that the Holy Spirit has specially pressed upon your heart, if you do not want to push it to the extreme, ask what is the counter-truth, and lean a little of your weight upon that. Otherwise, if you bear so very much on one side of the truth, there is a danger of pushing it into a heresy. Heresy means selected truth; it does not mean error. Heresy and error are very different things. Heresy is truth, but truth pushed into undue importance to the disparagement of the truth upon the other side” Heresy ai[resiv = an act of choice, the picking and choosing of a part, instead of comprehensively embracing the whole of truth. Sacramentarians substitute the symbol for the thing symbolized.

B. Positively, It is: (a) An organic union, in which we become members of Christ and partakers of his humanity.

Kant defines an organism, as that whose parts are reciprocally means and end. The body is an organism. Since the limbs exist for the heart and the heart for the limbs, so each member of Christ’s body lives for him who is the head and Christ, the head, equally lives for his members. Ephesians 5:29,30 — “no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church because we are members of his body.” The train-dispatcher is a symbol of the concentration of energy, the switchmen and conductors who receive his orders are symbols of the localization of force but it is all one organic system. (b) A vital union, in which Christ’s life becomes the dominating principle within us.

This union is a vital one, in distinction from any union of mere juxtaposition or external influence. Christ does not work upon us from without, as one separated from us, but from within, as the very heart from which the life-blood of our spirits flows. See Galatians 2:20 — “it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me;” Colossians 3:3,4 — “For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.”

Christ’s life is not corrupted by the corruption of his members, any more than the ray of light is defiled by the filth with which it comes in contact.

We may be unconscious of this union with Christ as we often are of the circulation of the blood, yet it may be the very source and condition of our life. (c) A spiritual union, that is, a union whose source and author is the Holy Spirit.

By a spiritual union we mean a union not of body but of spirit, a union, therefore, which only the Holy Spirit originates and maintains. Romans 8:9,10 — “ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.” The indwelling of Christ involves a continual exercise of efficient power. In Ephesians 3:16,17 — “strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man” is immediately followed by “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” (d) An indestructible union, that is, a union which, consistently with Christ’s promise and grace, can never be dissolved. Matthew 28:20 — “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”; John 10:28 — “they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand”; Romans 8:35,39 — “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”; 1 Thess. 4:14, 17 — “them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him...then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Christ’s omnipresence makes it possible for him to be united to, and to be present in, each believer, as perfectly and fully as if that believer were the only one to receive Christ’s fullness. As Christ’s omnipresence makes the whole Christ present in every place, each believer has the whole Christ with him, as his source of strength, purity, life so that each may say that Christ gives all his time and wisdom and care to me. Such a union as this lacks every element of instability. Once formed, the union is indissoluble.

Many of the ties of earth are rudely broken but not so with our union with Christ because that endures forever.

Since there is now an unchangeable and divine element in us, our salvation depends no longer upon our unstable wills but upon Christ’s purpose and power. By temporary declension from duty, or by our causeless unbelief, we may banish Christ to the barest and most remote room of the soul’s house but he does not suffer us wholly to exclude him.

When we are willing to unbar the doors, he is still there, ready to fill the whole mansion with his light and love. (e) An inscrutable union, mystical, however, only in the sense of surpassing in its intimacy and value any other union of souls which we know.

This union is inscrutable, indeed but it is not mystical, in the sense of being unintelligible to the Christian or beyond the reach of his experience.

If we call it mystical at all, it should be only because, in the intimacy of its communion and in the transforming power of its influence, it surpasses any other union of souls that we know and so cannot be fully described or understood by earthly analogies. Ephesians 5:32 — “This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church”; Colossians 1:27 — “the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

See Diman, Theistic Argument, 380 — “As physical science has brought us to the conclusion that back of all the phenomena of the material universe there lies an invisible universe of forces and that these forces may ultimately be reduced to one all-pervading force in which the unity of the physical universe consists and philosophy has advanced the rational conjecture that this ultimate all-pervading force is simply will-force. The great Teacher holds up to us the spiritual universe as pervaded by one omnipotent life — a life which was revealed in him as its highest manifestation, but which is shared by all of whom, by faith become partakers of his nature. He was Son of God; they too had power to become sons of God. The incarnation is wholly within the natural course and tendency of things. It was prepared for and it came in the fullness of time. Christ’s life is not something sporadic and individual, baying its source in the personal conviction of each disciple, it implies a real connection with Christ, the head. Behind all nature there is one force, behind all varieties of Christian life and character there is one spiritual power. All nature is not inert matter, it is pervaded by a living presence.

So all the body of believers live by virtue of the all-working Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost.” An epitaph at Silton, in Dorsetshire, reads: “Here lies a piece of Christ — a star in dust, A vein of gold, a china dish, that must Be used in heaven when God shall feed the just.”

A.H. Strong, in Examiner, 1880 — “Such is the nature of union with Christ, such I mean, is the nature of every believer’s union with Christ.

For, whether he knows it or not, every Christian has entered into just such a partnership as this. It is this and this only which constitutes him a Christian, and which makes possible a Christian church. We may, indeed, be thus united to Christ, without being fully conscious of the real nature of our relation to him. We may actually possess the kernel, while as yet we have regard only to the shell; we may seem to ourselves to be united to Christ only by an external bond, while after all it is an inward and spiritual bond that makes us his. God often reveals to the Christian the mystery of the gospel, which is Christ in him the hope of glory, at the very time that he is seeking only some nearer access to a Redeemer outside of him. Trying to find a union of cooperation or of sympathy, he is amazed to learn that there is already established a union with Christ more glorious and blessed, namely, a union of life. Like the miners in the Rocky Mountains, while he is looking only for silver, he finds gold. Christ and the believer have the same life. They are not separate persons linked together by some temporary bond of friendship. They are united with a tie, which is as close and as indestructible, as having the same blood running through their veins. Yet the Christian may never have suspected how intimate a union he has with his Savior and the first understanding of this truth may be the gateway through which he passes into a holier and happier stage of the Christian life.”

So the Way leads, through the Truth, to the Life ( John 14: 6).

Apprehension of an external Savior prepares for the reception and experience of the internal Savior. Christ is first the Door of the sheep, but in him, after they have once entered in, they find pasture ( John 10:7-9). On the nature of this union, see H. B. Smith, System of Christian Theology, 531-539; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 601; Wilberforce, Incarnation, 208-272, and New Birth of Man’s Nature, 1-30. Per contra, see Park, Discourses, 117-136. 3. Consequences of this Union as respects the Believer.

We have seen that Christ’s union with humanity, at the incarnation, involved him in all the legal liabilities of the race to which he united himself. This union enabled him so to assume the penalty of its sin as to make for all men a full satisfaction to the divine justice, and to remove all external obstacles to man’s return to God. An internal obstacle, however, still remains — the evil affections and will, and the consequent guilt, of the individual soul. This last obstacle also Christ removes, in the case of all his people, by uniting himself to them in a closer and more perfect manner than that in which he is united to humanity at large. As Christ’s union with the race secures the objective reconciliation of the race to God, so Christ’s union with believers secures the subjective reconciliation of believers to God.

In Baird, Elohim Revealed, 607-610, in Owen, on Justification, chap. 8, in Boston, Covenant of Grace, chap. 2, and in Dale, Atonement, 265-440, the union of the believer with Christ is made to explain the bearing of our sins by Christ. As we have seen in our discussion of the Atonement, however (page 759), this explains the cause by the effect and implies that Christ died only for the elect (see review of Dale, in Brit. Quar. Rev., Apr. 1876:221-225). It is not the union of Christ with the believer, but the union of Christ with humanity at large that explains his taking upon him human guilt and penalty.

Amnesty offered to a rebellious city may be complete, yet it may avail only for those who surrender. Pardon secured from a Governor, upon the ground of the services of an Advocate, may be effectual only when the convict accepts it, there is no hope for him when he tears up the pardon.

Dr. H. E. Robins: “The judicial declaration of acquittal on the ground of the death of Christ, which comes to all men ( Romans 5:13), and into the benefits of which they are introduced by natural birth, is inchoate justification. Inchoate justification will become perfected justification through the new birth of the Holy Spirit, unless the working of this divine agent is resisted by the personal moral action of those who are lost.” What Dr. Robins calls ‘ inchoate justification” we prefer to call “ideal justification” or “attainable justification.” Humanity in Christ is justified, and every member of the race who joins himself to Christ by faith participates in Christ’s justification. H. B. Dudley: “Adam’s sin holds us all down just as gravity holds all, while Christ s righteousness, though secured for all and accessible to all, involves an effort of will in climbing and grasping which not all will make.” Justification in Christ is the birthright of humanity but, in order to possess and enjoy it, each of us must claim and appropriate it by faith.

R. W. Dale, Fellowship with Christ,7 — “When we were created in Christ, the fortunes of the human race for good or evil became his. The Incarnation revealed and fulfilled the relations, which already existed between the Son of God and mankind. From the beginning Christ had entered into fellowship with us. When we sinned, he remained in fellowship with us still. Our miseries” [we would add: our guilt] “were his, by his own choice. His fellowship with us is the foundation of our fellowship with him. When I have discovered that by the very constitution of my nature I am to achieve perfection in the power of the life of Another, who is yet not Another but the very ground of my being. It ceases to be incredible to me that Another, who is yet not Another, should be the Atonement for my sin, and that his relation to God should determine mine.

A tract entitled “The Seven Togethers” sums up the Scripture testimony with regard to the Consequences of the believer’s Union with Christ: 1. Crucified together with Christ — Galatians 2:20 — sunestau>rwmai . 2. Died together with Christ — Colossians 2:20 — ajpeqa>nete . 3. Buried together with Christ — Romans 6:4 — suneta>fhmen. 4. Quickened together with Christ — Ephesians 2:5 — sunezwopoi>hsen . 5. Raised together with Christ — Colossians 3:1 — sunhge>rqhte 6. Sufferers together with Christ — Romans 8:17 — sumpa>scomen . 7. Glorified together with Christ — Romans 8:17 — sunoxasqw~men . Union with Christ results in common son-ship, relation to God, character, influence and destiny.

Imperfect apprehension of the believer’s union with Christ works to the great injury of Christian doctrine. An experience of union with Christ first enables us to understand the death of sin and separation from God, which has befallen the race sprung from the first Adam. The life and liberty of the children of God in Christ Jesus shows us by contrast how far astray we had gone. The vital and organic unity of the new race sprung from the second Adam reveals the depravity and disintegration, which we had inherited from our first father. We see that as there is one source of spiritual life in Christ, so there was one source of corrupt life in Adam.

As we are justified by reason of our oneness with the justified Christ, so we are condemned by reason of our oneness with the condemned Adam.

A. H. Strong, Christ in Creation, 175 — “If it is consistent with evolution that the physical and natural life of the race should be derived from a single source, it is then, equally consistent with evolution that the moral and spiritual life of the race should be derived from a single source.

Scripture is stating only scientific fact when it sets the second Adam, the head of redeemed humanity, over against the first Adam, the head of fallen humanity. We are told that evolution should give us many Christs.

We reply that evolution has not given us many Adams. Evolution, as it assigns to the natural head of the race a supreme and unique position, must be consistent with that of self and must assign a supreme and unique position to Jesus Christ, the spiritual head of the race. As there was but one Adam from whom all the natural life of the race was derived, so there can be but one Christ from whom all the spiritual life of the race is derived.”

The consequences of union with Christ may be summarily stated as follows: (a) Union with Christ involves a change in the dominant affection of the soul. Christ’s entrance into the soul makes it a new creature, in the sense that the ruling disposition, which before was sinful, now becomes holy.

This change we call Regeneration. Romans 8:2 — “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death”; 2 Corinthians 5:17 — “if any man is in Christ he is a new creature” (margin — “there is a new creation”); Galatians 1:15,16 — “it was the good pleasure of God...to reveal his Son in me”; Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” As we derive our old nature from the first man Adam, by birth, so we derive a new nature from the second man Christ, by the new birth. Union with Christ is the true “transfusion of blood.” “The death-struck sinner, like the wan, anemic, dying invalid, is saved by having poured into his veins the healthier blood of Christ” (Drummond, Nat. Law in the Spir. World). God regenerates the soul by uniting it to Jesus Christ.

In the Johnston Harvester Works at Batavia, when they paint their machinery, they do it by immersing part after part in a great tank of paint, so the painting is instantaneous and complete. Our baptism into Christ is the outward picture of an inward immersion of the soul not only into his love and fellowship but also into his very life, so that in him we become new creatures ( 2 Corinthians 5:17). As Miss Sullivan surrounded Helen Kellar with the influence of her strong personality, by intelligence and sympathy and determination striving to awaken the blind and dumb soul and give it light and love, so Jesus envelops us. But his Spirit is more encompassing and more penetrating than that of any human influence however powerful, because his life is the very ground and principle of our being.

Tennyson: “O for a man to arise in me, That the man that I am may cease to be!” Emerson: “Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew.” Religion is not the adding of a new department of activity as an adjunct to our own life or the grafting of a new method of manifestation upon the old. It is rather the grafting of our souls into Christ, so that his life dominates and manifests itself in ad our activities.

The magnet, which alone, can lift only a weight of three pounds but when it is attached to the electric dynamo, it will lift three hundred pounds.

Expositor’s Greek Testament on 1 Corinthians 15:45,46 — “The action of Jesus in ‘breathing’ upon his disciples while he said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ ( John 20:22 sq .) symbolized the vitalizing relationship which at this epoch he assumed towards mankind. This act raised to a higher potency the original ‘breathing’ of God by which ‘man became a living soul’ (Gen. 2:7).” (b) Union with Christ involves a new exercise of the soul’s powers in repentance and faith. Faith, indeed, is the act of the soul under the operation of God by means of which Christ is received. This new exercise of the soul’s powers we call conversion (Repentance and Faith). It is the obverse or human side of Regeneration. Ephesians 3:17 — “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”; 2 Timothy 3:15 — “the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Faith is the soul’s laying hold of Christ as its only source of life, pardon, and salvation. And so we see what true religion is. It is not a moral life, it is not a determination to be religious nor is it is faith, if by faith we mean an external trust that somehow Christ will save us. It is nothing less than the life of the soul in God, through Christ his Son. To Christ then we are to look for the origin, continuance and increase of our faith ( Luke 17:5 — said into the Lord, Increase our faith”). Our faith is but a part of “his fullness” of which “we all received, and grace for grace” ( John 1:161).

A.H. Strong, Sermon before the Baptist World Congress, London, — “Christianity is summed up in the two facts; Christ for us, and Christ in us. Christ for us (upon the Cross) reveals the eternal opposition of holiness to sin, and yet, through God’s eternal suffering for sin making objective atonement for us. Christ in us (by his Spirit) renewing in us the lost image of God, and abiding in us as the all-sufficient source of purity and power. Here are the two foci of the Christian ellipse: Christ for us, who redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us and Christ in us, the hope of glory, whom the apostle calls the mystery of the gospel. “We need Christ in us as well as Christ for us. How shall I, how shall society, find healing and purification within? Let me answer by reminding you of what they did at Chicago. There was in the world, no river more stagnant and fetid than was Chicago River.

Its sluggish stream received the sweepings of the watercraft and the offal of the city, and there was no current to carry the detritus away. There it settled and bred miasma and fever. At last it was suggested that, by cutting through the low ridge between the city and the Desplaines River, the current could be set running in the opposite direction and drainage could be secured into the Illinois River and the great Mississippi. At a cost of fifteen millions of dollars the cut was made, and now all the water of Lake Michigan can be relied upon to cleanse that turbid stream. What Chicago River could never do for itself, the Great Lake now does for it.

So no human soul can purge itself of its sin and what the individual cannot do, humanity at large is powerless to accomplish. Sin has dominion over us and we are foul to the very depths of our being, until with the help of God we break through the barrier of our self-will, and let the floods of Christ’s purifying life flow into us. Then, in an hour, more is done to renew than all our efforts for years had effected. Thus humanity is saved, individual by individual, not by philosophy or philanthropy or selfdevelopment or self-reformation, but simply by joining itself to Jesus Christ and by being filled in Him with all the fullness of God.” (c) Union with Christ gives to the believer the legal standing and rights of Christ. As Christ’s union with the race involves atonement, so the believer’s union with Christ involves Justification. The believer is entitled to take for his own all that Christ is, and all that Christ has done. This, because he has within him that new life of humanity which suffered in Christ’s death and rose from the grave in Christ’s resurrection. In other words, because he is virtually one person with the Redeemer. In Christ the believer is prophet, priest, and king. Acts 13:39 — “by him [lit.: ‘in him’ = in union with him] every one that believeth is justified”; Romans 6:7,8 — “he that hath died is justified from sin...we died with Christ”; 7:4 — “dead to the law through the body of Christ”; 8:1 — “no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus”; 17 “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ”; 1 Corinthians 1:30 — “But of him ye are in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness [justification]”; 3:21, 23 — “all things are yours...and ye are Christ’s”; 6:11 — “ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God”; Corinthians 5:14 — “we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died”; 21 — “Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness [justification] of God in him” = God’s justified persons, in union with Christ (see pages 760, 761). Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me”; Ephesians 1:4,6 — “chose us in him...to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved”; 2:5, 6 — “even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”; Philippians 3:8,9 — “that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith”; 2 Timothy 2:11 — “Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him.” Prophet: Luke 12:12 — “the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say; 1 John 2:20 — “ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” Priest: 1 Peter 2:5 — “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”; Revelations 20:6 — “they shall be priests of God and of Christ”; 1 Peter 2:9 — “a royal priesthood.” King:

Revelations 3:21 — “He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne”; 5:10 — “madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests.” The connection of justification and union with Christ delivers the former from the charge of being a mechanical and arbitrary procedure. As Jonathan Edwards has said: “The justification of the believer is no other than his being admitted to communion in, or participation of, this head and surety of all believers.” (d) Union with Christ secures to the believer the continuously transforming, assimilating power of Christ’s life first, for the soul and secondly, for the body, consecrating it in the present and, in the future, raising it up m the likeness of Christ’s glorified body. This continuous influence, so far as it is exerted in the present life, we call Sanctification, the human side or aspect of which is Perseverance.

For the soul: John 1:16 — “of his fullness we all received, and grace for grace” — successive and increasing measures of grace, corresponding to the soul’s successive and increasing needs; Romans 8:10 — “if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness; 1 Corinthians 15:45 — “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit”; Philippians 2:5 — “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”; 1 John 3:2 — if he shall be manifested we shall be like him.” “Can Christ let the believer fall out of his hands? No, for the believer is his hands.”

For the body: 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 — “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit... know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you... glorify God therefore in your body”; 1Thess. 5:23 — “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”; Romans 8:11 — “shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you”; Corinthians 15:49 — “as we have borne the image of the earthy [man]’ we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [man]”; Philippians 3:20,21 — “For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait far a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.”

Is there a physical miracle wrought for the drunkard in his regeneration?

Mr. Moody says, Yes; Mr. Gough says, No. We prefer to say that the change is a spiritual one but that the “expulsive power of a new affection” indirectly affects the body, so that old appetites sometimes disappear in a moment and that often, in the course of years, great changes take place even in the believer’s body. Tennyson, Idylls: “Have ye looked at Edyrn?

Have ye seen how nobly changed? This work of his is great and wonderful; His very face with change of heart is changed.” “Christ in the soul fashions the germinal man into his own likeness, this is the embryology of the new life. The cardinal error in religious life is the attempt to live without proper environment” (see Drummond, Natural Law in Spiritual World, 253-284). Human life from Adam does not stand the test, only divine-human life in Christ can secure us from falling. This is the work of Christ, now that he has ascended and taken to himself his power, namely, to give his life more and more fully to the church, until it shall grow up in all things into him, the Head, and shall fitly express his glory to the world.

As the accomplished organist discloses unsuspected capabilities of his instrument, so Christ brings into activity all the latent powers of the human soul. “I was five years in the ministry,” said an American preacher, “before I realized that my Savior is alive.” Dr. R. W. Dale has left on record the almost unutterable feelings that stirred his soul when he first realized this truth; see Walker, The Spirit and the Incarnation, preface, v. Many have struggled in vain against sin until they have admitted Christ to their hearts, then they could say, “this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith” ( 1 John 5:4). “Go out, God will go in; Die thou, and let him live; Be not, and he will be; Wait, and he’ll all things give.” The best way to get air out of a vessel is to pour water in. Only in Christ can we find our pardon, peace, purity and power.

He is “made unto us wisdom from God and justification and sanctification, and redemption” ( 1 Corinthians 1:30). A medical man says, “The only radical remedy for dipsomania is ‘religiomania’” (quoted in William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 268). It is easy to break into an empty house; the spirit cast out returns, finds the house empty, brings seven others, and “the last state of that man becometh worse than the first” ( Matthew 12:45). There is no safety in simply expelling sin. We need also to bring in Christ, in fact only he can enable us to expel not only actual sin but the love of it.

Alexander McLaren: “If we are ‘in Christ’ we are like a diver in his crystal bell. We have a solid though invisible wall around us, which keeps all sea-monsters off us and communicates with the upper air whence we draw the breath of calm life and can work in security though in the ocean depths.” John Caird, Fund. Ideas, 2:08 — “How do we know that the life of God has not departed from nature? Because every spring we witness the annual miracle of nature’s revival and every summer and autumn we witness the waving corn. How no we know that Christ has not departed from the world? Because he imparts to the soul that trusts him a power, a purity, a peace, which are beyond all that nature can give.” (e) Union with Christ brings about a fellowship of Christ with the believer.

Christ takes part in all the labors, temptations and sufferings of his people, a fellowship of the believer with Christ, so that Christ’s whole experience on earth is in some measure reproduced in him. It is a fellowship of all believers with one another, furnishing a basis for the spiritual unity of Christ’s people on earth, and for the eternal communion of heaven. The doctrine of Union with Christ is therefore the indispensable preparation for Ecclesiology, and for Eschatology.

Fellowship of Christ with the believer: Philippians 4:13 — “I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me”; Hebrews 4:15 — “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities”; cf . Isaiah 83:9 — “In all their affliction he was afflicted.” Hebrews 2:18 — “in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” = are being tempted, are under temptation. Bp. Wordsworth: “By his passion he acquired compassion.” 2 Corinthians 2:14 — “thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ” — Christ leads us in triumph, but his triumph is ours, even if it be a triumph over us. One with him, we participate in his joy and in his sovereignty. Revelations 3:21 — “He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne.” W. F. Taylor on Romans 8:9 — “The Spirit of God dwelleth in you....if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” — “Christ dwells in us, says the apostle. But do we accept him as a resident, or as a ruler? England was first represented by her resident at King Thebau’s court. This official could rebuke and even threaten but nothing more; Thebau was sovereign.

Burma knew no peace till England ruled. So Christ does not consent to be represented by a mere resident. He must himself dwell within the soul and he must reign.” Christina Rossetti, Thee Only: “Lord, we are rivers running to thy sea, Our waves and ripples all derived from thee; A nothing we should have, a nothing be, Except for thee. Sweet are the waters of thy shoreless sea; Make sweet our waters that make haste to thee; Pour in thy sweetness, that ourselves may be Sweetness to thee!”

Of the believer with Christ: Philippians 3:10 — “that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death”; Colossians 1:24 — “fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” — 1 Peter 4:13 — “partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” The Christian reproduces Christ’s life in miniature and, in a true sense loves it over again. Only upon the principle of union with Christ can we explain how the Christian instinctively applies to himself the prophecies and promises which originally and primarily were uttered with reference to Christ. “Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer Thy holy one to see corruption” ( Psalm 16:10,11). This fellowship is the ground of the promises made to believing prayer. John 14:13 — “whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do”; Wescott, Bib. Com., in loco : “The meaning of the phrase [‘in my name’] is ‘as being one with me even as I am revealed to you.’ Its two correlatives are ‘in me’ and the Pauline ‘in Christ.’” “All things are yours” ( 1 Corinthians 3:21), because Christ is universal King and all believers are exalted to fellowship with him. After the battle of Sedan, King William asked a wounded Prussian officer whether it were well with him. “All is well where your majesty leads!” was the reply. Philippians 1:21 — “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Paul indeed uses the words ‘Christ’ and church’ as interchangeable terms: 1Cor 12:12 — as the body is one, and hath many members...so also is Christ.” Denney, Studies in Theology, 171 — “There is not in the N. T. from beginning to end, in the record of the original and genuine Christian life, a single word of despondency or gloom. It is the most buoyant, exhilarating and joyful book in the world.” This is due to the fact that the writers believe in a living and exalted Christ and that they know they are one with him. They descend crowned into the arena. In the Soudan, every morning for half an hour before General Gordon’s tent there lay a white handkerchief. The most pressing message, even on matters of life and death, waited till that handkerchief was withdrawn. It was the signal that Christ and Gordon were in communion with each other.

Of all believers with one another: John 17:21 — “that they may all be one”; 1 Corinthians 10:17 — “we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread”; Ephesians 2:15 — “create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace”; 1 John 1:3 — “that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” — here the word koinwni>a is used. Fellowship with each other is the effect and result of the fellowship of each with God in Christ. Compare John 10:16 — “they shall become one flock, one shepherd”; Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco: “The bond of fellowship is shown to lie in the common relation to one Lord...Nothing is said of one ‘fold’ under the new dispensation.” Here is a unity, not of external organization, but of common life. Of this the visible church is the consequence and expression. But this communion is not limited to earth, it is perpetuated beyond death: 1Thess. 4:17 — “so shall we ever be with the Lord”; Hebrews 12:23 — “to the general assembly and church at the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect”; Revelations 21 and 22 — the city of God, the new Jerusalem, is the image of perfect society, as well as of intensity and fullness of life in Christ. The ordinances express the essence of Ecclesiology — union with Christ — for Baptism symbolizes the incorporation of the believer in Christ, while the Lord’s Supper symbolizes the incorporation of Christ in the believer.

Christianity is a social matter and the true Christian feels the need of being with and among his brethren. The Romans could not understand why “this new sect” must hold meetings all the time — even daily meetings. Why could they not go alone or in families to the temples, and make offerings to their God, and then come away, as the pagans did? It was this meeting together which exposed them to persecution and martyrdom. It was the natural and inevitable expression of their union with Christ and so of their union with one another.

The consciousness of union with Christ gives assurance of salvation. It is a great stimulus to believing prayer and to patient labor. It is a duty to “know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe” ( Ephesians 1:18,19). Christ’s command, “Abide in me, and I in you” ( John 15:4), implies that we are both to realize and to confirm this union, by active exertion of our own wills. We are to abide in him by an entire consecration, and to let him abide in us by an appropriating faith. We are to give ourselves to Christ and to take in return the Christ who gives himself to us, in other words, we are to believe Christ’s promises and to act upon them. All sin consists in the sundering of man’s life from God, and most systems of falsehood in religion are attempts to save man without merging his life in God’s once more. The only religion that can save mankind is the religion that fills the whole heart and the whole life with God and that aims to interpenetrate universal humanity with that same living Christ who has already made himself one with the believer. This consciousness of union with Christ gives “boldness” (parrhsi>a — 4:13; 1 John 5:14) toward men and toward God. The word belongs to the Greek democracies. Freemen are bold. Demosthenes boasts of his frankness. Christ frees us from the hidebound, introspective, self-conscious spirit. In him we become free, demonstrative, outspoken. So we find, in John’s epistles, that boldness in prayer is spoken of as a virtue, and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews urges us to “draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace” ( Hebrews 4:16). An engagement of marriage is not the same as marriage. The parties may be still distant from each other. Many Christians get just near enough to Christ to be engaged to him. This seems to be the experience of Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress. But our privilege is to have a present Christ, and to do our work not only for him, but also in him. “Since Christ and we are one, Why should we doubt or fear?” “We two are so joined, He’ll not be in heaven, And leave me behind.”

We append a few statements with regard to this union and its consequences, from noted names in theology and the church. Luther: “By faith thou art so glued to Christ that of thee and him there becomes as it were one person, so that with confidence thou canst say: ‘I am Christ, that is, Christ’s righteousness, victory, etc., are mine and Christ in turn can say: ‘I am that sinner. That is, his sins, his death, etc. are mine, because he clings to me and I to him, for we have been joined through faith into one flesh and bone.’” Calvin: “I attribute the highest importance to the connection between the head and the members, to the inhabitation of Christ in our hearts. In a word, to the mystical union by which we enjoy him, so that, being made ours, he makes us partakers of the blessings with which he is furnished.” John Bunyan: “The Lord led me into the knowledge of the mystery of union with Christ, that I was joined to him, that I was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. By this also my faith in him as my righteousness was the more confirmed for if he and I were one, then his righteousness was mine, his merits mine, his victory also mine.

Now could I see myself in heaven and on earth at once — in heaven by my Christ, my risen head, my righteousness and life, though on earth by my body or person.” Edwards: “Faith is the soul’s active uniting with Christ. God sees fit that, in order to a union’s being established between two intelligent active beings, there should be the mutual act of both, that each should receive the other, as entirely joining themselves to one another.” Andrew Fuller: “I have no doubt that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness presupposes a union with him since there is no perceivable fitness in bestowing benefits on one for another’s sake, where there is no union or relation between.”

See Luther, quoted, with other references, in Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk 3:325. See also Calvin, Institutes, 1:660; Edwards, Works, 4:66, 69, 70; Andrew Fuller, Works, 2:685; Pascal, Thoughts, Eng. trans., 429; Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, book 5, ch. 56; Tillotson, Sermons, 3:307; Trench, Studies in Gospels, 284, and Christ the True Vine, in Hulsean Lectures; Schoberlein, in Studien und Kritiken. 1847:7- 69; Caird, on Union with God, in Scotch Sermons, sermon 2; Godet, on the intimate Design of Man, In Princeton Rev., Nov. 1880 — the design is “God in man, and man in God “; Baird. Elohim Revealed, 590-617; Upham, Divine Union, Interior Life, Life of Madame Guyon and Fenelon; A. J. Gordon, In Christ; McDuff, In Christo; J. Denham Smith, Lifetruths, 25-98; A. H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 220-225; Bishop Hall’s Treatise on The Church Mystical; Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ; Stearns, Evidence of Christian Experience, 145, 174, 179; F. B.

Meyer, Christian Living — essay on Appropriation of Christ, vs. mere Imitation of Christ; Sanday, Epistle to the Romans, supplementary essay on the Mystic Union; H. B. Smith, System of Theology, 531; J. M.

Campbell, The Indwelling Christ

II. REGENERATION.

Regeneration is that act of God by which the governing disposition of the soul is made holy, and by which, through the truth as a means, the first holy exercise of this disposition is secured.

Regeneration, or the new birth, is the divine side of that change of heart or which we call conversion if viewed from the human side. It is God’s turning the soul to himself, conversion being the soul’s turning itself to God; God’s turning it is both the accompaniment and cause. It will be observed from the above definition, that there are two aspects of regeneration, in the first of which the soul is passive, in the second of which the soul is active. God changes the governing disposition, in this change the soul is simply acted upon. God secures the initial exercise of this disposition in view of the truth, in this change the soul itself acts. Yet these two parts of God’s operation are simultaneous. At the same moment that he makes the soul sensitive, he pours in the light of his truth and induces the exercise of the holy disposition he has imparted.

This distinction between the passive and the active aspects of regeneration is necessitated, as we shall see, by the twofold method of representing the change in Scripture. In many passages the change is ascribed wholly to the power of God; the change is a change in the fundamental disposition of the soul. There is no use of means. In other passages we find truth referred to as an agency employed by the Holy Spirit, and the mind acts in view of this truth. The distinction between these two aspects of regeneration seems to be intimated in Ephesians 2:5,6 — “made us alive together with Christ” and “raised us up with him.” Lazarus must first be made alive, and in this he could not cooperate but he must also come forth from the tomb, and in this he could be active. In the old photography, the plate was first made sensitive, and in this the plate was passive, then it was exposed to the object and now the plate actively seized upon the rays of light which the object emitted.

By availing ourselves of the illustration from photography, we may compare God’s initial work in the soul to the sensitizing of the plate, his next work to the pouring in of the light and the production of the picture.

The soul is first made receptive to the truth then it is enabled actually to receive the truth. But the illustration fails in one respect; it represents the two aspects of regeneration as successive. In regeneration there is no chronological succession. At the same instant that God makes the soul sensitive, he also draws out its new sensibility in view of the truth. Let us notice also that, as in photography, the picture however perfect needs to be developed and this development takes time, so regeneration is only the beginning of God’s work. Not all the dispositions, but only the governing disposition, is made holy. There is still need that sanctification should follow regeneration and sanctification is a work of God, which lasts for a whole lifetime. We may add that “heredity affects regeneration as the quality of the film affects photography, and environment affects regeneration as the focus affects photography.” (W. T. Thayer).

Sacramentarianism has so obscured the doctrine of Scripture that many persons who gave no evidence of being regenerate are quite convinced that they are Christians. Uncle John Vassar therefore never asked: “Are you a Christian?” but always: “Have you ever been born again?” E. G.

Robinson: “The doctrine of regeneration, aside from sacramentarianism, was not apprehended by Luther or the Reformers, was not indeed wrought out till Wesley taught that God instantaneously renewed the affections and the will.” We get the doctrine of regeneration mainly from the apostle John, as we get the doctrine of justification mainly from the apostle Paul.

Stevens, Johannine Theology, 366 — “Paul’s great words are justification and righteousness; John’s are, birth from God and life. But, for both Paul and John, faith is life-union with Christ.”

Stearns, Evidence of Christian Experience, 134 — “The sinful nature is not gone, but its power is broken, sin no longer dominates the life. It has been thrust from the center to the circumference; it has the sentence of death in itself. the man is freed, at least in potency and promise. 218 — An activity may be immediate, yet not unmediated. God’s action on the soul may be through the sense, yet still be immediate, as when finite spirits communicate with each other.” Dubois, in Century Magazine, Dec. 1894:233 — “Man has made his way up from physical conditions to the consciousness of spiritual needs. Heredity and environment fetter him. He needs spiritual help. God provides a spiritual environment in regeneration.

As science is the verification of the ideal in nature, so religion is the verification of the spiritual in human life.” Last sermon of Seth K.

Mitchell on Revelations 21:5 — “Behold, I make all things new” — “God first makes a new man, then gives him a new heart, then a new commandment. He also gives a new body, a new name, a new robe, a new song, and a new home.” 1. Scripture Representations. (a) Regeneration is a change indispensable to the salvation of the sinner. John 3:7 — “Ye must be born anew”; Galatians 6:15 — “neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (margin — “creation”); cf. Hebrews 12:14 — “the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord” — regeneration, therefore, is yet more necessary to salvation; Ephesians 2:3 — “by nature children of wrath, even as the rest “; Romans 3:11 — “There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God”; John 6:44,65 — “No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him...no man can come unto me, except it be given unto him of the Father”; Jeremiah 13:23 — “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (b) It is a change in the inmost principle of life. John 3:3 — “Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God”; 5:21 — “as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will “; Romans 6:13 — “present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead”; Ephesians 2:1 — “And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins”; Ephesians 5:14 — “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.” In John 6:44,65 — “born anew” = not, “altered,” “influenced,” “reinvigorated,” “reformed”, but a new beginning, a new stamp or character, a new family likeness to God and to his children. “So is every one that is born of the Spirit” ( John 3:8) = 1. Secrecy of process, 2. Independence of the will of man, 3. Evidence given in results of conduct and life. It is a good thing to remove the means of gratifying an evil appetite but how much better it is to remove the appetite itself. It is a good thing to save men from frequenting dangerous resorts by furnishing safe places of recreation and entertainment but far better is it to implant within the man such a love for all that is pure and good, that he will instinctively shun the impure and evil. Christianity aims to purify the springs of action. (c) It is a change in the heart, or governing disposition. Matthew 12:33,35 — “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit...The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things”; 15:19 — “For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, railings”; Acts 16:14 — “And a certain woman named Lydia...heard us: whose heart the Lord opened to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul”; Romans 6:17 — “But thanks be to God, that whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered”; 10:10 — “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness”; cf . Psalm 51:10 — “Create in me a clean heart O God; And renew a right spirit within me”; Jeremiah 31:33 — “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I write it”; Ezekiel 11:19 — “and, I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh.”

Horace Mann: “One former is worth a hundred reformers.” It is often said that the redemption of society is as important as the regeneration of the individual. Yes, we reply, but the regeneration of society can never be accomplished except through the regeneration of the individual.

Reformers try in vain to construct a stable and happy community from persons who are selfish, weak, and miserable. The first cry of such reformers is: “Get your circumstances changed!” Christ’s first call is: “Get yourselves changed and then the things around you will be changed.”

Many college settlements, temperance societies and self-reformations begin at the wrong end. They are like kindling a coal-fire by lighting kindling at the top. The fire soon goes out. We need God’s work at the very basis of character and not on the outer edge at the very beginning and not simply at the end. Matthew 6:33 — “seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (d) It is a change in the moral relations of the soul. Ephesians 2:5 — “when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive us together with Christ”; 4:23, 24 — “that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth “; Colossians 1:13 — “who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 508, finds the features belonging to all religions are an uneasiness and its solution. The uneasiness, reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense as we naturally stand that there is something wrong about us.

The solution is a sense that we are saved from the “wrongness” by making proper connection with the higher powers. (e) It is a change thought in connection with the use of truth as a means. James 1:18 — “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” — here in connection with the special agency of God (not of mere natural law) the truth is spoken of as a means; 1 Peter 1:23 — “having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth”; 2 Peter 1:4 — “his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature”; cf. Jeremiah 23:29 — “Is not my word like fire? saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” John 15:3 — “Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you”; Ephesians 6:17 — “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God”; Hebrews 4:12 — “For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart”; 1 Peter 2:9 — “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” An advertising sign reads: “For spaces and ideas, apply to Johnson and Smith.” In regeneration, we need both the open mind and the truth to instruct it, and we may apply to God for both. (f) It is a change instantaneous, secretly thought, and known only in its results. John 5:24 — “He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment but hath passed out of death into life”; cf. Matthew 6:24 — “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other.” John 3:8 — “The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit”; cf. Philippians 2:12,13 — “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure”; 2 Peter 1:10 — “Wherefore, brethren give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure.” (g) It is a change wrought by God. John 1:13 — “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”; 3:5 — “Except one be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”; 3:8, margin — “The Spirit breatheth where it will “; Ephesians 1:19,20 — “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he thought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places”; 2:10 — “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them”; 1 Peter 1:3 — “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great merry begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”; cf. Corinthians 3:6, 7 — “I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”

We have seen that we are “begotten again...through the word” ( 1 Peter 1:23). In the revealed truth with regard to the person and work of Christ there is a divine adaptation to the work of renewing our hearts. But truth in itself is powerless to regenerate and sanctify, unless the Holy Spirit uses it — “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” ( Ephesians 6:17). Hence regeneration is ascribed preeminently to the Holy Spirit, and men are said to be “born of the Spirit” ( John 3:8).

When Robert Morrison started for China, an incredulous American said to him: “Mr. Morrison, do you think you can make any impression on the Chinese?” “No,” was the reply, “but I think the Lord can.” (h) It is a change accomplished through the union of the soul with Christ. Romans 8:2 — “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death”; 2 Corinthians 5:17 — “if any man is in Christ he is a new creature” (margin — “there is a new creation”); Galatians L:15, 16 — “it was the good pleasure of God...to reveal his Son in me”; Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good work” On the Scriptural representations, see E. D. Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 117-164; H. B.

Smith, System of Theology, 553-569 — “Regeneration involves union with Christ, and not a change of heart without relation to him.” Ephesians 3:14,15 — “the Father, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.” But even here God works through Christ, and Christ himself is called “Everlasting Father” ( Isaiah 9:6). The real basis of our son-ship and unity is in Christ, our Creator and Upholder. Sin is repudiation of this filial relationship. Regeneration by the Spirit restores our son-ship by joining us once more, ethically and spiritually to Christ the Son and so adopting us again into God’s family. Hence the Holy Spirit does not reveal himself but Christ. The Spirit is light, and light does not reveal itself, but all other things. I may know that the Holy Spirit is working within me whenever I more clearly perceive Christ. Son-ship in Christ makes us not only individually children of God, but also members of a commonwealth. Psalm 87:4 — “Yea, of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one was born in her” = “the most glorious thing to be said about them is not something pertaining to their separate history, but that they have become members, by adoption, of the city of God” (Perowne).

The Psalm speaks of the adoption of nations, but it is equally true of individuals. 2. Necessity of Regeneration.

That all men without exception need to be changed in moral character is manifest, not only from Scripture passages already cited, but from the following rational considerations: (a) Holiness, or conformity to the fundamental moral attribute of God, is the indispensable condition of securing the divine favor, of attaining peace of conscience, and of preparing the soul for the associations and employment of the blest.

Phillips Brooks seems to have taught that regeneration is merely a natural forward step in man’s development. See his Life, 2:353 — “The entrance into this deeper consciousness of son-ship to God and into the motive power, which it exercises, is Regeneration, the new birth, not merely with reference to time but with reference also to profoundness. Because man has something sinful to cast away in order to enter this higher life, therefore regeneration must begin with repentance. But that is an incident.

It is not essential to the idea. A man simply imperfect and not sinful would still have to be born again. The presentation of sin as guilt, of release as forgiveness, of consequence as punishment, have their true meaning as the most personal expressions of man’s moral condition as always measured by, and man’s moral changes as always dependent upon, God.” Here imperfection seems to mean depraved condition as distinguished from conscious transgression; it is not regarded as sinful and it needs not to be repented of. Yet it does require regeneration. In Phillips Brooks’s creed there is no article devoted to sin. Baptism he calls “the declaration of the universal fact of the son-ship of man to God. The Lord’s Supper is the declaration of the universal fact of man’s dependence upon God for supply of life. It is associated with the death of Jesus, because in that the truth of God giving himself to man found its most complete manifestation.”

Others seem to teach regeneration by education. Here too there is no recognition of inborn sin or guilt. Man’s imperfection of nature is innocent. He needs training in order to fit him for association with higher intelligences and with God. In the evolution of his powers there comes a natural crisis, like that of graduation of the scholar and this crisis may be called conversion. This educational theory of regeneration is represented by Starbuck, Psychology of Religion, and by Coe, The Spiritual Life.

What human nature needs however is not evolution, but involution and revolution. Involution is the communication of a new life and revolution or the change of direction is a result from that life. Human nature, as we have seen in our treatment of sin, is not a green apple to be perfected by mere growth but an apple with a worm at the core, which if left alone, will surely rot and perish.

President G. Stanley Hall, in his essay on The Religious Affirmations of Psychology, says that the total depravity of man is an ascertained fact apart from the teachings of the Bible. There had come into his hands for inspection several thousands of letters written to a medical man who advertised that he would give confidential advice and treatment to all, secretly. On the strength of these letters Dr. Hall was prepared to say that John Calvin had not told the half of what is true. He declared that the necessity of regeneration in order to the development of character was clearly established from psychological investigation.

A.H. Strong, Cleveland Sermon, 1904 — “Here is the danger of some modern theories of Christian education. They give us statistics, to show that the age of puberty is the age of strongest religious impressions and the inference is drawn that conversion is nothing but a natural phenomenon, a regular stage of development. The free will and the evil bent of that will are forgotten and the absolute dependence of perverse human nature upon the regenerating spirit of God. The age of puberty is the age of the strongest religious impressions? Yes, but it is also the age of the strongest artistic and social and sensuous impressions and only a new birth from above can lead the soul to seek first the kingdom of God.” (b) The condition of universal humanity as by nature depraved and, when arrived at moral consciousness as guilty of actual transgression, is precisely the opposite of that holiness without which the soul cannot exist in normal relation to God, to self or to holy beings.

Plutarch has a parable of a man who tried to make a dead body stand upright, but who finished his labors saying: “Deest aliquid intus” — “There’s something lacking inside.” Ribot, Diseases of the Will, 53 — “In the vicious man the moral elements are lacking. If the idea of amendment arises, it is involuntary. But if a first element is not given by nature and with it a potential energy, nothing results. The theological dogma of grace as a free gift appears to us therefore founded upon a much more exact psychology than the contrary opinion.” “Thou art chained to the wheel of the foe By links which a world cannot sever: With thy tyrant through storm and through calm thou shall go, And thy sentence is bondage forever.”

Martensen, Christian Ethics: “When Kant treats of the radical evil of human nature, he makes the remarkable statement that, if a good will is to appear in us, this cannot happen through a partial improvement, nor through any reform, but only through a revolution, a total overturn within us, that is to be compared to a new creation.” Those who hold that man may attain perfection by mere natural growth deny this radical evil of human nature, and assume that our nature is a good seed, which needs only favorable external influences of moisture and sunshine to bring forth good fruit. But human nature is a damaged seed and what comes of it will be aborted and stunted like itself. The doctrine of mere development denies God’s holiness, man’s sin, the need of Christ, the necessity of atonement, the work of the Holy Spirit and the justice of penalty. Kant’s doctrine of the radical evil of human nature, like Aristotle’s doctrine that man is born on an inclined plane and subject to a downward gravitation, is not matched by a corresponding doctrine of regeneration. Only the apostle Paul can tell us how we came to be in this dreadful predicament and where is the power that can deliver us. See Stearns, Evidence of Christian Experience, 274.

Dean Swift’s worthy sought many years for a method of extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. We cannot cure the barren tree by giving it new bark or new branches, it must have new sap. Healing snakebites is not killing the snake. Poetry and music, the uplifting power of culture, the inherent nobility of man, the general mercy of God — not one of these will save the soul. Horace Bushnell: “The soul of all improvement is the improvement of the soul.” Frost cannot be removed from a window pane simply by scratching it away, you must raise the temperature of the room.

It is as impossible to get regeneration out of reformation as to get a harvest out of a field by mere plowing. Reformation is plucking bitter apples from a tree and in their place, tying good apples on with a string (Dr. Pentecost). It is regeneration or degradation, the beginning of an upward movement by a power not man’s own or the continuance and increase of a downward movement that can end only in ruin.

Kidd, Social Evolution, shows that in humanity itself there resides no power of progress. The ocean steamship that has burned its last pound of coal may proceed on its course by virtue of its momentum but it is only a question of the clock how soon it will cease to move, except as tossed about by the wind and the waves. Not only is there a power lacking for the good but, apart from God’s grace, the evil tendencies constantly became more aggravated. The settled states of the affections and of the will practically dominate the life. Charles H. Spurgeon: “If a thief should get into heaven unchanged, he would begin by picking the angels’ pockets.” The land is full of examples of the descent of man, not from the brute, but to the brute. The tare is not degenerate wheat that, by cultivation, will become good wheat. It is not only useless but also noxious and it must be rooted out and burned. “Society never will be better than the individuals who compose it. A sound ship can never be made of rotten timber. Individual reformation must precede social reconstruction.” Socialism will always be a failure until it becomes Christian. We must be born from above as truly as we have been begotten by our fathers upon earth or we cannot see the kingdom of God. (c) A radical internal change is therefore requisite in every human soul — a change in that which constitutes its character. Holiness cannot be attained, as the pantheist claims, by a merely natural growth or development, since man’s natural tendencies are wholly in the direction of selfishness. There must be a reversal of his inmost dispositions and principles of action, if he is to see the kingdom of God.

Men’s good deeds and reformation may be illustrated by eddies in a stream whose general current is downward, by walking westward in a railway car while the train is going east or by Capt. Parry’s traveling north, while the ice-flow on which he walked was moving southward at a rate much more rapid than his walking. It is possible to be “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” ( 2 Timothy 3:7).

Better never have been born, than not be born again. But the necessity of regeneration implies its possibility: John 3:7 — “Ye must be born new” = ye may be born anew, the text is not merely a warning and a command, it is also a promise. Every sinner has the chance of making a new start and of beginning a new life.

J. D. Robertson, The Holy Spirit and Christian Service, 57 — “Emerson says that the gate of gifts closes at birth. After a man emerges from his mother’s womb he can have no new endowments, no fresh increments of strength and wisdom, joy and grace within. The only grace is the grace of creation. But this view is deistic and not Christian.” Emerson’s saying is true of natural gifts, but not of spiritual gifts. He forgot Pentecost. He forgot the all-encompassing atmosphere of the divine personality and love, and its readiness to enter in at every chink and crevice of our voluntary being. The longing men have to turn over a new leaf in life’s book, to break with the past, to assert their better selves, is a preliminary impulse of God’s Spirit and an evidence of prevenient grace preparing the way for regeneration. Thus interpreted and yielded to, these impulses warrant unbounded hope for the future. “No star is ever lost we once have seen; We always may be what we might have been; The hopes that lost in some far distance seem May be the truer life, and this the dream.”

The greatest minds feel, at least at times, their need of help from above.

Although Cicero uses the term ‘regeneration’ to signify what we should call naturalization, yet he recognizes man’s dependence upon God: “Nemo vir magnus, sine aliquo divino afflatu, unquam fuit.” Seneca: “Bonus vir sine illo nemo est.” Aristotle: “Wickedness perverts the judgment and makes men err with respect to practical principles, so that no man can be wise and judicious who is not good.” Goethe: “Who ne’er his bread in sorrow ate, Who ne’er the mournful midnight hours Weeping upon his bed has sate, He knows you not, ye heavenly Powers.” Shakespeare, King Lear: “Is there a reason in nature for these hard hearts?” Robert Browning, in Halbert and Hob, replies: “O Lear, That a reason out of nature must turn them soft, seems clear.”

John Stuart Mill (see Autobiography, 132-142) knew that the feeling of interest in others’ welfare would make him happy, but the knowledge of this fact did not give him the feeling. The “enthusiasm of humanity” — unselfish love, of which we read in “Ecce Homo” — is easy to talk about but how to produce it, that is the question. Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 61-94 — “There is no abiogenesis in the spiritual, more than in the natural, world. Can the stone grow more and more living until it enters the organic world? No, Christianity is a new life, it is Christ in you.” As natural life comes to us mediately, through Adam, so spiritual life comes to us mediately, through Christ. See Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, 220-249; Anderson, Regeneration, 51-88; Rennet Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 340-354. 3. The Efficient Cause of Regeneration.

Three views only need be considered, all others are modifications of these.

The first view puts the efficient cause of regeneration in the human will, the second view in the truth is considered as a system of motives and the third is in the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit.

John Stuart Mill regarded cause as embracing all the antecedents to an event. Hazard, Man a Creative First Cause, 12-15, shows that, as at any given instant the whole past is everywhere the same, the effects must, upon this view, at each instant be everywhere one and the same. ‘The theory that, of every successive event, the real cause is the whole of the antecedents, does not distinguish between the passive conditions acted upon and changed, and the active agencies which act upon and change them, does not distinguish what produces, from what merely precedes, change.”

We prefer the definition given by Porter, Human Intellect, 592 — Cause is “the most conspicuous and prominent of the agencies, or conditions, that produce a result” or that of Dr. Mark Hopkins: “Any exertion or manifestation of energy that produces a change is a cause, and nothing else is. We must distinguish cause from occasion, or material. Cause is not to be defined as ‘everything without which the effect could not be realized.’” Better still, perhaps, may we say that efficient cause is the competent producing power by which the effect is secured. James Martineau, Types, 1: preface, xiii — “A cause is that which determines the indeterminate.” Not the light, but the photographer is the cause of the picture; light is but the photographer’s servant. So the “word of God” is the “sword of the Spirit” ( Ephesians 6:17); the Spirit uses the word as his instrument but the Spirit himself is the cause of regeneration.

A. The human will, as the efficient cause of regeneration.

This view takes two forms, according as the will is regarded as acting apart from or in conjunction with, special influences of the truth applied by God.

Pelagians hold the former and Arminians the latter. (a) To the Pelagian view, that regeneration is solely the act of man and is identical with self-reformation, we object that the sinner’s depravity, since it consists in a fixed state of the affections which determines the settled character of the volition, amounts to a moral inability. Without a renewal of the affections from which all moral action springs, man will not choose holiness nor accept salvation.

Man’s volition is practically the shadow of his affections. It is as useless to think of a man’s volition separating itself from his affections, and drawing him towards God, as it is to think of a man’s shadow separating itself from him and leading him in the opposite direction to that in which he is going. Man’s affections, to use Calvin’s words, are like horses that have thrown off the charioteer and are running wildly, they need a new hand to direct them. Disease requires administration by a physician. We do not stop a locomotive engine by applying force to the wheels, but by reversing the lever. So the change in man must be, not in the transient volition, but in the deeper springs of action — the fundamental bent of the affections and will. See Henslow, Evolution, 134. Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well, 2:1:149 — “It is not so with Him that all things knows, As ‘t is with us that square our guess with shows; But most it is presumption in us when The help of heaven we count the act of men.”

Henry Clay said that he did not know for himself personally what the change of heart spoken of by Christians meant but he had seen Kentucky family feuds of long standing healed by religious revivals and that whatever could heal a Kentucky family feud was more than human. Mr. Peter Harvey was a lifelong friend of Daniel Webster. He wrote a most interesting volume of reminiscenses of the great man. He tells how one John Colby married the oldest sister of Mr. Webster. Said Mr. Webster of John Colby: “Finally he went up to Andover, New Hampshire, and bought a farm and the only recollection I have about him is that he was called the wickedest man in the neighborhood, so far as swearing and impiety went.

I used to wonder how my sister could marry so profane a man as John Colby.” Years afterwards news comes to Mr. Webster that a wonderful change has passed upon John Colby. Mr. Harvey and Mr. Webster journeyed together to visit John Colby. As Mr. Webster enters John Colby’s house, he sees open before him a large-print Bible, which he has just been reading. When greetings have been interchanged, the first question John Colby asks of Mr. Webster is, “Are you a Christian?” And then, at John Colby’s suggestion, the two men kneel and pray together.

When the visit is done, this is what Mr. Webster says to Mr. Harvey as they ride away: “I should like to know what the enemies of religion would say to John Colby’s conversion. There was a man as unlikely, humanly speaking, to become a Christian as any man I ever saw. He was reckless, heedless, wicked, never attended church, never experienced the good influence of associating with religious people. And here he has been living on in that reckless way until he has got to be an old man, until a period of life when you naturally would not expect his habits to change. And yet he has been brought into the condition in which we have seen him today, a penitent, trusting, humble believer.” “Whatever people may say,” added Mr. Webster, “nothing can convince me that anything short of the grace of Almighty God could make such a change as I, with my own eyes, have witnessed in the life of John Colby.” When they got back to Franklin, New Hampshire, in the evening, they met another lifelong friend of Mr. Webster’s, John Taylor, standing at his door. Mr. Webster called out: “Well, John Taylor, miracles happen in these latter days as well as in the days of old.” “What now, Squire?” asked John Taylor. “Why,” replied Mr. Webster, “John Colby has become a Christian. If that is not a miracle, what is?” (b) To the Arminian view, that regeneration is the act of man, cooperating with divine influences applied through the truth (synergistic theory), we object that no beginning of holiness is in this way conceivable. For, so long as man’s selfish and perverse affections are unchanged, not choosing God is possible but such as proceeds from supreme desire for one s own interest and happiness. But the man thus supremely bent on self-gratification cannot see in God, or his service, anything productive at happiness. If he could see in them anything of advantage, his choice of God and his service from such a motive would not be a holy choice, and therefore could not be a beginning of holiness.

Although Melanchthon (1497-1560) preceded Arminius (1560-1609), his view was substantially the same with that of the Dutch theologian.

Melanchthon never experienced the throes and travails of a new spiritual life as Luther did. His external and internal development was peculiarly placid and serene. This Præceptor Germaniæ had the modesty of the genuine scholar. He was not a dogmatist and he never entered the ranks of the ministry. He never could be persuaded to accept the degree of Doctor of Theology though he lectured on theological subjects to audiences of thousands. Dorner says of Melanchthon: “He held at first that the Spirit of God is the primary and the word of God the secondary, or instrumental, agency in conversion while the human will allows their action and freely yields to it.” Later, he held that “conversion is the result of the combined action (copulatio) of three causes, the truth of God, the Holy Spirit and the will of man.” This synergistic view in his last years involved the theologian of the German Reformation in serious trouble. Luthardt: “He made a facultas out of a mere capacitas. ” Dorner says again: “Man’s causality is not to be coordinated with that of God, however small the influence ascribed to it. It is a purely receptive, not a productive, agency.

The opposite is the fundamental Romanist error.” Self-love will never induce a man to give up self-love. Selfishness will not throttle and cast out selfishness. “Such a choice from a selfish motive would be unholy when judged by God’s standard. It is absurd to make salvation depend upon the exercises of a wholly unspiritual power”; see Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2:716-720 (Syst. Doct., 4:179-183). Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:505 — “Sin does not first stop, and then holiness come in place of sin but holiness positively expels sin. Darkness does not first cease and then light enter but light drives out darkness.” On the Arminian view, see Bibliotheca Sacra, 19:265, 266.

John Wesley’s theology was a modified Arminianism yet it was John Wesley who did most to establish the doctrine of regeneration. He asserted that the Holy Spirit acts through the truth, in distinction from the doctrine that the Holy Spirit works solely through the ministers and sacraments of the church. But in asserting the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual soul, he went too far to the opposite extreme of emphasizing the ability of man to choose God’s service when, without love to God, there was nothing in God’s service to attract. A. H. Bradford, Age of Faith: “It is as if Jesus had said: if a sailor will properly set his rudder the wind will fill his sails. The will is the rudder of the character; if it is turned in the right direction, all the winds of heaven will favor but if it is turned in the wrong direction, they will oppose.” The question returns: What shall move the man to set his rudder aright, if he has no desire to reach the proper haven?

Here is the need of divine power, not merely to cooperate with man, after man’s will is set in the right direction but to set it in the right direction in the first place. Philippians 2:13 — “it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.”

Still another modification of Arminian doctrine is found in the Revealed Theology of N. W. Taylor of New Haven, who maintained that, antecedently to regeneration, the selfish principle is suspended in the sinner’s heart. Then, prompted by self-love, he uses the means of regeneration from motives that are neither sinful nor holy. He held that all men, saints and sinners, have their own happiness for their ultimate end.

Regeneration involves no change in this principle or motive but only a change in the governing purpose to seek this happiness in God rather than in the world. Dr. Taylor said that man could turn to God, whatever the Spirit did or did not do. He could turn to God if he would but he could also turn to God if he wouldn’t. In other words, he maintained the power of contrary choice while yet affirming the certainty that, without the Holy Spirit’s influences, man would always choose wrongly. These doctrines caused a division in the Congregational body. Those who opposed Taylor withdrew their support from New Haven and founded the East Windsor Seminary in 1834. For Taylor’s view, see N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 369-406, and in The Christian Spectator for 1829.

The chief opponent of Dr. Taylor was Dr. Bennet Tyler. He replied to Dr. Taylor that moral character has its seat, not in the purpose, but in the affections back of the purpose. Otherwise every Christian must be in a state of sinless perfection, for his governing purpose is to serve God. But we know that there are affections and desires not under control of this purpose — dispositions not in conformity with the predominant disposition. How, Dr. Tyler asked, can a sinner, completely selfish, from a selfish motive, resolve not to be selfish and so suspend his selfishness? “Antecedently to regeneration, there can be no suspension of the selfish principle. It is said that, in suspending it, the sinner is actuated by selflove.

But is it possible that the sinner, while destitute of love to God and every particle of genuine benevolence, should love himself at all and not love himself supremely? He loves nothing more than self. He does not regard God or the universe except, as they tend to promote his ultimate end, his own happiness. No sinner ever suspended this selfishness until subdued by divine grace. We can not become regenerate by preferring God to the world merely from regard to our own interest. There is no necessity of the Holy Spirit to renew the heart, if self-love prompts men to turn from the world to God. On the view thus combated, depravity consists simply in ignorance. All men need is enlightenment as to the best means of securing their own happiness. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is, therefore, not necessary.” See Bennet Tyler, Memoir and Lectures, 316-381, esp. 334, 370, 371; Letters on the New Haven Theology, 21-72, 143-163; review of Taylor and Fitch, by E. D. Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 13-54; Martineau, Study, 2:9 — “By making it a man’s interest to be disinterested, do you cause him to forget himself and put any love into his heart? Or do you only break him in and cause him to turn this way and that by the bit and lash of a driving necessity?” The sinner, apart from the grace of God, cannot see the truth. Wilberforce took Pitt to hear Cecil preach, but Pitt declared that he did not understand a word that Cecil said.

Apart from the grace of God, the sinner, even when made to see the truth, resists it the more, the more clearly he sees it. Then the Holy Spirit overcomes his Opposition and makes him willing in the day of God’s power ( <19B003> Psalm 110:3).

B. The truth, as the efficient cause of regeneration.

According to this view, the truth as a system of motives is the direct and immediate cause of the change from unholiness to holiness. This view is objectionable for two reasons: (a) It erroneously regards motives as wholly external to the mind that is influenced by them. This is to conceive of them as mechanically constraining the will, and is indistinguishable from necessitarianism. On the contrary, motives are compounded of external presentations and internal dispositions. It is the soul’s affections, which render certain suggestions attractive and others repugnant to us. In brief, the heart makes the motive. (b) Only as truth is loved, therefore, can it be a motive to holiness. But we have seen that the aversion of the sinner to God is such that the truth is hated instead of loved, and a thing that is hated, is hated more intensely, the more distinctly it is seen. Hence no mere power of the truth can be regarded as the efficient cause of regeneration. The contrary view implies that it is not the truth, which the sinner hates, but rather some element of error, which is mingled with it.

Lyman Beecher and Charles G. Finney held this view. The influence of the Holy Spirit differs from that of the preacher only in degree, both use only moral suasion, both do nothing more than to present the truth, both work upon the soul from without. “Were I as eloquent as the Holy Ghost, I could convert sinners as well as he,” said a popular preacher of this school (see Bennet Tyler, Letters on New Haven Theology, 164-171). On this view, it would be absurd to pray to God to regenerate, for that is more than he can do; regeneration is simply the effect of truth.

Miley, in Methodist Quarterly, July, 1881:484-462, holds that the will cannot rationally act without motive but that it has always power to suspend action, or defer it, for the purpose of rational examination of the motive or end and to consider the opposite motive or end. Putting the old end or motive out of view will temporarily break its power and the new truth considered will furnish motive for right action. Thus, by using our faculty of suspending choice and of fixing attention, we can realize the permanent eligibility of the good and choose it against the evil. This is, however, not the realization of a new spiritual life in regeneration, but the election of its attainment. Power to do this suspending is of grace [grace, however, given equally to all]. Without this power, life would be a spontaneous and irresponsible development of evil.” The view of Miley, thus substantially given, resembles that of Dr. Taylor, upon which we have already commented but, unlike that, it makes truth itself, apart from the affections, a determining agency in the change from sin to holiness.

Our one reply is that, without a change in the affections, the truth can neither be known nor obeyed. Seeing cannot be the means of being born again, for one must first be born again in order to see the kingdom of God ( John 3:3). The mind will not choose God until God appears to be the greatest good.

Edwards, quoted by Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 64 — “Let the sinner apply his rational powers to the contemplation of divine things, and let his belief be speculatively correct; still he is in such a state that those objects of contemplation will excite in him no holy affections.” The Scriptures declare ( Romans 8:7) that “the mind of the flesh is enmity” — not against some error or mistaken notion of God — but “is enmity against God.” It is God’s holiness, mandatory and punitive, that is hated. A clearer view of that holiness will only increase the hatred. A woman’s hatred of spiders will never be changed to love by bringing them close to her. Magnifying them with a compound oxy-hydrogen microscope will not help the matter. Tyler: “All the light of the last day will not subdue the sinners heart.” The mere presence of God and seeing God face to face will be hell to him, if his hatred be not first changed to love. See E. D. Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 105-116, 203-221; and review of Griffin, by S. R.

Mason, Truth Unfolded, 383-407.

Bradford, Heredity and Christian Problems, 229 — “Christianity puts three motives before men: love, self-love, and fear.” True, but the last two are only preliminary motives, not essentially Christian. The soul that is moved only by self-love or by fear has not yet entered into the Christian life at all. And any attention to the truth of God, which originates in these motives, has no absolute moral value and cannot be regarded as even a beginning of salvation. Nothing but holiness and love are entitled to be called Christianity and these the truth of itself cannot summon up. The Spirit of God must go with the truth to impart right desires and to make the truth effective. E. G. Robinson: “The glory of our salvation can no more be attributed to the word of God only, than the glory of a Praxiteles or a Canova can be ascribed to the chisel or the mallet with which he wrought into beauty his immortal creations.”

C. The immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, as the efficient cause of regeneration.

In ascribing to the Holy Spirit the authorship of regeneration, we do not affirm that the divine Spirit accomplishes his work without any accompanying instrumentality. We simply assert that the power, which regenerates, is the power of God and that although conjoined with the use of means, there is a direct operation of this power upon the sinner’s heart, which changes its moral character. We add two remarks by way of further explanation: (a) The Scriptural assertions of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and of his mighty power in the soul forbid us to regard the divine Spirit in regeneration as coming in contact, not with the soul, but only with the truth. The phrases, “to energize the truth,” “to intensify the truth,” “to illuminate the truth,” have no proper meaning since even God cannot make the truth more true. If any change is wrought, it must be wrought, not in the truth, but in the soul.

The maxim, “Truth is mighty and will prevail,” is very untrue, if God is left out of the account. Truth without God is an abstraction and not a power. It is a mere instrument, useless without an agent. “The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God” ( Ephesians 6:17), must be wielded by the Holy Spirit himself. And the Holy Spirit comes in contact, not simply with the instrument, but with the soul. To all moral, and especially to all religious truth, there is an inward insusceptibility, arising from the perversity of the affections and the will. This blindness and hardness of heart must be removed, before the soul can perceive or be moved by the truth. Hence the Spirit must deal directly with the soul.

Denovan: “Our natural hearts are hearts of stone. The word of God is good seed sown on the hard, trodden, macadamized highway, which the horses of passion, the asses of self-will, the wagons of imaginary treasure have made impenetrable. Only the Holy Spirit can soften and pulverize this soil.”

The Psalmist prays: “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies” ( <19B936> Psalm 119:36), while of Lydia it is said: “whose heart the Lord opened to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul” ( Acts 16:14). We may say of the Holy Spirit: “He freezes and then melts the soil, He breaks the hard, cold stone, Kills out the rooted weeds so vile, All this he does alone; And every virtue we possess. And every victory won, And every thought of holiness, Are his, and his alone.” Hence, in Psalm 90:16,17, the Psalmist says, first: “Let thy work appear unto thy servants then “establish thou the work of our hands upon us” — God’s work is first to appear, then man’s work, which is God’s work carried out by human instruments. At Jericho, the force was not applied to the rams’ horns but to the walls. When Jesus healed the blind man, his power was applied, not to the spittle, but to the eyes. The impression is prepared, not by heating the seal, but by softening the wax. So God’s power acts, not upon the truth, but upon the sinner. Psalm 59:10 — “My God with his loving kindness will meet me”; A.V. — “The God of my mercy shall prevent me,” i. e., go before me.

Augustine urges this text as proof that the grace of God precedes all merit of man: “What didst thou find in me but only sins? Before I do anything good, his mercy will go before me. What will unhappy Pelagius answer here?” Calvin however says this may be a pious, but it is not a fair, use of the passage. The passage does teach dependence upon God but God’s anticipation of our action, or in other words, the doctrine of prevenient grace, must be derived from other portions of Scripture, such as John 1:13, and Ephesians 2:10. “The enthusiasm of humanity” to which J.

R. Seeley, the author of Ecce Homo, exhorts us, is doubtless the secret of happiness and usefulness. Unfortunately he does not tell us whence it may come. John Stuart Mill felt the need of it, but he did not get it. Arthur Hugh Clough, Clergyman’s First Tale: “Would I could wish my wishes all to rest, And know to wish the wish that were the best.” Bradford, Heredity, 228 — “God is the environment of the soul, yet man has free will. Light fills the spaces, yet a man from ignorance may remain in a cave, or from choice may dwell in darkness.” Man needs therefore a divine influence, which will beget in him a disposition to use his opportunities aright.

We may illustrate the philosophy of revivals by the canal boat, which lies before the gate of a lock. No power on earth can open the lock. But soon the lock begins to fill, and when the water has reached the proper level, the gate can be opened almost at a touch. Or, a steamer runs into a sandbar. Tugs fail to pull the vessel off. Her own engines cannot accomplish it. But when the tide comes in, she swings free without effort.

So what we need in religion is an influx of spiritual influence, which will make easy what before is difficult if not impossible. The Superintendent of a New York State Prison tells us that the common schools furnish per cent and the colleges and academies over 4 per cent of the inmates of Auburn and Sing Sing. Truth without the Holy Spirit to apply it is like sunshine without the actinic ray, which alone can give it vitalizing energy. (b) Even if truth could be energized, intensified, illuminated, there would still be needed a change in the moral disposition, before the soul could recognize its beauty or be affected by it. No mere increase of light can enable a blind man to see; the disease of the eye must first be cured before external objects are visible. So God’s work in regeneration must be performed within the soul itself. Over and above all influence of the truth, there must be a direct influence of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. Although wrought in conjunction with the presentation of truth to the intellect, regeneration differs from moral suasion in being an immediate act of God.

Before regeneration, man’s knowledge of God is the blind man’s knowledge of color. The Scriptures call such knowledge “ignorance” ( Ephesians 4:18). The heart does not appreciate God’s mercy.

Regeneration gives an experimental or heart knowledge. See Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:495; Isaiah 50:4 — God “wakeneth mine ear to hear.” It is false to say that soul can come in contact with soul only through the influence of truth. In the intercourse of dear friends, or in the discourse of the orator, there is a personal influence, distinct from the word spoken, which persuades the heart and conquers the will. We sometimes call it “magnetism,” — but we mean simply that soul reaches soul, in ways apart from the use of physical intermediaries. Compare the facts, imperfectly known as yet, of second sight, mind reading, clairvoyance. But whether these be accepted or not, it still is true that God has not made the human soul so that it is inaccessible to himself. The omnipresent Spirit penetrates and pervades all spirits that have been made by him. See Lotze, Outlines of Psychology (Ladd), 142, 143.

In the primary change of disposition, which is the most essential feature of regeneration, the Spirit of God acts directly upon the spirit of man. In the securing of the initial exercise of this new disposition — which constitutes the secondary feature of God’s work of regeneration — the truth is used as a means. Hence, perhaps, in James 1:18, we read: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” instead of “he begat us by the word of truth,” — the reference being to the secondary, not to the primary, feature of regeneration. The advocates of the opposite view — the view that God works only through the truth as a means, and that his only influence upon the soul is a moral influence — very naturally deny the mystical union of the soul with Christ. Squier, for example, in his Autobiography, 343-378, esp. 360, on the Spirit’s influences, quotes John 16:8 — he “will convict the world in respect of sin” — to show that God regenerates by applying truth to men’s minds, so far as to convince them, by fair and sufficient arguments, that they are sinners.

Christ, opening blind eyes and unstopping deaf ears, illustrates the nature of God’s operation in regeneration, in the case of the blind, there is plenty of light, — what is wanted is sight. The Negro convert said that his conversion was due to himself and God: he fought against God with all his might, and God did the rest. So our moral successes are due to ourselves and God, we have done only the fighting against God, and God has done the rest. The sand of Sahara would not bring forth flowers and fruit, even if you turned into it a hundred rivers like the Nile. Man may hear sermons for a lifetime, and still be barren of all spiritual growths. The soil of the heart needs to be changed, and the good seed of the kingdom needs to be planted there.

For the view that truth is “energized” or “intensified” by the Holy Spirit, see Phelps, New Birth,61, 121; Walker, Philosophy of Plan of Salvation, chap. 18. Per Contra, see Wardlaw, Systematic Theology, 3:24, 25; E.

D. Griffin, Divine Efficiency, 73-116; Anderson, Regeneration, 123-168; Edwards, Works, 2:547-597; Chalmers, Lectures on Romans, chap. 1; Payne, Divine Sovereignty, lect. 23:363-367; Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3:3-37, 466-485. On the whole subject of the Efficient Cause of Regeneration, see Hopkins, Works, 454; Dwight, Theology, 2:418-429; John Owen, Works, 3:282-297, 366-538; Robert Hall, Sermon on the Cause, Agent, and Purpose of Regeneration. 4. The Instrumentality used in Regeneration.

A. The Roman, English and Lutheran churches hold that regeneration is accomplished through the instrumentality of baptism. The Disciples, followers of Alexander Campbell, make regeneration include baptism, as well as repentance and faith. To the view that baptism is a. means of regeneration we urge the following objections: (a) The Scriptures represent baptism to be not the means but only the sign of regeneration, and therefore to presuppose and follow regeneration. For this reason only, believers — that is, persons giving credible evidence of being regenerated — were baptized ( Acts 8:12). Not external baptism, but the conscientious turning of the soul to God which baptism symbolizes, saves us 1 Peter 3:21 — suneidh>sewv ajgaqh~v, ejperw>thma). Texts like John 3:5, Acts 2:38, Colossians 2:12, Titus 3:5, are to be explained upon the principle that regeneration, the inward change, and baptism, the outward sign of that change, were regarded as only different sides or aspects of the same fact. Either side or aspect might therefore be described in terms derived from the other. (b) Upon this view, there is a striking incongruity between the nature of the change to be wrought and the means employed to produce it. The change is a spiritual one, but the means are physical. It is far more rational to suppose that, in changing the character of intelligent beings, God uses means, which have relation to their intelligence. The view we are considering is part and parcel of a general scheme of mechanical rather than moral salvation, and is more consistent with a materialistic than with a spiritual philosophy. Acts 8:12 — “when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized” 1 Peter 3:21 — “which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation [margin — ‘inquiry’, ‘appeal’] of a good conscience toward God” = the inquiry of the soul after God, the conscientious turning of the soul to God.

Plumptre, however, makes ejperw>thma a forensic term equivalent to “examination,” and including both question and answer. It means, then, the open answer of allegiance to Christ, given by the new convert to the constituted officers of the church. “That which is of the essence of the saving power of baptism is the confession and the profession which precede it. If this comes from a conscience that really renounces sin and believes on Christ, then baptism, as the channel through which the grace of the new birth is conveyed and the convert admitted into the church of Christ. ‘saves us,’ but not otherwise.” We may adopt this statement from Plumptre’s Commentary with the alteration of the word “conveyed” into “symbolized” or “manifested.” Plumptre’s interpretation is, as he seems to admit, in its obvious meaning inconsistent with infant baptism; to us it seems equally inconsistent with any doctrine of baptismal regeneration.

Scriptural regeneration is God’s (1) changing man’s disposition, and (2) securing its first exercise. Regeneration, according to the Disciples, is man’s (1) repentance and faith, and (2) submission to baptism. Alexander Campbell, Christianity Restored: “We plead that all the converting power of the Holy Spirit is exhibited in the divine Record.” Address of Disciples to Ohio Baptist State Convention, 1871: “With us regeneration includes all that is comprehended in faith, repentance, and baptism, and so far as it is expressive of birth, it belongs more properly to the last of these than to either of the former.” But if baptism be the instrument of regeneration, it is difficult to see how the patriarchs, or the penitent thief, could have been regenerated. Luke 23:43 — “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Bossuet: “‘This day’ what promptitude! ‘With me’ — what companionship! ‘In Paradise’ — what rest!” Bersier: “‘This day — what then? no flames of Purgatory? no long period of mournful expiation? ‘This day’ — pardon and heaven!”

Baptism is a condition of being outwardly in the kingdom; it is not a condition at being inwardly in the kingdom. The confounding of these two led many in the early church to dread dying without having been baptized, rather than dying unsaved. Even Pascal, in later times, held that participation in outward ceremonies might lead to real conversion. He probably meant that an initial act of holy will would tend to draw others in its train. Similarly we urge unconverted people to take some step that will manifest religious interest. We hope that in taking this step a new decision of the will, inwrought by she Spirit of God may reveal itself. But a religion, which consists only in such outward performances is justly denominated a coetaneous religion, for it is only skin deep. On John 3:5 — “Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”; Acts 2:38 — “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins”; Colossians 2:12 — “buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith”; Titus 3:5 — “saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” — see further discussion and exposition in our chapter on the Ordinances. Adkins, Disciples and Baptists, a booklet published by the Am. Bap. Pub. Society, is the best statement of the Baptist position, as distinguished from that of the Disciples. It claims that Disciples overrate the externals of Christianity and underrate the work of the Holy Spirit. Per contra, see Gates, Disciples and Baptists.

B. The Scriptural view is that regeneration, so far as it secures an activity of man, is accomplished through the instrumentality of the truth. Although the Holy Spirit does not in any way illuminate the truth, he does illuminate the mind, so that it can perceive the truth. In conjunction with the change of man’s inner disposition, there is an appeal to man’s rational nature through the truth. Two inferences may be drawn: (a) Man is not wholly passive at the time of his regeneration. He is passive only with respect to the change of his ruling disposition. With respect to the exercise of this disposition, he is active. Although the efficient power which secures this exercise of the new disposition is the power of God, yet man is not therefore unconscious, nor is he a mere machine worked by God’s fingers. On the other hand, his whole moral nature under God’s working is alive and active. We reject the “exercise-system,” which regards God as the direct author of all man’s thoughts, feelings, and volition, not only in its general tenor, but also in its special application to regeneration.

Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:503 — “A dead man cannot assist in his own resurrection.” This is true so far as the giving of life is concerned.

But once made alive, man can, like Lazarus, obey Christ’s command and “come forth” ( John 11:43). In fact, if he does not obey, there is no evidence that there is spiritual life. “In us is God; we burn but as he moves” — “Est deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo.” Wireless telegraphy requires an attuned receiver; regeneration attunes the soul so that it vibrates responsively to God and receives the communications of his truth. When a convert came to Rowland Hill and claimed that she had been converted in a dream, he replied: “We will see how you walk, now that you are awake.”

Lord Bacon said he would open every one of Argus’s hundred eyes, before he opened one of Briareus’s hundred hands. If God did not renew men’s hearts in connection with our preaching of the truth, we might well give up our ministry. E. G. Robinson: “The conversion of a soul is just as much according to law as the raising of a crop of turnips.” Simon, Reconciliation, 377 — “Though the mere preaching of the gospel is not the cause of the conversion and revivification of men, it is a necessary condition. It is as necessary as the action of light and heat, or other physical agencies, are on a germ, if it is to develop, grow, and bear its proper fruit.” (b) The activity of man’s mind in regeneration is activity in view of the truth. God secures the initial exercise of the new disposition, which he has wrought in man’s heart in connection with the use of truth as a means.

Here we perceive the link between the efficiency of God and the activity of man. Only as the sinner’s mind is brought into contact with the truth, does God complete his regenerating work. And as the change of inward disposition and the initial exercise of it are never, so far as we know, separated by any interval of time, we can say, in general, that Christian work is successful only as it commends the truth to every man’s conscience in the sight of God ( 2 Corinthians 4:2).

In Ephesians 1:17,18, there is recognized the divine illumination of the mind to behold the truth — “may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, That ye may know what is the hope of his calling.” On truth as a means of regeneration, see Hovey, Outlines, 192, who quotes Cunningham, Historical Theology, 1:617 — “Regeneration may be taken in a limited sense as including only the first impartation of spiritual life. It may also be taken in a wider sense as comprehending the whole of that process by which he is renewed or made over again in the whole man after the image of God, i. e., as including the production of saving faith and union to Christ. Only in the first sense did the Reformers maintain that man in the process was wholly passive and not active. They did not dispute that, before the process in the second and more enlarged sense was completed, man was spiritually alive and active, and continued so ever after during the whole process of his sanctification.”

Dr. Hovey suggests an apt illustration of these two parts of the Holy Spirit’s work and their union in regeneration. At the same time that God makes the photographic plate sensitive, he pours in the light of truth whereby the image of Christ is formed in the soul. Without the “sensitizing” of the plate, it would never fix the rays of light so as to retain the image. In the process of “sensitizing,” the plate is passive and under the influence of light, it is active. In both the “sensitizing” and the taking of the picture, the real agent is not the plate nor the light, but the photographer. The photographer cannot perform both operations at the same moment. God can. He gives the new affection and at the same instant he secures its exercise in view of the truth.

For denial of the instrumentality of truth in regeneration, see Pierce, in Bap. Quar., Jan. 1872:52. Per contra, see Anderson, Regeneration, 89- 122. H. B. Smith holds middle ground. He says: “In adults it [regeneration] is wrought most frequently by the word of God as the instrument. Believing that infants may be regenerated, we cannot assert that it is tied to the word of God absolutely.” We prefer to say that, if infants are regenerated, they also are regenerated in conjunction with some influence of truth upon the mind, dim as the recognition of it may be. Otherwise we break the Scriptural connection between regeneration and conversion, and open the way for faith in a physical, magical, sacramental salvation. Squier, Autobiography, 368, says well, of the theory of regeneration which makes man purely passive, that it has a benumbing effect upon preaching: “The lack of expectation unnerves the efforts of the preacher; an impression of the fortuitous presence neutralizes his “engagedness”. This antinomian dependence on the Spirit extracts all vitality from the pulpit and sense of responsibility from the hearer, and makes preaching an opus operatum, like the baptismal regeneration of the formalist.” Only of the first element in regeneration are Shedd’s words true: “A dead man cannot assist in his own resurrection” (Dogmatic Theology, 2:503).

Squier goes to the opposite extreme of regarding the truth alone as the cause of regeneration. His words are, none the less, a valuable protest against the view that regeneration is so entirely due to God that in no part of it is man active. It was with a better view that Luther cried: “O that we might multiply living books, that is, preachers!” And the preacher is successful only as he possesses and unfolds the truth. John took the little book from the Covenant angel’s hand and ate it (Revelations 10:8-11). So he who is to preach God’s truth must feed upon it, until it has become his own. For the Exercise-system, see Emmons, Works, 4:339-411; Hagenbach, Hist. Doct., 2:439. 5. The Nature of the Change wrought in Regeneration.

A. It is a change in which the governing disposition is made holy. This implies that: (a) It is not a change in the substance of either body or soul. Regeneration is not a physical change. There is no physical seed or germ implanted in man’s nature. Regeneration does not add to, or subtract from, the number of man’s intellectual, emotional or voluntary faculties. But regeneration is the giving of a new direction or tendency to powers of affection which man possessed before. Man had the faculty of love before but his love was supremely set on self. In regeneration the direction of that faculty is changed and his love is now set supremely upon God. Ephesians 2:10 — “created in Christ Jesus for good works” — does not imply that the old soul is annihilated, and a new soul created. The “old man” which is “crucified” — ( Romans 6:6) and “put away”( Ephesians 4:22) is simply the sinful bent of the affections and will. When this direction of the dispositions is changed, and becomes holy, we can call the change a new birth of the old nature, because the same faculties that acted before are acting now, the only difference being that now these faculties are set toward God and purity. Or, regarding the change from another point of view, we may speak of man as having a “new nature,” as being “recreated,” as being a “new creature.” Because this direction of the affection and will, which ensures a different life from what was led before, it is something totally new, and due wholly to the regenerating act of God. In 1 Peter 1:23 — “begot-ten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible” — all materialistic inferences from the word “seed,” as if it implied the implantation of a physical germ, are prevented by the following explanatory words: “through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.”

So, too, when we describe regeneration as the communication of a new life to the soul, we should not conceive of this new life as a substance imparted or infused into us. The new life is rather a new direction and activity of our own affections and will. There is indeed a union of the soul with Christ; Christ dwells in the renewed heart. Christ’s entrance into the soul is the cause and accompaniment of its regeneration. But this entrance of Christ into the soul is not itself regeneration. We must distinguish the effect from the cause; otherwise we shall be in danger of a pantheistic confounding of our own personality and life with the personality and life of Christ. Christ is indeed our life, in the sense of being the cause and supporter of our life, but he is not our life in the sense that, after our union with him, our individuality ceases. The effect of union with Christ is rather that our individuality is enlarged and exalted ( John 10:10 — “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” See page 799, (c) .

We must therefore take with a grain of allowance the generally excellent words of A. J. Gordon, Twofold Life,22 — “Regeneration is the communication of the divine nature to man by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the word ( 2 Peter 1:4). As Christ was made partaker of human nature by incarnation, that so he might enter into truest fellowship with us, we are made partakers of the divine nature, by regeneration, that we may enter into truest fellowship with God. Regeneration is not a change of nature, i . e., a natural heart bettered. Eternal life is not natural life prolonged into endless duration. It is the divine life imparted to us, the very life of God communicated to the human soul and bringing forth there its proper fruit.” Dr. Gordon’s view that regeneration adds a new substance or faculty to the soul is the result of making literal the Scripture metaphors of creation and life. This turning of symbol into fact accounts for his tendency toward annihilation doctrine in the case of the unregenerate, toward faith cure and the belief that prayer can removed all physical evils. E. H. Johnson, The Holy Spirit: “Regeneration is a change, not in the quantity, but in the quality, of the soul.” E. G. Robinson, Christian Theology, 320 — “Regeneration consists in a divinely wrought change in the moral affections.”

So, too, we would criticize the doctrine of Drummond, Nat. Law in the Spir. World: “People forget the persistence of force. Instead of transforming energy, they try to create it. We must either depend on environment, or be self-sufficient. The ‘cannot bear fruit of itself’ ( John 15:4) is the ‘cannot’ of natural law. Natural fruit flourishes with air and sunshine. The difference between the Christian and the non- Christian is the difference between the organic and the inorganic. The Christian has all the characteristics of life: assimilation, waste, reproduction and spontaneous action.” See criticism of Drummond, by Murphy, in Brit. Quar., 1884:118-125 — “As in resurrection there is a physical connection with the old body, so in regeneration there is a natural connection with the old soul.” Also, Brit. Quar., July, 1880, art.:

Evolution Viewed in Relation to Theology — “The regenerating agency of the Spirit of God is symbolized, not by the vitalization of dead matter, but by the agency of the organizing intelligence which guides the evolution of living beings.” Murphy’s answer to Drummond is republished. Murphy’s Natural Selection and Spiritual Freedom, 1-33 — “The will can no more create force, either muscular or mental, than it can create matter. And it is equally true that for our spiritual nourishment and spiritual force we are altogether dependent on our spiritual environment, which is God.” In “dead matter” there is no sin.

Drummond would imply that, as matter has no promise or potency of life and is not responsible for being without life (or “dead,” to use his misleading word) and, if it ever is to live must wait for the life giving influence to come unsought, so the human soul is not responsible for being spiritually dead. It cannot seek for life so it must passively wait for the Spirit. Plymouth Brethren generally hold the same view with Drummond, that regeneration adds something — as vitality — to the substance of the soul. Christ is transubstantiated into the soul’s substance; or, the pneu~ma is added. But we have given over talking of vitality as if it were a substance or faculty. We regard it as merely a mode of action. Evolution, moreover, uses what already exists, so far as it will go, instead of creating new as in the miracle of the loaves, and as in the original creation of man, so in his recreation or regeneration. Dr. Charles Hodge also makes the same mistake in calling regeneration an “origination of the principle of the spirit of life, just as literal and real a creation as the origination of the principle of natural life.” This, too, makes Scripture metaphor literal and ignores the fact that the change accomplished in regeneration is an exclusively moral one. There is indeed a new entrance of Christ into the soul, or a new exercise of his spiritual power within the soul. But the effect of Christ’s working is not to add any new faculty or substance, but only to give new direction to already existing powers. (b) Regeneration involves an enlightenment of the understanding and a rectification of the volition. But it seems most consonant with Scripture and with a correct psychology to regard these changes as immediate and necessary consequences of the change of disposition already mentioned, rather than as the primary and central facts in regeneration. The taste for truth logically precedes perception of the truth, and love for God logically precedes obedience to God indeed, without love no obedience is possible.

Reverse the lever of affection and this moral locomotive, without further change, will move away from sin and toward truth and God.

Texts which seem to imply that a right taste, disposition, affection, logically precedes both knowledge of God and obedience to God, are the following: Psalm 34:8 — “Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good”; 119:36 — “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies”; Jeremiah 24:7 — “I will give them a heart to know me”; Matthew 5:8 — “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”; John 7:17 — “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God”; Acts 16:14 — of Lydia it is said: “whose heart the Lord opened to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul”; Ephesians 1:18 — “having the eyes of your heart enlightened.” “Change the center of a circle and you change the place and direction of all its radii.”

The text John 1:12,13 — “But as many as received him, to them gave him the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God seems at first sight to imply that faith is the condition of regeneration, and therefore prior to it. “But if ejxousi>an here signifies the ‘right’ or ‘privilege’ of son-ship, it is a right which may presuppose faith as the work of the Spirit in regeneration — a work apart from which no genuine faith exists in the soul. But it is possible that John means to say that, in the case of all who received Christ, their power to believe was given to them by him. In the original the emphasis is on ‘gave,’ and this is shown by the order of the words.” See Hovey, Manual of Theology, 345, and Com. on John 1:12,13 — “The meaning would then be this: ‘Many did not receive him but some did. As to all who received him, he gave them grace by which they were enabled to do this, and so to become God’s children,”’ Ruskin: “The first and last and closest trial question to any living creature is, ‘What do you like?’ Go out into the street and ask the first man you meet what his taste is, and, if he answers candidly, you know him body and soul. What we like determines what we are, and is the sign of what we are and to teach taste is inevitably to form character.” If the taste here spoken of is moral and spiritual taste, the words of Ruskin are sober truth.

Regeneration is essentially a changing of the fundamental taste of the soul. But, by taste we mean the direction of man’s love, the bent of his affections, the trend of his will. And to alter that taste is not to impart a new faculty or to create a new substance but simply to set toward God the affections, which hitherto have been set upon self and sin. We may illustrate by the engineer who climbs over the cab into a runaway locomotive and who changes its course, not by adding any new rod or cog to the machine, but simply by reversing the lever. The engine slows up and soon moves in an opposite direction to that in which it has been going.

Man needs no new faculty of love; he needs only to have his love set in a new and holy direction. This is virtually to give him a new birth, to make him a new creature, to impart to him a new life. But being born again, created anew, made alive from the dead, are physical metaphors, to be interpreted not literally but spiritually. (c) It is objected, indeed, that we know only of mental substance and of mental acts and that the new disposition or state just mentioned, since it is not an act, must be regarded as a new substance and so they lack all moral quality. But we reply that, besides substance and acts, there are habits, tendencies and proclivities (some of them native and some of them acquired). They are voluntary and have moral character. If we can by repeated acts originate sinful tendencies, God can surely originate in us holy tendencies. Such holy tendencies formed a part of the nature of Adam, as he came from the hand of God. As the result of the Fall, we are born with tendencies toward evil for which we are responsible. Regeneration is a restoration of the original tendencies toward God, which were lost by the Fall. Such holy tendencies (tastes, dispositions and affections) are not only not immoral — they are the only possible springs of right moral action.

Only in the restoration of them does man become truly free. Matthew 12:33 — “Make the tree good, and its fruit good”; Ephesians 2:10 — “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” The tree is first made good — the character renewed in its fundamental principle, love to God — in the certainty that when this is done the fruit will be good also. Good works are the necessary result of regeneration by union with Christ. Regeneration introduces a new force into humanity, the force of a new love. The work of the preacher is that of cooperation with God in the impartation of a new life. This is a work far more radical and is more noble than that of moral reform, by as much as the origination of a new force is more radical and more noble than the guidance of that force after it has been originated. Does regeneration cure disease and remove physical ills? Primarily, no it does not. Matthew 1:21 — “thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.”

Salvation from sin is Christ’s first and main work. He performed physical healing only to illustrate and further the healing of the soul. Hence in the case of the paralytic, when he was expected to cure the body, he said first: “thy sins are forgiven” ( Matthew 9:2); but, that they who stood by might not doubt his power to forgive, he added the raising up of the palsied man. And ultimately in every redeemed man the holy heart will bring in its train the perfected body: Romans 8:23 — “we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

On holy affection as the spring of holy action, see especially Edwards, Religious Affections, in Works, 3:1-21. This treatise is Jonathan Edwards’s Confessions, as much as if it were directly addressed to the Deity. Allen, his biographer, calls it “a work, which will not suffer by comparison with the work of great teachers in theology, whether ancient or modern.” President Timothy Dwight regarded it as most worthy of preservation next to the Bible. See also Hodge, Essays and Reviews, 1:48; Owen n the Holy Spirit, in Works, 3:297-336; Charnock on Regeneration; Andrew Fuller, Works, 2:461-471, 512-560, and 3:796; Bellamy, Works, 2:502; Dwight, Works, 2:418; Woods, Works, 3:1-21; Anderson, Regeneration, 21-50.

B. It is an instantaneous change, in a region of the soul below consciousness, and is therefore known only in its results. (a) It is an instantaneous change. Regeneration is not a gradual work.

Although there may be a gradual work of God’s providence and Spirit preparing the change and a gradual recognition of it after it has taken place. There must be an instant of time when, under the influence of God’s Spirit, the disposition of the soul, just before hostile to God, is changed to love. Any other view assumes an intermediate state of indecision, which has no moral character at all and confounds regeneration either with conviction or with sanctification.

Conviction of sin is an ordinary, if not an invariable, antecedent of regeneration. It results from the contemplation of truth. It is often accompanied by fear, remorse and cries for mercy. But these desires and fears are not signs of regeneration. They are selfish. They are quite consistent with manifest and dreadful enmity to God.

They have a hopeful aspect, simply because they are evidence that the Holy Spirit is striving with the soul. But this work of the Spirit is not yet regeneration. At most, it is preparation for regeneration. So far as the sinner is concerned, he is more of a sinner than ever before. Because, under more light, than has ever before been given him, he is still rejecting Christ and resisting the Spirit. The word of God and the Holy Spirit appeal to lower as well as appeal to higher motives. Most men’s concern about religion is determined, at the outset, by hope or fear. See Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:512.

All these motives, though they are not the highest, are yet proper motives to influence the soul; it is right to seek God from motives of self-interest and because we desire heaven. But the seeking, which not only begins but ends upon this lower plane, is never successful. Until the soul gives itself to God from motives of love, it is never saved. And so long as these preliminary motives rule, regeneration has not yet taken place. Bible reading and prayers, and church attendance and partial reformations are certainly better than apathy or out breaking sin. They may be signs that God is working in the soul. But without complete surrender to God, they may be accompanied with the greatest guilt and the greatest danger.

Simply because, under such influences, the withholding of submission implies the most active hatred to God and opposition to his will. Instance cases of outward reformation that preceded regeneration, like that of John Bunyan, who left off swearing before his conversion. Park: “The soul is a monad and must turn all at once. If we are standing on the line, we are yet unregenerate. We are regenerate only when we cross it.” There is a prevenient grace as well as a regenerating grace. Wendelius indeed distinguished five kinds of grace, namely, prevenient, preparatory, operant, cooperative and perfecting.

While in some cases God’s preparatory work occupies a long time, there are many cases in which he cuts short his work in righteousness ( Romans 9:28). Some persons are regenerated in infancy or childhood cannot remember a time when they did not love Christ and yet take long to learn that they are regenerate. Others are convicted and converted suddenly in mature years. The best proof of regeneration is not the memory of a past experience, however vivid and startling, but rather a present inward love for Christ, his holiness, his servants, his work and his word. Much sympathy should be given to those who have been early converted, but who, from timidity, self-distrust, or the faults of inconsistent church members, have been deterred from joining themselves with Christian people and so have lost all hope and joy in their religious lives. Instance the man who, though converted in a revival of religion, was injured by a professed Christian. He became a recluse but cherished the memory of his dead wife and child, kept the playthings of the one and the clothing of the other and left directions to have them buried with him.

As there is danger of confounding regeneration with preparatory influences of God’s Spirit, so there is danger of confounding regeneration with sanctification. Sanctification, as the development of the new affection, is gradual and progressive. But no beginning is progressive or gradual and regeneration is a beginning of the new affection. We may gradually come to the knowledge that a new affection exists, but the knowledge of a beginning is one thing, the beginning itself is another thing. Luther had experienced a change of heart, long before he knew its meaning or could express his new feelings in scientific form. It is not in the sense of a gradual regeneration, but in the sense of a gradual recognition of the fact of regeneration and a progressive enjoyment of its results that “the path of the righteous” is said to be “as the dawning light” — the morning-dawn that begins in faintness, but — “that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” ( Proverbs 4:18). Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4 — “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.” Here the recognition of God’s work is described as gradual; that the work itself is instantaneous, appears from the following verse 6 — “Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” Illustrate by the unconscious crossing of the line, which separates one State of the Federal Union from another. From this doctrine of instantaneous regeneration, we may infer the duty of reaping as well as of sowing: John4:38 — “Is onto you to reap.” “It is a mistaken notion that it takes God a long time to give increase to the seed planted in a sinner’s heart. This grows out of the idea that regeneration is a matter of being trained because a soul must be educated from a lost state into a state of salvation. Let us remember that three thousand, whom in the morning Peter called murderers of Christ, were before night regenerated and baptized members of his church.” Drummond, in his Nat. Law in the Spir.

World, remarks upon the “humaness” of sudden conversion. As selflimitation, self-mortification, suicide of the old nature, it is well to have it at once done and over with and not to die by degrees. (b) This change takes place in the region of the soul below consciousness.

It is by no means true that, in regeneration, the subject of it always recognizes God’s work but, on the other hand, it is never directly perceived at all. The working of God in the human soul, since it contravenes no law of man’s being, but rather puts him in the full and normal possession of his own powers, is secret and inscrutable. Although man is conscious, he is not conscious of God’s regenerating agency.

We know our own natural existence only through the phenomena of thought and sense. So we know our own spiritual existence, as new creatures in Christ, only through the new feelings and experiences of the soul. “The will does not need to act solitarily, in order to act freely.” God acts on the will, and the resulting holiness is true freedom. John 8:38 — “If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” We have the consciousness of freedom but the act of God in giving us this freedom is beyond or beneath our consciousness.

Both Luther and Calvin used the word regeneration in a loose way, confounding it with sanctification. After the Federalists made a distinct doctrine of it, Calvinists in general came to treat it separately. And John Wesley rescued it from identification with sacraments by showing its connection with the truth. E. G. Robinson: “Regeneration is, in one sense instantaneous, in another sense not. There is necessity of some sort of knowledge in regeneration. The doctrine of Christ crucified is the fit instrument. The object of religion is to produce a sound rather than an emotional experience. Revivals of religion are valuable in just the proportion in which they produce rational conviction and permanently righteous action.” But none are left unaffected by them. “An arm of the magnetic needle must be attracted to the magnetic pole of the earth, or it must be repelled; there is no such thing as indifference. Modern materialism, refusing to say that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, is led to declare that the hate of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Diesselhoff, Die klassische Poesie, 8). (c) This change, however, is recognized indirectly in its results. At the moment of regeneration, the soul is conscious only of the truth and of its own exercises with reference to it. That God is the author of its new affection is an inference from the new character of the exercises, which it prompts. The human side or aspect of regeneration is Conversion. This and the Sanctification (including the special gifts of the Holy Spirit) which follows it are the sole evidences in any particular case that regeneration is an accomplished fact.

Regeneration, though it is the birth of a perfect child, is still the birth of a child. The child is to grow, and the growth is sanctification. In other words, sanctification, as we shall see, is simply the strengthening and development of the holy affection which begins its existence in regeneration. Hence the subject of the epistle to the Romans — salvation by faith — includes not only justification by faith (chapters 1-7) but sanctification by faith (chapters 8-16). On evidences of regeneration, see Anderson, Regeneration, 169-214, 227-295; Woods, Works, 44-55. The transition from justification by faith to sanctification by faith is in chapter 8 of the epistle to the Romans. That begins by declaring that there is no condemnation in Christ, and ends by declaring that there is no separation from Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit follows upon the work of Christ.

See Godet on the epistle.

The doctrine of Alexander Campbell was a protest against laying an unscriptural emphasis on emotional states as evidences of regeneration — a protest which certain mystical and antinomian exaggerations of evangelical teaching very justly provoked. But Campbell went to the opposite extreme of practically excluding emotion from religion and of confining the work of the Holy Spirit to the conscious influence of the truth. Disciples need to recognize a power of the Holy Spirit exerted below consciousness in order to explain the conscious acceptance of Christ and of his salvation.

William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 271 — “If we should conceive that the human mind, with its different possibilities of equilibrium, might be like a many sided solid with different surfaces on which it could lie flat, we might liken mental revolutions to the spatial revolutions of such a body. As it is pried up by a lever, which lies on surface A, it will linger for a time unstably half way up. Should the lever cease to urge it, it will tumble back or relapse, under the continued pull of gravity. But if at last it rotate far enough for its center of gravity to pass beyond the surface A altogether, the body will fall over, on surface B and will abide there permanently. The pulls of gravity towards A have vanished and may now be disregarded. The polyhedron has become immune against further attraction from this direction.”

III. CONVERSION.

Conversion is that voluntary change in the mind of the sinner, in which he turns, on the one hand, from sin, and on the other hand, to Christ. The former or negative element in conversion, namely, the turning from sin, we denominate repentance. The Latter or positive element in conversion, namely, the turning to Christ, we denominate faith.

For account of repentance and faith as elements of conversion, see Andrew Fuller, Works, 1:666; Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 3d ed., 201-206. The two elements of conversion seem to be in the mind of Paul, when he writes in Romans 6:11 — “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus”; Colossians 3:3 — “ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God Cf. ajpostre>fw, in Acts 3:26 — “in turning away every one of you from your iniquities,” with ejpistre>fw in Acts 11:21 — “believed” and “turned unto the Lord.” A candidate for ordination was once asked which came first: regeneration or conversion. He replied very correctly: “Regeneration and conversion are like the cannonball and the hole — they both go through together.” This is true however only as to their chronological relation.

Logically the ball is first and causes the hole, not the hole first and causes the ball. (a) Conversion is the human side or aspect of that fundamental spiritual change which, as viewed from the divine side, we call regeneration. It is simply man’s turning. The Scriptures recognize the voluntary activity of the human soul in this change as distinctly as they recognize the causative agency of God. While God turns men to himself ( Psalm 85:4; Song 1:4; Jeremiah 31:18; Lamentations 5:21), men are exhorted to turn themselves to God ( Proverbs 1:23; Isaiah 31:6; 59:20; Ezekiel 14:6; 18:32; 33:9, 11; Joel 2:12-14). While God is represented as the author of the new heart and the new spirit ( Psalm 51:10; Ezekial 11:19; 36:26), men are commanded to make for themselves a new heart and a new spirit ( Ezekiel 18:31; 2 Corinthians 7:1; cf . Philippians 2:12,13; Ephesians 5:14). Psalm 85:4 — “Turn us, O God of our salvation”; Song 1:4 — “Draw me, we will run after thee”; Jeremiah 31:18 — “turn thou me, and I shall he turned”; Lam. 5:21 — “Turn thou us unto thee, O Jehovah, and we shall he turned.” Proverbs 1:23 — “Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you”; Isaiah 31:6 — “Turn ye unto him from whom ye have deeply revolted, O children of Israel”; 59:20 — “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob”; Ezekiel 14:6 — “Return ye, and turn yourselves from your idols”; 18:32 — “ turn yourselves and live”; 33:9 — “if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not from his way, he shall die in his iniquity”; 11 — “turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Joel 2:12-14 — “turn ye unto me with all your heart.” Psalm 51:10 — “Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me”; Exodus 11:19 — “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh”; 36:26 — “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” Ezekiel 18:31 — “Cast any from you all your transgressions, wherein ye have transgressed; and make you anew heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” 2 Corinthians 7:1 — “Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God”; cf. Philippians 2:12,13 — “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure”: Ephesians 5:14 — “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.”

When asked the way to heaven, Bishop Wilberforce replied: “Take the first turn to the right, and go straight forward.” Phillips Brooks’s conversion is described by Professor Allen, Life, 1:266, as consisting in the resolve “to be true to himself, to renounce nothing which he knew to be good, and yet bring all things captive to the obedience of God, the absolute surrender of his will to God, in accordance with the example of Christ: ‘Lo, I am come...to do thy will, O God’ ( Hebrews 10:7).” (b) This twofold method of representation can be explained only when we remember that man’s powers may be interpenetrated and quickened by the divine, not only without destroying man’s freedom, but with the result of making man for the first time truly free. Since the relation between the divine and the human activity is not one of chronological succession, man is never to wait for God’s working. If he is ever regenerated, it must be in and through a movement of his own will, in which he turns to God as unconstrained and with as little consciousness of God’s operation upon him, as if no such operation of God were involved in the change. And in preaching, we are to press upon men the claims of God and their duty of immediate submission to Christ. It is with the certainty that they who do so submit will subsequently recognize this new and holy activity of their own wills as due to a working within them of divine power. <19B003> Psalm 110:3 — “Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power.” The act of God is accompanied by an activity of man.

Dorner: “God’s act initiates action.” There is, indeed an original changing of man’s tastes and of affections, and in this man is passive. But this is only the first aspect of regeneration. In the second aspect of it — the rousing of man’s powers — God’s action is accompanied by man’s activity and regeneration is but the obverse side of conversion. Luther’s word: “Man, in conversion, is purely passive” is true only of the first part of the change. By “conversion,” Luther means “regeneration.”

Melanchthon said better: “Non est enim coactio, ut voluntas non possit repugnare: trahit Deus, sed volentem trahit.” See Meyer on Romans 8:14 — “led by the Spirit of God”: “The expression,” Meyer says, “is passive, though without prejudice to the human will, as verse 13 proves: ‘by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body.”’ As, by a well known principle of hydrostatics, the water contained in a little tube can balance the water of a whole ocean, so God’s grace can be balanced by man’s will. As sunshine on the sand produces nothing unless man sow the seed and as a fair breeze does not propel the vessel unless man spread the sails, so the influences of God’s Spirit require human agencies and work through them. The Holy Spirit is sovereign, he bloweth where he listeth. Even though there be uniform human conditions, there will not be uniform spiritual results. Results are often independent of human conditions as such. This is the truth emphasized by Andrew Fuller.

But this does not prevent us from saying that, whenever God’s Spirit works in regeneration, there is always accompanying it a voluntary change in man, which we call conversion. This change is as free and as really man’s own work, as if there were no divine influence upon him.

Jesus told the man with the withered hand to stretch forth his hand; it was the man’s duty to stretch it forth, not to wait for strength from God to do it. Jesus told the man sick of the palsy to take up his bed and walk. It was that man’s duty to obey the command, not to pray for power to obey.

Depend wholly upon God? Yes, as you depend wholly upon wind when you sail, yet need to keep your sails properly set. “Work out your own salvation” comes first in the apostle’s exhortation. “For it is God who worketh in you” follows ( Philippians 2:12,13) which means that our first business is to use our wills in obedience then, we shall find that God has gone before us to prepare us to obey. Matthew 11:12 — “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force.” Conversion is like the invasion of a kingdom. Men are not to wait for God’s time, but to act at once. Not bodily exercises are required, but impassioned earnestness of soul. Wendt.

Teaching of Jesus, 2:49-56 — “Not injustice and violence, but energetic laying hold of a good to which they can make no claim. It is of no avail to wait idly or to seek laboriously to earn it but it is of avail to lay hold of it and to retain it. It is ready as a gift of God for men, but men must direct their desire and will toward it. The man who put on the wedding garment did not earn his share of the feast thereby, yet he did show the disposition without which he was not permitted to partake of it” James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 12 — “The two main phenomena of religion, they will say, are essentially phenomena of adolescence, and therefore synchronous with the development of sexual life. To which the retort is easy: Even were the asserted synchrony unrestrictedly true as a fact (which it is not), it is not only the sexual life, but the entire higher mental life, which awakens during adolescence. One might then as well set up the thesis that the interest in mechanics, physics, chemistry, logic, physiology and sociology, which springs up during adolescent years along with that in poetry and religion, is also a perversion of the sexual instinct but this would be too absurd. Moreover, if the argument from synchrony is to decide, what is to be done with the fact that the religious age par excellence would seem to be old age, when the uproar of the sexual life is past?” (c) From the fact that the word ‘conversion’ means simply ‘a turning,’ every turning of the Christian from sin, subsequent to the first, may, in a subordinate sense, be denominated a conversion ( Luke 22:32). Since regeneration is not complete sanctification and the change of governing disposition is not identical with complete purification of the nature, such subsequent turnings from sin are necessary consequences and evidences of the first (cf. John 13:10). But they do not, like the first, imply a change in the governing disposition, they are rather new manifestations of a disposition already changed. For this reason, conversion proper, like the regeneration of which it is the obverse side, can occur but once. The phrase ‘second conversion,’ even if it does not imply radical misconception of the nature of conversion, is misleading. We prefer, therefore, to describe these subsequent experiences, not by the term ‘conversion,’ but by such phrases as ‘breaking off, forsaking, returning from, neglects or transgressions,’ and ‘coming back to Christ, trusting anew in him.’ It is with repentance and faith, as elements in that first and radical change by which the soul enters upon a state of salvation, that we have now to do. Luke 22:31,32 — “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again [A.V.: ‘art converted’], establish thy brethren”; John 13:10 — “He that is bathed [has taken a full bath] needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit [as a whole].” Notice that Jesus here announces that only one regeneration is needed and that what follows is not conversion but sanctification. Spurgeon said he believed in regeneration, but not in re- regeneration. Second blessing? Yes, and a forty-second. The stages in the Christian life are like ice, water, invisible vapor and steam, all successive and natural results of increasing temperature, seemingly different from one another, yet all forms of the same element.

On the relation between the divine and the human agencies, we quote a different view from another writer: “God decrees to employ means which, in every case is sufficient, and which in certain cases it is foreseen will be effectual. Human action converts a sufficient means into an effectual means. The result is not always according to the varying use of means.

The power is all of God. Man has power to resist only. There is a universal influence of the Spirit, but the influences of the Spirit vary in different cases, just as external opportunities do. The love of holiness is blunted but it still lingers. The Holy Spirit quickens it. When this love is wholly lost, sin against the Holy Ghost results. Before regeneration there is a desire for holiness, an apprehension of its beauty, but this is overborne by a greater love for sin. If the man does not quickly grow worse, it is not because of positive action on his part, but only because negatively he does not resist as he might ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock.’ God leads at first by a resistible influence. When man yields, God leads by an irresistible influence. The second influence of the Holy Spirit confirms the Christian’s choice. This second influence is called ‘sealing.’

There is no necessary interval of time between the two. Prevenient grace comes first and conversion comes after.”

To this view, we would reply that a partial love for holiness, and an ability to choose it before God works effectively upon the heart, seems to contradict those Scriptures which assert that “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” ( Romans 8:7), and that all good works are the result of God’s new creation ( Ephesians 2:10). Conversion does not precede regeneration. It chronologically accompanies regeneration, though it logically follows it. 1. Repentance.

Repentance is that voluntary change in the mind of the sinner in which he turns from sin. Being essentially a change of mind, it involves a change of view, a change of feeling, and a change of purpose. We may therefore analyze repentance into three constituents, each succeeding term of which includes and implies the one preceding:

A. An intellectual element, change of view, recognition of sin as involving personal guilt, defilement, and helplessness ( Psalm 51:3,7,11). If unaccompanied by the following elements, this recognition may manifest itself in fear of punishment although as yet there is no hatred of sin. This element is indicated in the Scripture phrase eJpi>gnwsiv aJmarti>av ( Romans 3:20; cf. 1:32). Psalm 51:3,11 — “For I know my transgressions; And my sin is ever before me... Cast me not away from thy presence, And take not thy Holy Spirit from me”; Romans 3:20 — “through the law cometh the knowledge of sin”; 32 — “who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the sane, but also consent with them that practice them.”

It is well to remember that God requires us to cherish no views or emotions that contradict the truth, He wants of us no false humility.

Humility (humus) — “groundness” — a coming down to the hard pan of facts, a facing of the truth. Repentance, therefore, is not a calling of ourselves by hard names. It is not cringing or exaggerated self-contempt.

It is simple recognition of what we are. The “‘umble” Uriah Heep is the arrant hypocrite. If we see ourselves as God sees us, we shall say with Job 42:5,6 — “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; But now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself(And repent in dust and ashes.”

Apart from God’s working in the heart there is no proper recognition of sin either in people of high or low degree. Lady Huntington invited the Duchess of Buckingham to come and hear Whitefield, when the Duchess answered: “It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth, it is highly offensive and insulting.” Mr. Moody, after preaching to the prisoners in the jail at Chicago, visited them in their cells. In the first cell he found two, playing cards. They said false witnesses had testified against them. In the second cell, the convict said that the guilty man had escaped, but that he, a mere accomplice, had been caught. In the last cell only Mr. Moody found a man crying over his sins. Henry Drummond, after hearing the confessions of inquirers, said: “I am sick of the sins of these men. How can God bear it?”

Experience of sin does not teach us to recognize sin. We do not learn to know chloroform by frequently inhaling it. The drunkard does not understand the degrading effects of drink so well as his miserable wife and children do. Even the natural conscience does not give the recognition of sin that is needed in true repentance. The confession “I have sinned” is made by hardened Pharaoh ( Exodus 9:27), double minded Balaam ( Numbers 22:34), remorseful Achan (Josh. 7:20), insincere King Saul (1Sam. 15:24), despairing Judas ( Matthew 27:4); but in no one of these cases was there true repentance. True repentance takes God’s part against ourselves, has sympathy with God, feels how unworthy the Ruler, Father, Friend of men has been treated. It does not ask, “What will my sin bring to me?” but “What does my sin mean to God?” It involves, in addition to the mere recognition of sin:

B. An emotional element, change of feeling, sorrow for sin as committed against goodness and justice and therefore hateful to God and hateful in itself ( Psalm 51:1,2,10,14). This element of repentance is indicated in the Scripture word metame>lomai . If accompanied by the following element, it is a lu>ph kata< Qeo>n . If not so accompanied, it is a luph> tou~ ko>smou = remorse and despair ( Matthew 27:3; Luke 18:23; Corinthians 7:9, 10). Psalm 51:1,2,10,14 — “Have mercy upon me...blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin...Create in me a clean heart, O God...Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God”; Matthew 27:3 — “Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood”; Luke 18:23 — “when he heard these things, he became exceeding sorrowful; for he was very rich”; 2 Corinthians 7:9,10 — “I now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly sort... For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” We must distinguish sorrow for sin from shame on account of it and fear of its consequences. These last are selfish, while godly sorrow is disinterested. “A man may be angry with himself and may despise himself without any humble prostration before God or confession of his guilt” (Shedd, Dogm. Theol, 2:535, note).

True repentance, as illustrated in Psalm 51, does not think of 1. consequences, 2. other men, 3. heredity, as an excuse; but it sees sin as transgression against God, personal guilt and as defiling the inmost being.

Perowne on Psalm 51:1 — “In all godly sorrow there is hope. Sorrow without hope may be remorse or despair, but it is not repentance.” Much so called repentance is illustrated by the little girl’s prayer: “O God, make me good, not real good, but just good enough so that I won’t have to be whipped!” Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 2:3 — “‘T is meet so, daughter; but lest you do repent As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven, Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it, But as we stand in fear...I do repent me as it is an evil, And take the shame with joy.” Tempest, 3:3 — “For which foul deed, the Powers delaying, not forgetting, Have incensed the seas, and shores, yea, all the creatures, Against your peace… Whose wrath to guard you from… is nothing but heart’s sorrow And a clear life ensuing.”

Simon, Reconciliation, 195, 379 — “At the very bottom it is God whose claims are advocated, whose part is taken, by that in us which, whilst most truly our own, yea, our very selves, is also most truly his, and of him. The divine energy and idea, which constitutes us, will not let its own root and source suffer wrong unatoned . God intends for us to be givers as well as receivers, givers even to him. We share in his image that we may be creators and givers, not from compulsion, but in love.” Such repentance as this is wrought only by the Holy Spirit. Conscience, indeed, is present in every human heart, but only the Holy Spirit convinces of sin.

Why is the Holy Spirit needed? A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 189- 201 — “Conscience is the witness to the law and the Spirit is the witness to grace. Conscience brings legal conviction but the Spirit brings evangelical conviction. The one begets a conviction unto despair, the other a conviction unto hope. Conscience convinces of sin committed, of righteousness impossible, of judgment impending and the Comforter convinces of sin committed, of righteousness imputed, of judgment accomplished, in Christ. God alone can reveal the divine view of sin and enable man to understand it.” But, however agonizing the sorrow, it will not constitute true repentance unless it leads to, or is accompanied by:

C. A voluntary element, change of purpose, inward turning from sin and disposition to seek pardon and cleansing ( Psalm 51:5,7,10; Jeremiah 25:5). This includes and implies the two preceding elements, and is therefore the most important aspect of repentance. It is indicated in the Scripture term meta>noia ( Acts 2:38; Romans 2:4). Psalm 51:5,7,10 — “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me...Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shah be whiter than snow...Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me”; Jeremiah 25:5 — “Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings”; Acts 2:33 — “And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ”; Romans 2:4 — “despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”

Walden, The Great Meaning of Metanoia, brings out well the fact that “repentance” is not the true translation of the word, but rather “change of mind”; indeed, he would give up the word “repentance” altogether in the N. T., except as the translation of metame>leia. The idea of meta>noia is abandonment of sin rather than sorrow for sin, an act of the will rather than a state of the sensibility. Repentance is participation in Christ’s revulsion from sin and suffering on account of it. It is repentance from sin, not of sin, nor for sin — always ajpo> and ejk, never peri> or ejpi>. The true illustrations of repentance are found in Job ( 42:6 — “I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes”); in David ( Psalm 51:10 — “Create in me a clean heart; and renew a right spirit within me”); in Peter ( John 21:17 — “thou knowest that I love thee”); in the penitent thief ( Luke 23:42 — “Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom”) in the prodigal son (Luke l5:18 — “I will arise and go to my Father”).

Repentance implies free will. Hence Spinoza, who knows nothing of free will, knows nothing of repentance. In book 4 of his Ethics, he says: “Repentance is not a virtue, that is, it does not spring from reason so, on the contrary, the man who repents of what he has done is doubly wretched or impotent.” Still he urges that for the good of society it is not desirable that vulgar minds should be enlightened as to this matter; see Upton, Hibbert Lectures, 315. Determinism also renders it irrational to feel righteous indignation either at the misconduct of other people or at our own. Moral admiration is similarly irrational in the determinist. See Balfour, Foundations of Belief, 24.

In broad distinction from the Scriptural doctrine, we find the Romanist view, which regards the three elements of repentance as the following: (1) contrition, (2) confession, (3) satisfaction. Of these, contrition is the only element properly belonging to repentance yet from this contrition the Romanist excludes all sorrow for sin of nature. Confession is confession to the priest and satisfaction is the sinner’s own doing of outward penance, as a temporal and symbolic submission and reparation to violated law. This view is false and pernicious, in that it confounds repentance with its outward fruits, conceives of it as exercised rather toward the church than toward God and regards it as a meritorious ground instead of a mere condition of pardon.

On the Romanist doctrine of Penance, Thornwell (Collected Writings, 1:423) remarks: “The culpa may be remitted, they say, while the púna is to some extent retained.” The priest absolves, not declaratively, but judicially. Denying the greatness of the sin, it makes man able to become his own Savior. Christ’s satisfaction, for sins after baptism, is not sufficient and our satisfaction is sufficient. But performance of one duty, we object, cannot make satisfaction for the violation of another.

We are required to confess one to another, and specially to those whom we have wronged: James 5:16 — “Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may he healed.” This puts the hardest stress upon our natural pride. There are a hundred who will confess to a priest or to God, where there is one who will make frank and full confession to the aggrieved party. Confession to an official religious superior is not penitence or a test of penitence. In the Confessional women expose inmost desires to priests who are forbidden to marry. These priests are sometimes, though gradually, corrupted to the core and at the same time they are taught in the Confessional precisely to what women to apply. In France many noble families will not permit their children to confess, and their women are not permitted to incur the danger. Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords said of auricular confession: “It has been injurious to the moral independence and virility of the nation to an extent to which probably it has been given to no other institution to affect the character of mankind.” See Walsh, Secret History of the Oxford Movement; A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, III — “Asceticism is an absolute inversion of the divine order, since it seeks life through death, instead of finding death through life. No degree of mortification can ever bring us to sanctification.” Penance can never effect true repentance or can it be anything other than a hindrance to the soul’s abandonment of sin. Penance is something external to be done and it diverts attention from the real inward need of the soul. The monk does penance by sleeping on an iron bed and by wearing a hair shirt. When Anselm of Canterbury died, his under garments were found alive with vermin, which the saint had cultivated in order to mortify the flesh. Dr. Pusey always sat on a hard chair, traveled as uncomfortably as possible, looked down when he walked and whenever he saw a coal fire thought of hell. Thieves do penance by giving a part of their ill-gotten wealth to charity. In all these things there is no transformation of the inner life.

In further explanation of the Scripture representations, we remark: (a) That repentance, in each and all of its aspects, is wholly an inward act, not to be confounded with the change of life, which proceeds from it.

True repentance is indeed manifested and evidenced by confession of sin before God ( Luke 18:13), and by reparation for wrongs done to men ( Luke 19:8). But these do not constitute repentance. They are rather fruits of repentance. Between ‘repentance’ and ‘fruit worthy of repentance,’ Scripture plainly distinguishes ( Matthew 3:8). Luke 18:13 — “But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast saying God, be thou merciful to me a sinner [‘be propitiated to me the sinner’]”; 19:8 — “And Zacchæus stood, and said unto The Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted ought of any man, I restore fourfold”; Matthew 3:8 — “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance.” Fruit worthy of repentance, or fruits meet for repentance are confession of sin, surrender to Christ, turning from sin reparation for wrong doing, right moral conduct and profession of Christian faith.

On Luke 17:3 — “if thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent forgive him” — Dr. B. H. Carroll remarks that the law is uniform which makes repentance indispensable to forgiveness. It applies to man’s forgiveness of man, as well as to God’s forgiveness of man or the church’s forgiveness of man. But I must be sure that I cherish toward the offender the spirit of love, whether he repents or not. Freedom from all malice toward him, however, and even loving prayerful labor to lead him to repentance, is not forgiveness. This I can grant only when he actually repents. If I do forgive him without repentance, then I impose my rule on God when I pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgives our debtors” ( Matthew 6:12).

On the question whether the requirement that we forgive without atonement implies that God does, see Brit. and For. Evang. Rev., Oct. 1881:678-691 — “Answer: 1. The present constitution of things is based upon atonement.

Forgiveness on our part is required upon the ground of the Cross which, without it, the world would be hell. 2. God is Judge. We forgive, as brethren. When he forgives, it is as Judge of all the earth, of whom all earthly judges are representatives. If earthly judges may exact justice than how much more God can. The argument that would abolish atonement would abolish all civil government. 3. I should forgive my brother on the ground of God’s love and Christ’s bearing of his sins. 4. God, who requires atonement, is the same being that provides it. This is ‘handsome and generous.’ But I can never provide atonement for my brother. I must, therefore, forgive freely, only upon the ground of what Christ has done for him.” (b) That repentance is only a negative condition and not a positive means of salvation.

This is evident from the fact that repentance is no more than the sinner’s present duty, and can furnish no offset to the claims of the law on account of past transgression. The truly penitent man feels that his repentance has no merit. Apart from the positive element of conversion, namely, faith in Christ, it would be only sorrow for guilt not removed. This very sorrow, moreover, is not the mere product of human will, but is the gift of God. Acts 5:31 — “Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins”; 11:18 — “Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto life”; 2 Timothy 2:25 — “if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth.” The truly penitent man recognizes the fact that his sin deserves punishment. He never regards his penitence as offsetting the demands of law and as making his punishment unjust.

Whitefield: “Our repentance needeth to be repented of and our very tears to be washed in the blood of Christ.” Shakespeare, Henry V, 4:1 — “More will I do: Though all that I can do is nothing worth, Since that my penitence comes after all, Imploring pardon” — imploring pardon both for the crime and for the imperfect repentance. (c) That true repentance, however, never exists except in conjunction with faith.

Sorrow for sin, not simply on account of its evil consequences to the transgressor, but on account of its intrinsic hatefulness as opposed to divine holiness and love is practically impossible without some confidence in God’s mercy. It is the Cross, which first makes us truly penitent (cf . John 12:32,33). Hence all true preaching of repentance is implicitly a preaching of faith ( Matthew 3:1-12; cf . Acts 19:4), and repentance toward God involves faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ( Acts 20:21; Luke 15:10,24; 19:8, 9; cf. Galatians 3:7). John 12:32,33 — “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die.” Matthew 3:1-12 — John the Baptist’s preaching of repentance was also a preaching of faith, as is shown by Acts 19:4 — “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is, on Jesus.” Repentance involves faith: Acts 20:21 — “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”; Luke 15:10,24 — “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth...this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found”; 19:8, 9 — “the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wrongfully exacted aught of any man, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, Today is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham” — the father of all believers; cf. Galatians 3:6,7 — “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham.” Luke 3:18 says of John the Baptist: “he preached the gospel unto the people,” and the gospel message, the glad tidings, is more than the command to repent, it is also the offer of salvation through Christ; see Prof. Wm. Arnold Stevens, on John the Baptist and his Gospel, in Studies on the Gospel according to John. 2Chron. 34:19 — “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.”

Moberly, Atonement and Personality, 44-46 — “Just in proportion as one sins, does he render it impossible for him truly to repent. Repentance must be the work of another in him. Is it not the Spirit of the Crucified which is the reality of the penitence of the truly penitent?” If this be true, then it is plain that there is no true repentance which is not accompanied by the faith that unites us to Christ. (d) That, conversely, wherever there is true faith, there is true repentance also.

Since repentance and faith are but different sides or aspects of the same act of turning, faith is as inseparable from repentance as repentance is from faith. That must be an unreal faith, where there is no repentance, just as that must be an unreal repentance where there is no faith. Yet because the one aspect of his change is more prominent in the mind of the convert than the other, we are not hastily to conclude that the other is absent. Only that degree of conviction of sin is essential to salvation, which carries with it a forsaking of sin and a trustful surrender to Christ.

Bishop Hall: “Never will Christ enter into that soul where the herald of repentance hath not been before him.” 2 Corinthians 7:10 — “repentance unto salvation.” In consciousness, sensation and perception are in inverse ratio to each other. Clear vision is hardly conscious of sensation but inflamed eyes are hardly conscious of anything besides sensation. So repentance and faith are seldom equally prominent in the consciousness of the converted man but it is important to know that neither can exist without the other. The truly penitent man will, sooner or later, show that he has faith and the true believer will certainly show, in due season, that he hates and renounces sin.

The question, how much conviction a man needs to insure his salvation, may be answered by asking how much excitement one needs on a burning steamer. As, in the latter case, just enough to prompt persistent effort to escape so, in the former case, just enough remorseful feeling is needed, to induce the sinner to betake himself, with belief, to Christ.

On the general subject of Repentance, see Anderson, Regeneration, 279- 288; Bp. Ossory, Nature and Effects of Faith, 40-48, 311-318; Woods, Works, 3:68-78; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 5:1-10, 208-246; Luthardt, Compendium, 3d ed., 206-208; lodge, Outlines of Theology, 375-381; Alexander, Evidences of Christianity, 47-60; Crawford, Atonement, 413- 419. 2. Faith.

Faith is that voluntary change in the mind of the sinner in which he turns to Christ. Being essentially a change of mind, it involves a change of view, a change of feeling, and a change of purpose. We may therefore analyze faith also into three constituents, each succeeding term of which includes and implies:

A. An intellectual element (notitia, credere Deum), recognition of the truth of God’s revelation, or of the objective reality of the salvation provided by Christ. This includes not only a historical belief in the facts of the Scripture, but an intellectual belief in the doctrine taught therein as to man’s sinfulness and dependence upon Christ. John 2:23,24 — “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed on his name, beholding his signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men”; cf. 3:2 — Nicodemus has this external faith: “no one can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him.” James 2:19 — “Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.” Even this historical faith has its fruits. It is the spring of much philanthropic work. There were no hospitals in ancient Rome. Much of our modern progress is due to the leavening influence of Christianity, even in the case of those who have not personally accepted Christ.

McLaren, S. S. Times Feb 22, 1902:107 — “Luke does not hesitate to say, in Acts 8:13, that ‘Simon Magnus also himself believed.’ But he expects us to understand that Simon’s belief was not faith that saved but mere credence in the gospel narrative as true history. It had no ethical or spiritual worth. He was ‘amazed’ as the Samaritans had been at his juggleries. It did not lead to repentance or confession or true trust. He was only amazed’ at Philip’s miracles and there was no salvation in that.”

Merely historical faith, such as Disciples and Ritschlians hold to, lacks the element of affection and besides this, lacks the present reality of Christ himself. Faith that does not lay hold of a present Christ is not saving faith.

B. An emotional element (assensus, credere Deo ), assent to the revelation of God’s power and grace in Jesus Christ as applicable to the present needs of the soul. Those in whom this awakening of the sensibilities is unaccompanied by the fundamental decision of the will, which constitutes the next element of faith, may seem to themselves, and for a time may appear to others, to have accepted Christ. Matthew 13:20,21 — “he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth”; cf . <19A612> Psalm 106:12,13 — “Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel”; Ezekiel 33:31,32 — “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but do them not; for with their mouth they show much love, bit their heart goeth after their gain. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song if one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not” John 5:35 — Of John the Baptist: “He was the lamp that burneth and shineth; and ye were willing to rejoice for a season in his light”; 8:30, 31 — “As he spake these things, many believed on him eijv aujto>n. Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed him aujtw~|, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples.” They believed him, but did not yet believe on him, that is, make him the foundation of their faith and life. Yet Jesus graciously recognizes this first faint foreshadowing of faith. It might lead to full and saving faith. “Proselytes of the gate” were so called, because they contented themselves with sitting in the gate, as it were, without going into the holy city. “Proselytes of righteousness” were those who did their whole duty, by joining themselves fully to the people of God. Not emotion, but devotion, is the important thing. Temporary faith is as irrational and valueless as temporary repentance. It perhaps gained temporary blessing in the way of healing in the tune of Christ, but, if not followed by complete surrender of the will, it might even aggravate one’s sin; see John 5:14 — “Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee.” The special faith of miracles was not a high, but a low form of faith and it is not to be sought in our day as indispensable to the progress of the kingdom. Miracles have ceased, not because of decline in faith, but because the Holy Spirit has changed the method of his manifestations, and has Jed the church to seek more spiritual gifts.

Saving faith, however, includes also:

C. A voluntary element (fiducia, credere in Deum), trust in Christ is Lord and Savior; or, in other words — to distinguish its two aspects: (a) Surrender of the soul, as guilty and deified, to Christ’s governance. Matthew 11:28,29 — “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me”; John 8:12 — “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness”; 14:1 — “Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me”; Acts 16:31 — “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.” Instances of the use of pisteu>w, in the sense of trustful commitment or surrender, are: John 2:24 — “But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men”; Romans 3:2 — “they were instructed with oracles of God”; Galatians 2:7 — “when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel of the uncircumcision.” pi>stiv = “trustful self-surrender to God” (Meyer).

In this surrender of the soul to Christ’s governance we have the guarantee that the gospel salvation is not an unmoral trust which permits continuance in sin. Aside from the fact that saving faith is only the obverse side of true repentance, the very nature of faith, as submission to Christ, the embodied law of God and source of spiritual life makes a life of obedience and virtue to be its natural and necessary result. Faith is not only a declaration of dependence but it is also a vow of allegiance. The sick man’s faith in his physician is shown not simply by trusting him but by obeying him. Doing what the doctor says is the very proof of trust. No physician will long care for a patient who refuses to obey his orders. Faith is self-surrender to the great Physician and a leaving of our case in his hands. But it is also the taking of his prescriptions and the active following of his directions.

We need to emphasize this active element in saving faith, lest men get the notion that mere indolent acquiescence in Christ’s plan will save them.

Faith is not simple receptiveness. It gives itself as well as receives Christ.

It is not mere passivity but it is also self-committal. As all reception of knowledge is active and there must be attention if we would learn, so all reception of Christ is active, and there must be intelligent giving as well as taking. The Watchman, April 30, 1896 — “Faith is more than belief and trust; it is the action of the soul going out toward its object. It is the exercise of a spiritual faculty akin to that of sight because it establishes a personal relation between the one who exercises faith and the one who is its object. When the intellectual feature predominates, we call it belief; when the emotional element predominates, we call it trust. This faith is at once ‘An affirmation and an act which bids eternal truth be present fact.’” There are great things received in faith but nothing is received by the man who does not first give himself to Christ. A conquered general came into the presence of his conqueror and held out to him his hand: “Your sword first, sir!” was the response. But when General Lee offered his sword to General Grant at Appomattox, the latter returned it, saying: “No, keep your sword, and go to your home.” Jacobi said that “Faith is the reflection of the divine knowing and willing in the finite spirit of man.” G. B. Foster, in Indiana Baptist Outlook, June 19, 1902 — “Catholic orthodoxy is wrong in holding that the authority for faith is the church; for that would be an external authority. Protestant orthodoxy is wrong in holding that the authority for faith is the book for that would be an external authority.

Liberalism is wrong in holding that the reason is the authority for faith.

The authority for faith is the revelation of God.” Faith in this revelation is faith in Christ the Revealer. It puts the soul in connection with the source of all knowledge and power. As the connection of a wire with the reservoir of electric force makes it the channel of vast energies, so the smallest measure of faith, any real connection of the soul with Christ, makes it the recipient of divine resources.

While faith is the act of the whole man, and intellect, affection and will are involved in it, will is the all-inclusive and most important of its elements. No other exercise of will is such a revelation of our being and so decisive of our destiny. The voluntary element in faith is illustrated in marriage. Here one party pledges the future in permanent self-surrender, commits one’s self to another person in confidence that this future, with all its new revelations of character, will only justify the decision made.

Yet this is rational. See Holland, in Lux Mundi, 46-48. To put one’s hand into molten iron, even though one knows of the “spheroidal state” that gives impunity, requires an exertion of will and not all workmen in metals are courageous enough to make the venture. The child who leaped into the dark cellar, in confidence that her father’s arms would be open to receive her, did not act irrationally because she had heard her father’s command and trusted his promise. Though faith in Christ is a leap in the dark and requires a mighty exercise of will, it is nevertheless the highest wisdom, because Christ’s ward is pledged that “him that cometh to me will in no wise cast out” ( John 6:37).

J. W. A. Stewart: “Faith is a bond between persons trust, confidence, it makes ventures and takes much for granted, its security is the character and power of him in whom we believe, not our faith, but his fidelity, is the guarantee that our faith is rational.” Kant said that nothing in the world is good but the good will, which freely obeys the law of the good. Pfleiderer defines faith as the free surrender of the heart to the gracious will of God.

Kaftan, Dogmatik, 21, declares that the Christian religion is essentially faith, and that this faith manifests itself as doctrine, worship and morality. (b) Reception and appropriation of Christ as the source of pardon and spiritual life. John 1:12 — “as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”; 4:14 — “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life”; 6:53 — “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves”; 20:31 — “these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name”; Ephesians 3:17 — “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”; Hebrews 11:1 — “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen”: Revelation 3:20 — “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

The three constituents of faith may be illustrated from the thought, feeling and action of a person who stands by a boat, upon a little island, which the rising stream threatens to submerge. He first regards the boat from a purely intellectual point of view, it is merely an actually existing boat. As the stream rises, he looks at it, secondly, with some accession of emotion, his prospective danger awakens in him the conviction that it is a good boat for a time of need, though he is not yet ready to make use of it. But, thirdly, when he feels that the rushing tide must otherwise sweep him away, a volitional element is added — he gets into the boat, trusts himself to it and accepts it as his present and only means of safety. Only this last faith in the boat is faith that saves, although this last includes both the preceding constituents. It is equally clear that the getting into the boat may actually save a man, while at the same time he may be full of fears that the boat will never bring him to shore. These fears may be removed by the boatman’s word. So saving faith is not necessarily assurance of faith but it becomes assurance of faith when the Holy Spirit “beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God” ( Romans 8:16).

On the nature of this assurance and on the distinction between it and saving faith, see pages 844-846. “Coming to Christ,” “looking to Christ,” “receiving Christ,” are all descriptions of faith, as are also the phrases “surrender to Christ,” “submission to Christ,” “closing in with Christ.” Paul refers to a confession of faith in Romans 10:9 — “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord” faith then, is a taking of Christ as both Savior and Lord and it includes both appropriation of Christ and consecration to Christ. The voluntary element in faith however, is a giving as well as a taking. The giving, or surrender, is illustrated in baptism by submergence and the taking, or reception, by emergence. See further on the Symbolism of Baptism. McCosh, Div. Government: “Saving faith is the consent of the will to the assent of the understanding, and commonly accompanied with emotion.” Pres. Hopkins, in Princeton Rev., Sept. 1878:511-540 — “In its intellectual element, faith is receptive, and believes that God is. In its affectionate element, faith is assimilative and believes that God is a rewarder . In its voluntary element, faith is operative and actually comes to God ( Hebrews 11:6).”

Where the element of surrender is emphasized and the element of reception is not understood, the result is a legalistic experience, with little hope or joy. Only as we appropriate Christ, in connection with our consecration, do we realize the full blessing of the gospel. Light requires two things: the sun to shine, and the eye to take in its shining. So we cannot be saved without Christ to save and faith to take the Savior for ours. Faith is the act by which we receive Christ. The woman who touched the border of Jesus’ garment received his healing power. It is better still to keep in touch with Christ so as to receive continually his grace and life. But best of all is taking him into our inmost being, to be the soul of our soul and the life of our life. This is the essence of faith, though many Christians do not yet realize it. Dr. Curry said well that faith can never be defined because it is a fact of life. It is a merging of our life in the life of Christ, and a reception of Christ’s life to interpenetrate and energize ours. In faith we must take Christ as well as give ourselves. It is certainly true that surrender without trust will not make us possessors of God’s peace. F. L. Anderson: “Faith is submissive reliance on Jesus Christ for salvation. Reliance on Jesus Christ is not mere intellectual belief. Reliance on him for salvation; we can never undo the past or atone for our sins. Submissive reliance on Christ means that trust without surrender will never save.”

The passages already referred to refute the view of the Romanist, that saving faith is simply implicit assent to the doctrines of the church and the view of the Disciple or Campbellite, that faith is merely intellectual belief in the truth on the presentation of evidence.

The Romanist says that faith can coexist with mortal sin. The Disciple holds that faith may and must exist before regeneration, regeneration being completed in baptism. With these erroneous views, compare the noble utterance of Luther, Com, on Galatians, 1:191, 247, quoted in Thomasius, III, 2:18 — “True faith,” says Luther, “is that assured trust and firm assent of heart, by which Christ is laid hold of, so that Christ is the object of faith. Yet he is not merely the object of faith but in the very faith, so to speak, Christ is present. Faith lays hold of Christ and grasps him as a present possession just as the ring holds the jewel.” Edwards, Works, 4:71-73; 2:601-641 — “Faith,” says Edwards, “includes the whole act of unity to Christ as a Savior. The entire active uniting of the soul, or the whole of what is called coming to Christ and receiving of him, is called faith in the Scripture.” See also Belief, What Is It? 150-179, 290-298.

Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, 530 — “Faith began by being a simple trust in God and then there followed a simple expansion of that proposition into the assent to the proposition that God is good and a simple acceptance of the proposition that Jesus Christ was his Son. That was followed by definition of terms and each definition of terms involved a new theory and finally, the theories were gathered together into systems and the martyrs and witnesses of Christ died for their faith, not outside but inside the Christian sphere. Instead of a world of religious belief, which resembled the world of actual fact in the sublime disproportion of its foliage and the deep harmony of its discords, there prevailed assumption that the symmetry of a system is the test of its truth and the proof thereof. This was the most fatal assumption of all.” We regard this statement of Hatch as erroneous, in that it attributes to the earliest disciples no larger faith than that of their Jewish brethren. We claim that the earliest faith involved an implicit acknowledgement of Jesus as Savior and Lord. This faith of simple obedience and trust became explicit recognition of our Lord’s deity and atonement just so soon is persecution and the Holy Spirit disclosed to them the real contents of their own consciousness.

An illustration of the simplicity and saving power of faith is furnished by Principal J. R. Andrews, of New London, Conn., Principal of the Bartlett Grammar School. When the steamer Atlantic was wrecked off Fisher’s Island, though Mr. Andrews could not swim, he determined to make a desperate effort to save his life. Binding a life preserver about him, he stood on the edge of the deck waiting his opportunity and when he saw a wave moving shoreward, he jumped into the rough breakers and was borne safely to land. He was saved by faith. He accepted the conditions of salvation. Forty perished in a scene where he was saved. In one sense be saved himself; in another sense he depended upon God. It was a combination of personal activity and dependence upon God that resulted in his salvation. If he had not used the life preserver, he would have perished; if he had not cast himself into the sea, he would have perished.

So faith in Christ is reliance upon him for salvation but it is also our own making of a new start in life and the showing of our trust by action. Tract 357, Am. Tract Society — “What is it to believe on Christ? It is to feel your need of him, to believe that he is able and willing to save you and to save you now and to cast yourself unreservedly upon his mercy and trust in him alone for salvation.”

In further explanation of the Scripture representations, we remark: (a) That faith is an act of the affections and will, as truly as it is an act a! the intellect.

It has been claimed that faith and unbelief are purely intellectual states, which are necessarily determined by the facts at any given time presented to the mind. They are, for this reason, as destitute of moral quality and as far from being matters of obligation, as are our instinctive feelings of pleasure and pain. But this view unwarrantably isolates the intellect and ignores the fact that, in all moral subjects, the state of the affections and will affects the judgment of the mind with regard to truth. In the intellectual act the whole moral nature expresses itself. Since the tastes determine the opinions, faith is a moral act and men are responsible for not believing. John 3:18-20 — “He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light and cometh not to the light lest his works should be reproved” 5:40 — “ye will not come to me, that ye may have life”; 16:8, 9 — “And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin... of sin, because they believe not on me”; Revelation 2:21 — “she willeth not to repent.” Notice that the Revised Version very frequently substitutes the voluntary and active terms “disobedience” and “disobedient” for the “unbelief” and “unbelieving” of the Authorized Version, as in Romans 15:31; Hebrews 3:18; 4:6, 11; 11:31. See Park, Discourses, 45, 46.

Savages do not know that they are responsible for their physical appetites, or that there is any right and wrong in matters of sense, until they come under the influence of Christianity. In like manner, even men of science can declare that the intellectual sphere has no part in man’s probation and that we are no more responsible for our opinions and beliefs than we are for the color of our skin. But faith is not a merely intellectual act, the affections and will give it quality. There is no moral quality in the belief that 2+2 = 4, because we can not help that belief. But in believing on Christ there is moral quality because there is the element of choice. Indeed it may be questioned whether, in every judgment upon moral things, there is not an act of will.

Hence on John 7:17 — “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself.” F. L. Patton calls attention to the two common errors. (1) That obedience will certify doctrine, which is untrue because obedience is the result of faith, not vice versa. (2) That personal experience is the ultimate test of faith, which is untrue, because the Bible is the only rule of faith, and it is one thing to receive truth through the feelings, but quite another to test truth by the feelings. The text really means, that if any man is willing to do God’s will, he shall know whether it be of God and there are two lessons to be drawn. (1) The gospel needs no additional evidence and 2) the Holy Ghost is the hope of the world.

On responsibility for opinions and beliefs, see Mozley, on Blanco White, in Essays Philos. and Historical, 2:142; T. T. Smith, Hulsean Lectures for 1839.

Wilfrid Ward, The Wish to Believe, quotes Shakespeare: “Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought”; and Thomas Arnold: “They dared not lightly believe what they so much wished to be true.” - Pascal: “Faith is an act of the will.” Emerson, Essay on Worship: “A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples. Man’s religious faith is the expression of what he is.” Bain: “In its essential character, belief is a phase of our active nature, otherwise called the will.” Nash, Ethics and Revelation, — “Faith is the creative human answer to the creative divine offer. It is not the passive acceptance of a divine favor. It is by faith, man laying hold of the personality of God in Christ who becomes a true person. And by the same faith he becomes, under God, a creator and founder of true society.” Inge, Christian Mysticism, 52 — “Faith begins with an experiment and ends with an experience. But even the power to make the experiment is given from above. Eternal life is not gnw~siv, but the state of acquiring knowledge — I[na gignw>skwsin. It is significant that John, who is so fond of the verb ‘to know,’ never uses the substantive gnw~siv. ” Crane, Religion of Tomorrow, 148 — “‘I will not obey, because I do not yet know’? But this is making the intellectual side the only side of faith, whereas the most important side is the will side. Let a man follow what he does believe and he shall be led on to larger faith. Faith is the reception of the personal influence of a living Lord and a corresponding action.”

William James, Will to Believe, 61 — “This life is worth living, since it is what we make it, from the moral point of view...Often enough our faith...beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true...If your heart does not want a world of moral reality, your head will assuredly never make you believe in one...Freedom to believe covers only living options which the intellect cannot by Itself resolve...We are not to put a stopper on our heart and meantime act as if religion were not true”; Psychology, 2:282, 321 — “Belief is consent, willingness, turning of our disposition. It is the mental state or function of cognizing reality. We never disbelieve anything except for the reason that we believe something else which contradicts the first thing. We give higher reality to whatever things we select and emphasize and turn to with a will. We need only in cold blood act as if the thing in question were real, and keep acting as if it were real, and it will infallibly end by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real. Those to whom God and duty are mere names, can make them much more than that, if they make a little sacrifice to them every day.”

E. G. Robinson: “Campbellism makes intellectual belief to be saving faith. But saving faith is consent of the heart as well as assent of the intellect. On the one hand there is the intellectual element. Faith is belief upon the ground of evidence; faith without evidence is credulity. But on the other hand faith has an element of affection for the element of love is always wrapped up in it. So Abraham’s faith made Abraham like God for we always become like that which we trust.” Faith therefore is not chronologically subsequent to regeneration but is its accompaniment. As the soul’s appropriation of Christ and his salvation, it is not the result of an accomplished renewal but rather the medium through which that renewal is effected. Otherwise it would follow that one who had not yet believed (i. e., received Christ) might still be regenerate, whereas the Scripture represents the privilege of son-ship as granted only to believers.

See John 1:12,13 — “But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”; also 3:5, 6, 10-15; Galatians 3:26; Peter 1:3; cf. 1 John 5:1. (b) The object of saving faith is, in general, the whole truth of God, so far as it is objectively revealed or made known to the soul but in particular, the person and work of Jesus Christ, which constitutes the center and substance of God’s revelation. ( Acts 17:18; 1 Corinthians 1:23; Colossians 1:27; Revelations 19:10).

Though they had no knowledge of a personal Christ and in so far as God had revealed himself to them, the patriarchs were saved by believing in God. In like manner, whoever among the heathen is saved must be saved by casting themselves as helpless sinners upon God’s plan of mercy, dimly shadowed forth in nature and providence. But such faith, even among the patriarchs and heathen, is implicitly a faith in Christ and would become explicit and conscious trust and submission, whenever Christ were made known to them. ( Matthew 8:11,12; John 10:16; Acts 4:12; 10:31, 34, 35, 44; 16:31). Acts 17:18 — “he preached Jesus and the resurrection”; Corinthians 1:23 — “we preach Christ crucified”; Colossians 1:27 — “this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we proclaim”; Revelation 19:10 — “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Saving faith is not belief in a dogma but personal trust in a personal Christ. It is, therefore, possible to a child.

Dorner: “The object of faith is the Christian revelation — God in Christ.

Faith is union with objective Christianity — appropriation of the real contents of Christianity.” Dr. Samuel Hopkins, the great uncle, defined faith as “an understanding, cordial receiving of the divine testimony concerning Jesus Christ and the way of salvation by him, in which the heart accords and conforms to the gospel.” Dr. Mark Hopkins, the great nephew, defined it as “confidence in a personal being.” Horace Bushnell: “Faith rests on a person. Faith is that act by which one person, a sinner, commits himself to another person, a Savior.” In John 11:25 — “I am the resurrection and the life” — Martha is led to substitute belief in a person for belief in an abstract doctrine. Jesus is “the resurrection.” because he is “the life.” All doctrine and all miracle are significant and important only because they are the expression of the living Christ, the Revealer of God.

The object of faith is sometimes represented in the N. T., as being God the Father. John 5:24 — “He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life”; Romans 4:5 — “to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” We can explain these passages only when we remember that Christ is God “manifested in the flesh” ( 1 Timothy 3:16), and that “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John l4:9). Man may receive a gift, without knowing, who it comes from or how much it has cost. So the heathen, who casts himself as a sinner upon God’s mercy, may receive salvation from the Crucified One, without knowing who is the giver or that the gift was purchased by agony and blood. Denney, Studies in Theology, 154 — “No N. T. writer ever remembered Christ. They never thought of him as belonging to the past. Let us not preach about the Historical Christ but rather, about the living Christ; nay, let us preach him, present and omnipotent. Jesus could say: ‘Whither I go, ye know the way’ ( John 14:4); for they knew him and he was both the end and the way.” Dr. Charles Hodge unduly restricts the operations of grace to the preaching of the Incarnate Christ: Systematic Theology, 2:648 — “There is no faith where the gospel is not heard and where there is no faith, there is no salvation. This is indeed an awful doctrine.” And yet, in 2:668 he says most inconsistently: “As God is everywhere present in the material world, guiding its operations according to the laws of nature, so he is everywhere present with the minds of men. As the Spirit of truth and goodness, operating on them according to laws of their free moral agency, inclining them to good and restraining them from evil.” This presence and revelation of God we hold to be through Christ, the eternal Word. We interpret the prophecy of Caiaphas as referring to the work of the personal Christ: John 11:51,52 — “he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad.”

Since, Christ is the Word of God and the Truth of God, he may be received even by those who have not heard of his manifestation in the flesh. A proud and self-righteous morality is inconsistent with saving faith but a humble and penitent reliance upon God, as a Savior from sin and a guide of conduct, is an implicit faith in Christ. Such reliance casts itself upon God, so far as God has revealed himself and the only Revealer of God is Christ. We have, therefore, the hope that even among the heathen there may be some, like Socrates, who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit working through the truth of nature and conscience, have found the way of life and salvation.

The number of such is so small as in no degree to weaken the claims of the missionary enterprise upon us. But that there are such seems to be intimated in Scripture: Matthew 8:11,12 — “many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness”; John 10:16 — “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd “; Acts 4:12 — “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved “; 10:31, 34, 35, 44 — “Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God...Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him...While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word”; 16:31 — “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.”

And instances are found of apparently regenerated heathen; see in Godet on John 7:17, note (vol. 2:277) the account of the so-called “Chinese hermit,” who accepted Christ, saying: “This is the only Buddha whom men ought to worship!” Edwards, Life of Brainard, 173-175, gives an account “of one who was a devout and zealous reformer, or rather restorer, of what he supposed was the ancient religion of the Indians.”

After a period of distress, he says that God “comforted his heart and showed him what he should do, and since that time he had known God and tried to serve him; and loved all men, be they who they would, so as he never did before.” See art, by Dr. Lucius E. Smith, in Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct. 1881:622-645, on the question: “Is salvation possible without a knowledge of the gospel?” H. B. Smith, System, 323, note, rightly bases hope for the heathen, not on morality, but on sacrifice.

A chief, of the Cameroon in S. W. Africa, fishing with many of his tribe long before the missionaries came, was overtaken by a storm and while almost all the rest were drowned, he and a few others escaped. He gathered his people together afterwards and told the story of disaster. He said: “When the canoes upset and I found myself battling with the waves, I thought: To whom shall I cry for help? I knew that the god of the hills could not help me, I knew that the evil spirit would not help me. So I cried to the Great Father, Lord, save me! At that moment my feet touched the sand of the beach, and I was safe. Now let all my people honor the Great Father and let no man speak a word against him, for he can help us.” This chief afterwards used every effort to prevent strife and bloodshed and was remembered by those who came after as a peacemaker. His son told this story to Alfred Saker, the missionary, saying “Why did you not come sooner? My father longed to know what you have told us; he thirsted for the knowledge of God.” Mr. Saker told this in England in 1879.

John Fiske appends to his book, The Idea of God, 168, 169, the following pathetic words of a Kafir named Sekese, in conversation with a French traveler, M. Arbrouseille, on the subject of the Christian religion. “Your tidings,” said this uncultured barbarian, “are what I want and I was seeking before I knew you, as you shall hear and judge for yourself.

Twelve years ago I went to feed my flocks; the weather was hazy. I sat down upon a rock and asked myself sorrowful questions, yes, sorrowful, because I was unable to answer them. Who has touched the stars with his hands — on what pillars do they rest? I asked myself. The waters never weary, they know no other law than to flow without ceasing from morning till night and from night till morning; but where do they stop, and who makes them flow thus? The clouds also come and go, and burst in water over the earth. Whence come they and who is it who sends them? The diviners certainly do not give us rain, for how could they do it? And why do I not see them with my own eyes, when they go up to heaven to fetch it? I cannot see the wind but what is it? Who brings it and who makes it blow and roar and terrify us? Do I know how the corn sprouts? Yesterday there was not a blade in my field yet today I returned to my field and found some. Who can have given to the earth the wisdom and the power to produce it? Then I buried my head in both hands.”

On the question whether men are ever led to faith, with out intercourse with living Christians or preachers, see Life of Judson, by his son, 84.

The British and Foreign Bible Society publish a statement. This was made upon the authority of Sir Bartle Frere that he met with “a carefully investigated instance. All the inhabitants of a remote village in the Deccan had abjured idolatry and caste. They removed from their temples the idols which had been worshiped there, time out of mind, and agreed to profess a form of Christianity which they had deduced from the careful perusal of a single Gospel and a few tracts.” Max Muller, Chips, 4:177-189, apparently proves that Buddha is the original of St. Josaphat, who has a day assigned to him in the calendar of both the Greek and the Roman churches. “Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis.”

The Missionary Review of the World, July, 1896:519-523, tells the story of Adiri, afterwards called John King, of Maripastoon in Dutch Guiana.

The Holy Spirit wrought in him mightily years before he heard of the missionaries. He was a coal black Negro, a heathen and a fetish worshiper. He was convicted of sin and apparently converted through dreams and visions. Heaven and hell were revealed to him. He was sick unto death, and One appeared to him declaring himself to be the Mediator between God and man, and telling him to go to the missionaries for instruction. He was persecuted, but he won his tribe from heathenism and transformed them into a Christian community.

S. W. Hamblen, missionary to China, tells of a very earnest and consistent believer who lived at rather an obscure town of about people. The evangelist went to visit him and found that he was a worthy example to those around him. He had become a Christian before he had seen a single believer, by reading a Chinese New Testament. By reading the New Testament he had become not only a Christian but also a strong Baptist in belief. A belief so strong that he could argue with the missionary on the subject of baptism, although, till the evangelist went to his house, he had never met a Baptist and did not know that there were any Baptist churches in existence.

The Rev. K. E. Malm, a pioneer Baptist preacher in Sweden, on a journey to the district as far north as Gestrikland, met a woman from Lapland who was on her way to Upsala in order to visit Dr. Fjellstedt. She desired to converse with him to learn how she might obtain peace with God and get rid of her anxiety concerning her sins. She said she had traveled 60 ( = 240 English) miles and she had still far to go. Malm improved the opportunity to speak to her concerning the crucified Christ and she found peace in believing on his atonement. She became so happy that she clapped her hands and for joy could not sleep that night. She said later: “Now I will return home and tell the people what I have found.” This she did, and did not care to continue her journey to Upsala, in order to get comfort from Dr. Fjellstedt. (c) The ground of faith is the external word of promise. The ground of assurance, on the other hand, is the inward witness of the Spirit that we fulfill the conditions of the promise ( Romans 4:20,21; 8:16; Ephesians 1:13; l John 4:13; 5:10). This witness of the Spirit is not a new revelation from God but a strengthening of faith so that it becomes conscious and indubitable.

True faith is possible without assurance of salvation. But if Alexander’s view were correct, that the object of saving faith is the proposition: “God, for Christ’s sake, now looks with reconciling love on me, a sinner,” no one could believe, without being at the same time assured that he was a saved person. ‘Upon the true view, that the object of saving faith is not a proposition, but a person, we can perceive not only the simplicity of faith, but the possibility of faith even where the soul is destitute of assurance or of joy. Hence those who already believe are urged to seek for assurance ( Hebrews 6:11; 2 Peter l:10). Romans 4:20,21 — “looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform”; 8:16 — “The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God”; Ephesians 1:13 — “in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”; 1 John 4:13 — “hereby we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit”; 5:10 — “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him.” This assurance is not of the essence of faith, because believers are exhorted to attain to it: Hebrews 6:11 — “And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fullness of hope [margin — ‘full assurance’] even to the end”; 2 Peter 1:10 — “Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure.” Cf. Proverbs 14:14 — “a good man shall be satisfied from himself.”

There is need to guard the doctrine of assurance from mysticism. The witness of the Spirit is not a new and direct revelation from God. It is a strengthening of previously existing faith until he who possesses this faith cannot any longer doubt that he possesses it. It is a general rule that all our emotions, when they become exceedingly strong, also become conscious. Instance affection between man and woman.

Edwards, Religious Affections, in Works, 3:83-91, says the witness of the Spirit is not a new word or suggestion from God, but an enlightening and sanctifying influence so that the heart is drawn forth to embrace the truth already revealed, and to perceive that it embraces it. “Bearing witness” is not in this case to declare and assert a thing to be true but to hold forth evidence from which a thing may be proved to be true. God “beareth witness by signs and wonders” ( Hebrews 2:4). So the “seal of the Spirit” is not a voice or suggestion, but a work or effect of the Spirit. It is left, as a divine mark upon the soul to be an evidence by which God’s children may be known. Seals had engraved upon them the image or name of the persons to whom they belonged. The “seal of the Spirit,” the “earnest of the Spirit,” the “witness of the Spirit,” are all one thing. The childlike spirit, given by the Holy Spirit, is the Holy Spirit’s witness or evidence in us.

See also illustration of faith and assurance, in C. S. Robinson’s Short Studies for S. S. Teachers, 179, 180. Faith should be distinguished not only from assurance, but also from feeling or joy. Instance Abraham’s faith when he went to sacrifice Isaac and Madame Guyon’s faith, when God’s face seemed hid from her. See, on the witness of the Spirit, Short, Bampton Lectures for 1846; British and For. Evan. Rev., 1888:617-631.

For the view, which confounds faith with assurance, see Alexander, Discourses on Faith, 63-118.

It is important to distinguish saving faith from assurance of faith, for the reason that lack of assurance is taken by so many real Christians as evidence that they know nothing of the grace of God. To use once more a well-worn illustration: It is getting into the boat that saves us but not our comfortable feelings about the boat. What saves us is faith in Christ, not faith in our faith, or faith in the faith. The astronomer does not turn his telescope to the reflection of the sun or moon in the water, when he can turn it to the sun or moon itself. Why obscure our faith, when we can look to Christ?

The faith in a distant Redeemer was the faith of Christian, in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Only at the end of his journey does Christian have Christ’s presence. This representation rests upon a wrong conception of faith as laying hold of a promise or a doctrine, rather than as laying hold of the living and present Christ. The old Scotch woman’s direction to the inquirer to “grip the promise” is not so good as the direction to “grip Christ.” Sir Francis Drake, the great English sailor, had for his crest an anchor with a cable running up into the sky. A poor boy, taught in a mission school in Ireland, when asked, what was meant by saving faith, replied: “It is grasping God with the heart.”

The view of Charles Hodge, like that of Alexander, puts doctrine before Christ, and makes the formal principle, the supremacy of Scripture, superior to the material principle, justification by faith. The Shorter Catechism is better: “Faith in Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest on him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.” If this relation of faith to the personal Christ had been kept in mind, much religious despondency might have been avoided. Murphy, Natural Selection and Spiritual Freedom, 80, 81, tells us that Frances Ridley Havergal could never fix the date of her conversion. From the age of six to that of fourteen she suffered from religions fears and did not venture to call herself a Christian. It was the result of confounding being at peace with God and being conscious of that peace. So the mother of Frederick Denison Maurice, an admirable and deeply religious woman, endured long and deep mental suffering from doubts as to her personal election.

There is a witness of the Spirit, with some sinners, that they are not children of God and this witness is through the truth, though the sinner does not know that it is the Spirit who reveals it to him. We call this work of the Spirit conviction of sin. The witness of the Spirit that we are children of God and the assurance of faith of which Scripture speaks are one and the same thing, the former designation only emphasizing the source from which the assurance springs. False assurance is destitute of humility but true assurance is so absorbed in Christ that self is forgotten.

Self-consciousness, and desire to display one’s faith, are not marks of true assurance. When we say: “That man has a great deal of assurance,” we have in mind the false and self-centered assurance of the hypocrite or the self-deceiver.

Allen, Jonathan Edwards, 231 — “It has been said that any one who can read Edwards’s Religious Affections, and still believe in his own conversion, may well have the highest assurance of its reality. But how few there were in Edwards’s time who gained the assurance, may be inferred from the circumstance that Dr. Hopkins and Dr. Emmons, disciples of Edwards and religious leaders in New England, remained to the last uncertain of their conversion.” He can attribute this only to the semi-deistic spirit of the time, with its distant God and imperfect apprehension of the omnipresence and omnipotence of Christ. Nothing so clearly marks the practical progress of Christianity as the growing faith in Jesus, the only Revealer of God in nature and history as well as in the heart of the believer. As never before, faith comes directly to Christ, abides in him and finds his promise true: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” ( Matthew 28:20). “Nothing before, nothing behind; The steps of faith Fall on the seeming void and find The Rock beneath.” (d) That faith necessarily leads to good works, since it embraces the whole truth of God so far as made known, and appropriates Christ, not only as an external Savior, but as an internal sanctifying power ( Hebrews 7:15,16; Galatians 5:6).

Good works are the proper evidence of faith. The faith, which does not lead men to act upon the commands and promises of Christ or, in other words, does not lead to obedience, is called in Scripture a “dead,” that is, an unreal faith. Such faith is not saving since it lacks the voluntary element — actual appropriation of Christ ( James 2:14-26). Hebrews 7:15,16 — “another priest, who hath been made, not after the law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life”; Galatians 5:6 — “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but with working through love”; James 2:14,26 — What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? Can that faith save him? ... For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.”

The best evidence that I believe a man’s word is that I act upon it.

Instance the bank cashier’s assurance to me that a sum of money is deposited with him to my account. If I am a millionaire, the communication may cause me no special joy. Just as my faith in the cashier’s word is tested by my going for the money or not, so my faith in Christ is evidenced by my acting upon his commands and promises. We may illustrate also by the lifting of the trolley to the wire and the resulting light and heat and motion to the car that before stood dark and cold and motionless upon the track.

Salvation by works is like getting to one’s destination by pushing the car.

True faith depends upon God for energy but it results in activity of all our powers. Romans 3:28 — “We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” We are saved only by faith, yet this faith will be sure to bring forth good works. see Galatians 5:6 — “faith working through love.” Dead faith might be illustrated by Abraham Lincoln’s Mississippi steamboat, whose whistle was so big that, when it sounded, the boat stopped. Confession exhausts the energy so that none is left for action.

A. J. Gordon, The First Thing in the World, or The Primacy of Faith: “David Brainard speaks with a kind of suppressed astonishment of what he observed among the degraded North American Indians. Preaching to them the good news of salvation through the atonement of Christ and persuading them to accept it by faith and then hastening on in his rapid missionary tours he found, on returning upon his track a year or two later, that the fruits of righteousness, sobriety, virtue and brotherly love were everywhere visible. It had been possible to impart to them only the slightest moral or ethical teaching.” (e) That faith, as characteristically the inward act of reception, is not to be confounded with love or obedience, its fruit.

Faith is, in the Scriptures, called a work, only in the sense that man’s active powers are engaged in it. It is a work which God requires yet which God enables man to perform ( John 6:29 — ejrgon tou~ Qeou~ Cf. Romans 1:17 — dikawsu>nh Qeou~ ). As the gift of God and as the mere taking of undeserved mercy, it is expressly excluded from the category of works upon the basis of which man may claim salvation ( Romans 3:28; 4:4, 5, 16). It is not the act of the full soul bestowing but the act of an empty soul receiving. Although this reception is prompted by a drawing of heart toward God inwrought by the Holy Spirit, this drawing of heart is not yet a conscious and developed love because such love is the result of faith ( Galatians 5:6). What precedes faith is an unconscious and undeveloped tendency or disposition toward God. Conscious and developed affection toward God, or love proper, must always follow faith and be the product of faith. So, too, obedience can be rendered only after faith has laid hold of Christ and with him has obtained the spirit of obedience ( Romans 1:5 — uJpakoh>n pi>stewv = “obedience resulting from faith”). Hence faith is not the procuring cause of salvation but is only the instrumental cause. The procuring cause is the Christ, whom faith embraces. John 6:29 — “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent”; cf. Romans 1:17 — “For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith”; Romans 3:28 — “We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law”; 4:4, 5, 16 — “Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace but as of debt. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness...For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace”; Galatians 5:6 — “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love”; Romans 1:5 — “through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations.”

Faith stands as an intermediate factor between the unconscious and undeveloped tendency or disposition toward God inwrought in the soul by God’s regenerating act, on the one hand, and the conscious and developed affection toward God, which is one of the fruits and evidences of conversion, on the other. Illustrate by the motherly instinct shown in a little girl’s care for her doll, a motherly instinct which becomes a developed mother’s love, only when a child of her own is born. This new love of the Christian is an activity of his own soul, and yet it is a “fruit of the Spirit” ( Galatians 5:22). To attribute it wholly to himself would be like calling the walking and leaping of the lame man ( Acts 3:8) merely a healthy activity of his own. For illustration of the priority of faith to love, see Shedd, Dogm. Theol, 2:588, note; on the relation of faith to love, see Julius Muller, Doct. Sin, 1:116, 117.

The logical order is therefore unconscious and undeveloped love, faith in Christ and his truth, conscious and developed love and assurance of faith.

Faith and love act and react upon one another. Each advance in the one leads to a corresponding advance in the other. But the source of all is in God. God loves, and therefore, he gives love to us as well as receives love from us. The unconscious and undeveloped love, which he imparts in regeneration, is the root of all Christian faith. The Roman Catholic is right in affirming the priority of love to faith, if he means by love only this unconscious and undeveloped affection. But the Protestant is also right in affirming the priority of faith to love, if he means by love a conscious and developed affection. Stevens, Johannine Theology, 368 — “Faith is not a mere passive receptivity. As the acceptance of a divine life, it involves the possession of a new moral energy. Faith works by love. In faith a new life force is received and new life-powers stir within the Christian man.”

We must not confound repentance with fruits meet for repentance or, faith with fruits meet, for faith. A. J. Gordon, The First Thing in the World: “Love is the greatest thing in the world but faith is the first. The tree is greater than the root but let it not boast: ‘if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee’ ( Romans 11:18). Love has no power to branch out and bear fruit, except as, through faith, it is rooted in Christ and draws nourishment from him. 1 Peter 1:5 — ‘who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’; 1 Corinthians 13:13 — ‘now abideth faith, hope, love’; Hebrews 10:19-25 — ‘draw near...in fullness of faith...hold fast the confession of our hope...provoke unto love and good works’; Romans 5:1-5 — ‘justified by faith... rejoice in hope...love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts’; 1Thess. 1:1, 2 — ‘work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope.’ Faith is the actinic ray, hope the luminiferous ray, love the calorific ray. But faith contains the principle of the divine likeness, as the life of the parent given to the child contains the principle of likeness to the father and will insure moral and physical resemblance in due time.”

A.J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 112 — “‘The love of the Spirit’ ( Romans 15:30) is the love of the Spirit of Christ and it is given us for overcoming the world. The divine life is the source of the divine love.

Therefore the love of God is ‘shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us ( Romans 5:5). Because we are by nature so wholly without heavenly affection, God, through the indwelling Spirit, gives us his own love with which to love himself.” A. H. Strong, Christ in Creation, 286, 287, points out that in 2 Corinthians 5:14 — “the love of Christ constraineth us” — the love of Christ is “not our love to Christ, for that is a very weak and uncertain thing nor even Christ’s love to us, for that is still something external to us. Each of these leaves a separation between Christ and us, and fails to act as a moving power within us. Not simply our love to Christ or simply Christ’s love to us but rather Christ’s love in us, is the love that constrains. This is the thought of the apostle.”

The first fruit of this love, in its still unconscious and undeveloped state, is faith. (f) That faith is susceptible of increase.

This is evident, whether we consider it from the human or from the divine side. As an act of man, it has an intellectual, an emotional and a voluntary element each, of which, is capable of growth. As a work of God in the soul of man, it can receive through the presentation of the truth and the quickening agency of the Holy Spirit, continually new accessions of knowledge, sensibility and active energy. Such increase of faith, therefore, we are to seek, both by resolute exercise of our own powers and above all, by direct application to the source of faith in God ( Luke 17:5). Luke 17:5 — “And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith.” The adult Christian has more faith than he had when a child; evidently there has been increase. 1 Corinthians 12:8,9 — “For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom...to another faith, in the same Spirit.” In this latter passage, it seems to be intimated that for special exigencies the Holy Spirit gives to his servants special faith, so that they are enabled to lay hold of the general promise of God and make special application of it. Romans 8:26,27 — “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity... maketh intercession for us...maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” 1 John 5:14,15 — “And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we knew that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.”

Only when we begin to believe, do we appreciate our lack of faith, and the great need of its increase. The little beginning of light makes known the greatness of the surrounding darkness. Mark 9:24 — “I believe; help thou mine unbelief” was the utterance of one who recognized both the need of faith and the true source of supply.

On the general subject of Faith, see Kostlin, Die Lehre von dem Glauben. 13-85, 301-341, and in Jahrbuch f. d. Theol., 4:177 sq.; Romaine on Faith, 9-89; Bishop of Ossory Nature and Effects of Faith, 1-40; Venn, Characteristics of Belief, Introduction, Nitzsch, System of Christ Doct., 294.

IV. JUSTIFICATION. 1. Definition of Justification.

By justification we mean that judicial act of God by which, on account of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith, he declares that sinner to be no longer exposed to the penalty of the law but to be restored to his favor.

Or, to give an alternative definition from which all metaphor is excluded:

Justification is the reversal of God’s attitude toward the sinner because of the sinner’s new relation to Christ. God did condemn; he now acquits. He did repel; he now admits to favor.

Justification, as thus defined, is therefore a declarative act, as distinguished from an efficient act, an act of God external to the sinner, as distinguished from an act within the sinner’s nature and changing that nature. It is a judicial act as distinguished from a sovereign act, an act based upon and logically presupposing the sinner’s union with Christ, as distinguished from an act, which causes and is followed by that union with Christ.

The word ‘declarative’ does not imply a ‘spoken’ word on God’s part, much less that the sinner hears God speak. That justification is sovereign is held by Arminians, and by those who advocate a governmental theory of the atonement. On any such theory, justification must be sovereign since Christ bore not the penalty of the law but a substituted suffering, which God graciously and with sovereignty accepts in place of our suffering and obedience.

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1100, wrote a tract for the consolation of the dying, who were alarmed on account of sin. The following is an extract from it: “Question: Dost thou believe that the Lord Jesus died for thee? Answer. I believe it. Question: Dost thou thank him for his passion and death? Ans. I do thank him. Question: Dost thou believe that thou canst not be saved except by his death? Ans. I believe it.” And then Anselm addresses the dying man: “Come then, while life remaineth in thee; in his death alone place thy whole trust; in naught else place any trust; to his death commit thyself wholly; with this alone cover thyself wholly; and if the Lord thy God will to judge thee, say, ‘Lord, between thy judgment and me I present the death of our Lord Jesus Christ; no otherwise can I contend with thee.’ And if he shall say that thou art a sinner, say thou: ‘Lord, I interpose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between my sins and thee.’ If he say that thou last deserved condemnation, say: ‘Lord, I set the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between my evil deserts and thee, and his merits I offer for those which I ought to have and have not.’ If he say that he is wroth with thee say: ‘Lord, I oppose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between thy wrath and me.’ And when thou hast completed this, say again: ‘Lord, I set the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between thee and me.’” See Anselm, Opera (Migne), 1:686, 687. The above quotation gives us reason to believe that the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith was implicitly, if not explicitly, held by many pious souls through all the ages of papal darkness. 2. Proof of the Doctrine of Justification.

A. Scripture proofs of the doctrine as a whole are the following: Romans 1:17 — “a righteousness of God from faith unto faith”; 3:24- 30 — “being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...the justifier of him that hash faith in Jesus...We reckon therefore a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law...justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncirumcision through faith”; Galatians 3:11 — “Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, the righteous shall live by faith; and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them”; Ephesians 1:7 — “in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”; Hebrews 11:4,7 — “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous... By faith Noah...moved with godly fear prepared an ark...became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”; cf.

Gen. 15:6 — “And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness”; Isaiah 7:9 — “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established”; 28:18 — “he that believeth shall not be in haste”; Habakkuk 2:4 — “the righteous shall live by his faith.” Psalm 85:8 — “He will speak peace unto his people” God’s great word of pardon includes all else. Peace with him implies all the covenant privileges resulting therefrom. 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 — “all things are yours,” because “ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” This is not salvation by law or by ideals or by effort or by character, although obedience to law, a loftier ideal, unremitting effort and a pure character are consequences of justification. Justification is the change in God’s attitude toward the sinner, which makes all these consequences possible.

The only condition of justification is the sinner’s faith in Jesus, which merges the life of the sinner in the life of Christ. Paul expresses the truth in Galatians 2:16,20 — “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law...I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.”

With these observations and qualifications we may assent to much that is said by Whiton, Divine Satisfaction, 64, who distinguishes between forgiveness and remission: “Forgiveness is the righting of disturbed personal relations. Remission is removal of the consequences which in the natural order of things have resulted from our fault God forgives all that is strictly personal but remits nothing that is strictly natural in sin. He imparts to the sinner the power to bear his burden and work off his debt of consequences. Forgiveness is not remission. It is introductory to remission, just as conversion is not salvation, but introductory to salvation. The prodigal son, even though was received by his father, could not recover his lost patrimony. He could, however, have been led by penitence to work so hard that he earned more than he had lost. “Here is an element in justification which Protestantism has ignored, and which Romanism has tried to retain. Debts must be paid to the uttermost farthing. The scars of past sins must remain forever. Forgiveness converts the persistent energy of past sin from a destructive to a constructive power. There is a transformation of energy into a new form. Genuine repentance spurs us up to do what we can to make up for time lost and for wrong done. The sinner is clothed anew with moral power. We are all to be judged by our works. That Paul had been a blasphemer was ever stimulating him to Christian endeavor. The faith, which receives Christ, is a peculiar spirit, a certain moral activity of love and obedience. it is not mere reliance on what Christ was and did, but active endeavor to become and to do like him. Human justice takes hold of deeds ; divine righteousness deals with character. Justification by faith is justification by spirit and inward principle, apart from the merit of works or performances, but never without these. God’s charity takes the will for the deed. This is not justification by outward conduct, as the Judaizers thought, but by the godly spirit” If this new spirit be the Spirit of Christ to whom faith has united the soul, we can accept the statement. There is danger however of conceiving this spirit as purely man’s own and justification as not external to the sinner or as the work of God but as the mere name for a subjective process by which man justifies himself.

B. Scripture use of the special words translated “justify” and “justification” in the Septuagint and in the New Testament. (a) dikaio>w — uniformly, or with only a single exception, signifies, not to make righteous, but to declare just, or free from guilt and exposure to punishment. The only O. T. passage, where this meaning is questionable is Daniel 12:3. But even here the proper translation is, in all probability, not ‘they that turn many to righteousness,’ but ‘they that justify many,’ i. e., cause many to be justified. For the Hiphil force of the verb, see Girdlestone, O. T. Syn., 257, 258, and Delitzsch on Isaiah 53:11; cf. James 5:19,20.

O.T. texts: Exodus 23:7 — “I will not justify the wicked”; Deuteronomy 25:1 — “they [the judges] shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked”; Job 27:5 — “Far be it from me that I should justify you”; <19E302> Psalm 143:2 — “in thy sight no man living is righteous”; Proverbs 17:15 — “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to Jehovah”; Isaiah 5:23 — “that justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him”; 50:8 — “He is near that justifieth me”; 53:11 — “by the knowledge of Himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities”; Dan.12:3 — “and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever” (‘they that justify many,’ i. e., cause many to be justified); cf. James 5:19,20 — “My brethren, if any among you err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall cover soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.”

The Christian minister absolves from sin, only as he marries a couple: he does not join them, he only declares them joined. So he declares men forgiven, if they have complied with the appointed divine conditions.

Marriage may be invalid where these conditions are lacking but the minister’s absolution is of no account where there is no repentance of sin and faith in Christ. See G. D. Boardman, The Church, 178. We are ever to remember that the term justification is a forensic term, which presents the change of God’s attitude toward the sinner in a pictorial way derived from the procedure of earthly tribunals. The fact is larger and more vital than the figure used to describe it.

McConnell, Evolution of Immortality, 134, 135 — “Christ’s terms are biological; those of many theologians are legal. It may be ages before we recover from the misfortune of having had the truth of Christ interpreted and fixed by jurists and logicians instead of by naturalists and men of science. It is much like the rationale of the circulation of the blood that had been wrought out by Sir Matthew Hale or the germ theory of disease interpreted by Blackstone or the doctrine of evolution formulated by a legislative council. The Christ is intimately and vitally concerned with the eternal life of men but the question involved is of their living or perishing, not of a system of judicial rewards and penalties.” We must remember however that even biology gives us only one side of the truth. The forensic conception of justification furnishes its complement and has its rights also. The Scriptures represent both sides of the truth. Paul gives us the judicial aspect, John the vital aspect of justification.

In Romans 6:7 — oJ gawtai ajpo< th~v aJmartiav = ‘he that once died with Christ was acquitted from the service of sin considered as a penalty.’ In 1 Corinthians 4:4 — oujden ganoida. ajll oujk tou>tw| dedikai>wmai = ‘I am conscious of no fault, but that does not in itself make certain God’s acquittal as respects this particular charge.’ The usage of the epistle of James does not contradict this; the doctrine of James is that we are justified only by such faith as makes us faithful and brings forth good works. “He uses the word exclusively in a judicial sense; he combats a mistaken view of pi>stiv , not a mistaken view of dikaio>w ”; see James 2:21,23,24, and Cremer, N. T.

Lexicon, Eng. trans., 182, 183. The only N. T. passage where this meaning is questionable is Revelations 22:11; but here Alford, with a , A and B, reads dikaiosu>nhn poihsa>tw.

N. T. texts: Matthew 12:37 — “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shah be condemned”; Luke 7:29 — “And all the people...justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John”; 10:29 — “But he, desiring to justify himself said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?” 16:15 — “Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men; but God knoweth your hearts”; 18:14 — “This man went down to his house justified rather than the other”; cf. 13 (lit.) “God, be thou propitiated toward me the sinner”; Romans 4:6-8 — “Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin”; cf. Psalm 32:1,2 — “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile.” Romans 5:18,19 — “So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation: even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous”; 8:33, 34 — “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21 — “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not reckoning unto them their trespasses...Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God [God’s justified persons] in him”; Romans 6:7 — “he that hath died is justified from sin”; 1 Corinthians 4:4 — For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord” (on this last text, see Expositor’s Greek Testament, in loco ). James 2:21,23,24 — “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the alter?...Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness...Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.” James is denouncing a dead faith, while Paul is speaking of the necessity of a living faith or, rather, James is describing the nature of faith, while Paul is describing the instrument of justification. “They are like two men beset by a couple of robbers. Back to back each strikes out against the robber opposite him, each having a different enemy in his eye” (Wm. M. Taylor). Neander on James 2:14-26 — “James is denouncing mere adhesion to an external law, trust in intellectual possession of it. With him, law means an inward principle of life. Paul, contrasting law as he does with faith, commonly means by law a mere external divine requisition. James does not deny salvation to him who has faith but only to him who falsely professes to have. When he says that ‘by works a man is justified,’ he takes into account the outward manifestation only, speaks from the point of view of human consciousness. In works only does faith show itself as genuine and complete.” Revelation 22:11 — “he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still” — not, as the A. V. seemed to imply, “he that is just, let him be justified still” — i. e., made subjectively holy.

Christ is the great Physician. The physician says: “If you wish to be cured, you must trust me.” The patient replies: “I do trust you fully.” But the physician continues: “If you wish to be cured, you must take my medicines and do as I direct.” The patient objects: “But I thought I was to be cured by trust in you. Why lay such stress on what 1 do?” The physician answers: “You must show your trust in me by your action.

Trust in me, without action in proof of trust, amounts to nothing” (S. S.

Times). Doing without a physician is death hence, Paul says works cannot save. Trust in the physician implies obedience hence, James says faith without works is dead. Crane, Religion of Tomorrow, 152-155 — “Paul insists on apple tree righteousness, and warns us against Christmas tree righteousness.” Sagebeer, The Bible in Court, 77, 78 — “By works, Paul means works of law; James means by works, works of faith.” Hovey, in The Watchman, Aug. 27, 1891 — “A difference of emphasis, occasioned chiefly by the different religious perils to which readers were at the time exposed.” (b) dikai>wsiv — is the act, in process, of declaring a man just, that is, acquitted from guilt and restored to the divine favor ( Romans 4:25; 5:18). Romans 4:25 — “who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification — unto all men to justification of life.”

Griffith-Jones, Ascent through Christ, 367, 368 — “Raised for our justification” — Christ’s death made our justification possible but it did not consummate it. Through his rising from the dead he was able to come into that relationship to the believer which restores the lost or interrupted son-ship. In the church the fact of the resurrection is perpetuated, and the idea of the resurrection is realized. (c) dikai>wma — is the act, as already accomplished, of declaring a man just, that is, no longer exposed to penalty, but restored to God’s favor ( Romans 5:16,18; cf . 1 Timothy 3:16). Hence, in other connections, dikai>wma has the meaning of statute, legal decision, act of justice ( Luke 1:6; Romans 2:26; Hebrews 9:1). Romans 5:16,18 — “of many trespasses unto justification through one act of righteousness”; cf. 1 Timothy 3:16 — “justified in the spirit.” The distinction between dikai>wsiv and dikai>wma may be illustrated by the distinction between poesy and poem, the former denoting something in process, an ever-working spirit; the latter denoting something fully accomplished, a completed work. Hence dikai>wma is used in Luke l:6 — “ordinances of the Lord”. Romans 2:26 — “ordinances of the law”; Hebrews 1:9 — “ordinances of divine service.” (d) dikaiosu>nh — is the state of one justified, or declared just ( Romans 8:10; 1 Corinthians 1:30). In Romans 10:3, Paul inveighs against than dikaiosu>nhn as insufficient and false, and in its place would put thnhn — that is, a dikaiosu>nh which God not only requires, but provides, which is not only acceptable to God, but proceeds from God and is appropriated by faith, hence called dikaiosu>nh pi>stewv or ejk pi>stewv . “The primary signification of the word, in Paul’s writings, is therefore that state of the believer which is called forth by God’s act of acquittal, the state of the believer as justified,” that is, freed from punishment and restored to the divine favor. Romans 8:10 — the spirit is life because of righteousness” Corinthians 1:30 — “Christ Jesus, who was made unto us righteousness”; Romans 10:3 — “being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:542 — “The ‘righteousness of God’ is the active and passive obedience of incarnate God.” See, on dikaiosu>nh , Cremer, N. T. Lexicon, Eng. trans., 174; Meyer on Romans, trans., 68-70 — “dikaiosu>nh Qeou~ (gen. of origin, emanation from) = rightness which proceeds from God — the relation of being right into which man is put by God (by an act of God declaring him righteous).”

E. G. Robinson, Christian Theology, 304 — “When Paul addressed those who trusted in their own righteousness, he presented salvation as attainable only through faith in another; when he addressed Gentiles who were conscious of their need of a helper, the forensic imagery is not employed. Scarce a trace of it appears in his discourses as recorded in the Acts and it is noticeably absent from all the epistles except the Romans and the Galatians.”

Since this state of acquittal is accompanied by changes in the character and conduct, dikaiosu>nh comes to mean, secondarily, the moral condition of the believer as resulting from this acquittal and inseparably connected with it ( Romans 14:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21). This righteousness arising from justification becomes a principle of action ( Matthew 3:15; Acts 10:35; Romans 6:13,18). The term, however, never loses its implication of a justifying act upon which this principle of action is based. Romans 14:17 — “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”; 2 Corinthians 5:21 — ““that we might become the righteousness of God in him”; Matthew 3:15 — “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness”; Acts 10:35 — “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him”; Romans 6:13 — “present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Meyer on Romans 3:23 — “Every mode of conception which refers redemption and the forgiveness of sins, not to a real atonement through the death of Christ, but subjectively to the dying and reviving with him guaranteed and produced by that death (Schleiermacher, Nitzsch, Hofmann), is opposed to the N.

T., a mixing up of justification and sanctification.”

On these Scripture terms, see Bp. of Ossory, Nature and Effects of Faith, 436-496; Lange, Com., on Romans 3:24; Buchanan on Justification, 226-249. Versus Moehler, Symbolism, 102 — “The forgiveness of sins...is undoubtedly a remission of the guilt and the punishment which Christ hath taken and born upon himself. Likewise, it is the transfusion of his Spirit into us”; Newman, Lectures on Justification, 68-143; Knox, Remains; N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 310-372.

It is a great mistake in method to derive the meaning of di>kaiov from that of dikaiosu>nh and not vice versa. Wm. Arnold Stevens, in Am. Jour. Theology, April, 1897 — dikaiosu>nh , righteousness, in all its meanings, whether ethical or forensic, has back of it the idea of law and also the idea of violated law. It derives its forensic sense from the verb dikaio>w and its cognate noun dikai>wsiv; dikaiosu>nh therefore is legal acceptability, the status before the law of a pardoned sinner.” Denney, in Expos. Gk. Test., 2:565 — “In truth, ‘sin,’’ the law,’ ‘the curse of the law,’ ‘death,’ are names for something which belongs not to the Jewish but to the human conscience and it is only because this is so that the gospel of Paul is also a gospel for us. Before Christ came and redeemed the world, all men were at bottom on the same footing:

Pharisaism, legalism, moralism or whatever it is called, is in the last resort the attempt to be good without God. It is an attempt to achieve a righteousness of our own, without an initial all-inclusive immeasurable debt to him. In other words, without submitting, as sinful men must submit, to be justified by faith apart from works of our own, and to find in that justification, and in that only, the spring and impulse of all good.”

It is worthy of special observation that, in the passages cited above, the terms, “justify” and “justification” are contrasted, not with the process at depraving or corrupting but with the outward act of condemning. The expressions used to explain and illustrate them are all derived not from the inward operation of purifying the soul or infusing into it righteousness but from the procedure of courts in their judgments, or of offended persons in their forgiveness of offenders. We conclude that these terms, wherever they have reference to the sinner’s relation to God, signify a declarative and judicial act of God, external to the sinner and not an efficient and sovereign act of God changing the sinner’s nature and making him subjectively righteous.

In the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, session 8, chap. 9, is devoted to the refutation of the “inanis hæreticorum fiducia”; and Canon 12 of the session anathematizes those who say, “fidem justificantem nihil aliud esse quam fiduciam diviuæ misericordiæ, peccata remittentis propter Christum” or that “justifying faith is nothing but trust in the divine mercy which pardons sins for Christ’s sake.” The Roman Catholic doctrine, on the contrary, maintains that the ground of justification is not simply the faith by which the sinner appropriates Christ and his atoning work but is also the new love and good works wrought within him by Christ’s Spirit.

This introduces a subjective element, which is foreign to the Scripture doctrine of justification.

Dr. E. G. Robinson taught that justification consists of three elements, which are acquittal, restoration to favor and infusion of righteousness. In this he accepted a fundamental error of Romanism. He says: “Justification and sanctification are not to be distinguished as chronologically and statically different. Justification and righteousness are the same thing from different points of view. Pardon is not a mere declaration of forgiveness — a merely arbitrary thing. Salvation introduces a new law into our sinful nature, which annuls the law of sin and destroys its penal and destructive consequences. Forgiveness of sins must be in itself a gradual process. The final consequences of a man’s sins are written indelibly upon his nature and remain forever. When Christ said: ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’, it was an objective statement of a subjective fact. The person was already in a state of living relation to Christ. The gospel is damnation to the damnable and invitation, love and mercy to those who feel their need of it. We are saved through the enforcement of law on every one of us. Forgiveness consists in the removal from consciousness of a sense of ill-desert.

Justification, aside from its forensic use, is a transformation and a promotion. Sense of forgiveness is a sense of relief from a hated habit of mind.” This seems to us dangerously near to a denial that justification is an act of God and to an affirmation that it is simply a subjective change in man’s condition.

E. H. Johnson: “If Dr. Robinson had been content to say that the divine fiat of justification had the man-ward effect of regeneration, he would have been correct for the verdict would be empty without this man-ward efficacy. But unfortunately, he made the effect a part of the cause, identifying the divine justification with its human fruition, the clearance of the past with the provision for the future.” We must grant that the words, inward and outward are misleading, for God is not under the law of space and the soul itself is not in space. Justification takes place just as much in man as outside of him. Justification and regeneration take place at the same moment but logically God’s act of renewing is the cause and God’s act of approving is the effect. Or we may say that regeneration and justification are both of them effects of our union with Christ. Luke 1:37 — “For no word from God shall be void of power.” Regeneration and justification may be different aspects of God’s turning — of his turning us and his turning himself. But it still is true that justification is a change in God and not in the creature. 3. Elements of Justification.

These are two:

A. Remission of punishment. (a) God acquits the ungodly ones who believe in Christ and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent for that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation. Romans 4:5 — “But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”; cf. John 3:16 — “gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page 856, (a) , and Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:549. Romans 5:1 — “Being therefore justified by faith, we ‘have peace with God” — not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67 — “Forgiveness may be defined in personal terms as a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin, in ethical terms as a release from the guilt of sin, which oppresses the conscience and in legal terms as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.” (b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness. Micah 7:18 — “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?” <19D004> Psalm 130:4 — “But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.” It is hard for us to understand God’s feeling toward sin.

Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing, which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation and nothing but Christ’s taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B.

Fay Mills: “A. tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.” How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!” (c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors, for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God’s government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders and, in justification, God declares this remission.

There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored the vis medicatrix of the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says: “I must pay my debt.” But the believer finds that “Jesus paid it all.” Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage, finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned so that now there is nothing to pay. Psalm 34:22 — “Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”

A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is reestablished but the broken bone is not therefore at once healed. The father’s forgiveness, however, will assure the father’s help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364 — “Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.” As the Plymouth Brethren say: “It is not the sin-question, but the Son-question.” “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” ( Hebrews 10:17).

The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home ( Luke 15:23). (d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law’s demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free. Acts 13:38,39 — “Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him [lit.: ‘in him’] every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”; Romans 3:24,26 — “being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”; 1 Corinthians 6:11 — ““but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”; Ephesians 1:7 — “in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned — a trial in which he appears for the guilty and sets over against their sin his own righteousness or rather, shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.: “When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah: ‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’ ( Numbers 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is: ‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan...is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’ ( Zechariah 3:2).

Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them. ‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’ he says, ‘and do my prophets no harm’ (Psalm 405:15). ‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth’?” ( Romans 8:33,34).” It is not sin then that condemns; it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex, which would have purchased his pardon.

She shook the dying woman and cursed her even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God’s administration.

Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698 — “The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation — a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”

B. Restoration to favor. (a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal, law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God’s treatment of the sinner as if he was and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty but the rewards promised to obedience. Luke 15:22-24 — “Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”; John 3:16 — “gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should have eternal life”; Romans 5:1,2 — “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” — “this grace” being a permanent state of divine favor; 1 Corinthians 1:30 — “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”; 2 Corinthians 5:21 — “that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” Galatians 3:6 — “Ever’ as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”; Ephesians 2:7 — “the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”; 3:12 — “in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”; Philippians 3:8,9 — “I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord...the righteousness which is from God by faith”; Colossians 1:22 — “reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”; Titus 3:4,7 — “the kindness of God our Savior...that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”; Revelations 19:8 — “And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offense negatively, but in all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer’s union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but also favor. 1 Timothy 3:16 — Christ was himself “justified in the spirit,” and the believer partakes of his justification and of the whole of it i .e., not only acquittal but favor. Acts l3:39 — “in him everyone that believeth is justified” i.e., in Christ; 1 Corinthians 6:11 — “justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”; Galatians 4:5 — “that we might receive the adoption of sons” — a part of justification; Romans 5:11 — “through whom we have now received the reconciliation” — in justification; Corinthians 5:21 — “that we might become the righteousness of God in him”; Philippians 3:9 — “the righteousness which is from God by faith”; John 1:12 — “to them gave he the right to become children of God” — emphasis on “gave” — intimation that the “becoming children” is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.

Ellicott on Titus 3:7 — “dikaioqe>ntev , ‘justified,’ in the usual and more strict theological sense not however, as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin. It is involving a ‘mutationem status,’ an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif. vol. vi, p.5); in the words of the same writer: ‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’” The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court and exercise all his individual liberties as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler and Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham. 2Chron. 20:7 — “Abraham thy friend”; James 2:23 — “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”, i.e. , one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God. (b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul’s true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption. John 1:12 — “But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”; Romans 5:11 — “and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”; Galatians 4:4,5 — “born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”; Ephesians 1:5 — “having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”; cf. Romans 8:23 — “even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” — that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.

Luther called Psalms 32,51, 130, 143 “the Pauline Psalms,” because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works. <19D003> Psalm 130:3,4 — “If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared” is followed by verses 7, 8 — “O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is loving kindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”

Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil’s castaways. That very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington’s, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing. (c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left not provided for by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal but there is also approval and not only pardon but also promotion.

Remission is never separated from restoration.

After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment, he cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character and increases his punishment. There is a need of friendly inns and refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God’s wrath and eternal death but he is admitted to God’s favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert’s joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father’s house and heart open to him, and more is done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ’s justification is ours and, as Jesus’ own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness, which he provides, cannot be cut in two.

Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel “the power of God unto salvation” ( Romans 1:16). Edwin N. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law, which they had been joint counsel, Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President but Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes: “Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!” (d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God’s favor has its ground, not in the sinner’s personal character or conduct but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ’s work is the procuring cause of our justification in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ’s suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ’s obedience we receive the rewards of law.

All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience. John 20:31 — “that believing ye may have life in his name”; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 — “For all things are yours...all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that “grace operates for the rebel because it provides a scheme of justification ; it is judicial or is matter of debt and for the child it provides pardon or a fatherly forgiveness or repentance.” Hebrews 7:19 — “the law made nothing perfect...a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.” This “better hope” is offered to us in Christ’s death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar’s hymn, “Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,” has for its concluding stanza: “‘Tis finished all: the veil is rent, The welcome sure, the access free: — Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!” See pages 749 (b), 770 (h) .

James Russell Lowell: “At the devil’s booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul’s tasking; ‘Tis heaven alone that is given away, ‘Tis only God may be had for the asking.” John G.

Whittier: “The hour draws near, howe’er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”

H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524 — “Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol.5), that ‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’ and that ‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ’s, obedience,’ for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word ‘justify,’ if pardon is all that is intended. “Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness, which is the ground of the acquittal and favor and not the mere favor of the sovereign but the merit of Christ is at the basis of the righteousness, which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness) but in the gospel he does more, he pardons in consistency with his holiness, upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from the penalty of the law and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law — spiritual, temporal, eternal death — is all taken away and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ, the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life. “If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to the past. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption, which is his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is twofold. First, it does involve pardon, which is its negative side; the title to eternal life is its positive side. Secondly, is the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor or a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do. “Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ’s work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”

But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:432, 433. 4. Relation of Justification to God’s Law and Holiness.

A. Justification has been shown to be a forensic term. A man may, indeed, be conceived of as just, in either moral character, that is, absolutely holy in nature, disposition, and conduct or as just, in relation to law free from his obligation to suffer penalty and entitled to the rewards of obedience.

So, too a man may he conceived of as justified in either of made just in moral character or made just in his relation to law. But the Scriptures declare that there does not exist on earth a just man, in the first of these senses ( Ecclesiastes 7:20). Even in those who are renewed in moral character and united to Christ, there is a remnant of moral depravity.

If, therefore, there be any such thing as a just man, he must be just, not in the sense of possessing an unspotted holiness but in the sense of being delivered from the penalty of law and made partaker of its rewards. If there be any such thing as justification, it must be, not an act of God, which renders the sinner absolutely holy but an act of God, which declares the sinner to be free from legal penalties and entitled to legal rewards. Justus is derived from jus and suggests the idea of courts and legal procedures. The fact that ‘justify’ is derived from justus and facio , and might therefore seem to imply the making of a man subjectively righteous, should not blind us to its forensic use. The phrases “sanctify the Holy One of Jacob” ( Isaiah 29:23; cf. 1 Peter 3:15 — “sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord”) and “glorify God” ( 1 Corinthians 6:20) do not mean, to make God subjectively holy or glorious, for this he is. Whatever we may do they mean rather, to declare, or show, him to be holy or glorious. So justification is not making a man righteous, or even pronouncing him righteous, for no man is subjectively righteous. It is rather, to count him righteous so far as respects his relations to law, to treat him as righteous, or to declare that God will, for reasons assigned, so treat him (Payne). So long as any remnant of sin exists, no justification, in the sense of making holy, can be attributed to man. Ecclesiastes 7:20 — “Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not.” If no man is just, in this sense, then God cannot pronounce him just, for God cannot lie. Justification, therefore, must signify a deliverance from legal penalties and an assignment of legal rewards. O. P.

Gifford: There is no such thing as “salvation by character”; what men need is salvation from character. The only sense in which salvation by character is rational or Scriptural is that suggested by George Harris, Moral Evolution, 409 — “Salvation by character is not selfrighteousness, but Christ in us.” But even here it must be remembered that Christ in us presupposes Christ for us. The objective atonement for sin must come before the subjective purification of our natures. And justification is upon the ground of that objective atonement and not upon the ground of the subjective cleansing.

The Jews had a proverb that if only one man could perfectly keep the whole law even for one day, the kingdom of Messiah would at once come upon the earth. This is to state in another form the doctrine of Paul, in Romans 7:9 — “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” To recognize the impossibility of being justified by Pharisaic works was a preparation for the gospel. See Bruce, Apologetics, 419. The Germans speak of Werk-, Parteigerechtigkeit, Lehre-, Buchstaben, Negations- but all these are forms of self-righteousness. Berridge: “A man may steal some gems from the crown of Jesus and be guilty only of petty larceny. The man who would justify himself by his own works steals the crown itself, puts it on his own head and proclaims himself, by his own conquests, a king in Zion.”

B. The difficult feature of justification is the declaration on the part of God that a sinner whose remaining sinfulness seems to necessitate the vindicated reaction of God’s holiness against him, is yet free from such reaction of holiness as is expressed in the penalties of the law.

The fact is to be accepted on the testimony of Scripture. If this testimony is not accepted, there is no deliverance from the condemnation of law. But the difficulty of conceiving of God’s declaring the sinner no longer exposed to legal penalty is relieved, if not removed, by the three-fold consideration: (a) Christ has endured the penalty of the law in the sinner’s stead. Galatians 3:13 — “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” Denovan: “We are justified by faith, instrumentally in the same sense as a debt is paid by a good note or a check on a substantial account in a distant bank. It is only the intelligent and honest acceptance of justification already provided.” Romans 8:3 — “God, sending his own Son....condemned sin in the flesh” = the believer’s sins were judged and condemned on Calvary. The way of pardon through Christ honors God’s justice as well as God’s mercy; cf. Romans 3:26 — “that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.” (b) The sinner is so united to Christ, that Christ’s life already constitutes the dominating principle within him. Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:’ God does not justify any man whom he does not foresee that he can and will sanctify. Some prophecies produce their own fulfillment. Tell a man he is brave and you help him to become so. So declaratory justification, when published in the heart by the Holy Spirit, helps to make men just. Harris, God the Creator, 2:332 — “The objection to the doctrine of justification by faith insists that justification must be conditioned, not on faith, but on right character. But justification by faith is itself the doctrine of a justification conditioned on right character because faith in God is the only possible beginning of right character, either in men or angels.” Gould, Bib. Theol. N. T., 67-79, in a similar manner argues that Paul’s emphasis is on the spiritual effect of the death of our Lord, rather than on its expiatory effect. The course of thought in the Epistle to the Romans seems to us to contradict this view.

Sin and the objective atonement for sin are first treated; only after justification comes the sanctification of the believer. Still it is true that justification is never the sole work of God in the soul. The same Christ in union with whom we are justified does at that same moment a work of regeneration, which is followed by sanctification. (c) This life of Christ is a power in the soul, which will gradually but infallibly, extirpate all remaining depravity until the whole physical and moral nature is perfectly conformed to the divine holiness. Philippians 3:21 — “who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself”; Colossians 3:1-4 — “If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.”

Truth of fact, and ideal truth, are not opposed to each other. F. W.

Robertson, Lectures and Addresses, 256 — “When the agriculturist sees a small, white, almond-like thing rising from the ground, he calls that an oak; but this is not a truth of fact, it is an ideal truth. The oak is a large tree, with spreading branches and leaves and acorns but that is only a thing an inch long, and imperceptible in all its development. Yet the agriculturist sees in it the idea of what it shall be, and, if I may borrow a Scriptural phrase, he imputes to it the majesty, and excellence and glory that is to be hereafter.” This method of representation is effective and unobjectionable so long as we remember that the force, which is to bring about this future development and perfection, is not the force of unassisted human nature but rather the force of Christ and his indwelling Spirit. See Philippi, Glaubenslehre, v, 1:201-208.

Gore, Incarnation, 224 — “‘Looking at the mother,’ wrote George Eliot of Mrs. Garth in The Mill on the Floss, ‘you might hope that the daughter would become like her, which is a prospective advantage equal to a dowry. The mother too often standing behind the daughter like a malignant prophecy: Such as I am, she will shortly be.’ George Eliot imputes by anticipation to the daughter the merits of the mother, because her life is, so to speak, of the same piece. Now, by new birth and spiritual union, our life is of the same piece with the life of Jesus. Thus he as our elder brother stands behind us, his people, as a prophecy of all good. Thus God accepts us, deals with us, ‘in the Beloved,’ rating us at something of his value, imputing to us his merits, because in fact, except we be reprobates, he himself is the most powerful and real force at work in us.” 5. Relation of Justification to Union with Christ and the Work of the Spirit.

A. Since the sinner, at the moment of justification, is not yet completely transformed in character, we have seen that God can declare him just, not on account of what he is in himself, but only on account of what Christ is.

The ground of justification is therefore not, as the Romanists hold, a new righteousness and love infused into us and now constituting our moral character. It is not, as Osiander taught, the essential righteousness of Christ’s divine nature, which has become ours by faith but rather, the satisfaction and obedience of Christ, as the head of a new humanity and as embracing in himself all believers as his members.

Ritschl regarded justification as primarily an endowment of the church, in which the individual participated only so far as he belonged to the church.

See Pfleiderer, Die Ritschl’sche Theologie, 70. Here Ritschl committed an error like that of the Romanist — the church is the door to Christ instead of Christ being the door to the church. Justification belongs primarily to Christ and then to those who join themselves to Christ by faith and the church is the natural and voluntary aggregation of those who in Christ are thus justified. Hence, the necessity for the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. “For as the ministry of Enoch was sealed by his reception into heaven and as the ministry of Elijah was also abundantly proved by his translation, so also the righteousness and innocence of Christ. But it was necessary that the ascension of Christ should be more fully attested, because upon his righteousness, so fully proved by his ascension, we must depend for all our righteousness. For if God had not approved him after his resurrection and he had not taken his seat at his right hand, we could by no means be accepted of God” (Cartwright).

A.J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 46, 193, 195, 206 — “Christ must be justified in the spirit and received up into glory, before he can be made righteousness to us and we can become the righteousness of God in him.

Christ’s coronation is the indispensable condition of our justification.

Christ, the High Priest has entered the Holy of Holies in heaven for us.

Until he comes forth at the Second Advent, how can we be assured that his sacrifice for us is accepted? We reply that it is by the gift of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Spirit in the church is the proof of the presence of Christ before the throne. The Holy Spirit convinces of righteousness, ‘because I go unto the Father, and ye see me no more’ ( John 16:10).

We can only know that ‘we have a Paraclete with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous’ ( 1 John 2:1), by that ‘other Paraclete’ sent forth from the Father, even the Holy Spirit ( John 14:25,26; 15:26). The church, having the Spirit, reflects Christ to the world. As Christ manifests the Father, so the church through the Spirit manifests Christ. So Christ gives to us his name, ‘Christians.’ as the husband gives his name to the wife.”

As Adam’s sin is imputed to us, not because Adam is in us, but because we were in Adam so Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, not because Christ is in us but because we are in Christ. We are joined by faith to one whose righteousness and life are infinitely greater than our power to appropriate or contain. In this sense, we may say that we are justified through a Christ outside of us as we are sanctified through a Christ within us. Edwards: “The justification of the believer is no other than his being admitted to communion in or participation of this head and surety of all believers.” 1 Timothy 1:14 — “faith and love which is in Christ Jesus”; 3:16 — “He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit”; Acts l3:39 — “and by him [lit.: ‘in him’] everyone that believeth is justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”; Romans 4:25 — “who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification”; Ephesians 1:6 — “accepted in the Beloved” — Revised Version: “freely bestowed on us in the Beloved”; 1 Corinthians 6:11 — “justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” “We in Christ” is the formula of our justification; “Christ in us” is the formula of our sanctification. As the water, which the shell contains, is little compared with the great ocean, which contains the shell so the actual change wrought within us by God’s sanctifying grace is slight compared with the boundless freedom from condemnation and the state of favor with God into which we are introduced by justification. Romans 5:1,2 — “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Here we have the third instance of imputation. The first was the imputation of Adam’s sin to us and the second was the imputation of our sins to Christ. The third is now the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us. In each of the former cases, we have sought to show that the legal relation presupposes a natural relation. Adam’s sin is imputed to us because we are one with Adam; our sins are imputed to Christ, because Christ is one with humanity. So here, we must hold that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, because we are one with Christ.

Justification is not an arbitrary transfer to us of the merits of another with whom we have no real connection. This would make it merely a legal fiction and there are no legal fictions in the divine government.

Instead of this external and mechanical method of conception, we should first set before us the fact of Christ’s justification, after he had borne our sins and risen from the dead. In him, humanity, for the first time, is acquitted from punishment and restored to the divine favor. But Christ’s new humanity is the germinal source of spiritual life for the race. He was justified, not simply as a private person, but as our representative and head. By becoming partakers of the new life in him, we share in all he is and all he has done and, first of all, we share in his justification. So Luther gives us, for substance, the formula: “We in Christ = justification, Christ in us = sanctification.” And in harmony with this formula is the statement quoted in the text above from Edwards, Works, 4:66.

See also H. B. Smith, Presb. Rev., July, 1881 — “Union with Adam and with Christ is the ground of imputation. But the parallelism is incomplete.

While the sin of Adam is imputed to us because it is ours, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us simply because of our union with him, not at all because of our personal righteousness. In the one case, character is taken into the account and in the other it is not. In sin, our demerits are included; in justification, our merits are excluded.” For further statements of Dr. Smith, see his System of Christian Theology, 524-552.

C. H. M. on Genesis, page 78 — “The question for every believer is not ‘What am I?’ but ‘What is Christ?’ Of Abel it is said: ‘God testified of his gifts’ ( Hebrews 11:4, A. V.). So God testifies, not of the believer, but of his gift, and his gift is Christ. Yet Cain was angry because he was not received in his sins, while Abel was accepted in his gift. This was right if Abel had been justified in himself but it was wrong, because Abel was justified only in Christ.” See also Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 384-388, 392; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 448.

B. The relation of justification to regeneration and sanctification moreover, delivers it from the charges of externality and immorality. God does not justify ungodly men in their ungodliness. He pronounces them just only as they are united to Christ who is absolutely just and who, by his Spirit, can make them just, not only in the eye of the law, but in moral character. The very faith by which the sinner receives Christ is an act in which he ratifies all that Christ has done, and accepts God’s judgment against sin as his own ( John 16:11). John 16:11 — “of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged” — the Holy Spirit leads the believer to ratify God’s judgment against sin and Satan. Accepting Christ, the believer accepts Christ’s death for sin and resurrection to life for his own. If it were otherwise, the first act of the believer, after his discharge, might be a repetition of his offenses. Such a justification would offend against the fundamental principles of justice and the safety of government. It would also fail to satisfy the conscience. This clamors not only for pardon but also for renewal. Union with Christ has one legal fruit — justification but it has also one moral fruit — sanctification.

A really guilty man, when acquitted by judge and jury, does not cease to be the victim of remorse and fear. Forgiveness of sin is not in itself a deliverance from sin. The outward acquittal needs to be accompanied by an inward change to be really effective. Pardon for sin without power to overcome sin would be a mockery of the criminal. Justification for Christ’s sake therefore goes into effect through regeneration by the Holy Spirit. See E. H. Johnson, in Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1892:362.

A Buddhist priest who had studied some years in England printed in Shanghai not long ago a pamphlet entitled “Justification by Faith the only true Basis of Morality.” It argues that any other foundation is nothing but pure selfishness, but that morality, to have any merit, must be unselfish.

Justification by faith supplies an unselfish motive because we accept the work done for us by another and we ourselves work from gratitude, which is not a selfish motive. After laying down this Christian foundation, the writer erects the structure of faith in the Amida incarnation of Buddha.

Buddhism opposes to the Christian doctrine of a creative Person, only a creative process. Sin has relation only to the man sinning, and has no relation to Amida Buddha or to the eternal law of causation. Salvation by faith in Amida Buddha is faith in one who is the product of a process, and a product may perish. Tennyson: “They are but broken lights of Thee, And thou, O Christ, art more than they.”

Justification is possible therefore, because it is always accompanied by regeneration and union with Christ and is followed by sanctification. But this is a very different thing from the Romanist confounding of justification and sanctification, as different stages of the same process of making the sinner actually holy. It holds fast to the Scripture distinction between justification as a declarative act of God, and regeneration and sanctification as those efficient acts of God by which justification is accompanied and followed.

Both history and our personal observation show that nothing can change the life and make men moral, like the gospel of free pardon in Jesus Christ. Mere preaching of morality will effect nothing of consequence.

There never has been more insistence upon morality than in the most immoral times like those of Seneca and of the English deists. As to their moral fruits, we can safely compare Protestant with Roman Catholic systems and leaders and countries. We do not become right by doing right for only those can do right who have become right. The prodigal son is forgiven before he actually confesses and amends ( Luke 15:20,21).

Justification is always accompanied by regeneration and is followed by sanctification; all three are results of the death of Christ but the sinoffering must precede the thank-offering. We must first be accepted ourselves before we can offer gifts; Hebrews 11:4 — “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts.”

Hence we read in Ephesians5:25, 26 — “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed = [after he had cleansed] it by the washing of water with the word” [ — regeneration 1; 1 Pet. 1:1, 2 — “elect... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit [regeneration], unto obedience [conversion] and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ [justification]”; 1 John 1:7 — “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin” — here the ‘cleansing’ refers primarily and mainly to justification, not to sanctification for the apostle himself declares in verse 8 — “If we may say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Quenstedt says it well that, “justification, since it is an act, outside of man, in God, cannot produce an intrinsic change in us.” And yet, he says, “although faith alone justifies, yet faith is not alone.” Melanchthon: “Sola fides justificat; sed fides non est sola.” With faith go all manner of gifts of the Spirit and internal graces of character. But we should let go all the doctrinal gains of the Reformation if we did not insist that these gifts and graces are accompaniments and consequences of justification, instead of being a part or a ground of justification. See Girdlestone, O.T. Synonyms, 104, note — “Justification is God’s declaration that the individual sinner on account of the faith, which unites him to Christ, is taken up into the relation which Christ holds to the Father and has applied to him personally the objective work accomplished for humanity by Christ.” 6. Relation of Justification to Faith.

A. We are justified by faith, rather than by love or by any other grace: (a) not because faith is itself a work of obedience by which we merit justification, for this would be a doctrine of justification by works, (b) nor because faith is accepted as an equivalent of obedience, for there is no equivalent except the perfect obedience of Christ, (c) nor because faith is the germ from which obedience may spring hereafter, for it is not the faith which accepts, but the Christ who is accepted, that renders such obedience possible, but (d) because faith, and not repentance or love or hope is the medium or instrument by which we receive Christ and are united to him. Hence we are never said to be justified dia< pi>stin , = on account of faith, but only dia< pi>stewv , = through faith, or ejk pi>stewv , = by faith. Or, to express the same truth in other words, while the grace of God is the efficient cause of justification and the obedience and sufferings of Christ are the meritorious or procuring cause, faith is the mediate or instrumental cause.

Edwards, Works, 4:69-73 — “Faith justifies, because faith includes the whole act of union to Christ as a Savior. It is not the nature of any other graces or virtues directly to close with Christ as a mediator any further than they enter into the constitution of justifying faith and do belong to its nature.” Observations on Trinity 64-67 — “Salvation is not offered to us upon any condition but freely and for nothing. We are to do nothing for it; we are only to take it. This taking and receiving is faith.” H. B. Smith, System, 524 — “An internal change is a sine qua non of justification but not its meritorious ground.” Give a man a gold mine. It is his. He has not to work for it; he has only to work it. Working for life is one thing; working from life is quite another. The marriage of a poor girl to a wealthy proprietor makes her possessor of his riches despite her former poverty. Yet her acceptance has not purchased wealth. It is hers, not because of what she is or has done, but because of what her husband is and has done. So faith is the condition of justification, only because through it Christ becomes ours, and with him his atonement and righteousness. Salvation comes not because our faith saves us, but because it links us to the Christ who saves and believing is only the link.

There is no more merit in it than in the beggar’s stretching forth his hand to receive the offered purse or the drowning man’s grasping the rope that is thrown to him.

The Wesleyan scheme is inclined to make faith a work. See Dabney, Theology, 637. This is to make faith the cause and ground or at least to add it to Christ’s work as a joint cause and ground of justification as if justification were dia< pi>stin, instead of dia< pi>stewv or ejk pi>stewv .

Since faith is never perfect, this is to go back to the Roman Catholic uncertainty of salvation. See Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2:744, 745 (Syst.

Doct. 4:206, 207). C. H. M. on Gen. 3:7 — “They made themselves aprons of fig leaves, before God made them coats of skin. Man ever tries to clothe himself in garments of his own righteousness before he will take the robe of Christ’s. But Adam felt himself naked when God visited him even though he had his fig-leaves on him.”

We are justified efficiently by the grace of God, meritoriously by Christ, instrumentally by faith and evidentially by works. Faith justifies, as roots bring plant and soil together. Faith connects man with the source of life In Christ. “When the boatman with his hook grapples the rock, he does not pull the shore to the boat but the boat to the shore so, when we by faith lay hold on Christ we do not pull Christ to us, but ourselves to him.”

Faith is a coupling; the train is drawn, not by the coupling, but by the Locomotive and yet without the coupling it would not be drawn. Faith is the trolley that reaches up to the electric wire; when the connection is sundered, not only does the car cease to move but the heat dies and the lights go out. Dr. John Duncan: “I have married the Merchant and all his wealth is mine!”

H. C. Trumbull: “If a man wants to cross the ocean, he can either try swimming, or he can trust the captain of a ship to carry him over in his vessel. By or through his faith in that captain, the man is carried safely to the other shore yet it is the ship’s captain, not the passenger’s faith, which is to be praised for the carrying.” So the sick man trusts his case in the hands of his physician, and his life is saved by the physician; yet by or through the patient’s faith, this faith is indeed an inward act of allegiance and no mere outward performance. Whiton, Divine Satisfaction, 92 — “The Protestant Reformers saw that it was by an inward act, not by penance or sacraments that men were justified. But they halted in the crude notion of a legal court room process, a governmental procedure external to us whereas it is an educational, inward process, the awakening through Christ of the filial spirit in us, which in the midst of imperfections strives for likeness more and more to the Son of God. Justification by principle apart from performance makes Christianity the religion of the spirit.” We would add that such justification excludes education and is an act rather than a process, an act external to the sinner rather than internal, an act of God rather than an act of man. The justified person can say to Christ, as Ruth said to Boaz: “Why have I found favor in thy sight, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a foreigner?” ( Ruth 2:10).

B. Since the ground of justification is only Christ, to whom we are united by faith, the justified person has peace. If it were anything in us, our peace must be proportioned to our holiness. The practical effect of the Romanist mingling of works with faith, as a joint ground of justification, is to render all assurance of salvation impossible. (Council of Trent, 9th chap.: “Every man, by reason of his own weakness and defects, must be in fear and anxiety about his state of grace. Nor can any one know, with infallible certainty of faith that he has received forgiveness of God.”). But since justification is an instantaneous act of God complete at the moment of the sinner’s first faith; it has no degrees. Weak faith justifies as perfectly as strong faith although, since justification is a secret act of God, weak faith does not give so strong assurance of salvation.

Foundations of our Faith, 216 — “The Catholic doctrine declares that justification is not dependent upon faith and the righteousness of Christ imputed and granted thereto but on the actual condition of the man himself. But there remain in the man an undeniable amount of fleshly lusts or inclinations to sin even though the man is regenerate. The Catholic doctrine is therefore, constrained to assert that these lusts are not in themselves sinful or objects of the divine displeasure. They are allowed to remain in the man, that he may struggle against them and, as they say, Paul designates them as sinful only because they are derived from sin and incite to sin but they only become sin by the positive concurrence of the human will. But is not internal lust displeasing to God? Can we draw the line between lust and will? The Catholic favors self here and makes many things lust, which are really will. A Protestant is necessarily more earnest in the work of salvation when he recognizes even the evil desire as sin, according to Christ’s precept.”

All systems of religion of merely human origin tend to make salvation, in larger or smaller degree, the effect of human works but only with the result of leaving man in despair. See, in Ecclesiasticus 3:30, an Apocryphal declaration that alms make atonement for sin. So Romanism bids me doubt God’s grace and the forgiveness of sin.

See Dorner, Gesch. prot. Theol., 228, 229 and his quotations from Luther. “But if the Romanist doctrine is true, that a man is justified only in such measure as he is sanctified then: 1. Justification must be a matter of degrees and so the Council of Trent declares it to be. The sacraments, which sanctify are therefore essential, that one may be increasingly justified. 2. Since justification is a continuous process, the redeeming death of Christ, on which it depends, must be a continuous process also hence, its prolonged reiteration in the sacrifice by the Mass. 3. Since sanctification is obviously never completed in this life, no man ever dies completely justified hence, the doctrine of Purgatory.” For the substance of Romanist doctrine, see Moehler, Symbolism, 79-190; Newman, Lectures on Justification, 253-345; Ritschl, Christian Doctrine of Justification, 121-226.

A better doctrine is that of the Puritan divine: “It is not the quantity of thy faith that shall save thee. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean. So a little faith is as true faith as the greatest. It is not the measure of thy faith that saves thee; it is the blood that it grips to that saves thee.

The weak hand of the child that leads the spoon to the mouth will feed as well as the strong arm of a man for it is not the hand that feeds, but the meat. So, if thou canst grip Christ ever so weakly, he will not let thee perish.” I am troubled about the money I owe in New York until I find that a friend has paid my debt there. When I find that the objective account against me is cancelled then and only then do I have subjective peace.

A child may be heir to a vast estate, even while he does not know it and a child of God may be an heir of glory even while through the weakness of his faith, he is oppressed with painful doubts and fears. No man is lost simply because of the greatness of his sins, however ill-deserving he may be, faith in Christ will save him. Luther’s climbing the steps of St. John Lateran and the voice of thunder: “The just shall live by faith,” are not certain as historical facts but they express the substance of Luther’s experience. Not obeying but receiving is the substance of the gospel. A man cannot merit salvation nor he cannot buy it but, the one thing he must do, he must take it. And the least faith makes salvation ours, because it makes Christ ours.

Augustine conceived of justification as a continuous process, proceeding until love and all Christian virtues fill the heart. There is his chief difference from Paul. Augustine believes in sin and grace. But he has not the freedom of the children of God, as Paul has. The influence of Augustine upon Roman Catholic theology has not been wholly salutary.

The Roman Catholic, mixing man’s subjective condition with God’s grace as a ground of justification, continually wavers between self-righteousness and uncertainty of acceptance with God, each of these being fatal to a healthful and stable religious life. High-Church Episcopalians and Sacramentalists generally, are afflicted with this distemper of the Romanists. Dr. R. W. Dale remarks with regard to Dr. Pusey: “The absence of joy in his religious life was only the inevitable effect of his conception of God’s method of saving men; in parting with the Lutheran truth concerning justification, he parted with the springs of gladness.”

Spurgeon said that a man might get from London to New York provided he took a steamer but it made much difference in his comfort whether he had a first class or a second class ticket. A new realization of the meaning of justification in our churches would change much of our singing from the minor to the major key, it would lead us to pray, not for the presence of Christ, but from the presence of Christ. It would abolish the mournful upward inflections at the end of sentences, which give such unreality to our preaching and would replace the pessimistic element in our modern work and worship with the notes of praise and triumph. In the Pilgrim’s Progress, the justification of the believer is symbolized by Christian’s lodging in the Palace Beautiful where window opened toward the sun rising.

Even Luther did not fully apprehend and apply his favorite doctrine of justification by faith. Harnack, Wesen des Christenthums, 168 sq., states the fundamental principles of Protestantism as: “ 1. The Christian religion is wholly given in the word of God and in the inner experience, which answers to that word. 2. The assured belief that the Christian has a gracious God. ‘Nun weisz und glaub’ ich’s feste, Ich ruhm’s auch ohne Scheu, Dasz Gott, der hochst’ und beste, Mein Freund und Vater sei; Und dasz in allen Fallen Er mir zur Rechten steh’, Und dampfe Sturm und Wellen, Und was mir bringet Weh’.’ 3. Restoration of simple and believing worship, both public and private.

But Luther took too much dogma into Christianity, insisted too much on the authority of the written word, cared too much for the means of grace (such as the Lord’s Supper) and identified the church too much with the organized body.”

Yet Luther talked of beating the heads of the Wittenbergers with the Bible so as to get the great doctrine of justification by faith into their brains. “Why do you teach your child the same thing twenty times?” he said. “Because I find that nineteen times is not sufficient” C. Justification is instantaneous, complete and final; instantaneous, since otherwise there would be an interval during which the soul was neither approved nor condemned by God ( Matthew 6:24). It is complete, since the soul, united to Christ by faith, becomes partaker of his complete satisfaction to the demands of law ( Colossians 2:9,10). It becomes final since the union with Christ is indissoluble ( John 10:28,29). As there are many acts of sin in the life of the Christian so there are many acts of pardon following them. But all these acts of pardon are virtually implied in that first act by which he was finally and forever justified as also successive acts of repentance and faith, after such sins, are virtually implied in that first repentance and faith which logically preceded justification. Matthew 6:24 — “No man can serve two masters”; Colossians 2:9,10 — “in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in him ye are made, full, who is the head of all principality and power”; John 10:28,29 — “they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Plymouth Brethren say truly that the Christian has sin in him, but not on him because Christ had sin on him but not in him. The Christian has sin but not guilt, because Christ had guilt but not sin. All our sins are buried in the grave with Christ and Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection.

Toplady: “From whence this fear and unbelief? Hast thou, O Father, put to grief Thy spotless Son for me? And will the righteous Judge of men Condemn me for that debt of sin, Which, Lord, was laid on thee? If thou hast my discharge procured, And freely in my room endured The whole of wrath divine, Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety’s hand, And then again at mine. Complete atonement thou hast made, And to the utmost farthing paid Whate’er thy people owed; How then can wrath on me take place, If sheltered in thy righteousness And sprinkled with thy blood? Turn, then, my soul, unto thy rest; The merits of thy great High Priest Speak peace and liberty; Trust in his efficacious blood, Nor fear thy banishment from God, Since Jesus died for thee!”

Justification, however, is not eternal in the past. We are to repent unto the remission of our sins ( Acts 2:38). Remission comes after repentance.

Sin is not pardoned before it is committed. In justification God grants us actual pardon for past sin, but virtual pardon for future sin. Edwards, Works, 4:104 — “Future sins are respected, in that first justification, none otherwise than as future faith and repentance are respected in it.

Future faith and repentance are looked upon by him that justifies as virtually implied in that first repentance and faith in the same manner that justification from future sins is implied in that first justification.”

A man is not justified from his sins before he has committed them nor is he saved before he is born. A remarkable illustration of the extreme to which hyper-Calvinism may go is found in Tobias Crisp, Sermons, 1:358 — “The Lord hath no more to lay to the charge of an elect person, yet in the height of iniquity, and in the excess of riot, and committing all the abomination that can be committed...than he has to the charge of the saint triumphant in glory.” A far better statement is found in Moberly, Atonement and Personality, 61 — “As there is upon earth no consummated penitence, so neither is there any forgiveness consummated...Forgiveness is the recognition, by anticipation, of something which is to be, something toward which it is itself a mighty quickening of possibilities but something which is not, or at least is not perfectly, yet...Present forgiveness is inchoate, is educational...It reaches its final and perfect consummation only when the forgiven penitent has become at last personally and completely righteous. If the consummation is not reached but reversed, then forgiveness is forfeited (Matthew .18:32- 35).” This last exception, however, as we shall see in our discussion of Perseverance, is only a hypothetical one. The truly forgiven do not finally fall away. 7. Advice to Inquirers demanded by a Scriptural View of Justification. (a) Where conviction of sin is yet lacking, our aim should be to show the sinner that he is under God’s condemnation for his past sins and that no future obedience can ever secure his justification. Since this obedience, even though perfect, could not atone for the past and even if it could, he is unable, without God’s help, to render it.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, conviction of sin may be roused by presentation of the claims of God’s perfect law and by drawing attention first to particular overt transgressions. Attention then must be drawn to the manifold omissions of duty, the general lack of supreme and allpervading love to God and the guilty rejection of Christ’s offers and commands. “Even if the next page of the copy book had no blots or erasures, its cleanness would not alter the smudges and misshapen letters on the earlier pages.” God takes no notice of the promise “Have patience with me, and I will pay thee” ( Matthew 18:29), for he knows it can never be fulfilled. (b) Where conviction of sin already exists, our aim should be, not, in the first instance, to secure the performance of external religious duties, such as prayer, or Scripture reading or uniting with the church. We should first induce the sinner, as his first and all-inclusive duty, to accept Christ as his only and sufficient sacrifice and Savior. The sinner then, committing himself and the matter of his salvation entirely to the hands of Christ manifests this trust and submission by entering at once upon a life of obedience to Christ’s commands.

A convicted sinner should be exhorted, not first to prayer and then to faith, but first to faith and then to the immediate expression of that faith in prayer and Christian activity, he should pray, not for faith but in faith. It should not be forgotten that the sinner never sins against so much light, and never is in so great danger, as when he is convicted but not converted, when he is moved to turn but yet refuses to turn. No such sinner should be allowed to think that he has the right to do any other thing whatever before accepting Christ. This accepting Christ is not an outward act but an inward act of mind and heart and will, although believing is naturally evidenced by immediate outward action. To teach the sinner, however apparently well disposed, how to believe on Christ, is beyond the power of man. God is the only giver of faith. But Scripture instances of faith and illustrations drawn from the child’s taking the father at his word and acting upon it have often been used by the Holy Spirit as means of leading men themselves to put faith in Christ.

Bengel: “Those who are secure Jesus refers to the law; those who are contrite he consoles with the gospel.” A man left work and came home.

His wife asked why. “Because I am a sinner.” “Let me send for the preacher.” “I am too far gone for preachers. If the Lord Jesus Christ does not save me I am lost.” That man needed only to be pointed to the Cross.

There he found reason for believing that there was salvation for him. In surrendering himself to Christ he was justified. On the general subject of Justification, see Edwards, Works, 4:64-132; Buchanan on Justification, 250-411; Owen on Justification, in Works, vol. 5; Bp. of Ossory, Nature and Effects of Faith, 48-152; Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3:114-212; Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 3:133-200; Hersog, Encyclopadie, art.: Rechtfertigung; Bushnell, Vicarious Sacrifice, 416-420, 435.

SECTION 3. THE APPLICATION OF CHRIST ‘S REDEMPTION IN ITS CONTINUATION.

Under this head we treat of Sanctification and of Perseverance. These two are but the divine and the human sides of the same fact and they bear to each other a relation similar to that, which exists between Regeneration and Conversion.

I. SANCTIFICATION. 1. Definition of Sanctification.

Sanctification is that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which the holy disposition imparted in regeneration is maintained and strengthened.

Godet: “The work of Jesus in the world is twofold. It is a work accomplished for us, destined to effect reconciliation between God and man; it is a work accomplished in us, with the object of effecting our sanctification. By the one, a right relation is established between God and us and by the other the fruit, of the re-established order is secured. By the former, the condemned sinner is received into the state of grace; by the latter, the pardoned sinner is associated with the life of God. How many will express themselves when forgiveness with the peace, which it procures has been once obtained, all is finished and the work of salvation is complete! They seem to have no suspicion that salvation consists in the health of the soul, and that the health of the soul consists in holiness.

Forgiveness is not the re-establishment of health; it is the crisis of convalescence. If God thinks fit to declare the sinner righteous, it is in order that he may by that means restore him to holiness.” O. P. Gifford: “The steamship whose machinery is broken may be brought into port and made fast to the dock. She is safe, but not sound. Repairs may last a long time. Christ designs to make us both safe and sound. Justification gives safety first and then sanctification gives soundness.”

Bradford, Heredity and Christian Problems, 220 — “To be conscious that one is forgiven and yet, at the same time to know he is so polluted that he cannot beget a child without handing on to that child a nature, which will be as bad as if his father had never been forgiven, is not salvation in any real sense.” We would say that this is not salvation in any complete sense. Justification needs sanctification to follow it. Man needs God to continue and preserve his spiritual life, just as much as he needed God to begin it at the first. Creation in the spiritual, as well as in the natural world, needs to be supplemented by preservation. See quotation from Jonathan Edwards, In Allen’s biography of him, 371.

Regeneration is instantaneous but sanctification takes time. The “developing” of the photographer’s picture may illustrate God’s process of sanctifying the regenerate soul. But it is development by new access of truth or light, while the photographer’s picture is usually developed in the dark. This development cannot be accomplished in a moment. “We try in our religious lives to practice instantaneous photography. One minute for prayer will give us a vision of God and we think that is enough. Our pictures are poor because our negatives are weak. We do not give God a long enough sitting to get a good likeness.”

Salvation is something past, something present and something future; justification is a past fact, sanctification is a present process and redemption and glory are a future consummation. David, in Psalm 51:1,2, prays not only that God will blot out his transgressions (justification) but that God will wash him thoroughly from his iniquity (sanctification). E. G. Robinson: “Sanctification consists negatively in the removal of the penal consequences of sin from the moral nature and positively, in the progressive implanting and growth of a new principle of life. The Christian church is a succession of copies of the character of Christ. Paul never says: ‘be ye imitators of me’ ( 1 Corinthians 4:16), except when writing to those who had no copies of the New Testament or of the Gospels.”

Clarke, Christian Theology, 366 — “Sanctification does not mean perfection reached, but the progress of the divine life toward perfection.

Sanctification is the Christianizing of the Christian.” It is not simply deliverance from the penalty of sin, but the development of a divine life that conquers sin. A. A. Hodge, Popular Lectures, 343 — “Any man who thinks he is a Christian and that he has accepted Christ for justification when he did not at the same time accept him for sanctification, is miserably deluded in that very experience.”

This definition implies: (a) Although in regeneration the governing disposition of the soul is made holy, there still remain tendencies to evil, which are not subdued. John 13:10 — “He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean everywhit [i . e., as a whole]”; Romans 6:12 — “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof” — sin dwells in a believer, but it reigns in an unbeliever (C. H.

M.). Subordinate volition in the Christian are not always determined in character by the fundamental choice; eddies in the stream sometimes run counter to the general course of the current.

This doctrine is the opposite of that expressed in the phrase: “the essential divinity of the human.” Not culture but crucifixion is what the Holy Spirit prescribes for the natural man. There are two natures in the Christian, as Paul shows in Romans 7. The one flourishes at the other’s expense. The vine-dresser has to cut the rank shoots from self so that all our force may be thrown into growing fruit. Deadwood must be cut out and living wood must be cut back ( John 15:2). Sanctification is not a matter of course, which will go on whatever we do, or do not do. It requires a direct superintendence and surgery on the one hand and, on the other hand, a practical hatred of evil on our part that cooperates with the husbandry of God. (b) The existence in the believer of these two opposing principles gives rise to a conflict which lasts through life. Galatians 5:17 — “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would” — not, as the A. V. had it, “so that ye cannot do the things that ye would’; the Spirit who dwells in believers is represented as enabling them successfully to resist those tendencies to evil which naturally exist within them; James 4:5 (the marginal and better reading) — “That spirit which he made to dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy” — i. e., God’s love, like all true love, longs to have its objects wholly for its own. The Christian is two men in one but he is to “put away the old man” and “put on the new man” ( Ephesians 4:22,23). Compare Ecclesiasticus 2:1 — “My son, if thou dost set out to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation.” 1 Timothy 6:12 — “Fight the good fight of the faith” — ajgwni>zou tostewv = the beautiful, honorable, glorious fight since it has a noble helper, incentive, and reward. It is the commonest of all struggles but the issue determines our destiny. An Indian received as a gift some tobacco in which he found a half of a dollar hidden. He brought it back the next day saying that the good Indian had fought all night with the bad Indian, one telling him to keep it and the other telling him to return it. (c) In this conflict the Holy Spirit enables the Christian, through increasing faith, more fully and consciously to appropriate Christ, and thus progressively to make conquest of the remaining sinfulness of his nature. Romans 8:13,14 — “for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”; Corinthians 6:11 — “but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God”; James 1:26 — “If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man’s religion is vain. See Com. of Neander, in loco — “That religion is merely imaginary, seeming, unreal, which allows the continuance of the moral defects originally predominant in the character.” The Christian is “crucified with Christ” ( Galatians 2:20) but the crucified man does not die at once. Yet he is as good as dead. Even after the old man is crucified we are still to mortify him or put him to death ( Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5). We are to cut down the old rosebush and cultivate only the new shoot that is grafted into it. Here is our probation as Christians. So “die Scene wird zum Tribunal” — the play of life becomes God’s judgment.

Dr. Hastings: “When Bourdaloue was probing the conscience of Louis XIV, applying to him the words of St. Paul and intending to paraphrase them: ‘For the good which I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do.’ ‘I find two men in me,’ the King interrupted the great preacher with the memorable exclamation: ‘Ah, these two men, I know them well!’ Bourdaloue answered: ‘It is already something to know them, Sire, but it is not enough. One of the two must perish.’” And, in the genuine believer, the old does little by little die and the new takes its place, as “David waxed stronger and stronger, but the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker” ( 2 Samuel 3:1). As the Welsh minister found himself, after awhile thinking and dreaming in English, so the language of Canaan becomes to the Christian his native and only speech. 2. Explanations and Scripture Proof. (a) Sanctification is the work of God. 1 Thess. 5:23 — “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.”

Much of our modern literature ignores man’s dependence upon God and some of it seems distinctly intended to teach The opposite doctrine. Auerbach’s “On the Heights,” for example, teaches that man can make his own atonement and “The Villa on the Rhine,” by the same author, teaches that man can sanctify himself. The proper inscription for many modern French novels is: “Entertainment here for man and beast.” The Tendenznovelle of Germany has its imitators in the skeptical novels of England. And no doctrine in these novels is so common as the doctrine that man needs no Savior but himself. (b) It is a continuous process. Philippians 1:6 — “being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ”; 3:15 — “Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you”; Colossians 3:9,10 — “lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doing; and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him”; cf . Acts 2:47 — “those that were being saved”; 1 Corinthians 1:18 — “unto us who are being saved”; 2 Corinthians2:15 — “in them that are being saved”; 1 Thess. 2:12 — “God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory.”

C. H. Parkhurst: “The yeast does not strike through the whole lump of dough at a flash. We keep finding unsuspected lumps of meal that the yeast has not yet seized upon. We surrender to God in installments. We may not mean to do it, but we do it. Conversion has got to be brought down to date.” A student asked the President of Oberlin College whether he could not take a shorter course than the one prescribed. “Oh yes,” replied the President, “but then it depends on what you want to make of yourself. When God wants to make an oak, he takes a hundred years but when he wants to make a squash, he takes six months.” (c) It is distinguished from regeneration as growth from birth, or as the strengthening of a holy disposition from the original impartation of it. Ephesians 4:15 — “speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ”; 1 Thess. 3:12 — “the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men”; 2 Peter 3:18 — “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”; cf . 1 Peter 1:23 — “begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth”; 1 John 3:9 — “Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God.” Not sin only, but holiness also, is a germ whose nature is to grow. The new love in the believer’s heart follows the law of all life, in developing and extending itself under God’s husbandry. George Eliot: “The reward of one duty done is the power to do another.” J. W. A. Stewart: “When the 21st of March has come, we say ‘The back of the winter is broken.’ There will still be alternations of frost but the progress will be towards heat. The coming of summer is sure, in germ the summer is already here.” Regeneration is the crisis of a disease, sanctification is the progress of convalescence.

Yet growth is not a uniform thing in the tree or in the Christian. In some single months there is more growth than in all the year besides. During the rest of the year, however, there is solidification, without which the green timber would be useless. The period of rapid growth, when woody fiber is actually deposited between the bark and the trunk, occupies but four to six weeks in May, June and July. 2 Peter 1:5 — “adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge” = adding to the central grace all those that are complementary and subordinate, till they attain the harmony of a chorus ejpicorhgh>sate. (d) The operation of God reveals itself in, and is accompanied by, intelligent and voluntary activity of the believer in the discovery and mortification of sinful desires and in the bringing of the whole being into obedience to Christ and conformity to the standards of his word. John 17:17 — “Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth”; Cor.10:5 — “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”; Philippians 2:12,13 — “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure”; 1 Peter 2:2 — “as new-born babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation.” John 15:3 — “Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.”

Regeneration through the word is followed by sanctification through the word. Ephesians 5:1 — “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” Imitation is at first a painful effort of will, as in learning the piano; afterwards it becomes pleasurable and even unconscious. Children unconsciously imitate the handwriting of their parents. Charles Lamb sees in the minor, as he is shaving, the apparition of his dead father. So our likeness to God comes out as we advance in years. ( Colossians 3:4 — “When Christ who is our life shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.”

Horace Bushnell said that, if the stars did not move, they would rot in the sky. The man who rides the bicycle must either go on or go off. A large part of sanctification consists in the formation of proper habits, such as the habit of Scripture reading, of secret prayer, of church going, of efforts to convert and benefit others. Baxter: “Every man must grow, as trees grow, downward and upward at once. The visible outward growth must be accompanied by an invisible inward growth.” Drummond: “The spiritual man having passed from death to life, the natural man must pass from life to death.” There must be increasing sense of sin: “My sins gave sharpness to the nails, And pointed every thorn.” There must be a bringing of new and yet newer regions of thought, feeling and action under the sway of Christ and his truth. There is a grain of truth even in Macaulay’s jest about “essentially Christian cookery.”

A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 63, 109-111 — “The church is Christian no more than as it is the organ of the continuous passion of Christ. We must suffer with sinning and lost humanity, and so ‘fill up...that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ ( Colossians 1:24).

Christ’s crucifixion must be prolonged side by side with his resurrection.

There are three deaths. There is death in sin, which is our natural condition, death for sin, which is our judicial condition and death to sin, which is our sanctified condition. As the ascending sap in the tree crowds off the dead leaves which in spite of storm and frost cling to the branches all the winter long, so does the Holy Spirit within us, when allowed full sway, subdue and expel the remnants of our sinful nature.” (e) The agency through which God effects the sanctification of the believer is the indwelling Spirit of Christ. John 14:17,18 — “the Spirit of truth...he abideth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate I come unto you”; 15:3-5 — “Already ye are clean...Abide in me...apart from me ye can do nothing” Romans 8:9,10 — “the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness”; 1 Corinthians 1:2,30 — “sanctified in Christ Jesus...Christ Jesus, who was made unto us...sanctification”; 6:19 — “know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?” Galatians 5:16 — “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”; Ephesians 5:18 — “And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot but be filled with the Spirit”; Colossians 1:27-29 — “the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily”; Timothy 1:14 — “That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us.”

Christianity substitutes for the old sources of excitement the power of the Holy Spirit. Here is a source of comfort, energy, and joy, infinitely superior to any which the sinner knows. God does not leave the soul to fall back upon itself. The higher up we get in the scale of being, the more does the new life need nursing and tending, compare the, sapling and the babe. God gives to the Christian therefore, an abiding presence and work of the Holy Spirit, not only regeneration but also sanctification. C. E.

Smith, Baptism of Fire: “The soul needs the latter as well as the former rain, the sealing as well as the renewing of the Spirit, the baptism of fire as well as the baptism of water. Sealing gives something additional to the document, an evidence plainer than the writing within, both to one’s self and to others.” “Few flowers yield more honey than serves the bee for its daily food.” So we must first live ourselves off from our spiritual diet; only what is over can be given to nourish others. Thomas · Kempis, Imitation of Christ: “Have peace in thine own heart; else thou wilt never be able to communicate peace to others.” Godet: “Man is a vessel destined to receive God, a vessel which must be enlarged in proportion as it is filled, and filled in proportion as it is enlarged.” Matthew Arnold, Morality: “We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides; The Spirit bloweth and is still; In mystery our soul abides. But tasks in hours of insight willed Can be in hours of gloom fulfilled. With aching hands and bleeding feet, We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day, and wish ‘t were done. Not kill the hours of light return All we have built do we discern.” (f) The mediate or instrumental cause of sanctification, as of justification, is faith. Acts 15:9 — “cleansing their hearts by faith”; Romans 1:17 — “For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live from faith.” The righteousness includes’ sanctification as well as justification and the subject of the epistle to the Romans is not simply justification by faith but rather righteousness by faith or salvation by faith. Justification by faith is the subject of chapters 1-7 and sanctification by faith is the subject of chapters 8-16. We are not sanctified by efforts of our own, any more than we are justified by efforts of our own.

God does not share with us the glory of sanctification any more than he shares with us the glory of justification. He must do all, or nothing.

William Law: “A root set in the finest soil, in the best climate and blessed with all that sun, air and rain can do for it, is not in so sure a way of its growth to perfection, as every man may be whose spirit aspires after all that, which God is ready and infinitely desirous to give him. For the sun meets not the springing bud that stretches toward him with half that certainty as God, the source of all good, communicates himself to the soul that longs to partake of him.” (g) The object of this faith is Christ himself, as the head of a new humanity and the source of truth and life to those united to him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 — “we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit”; Ephesians 4:13 — “till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Faith here is of course much more than intellectual faith, it is the reception of Christ himself. As Christianity furnishes a new source of life and energy in the Holy Spirit, so it gives a new object of attention and regard in the Lord Jesus Christ. As we get air out of a vessel by pouring in water so we can drive sin out only by bringing Christ in.

See Chalmers’ Sermon on The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.

Drummond, Nat. Law in the Spir. World, 123-140 — “Man does not grow by making efforts to grow, but by putting himself into the conditions of growth by living in Christ.” 1 John 3:3 — “every one that hath this hope set on him ejp aujtw~| purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” Sanctification does not begin from within. The objective Savior must come first. The hope based on him must give the motive and the standard of self-purification. Likeness comes from liking. We grow to be like that, which we like. Hence we use the phrase “I like,” as a synonym for “I love.” We cannot remove frost from our window by rubbing the pane; we need to kindle a fire. Growth is not the product of effort, but of life. “Taking thought” or “being anxious” ( Matthew 6:27), is not the way to grow. Only take the hindrances out of the way and we grow without care, as the tree does. The moon makes no effort to shine nor has it any power of its own to shine. It is only a burned out cinder in the sky. It shines only as it reflects the light of the sun. So we can shine “as lights in the world” ( Philippians 2:15), only as we reflect Christ, who is “the Sun of Righteousness” ( Malachi 4:2) and “the Light of the world” ( John 8:12). (h) Though the weakest faith perfectly justifies, the degree of sanctification is measured by the strength of the Christian’s faith and the persistence with which he apprehends Christ in the various relations which the Scriptures declare him to sustain to us. Matthew 9:29 — “According to your faith be it done unto you”; Luke 17:5 — “Lord, increase our faith”; Romans 12:2 — “be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”; 13:14 — “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not prevision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof”; Ephesians 4:24 — “put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth”; 1 Timothy 4:7 — “exercise thyself unto godliness.” Leighton: “None of the children of God are born dumb.” Milton: “Good, the more communicated, the more abundant grows.” Faith can neither be stationary nor complete (Westcott, Bible Com. on John 15:8 — “so shall ye become my disciples”). Luther: “He who is a Christian is no Christian”; “Christianus non in esse, sed in fieri.” In a Bible that belonged to Oliver Cromwell is this inscription: “O.

C. 1644. Qui cessat esse melior cessat ease bonus” — “He who ceases to be better ceases to be good.” Story, the sculptor, when asked which of his works he valued most, replied: “My next.” The greatest work of the Holy Spirit is the perfecting of Christian character. Colossians 1:10 — “Increasing by the knowledge of God” — here the instrumental dative represents the knowledge of God as the dew or rain which nurtures the growth of the plant (Lightfoot). Mr. Gladstone had the habit of reading the Bible every Sunday afternoon to old Women on his estate. Tholuck: “I have but one passion, and that is Christ.” This is an echo of Paul’s words: “to me to live is Christ” ( Philippians 1:21). But Paul is far from thinking that he has already obtained or is already made perfect. He prays “that I may gain Christ, that I may know him.” ( Philippians 3:8,10). (i) From the lack of persistence in using the means appointed for Christian growth — such as the word of God, prayer, association with other believers and personal effort for the conversion of the ungodly.

Sanctification does not always proceed in regular and unbroken course, and it is never completed in this life. Philippians 3:12 — “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Jesus Christ”; 1 John 1:8 — “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Carlyle, in his Life of John Sterling, chap. 8, says of Coleridge that, “whenever natural obligation or voluntary undertaking made it his duty to do anything, the fact seemed a sufficient reason for his not doing it.” A regular, advancing sanctification is marked, on the other hand, by a growing habit of instant and joyful obedience. The intermittent spring depends upon the reservoir in the mountain cave, only when the rain fills the latter full, does the spring begin to flow. So to secure unbroken Christian activity, there must be constant reception of the word and Spirit of God.

Galen: “If diseases take hold of the body, there is nothing so certain to drive them out as diligent exercise.” Williams, Principles of Medicine: “Want of exercise and sedentary habits not only predispose to, but actually cause, disease.” The little girl who fell out of bed at night was asked how it happened. She replied that she went to sleep too near where she got in. Some Christians lose the joy of their religion by ceasing their Christian activities too soon after conversion. Yet others cultivate their spiritual lives from mere selfishness. Selfishness follows the line of least resistance. It is easier to pray in public and to attend meetings for prayer, than to go out into the unsympathetic world and engage in the work of winning souls. This is the fault of monasticism. Those who grow the most forget themselves in their work for others. The discipline of life is ordained in God’s providence to correct tendencies to indolence. Even this discipline is often received in a rebellious spirit. The result is delay in the process of sanctification. Bengel: “Deus habet horas et moran” — “God has his hours and his delays.” German proverb: “Gut Ding will Weile haben” — “A good thing requires time.” (j) Sanctification, both of the soul and of the body of the believer, is completed in the life to come, that of the former at death, that of the latter at the resurrection. Philippians 3:21 — “who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself”; Colossians 3:4 — “When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall we also with him he manifested in glory”; Hebrews 12:14,23 — “Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord...spirits of just men made perfect”; 1 John 3:2 — “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is”; Jude 24 — “able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy”; Revelation 14:5 — “And in their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish.”

A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 121, puts the completion of our sanctification, not at death but at the appearing of the Lord “a second time, apart from… unto salvation.” ( Hebrews 9:28; 1Thess. 3:13; 5:23). When we shall see him as he is, instantaneous photographing of his image in our souls will take the place of the present slow progress from glory to glory ( 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2). If by sanctification we mean, not a sloughing off of remaining depravity but by an ever increasing purity and perfection, then we may hold that the process of sanctification goes on forever. Our relation to Christ must always be that of the imperfect to the perfect, of the finite to the infinite; and for finite spirits, progress must always be possible. Clarke, Christian Theology, 373 — “Not even at death can sanctification end...The goal lies far beyond deliverance from sin... There is no such thing as bringing the divine life to such completion that no further progress is possible to it...Indeed, free and unhampered progress can scarcely begin until sin is left behind.” “O snows so pure, O peaks so high! I shall not reach you till I die!” As Jesus’ resurrection was prepared by holiness of life, so the Christian’s resurrection is prepared by sanctification. When our souls are freed from the last remains of sin, then it will not be possible for us to be holden by death (cf. Acts 2:24). See Gordon, The Twofold Life, or Christ’s Work for us and in us; Brit. and For. Evang. Rev., April, 1884:205-229; Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 657-662. 3. Erroneous Views refuted by these Scripture Passages.

A. The Antinomian, which holds that, since Christ’s obedience and sufferings have satisfied the demands of the law, the believer is free from obligation to observe it.

The Antinomian view rests upon a misinterpretation of Romans 6:14 — “Ye are not under law, but under grace.” Agricola and Amsdorf (1559) were representatives of this view. Amsdorf said that, “good works are hurtful to salvation.” But Melanchthon’s words furnish the reply: “Sola tides justificat, sed fides non est sola.” F. W. Robertson states it: “Faith alone justifies, but not the faith that is alone.” And he illustrates: “Lightning alone strikes, but not the lightning which is without thunder; for that is summer lightning and harmless.” See Browning’s poem, Johannes Agricola in Meditation, in Dramatis Personæ, 300 — “I have God’s warrant, Could I blend All hideous sins as in a cup, To drink the mingled venom up, Secure my nature will convert The draught to blossoming gladness.” Agricola said that Moses ought to be hanged. This is Sanctification without Perseverance.

Sandeman, the founder of the sect called Sandemanians, asserted as his fundamental principle the deadliness of all doings, the necessity for inactivity to let God do his work in the soul. See his essay, Theron and Aspasia, referred to by Alien, in his Life of Jonathan Edwards, 114. Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated and banished by the Puritans from Massachusetts, in 1637, for holding “two dangerous errors: 1. The Holy Spirit personally dwells in a justified person and 2. no sanctification can evidence to us our justification.” Here the latter error almost destroyed the influence of the former truth. There is a little Antinomianism in the popular hymn: “Lay your deadly doings down, Down at Jesus’ feet; Doing is a deadly thing; Doing ends in death.” The colored preacher’s poetry only presented the doctrine in the concrete: “You may rip and te-yar, You may cuss and swe-yar, But you ‘re jess as sure of heaven, ‘S if you ‘d done gone de-yar.” Plain Andrew Fuller in England (1754-1815) did excellent service in overthrowing popular Antinomianism.

To this view we urge the following objections; (a) Since the law is a transcript of the holiness of God, its demands as a moral rule are unchanging. Only as a system of penalty and a method of salvation is the law abolished in Christ’s death. Matthew 5:17-19 — “Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Far verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven”; 48 — “Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”; 1 Peter 1:16 — “Ye shall be holy; for I am holy”; Romans 10:4 — “For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth”; Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ”; 3:13 — “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us”; Colossians 2:14 — “having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross”; Hebrews 2:15 — “deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (b) The union between Christ and the believer secures not only the bearing of the penalty of the law by Christ, but also the impartation of Christ’s spirit of obedience to the believer. In other words, brings him into communion with Christ’s work, and leads him to ratify it in his own experience. Romans 8:9,10,15 — “ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Until any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness...For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”; Galatians 5:22-25 — “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof”; 1 John 1:6 — “If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth”; 3:6 — “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him.” (c) The freedom from the law of which the Scriptures speak, is therefore simply that freedom from the constraint and bondage of the law, which characterizes those who have become one with Christ by faith. <19B997> Psalm 119:97 — “O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day”; Romans 3:8,31 — “and why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose condemnation us...Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law”; 6:14, 15, 22 — “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid...now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life”; 7:6 — “But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter”; 8:4 — “that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”; 1 Corinthians 7:22 — “he that was called in the Lord being a bondservant, is the Lord’s freedman”; Galatians 5:1 — “For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage; 1 Timothy 1:9 — “law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly”; James 1:25 — “the perfect law, the law of liberty.”

To sum up the doctrine of Christian freedom as opposed to Antinomianism, we may say that Christ does not free us, as the Antinomian believes, from the law as a rule of life. But he does free us from the law as a system of curse and penalty. This he does by bearing the curse and penalty himself. Christ frees us from the law with its claims as a method of salvation. He does this by making his obedience and his merit ours. Christ frees us from the law as an outward and foreign compulsion by giving to us the spirit of obedience and son-ship, by which the law is progressively realized within.

Christ, then, does not free us, as the Antinomian believes, from the law as a rule of life. But he does free us from the law as a system of curse and penalty. This he does by bearing the curse and penalty himself. Just as law can do nothing with a man after it has executed its death penalty upon him, so law can do nothing with us, now that its death penalty has been executed upon Christ. There are some insects that expire in the act of planting their sting and so, when the law gathered itself up and planted its sting in the heart of Christ, it expended all its power as a judge and avenger over us who believe. In the Cross, the law as a system of curse and penalty exhausted itself so we were set free.

Christ frees us from the law with its claims as a method of salvation. In other words, he frees us from the necessity of trusting our salvation to an impossible future obedience. As the sufferings of Christ, apart from any sufferings of ours, deliver us from eternal death, so the merits of Christ, apart from any merit of ours, give us a title to eternal life. By faith in what Christ has done and simple acceptance of his work for us, we secure a right to heaven. Obedience on our part is no longer rendered painfully, as if our salvation depended on it, but freely and gladly, in gratitude for what Christ has done for us. Illustrate by the English nobleman’s invitation to his park and the regulations he causes to be posted up.

Christ frees us from the law as an outward and foreign compulsion. In putting an end to legalism, he provides against license. This he does by giving the spirit of obedience and son-ship. He puts love in the place of fear and this secures obedience more intelligent, more thorough and heartier than could have been secured by mere law. So he frees us from the burden and compulsion of the law, by realizing the law within us by his Spirit. The freedom of the Christian is freedom in the law, such as the musician experiences when the scales and exercises have become easy and work has turned to play. See John Owen, Works, 3:366-651; 6:1-313; Campbell, The Indwelling Christ, 73-81.

Gould, Bib. Theol. N. T., 195 — “The supremacy of those books which contain the words of Jesus himself [i. e., the Synoptic Gospels] is that they incorporate, with the other elements of the religious life, the regulative will. Here for instance [in John] is the gospel of the contemplative life, which, ‘beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord is changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord’ ( 2 Corinthians 3:18). The belief is that, with this beholding, life will take care of itself. Life will never take care of itself. Among other things, after the most perfect vision, it has to ask what aspirations, principles and affections belong to life and then to cultivate the will to embody these things. Here is the common defect of all religions. They fail to marry religion to the common life. Christ did not stop short of this final word but if we leave him for even the greatest of his disciples, we are in danger of missing it.” This utterance of Gould is surprising in several ways. It attributes to John alone the contemplative attitude of mind, which the quotation given shows to belong also to Paul. It ignores the constant appeals in John to the will: “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me” ( John 14:21). It also forgets that “life” in John is the whole being, including intellect, affection and will and that to have Christ for one’s life is absolutely to exclude Antinomianism.

B. The Perfectionist, which holds that the Christian may, in this life, become perfectly free from sin. John Wesley held this view in England and Mahan and Finney held it in America.

Finney, Systematic Theology, 500, declares regeneration to be “an instantaneous change from entire sinfulness to entire holiness.” The claims of Perfectionists, however, have been modified from “freedom from all sin,” to “freedom from all known sin,” then to “entire consecration,” and finally to “Christian assurance.” H. W. Webb — Peploe, in S. S. Times, June 25, 1898 — “The Keswick teaching is that no true Christian need willfully or knowingly sin. Yet this is not sinless perfection. It is simply according to our faith that we receive, and faith only draws from God according to our present possibilities. These are limited by the presence of indwelling corruption. While never needing to sin, within the sphere of the light we possess, there are to the last hour of our life upon the earth, powers of corruption within every man. These powers defile his best deeds and give to even his holiest efforts that ‘nature of sin,’ of which the 9th Article in the Church of England Prayer Book speaks so strongly.”

Yet it is evident that this corruption is not regarded as real sin and is called ‘nature of sin’ only in some non-natural sense.

Dr. George Peck says: “In the life of the most perfect Christian there is every day renewed occasion for self-abhorrence, for repentance, for renewed application of the blood of Christ, for application of the rekindling of the Holy Spirit.” But why call this a state of perfection? F.

B. Meyer: “We never say that self is dead. Were we to do so, self would be laughing at us round the corner. The teaching of Romans 6 is not that self is dead but that the renewed will is dead to self, the man’s will saying ‘Yes’ to Christ and ‘No’ to self, through the Spirit’s grace it constantly repudiates and mortifies the power of the flesh.” For statements of the Perfectionist view, see John Wesley’s Christian Theology, edited by Thoruley Smith, 265-273; Mahan, Christian Perfection, and art, in Bib.

Repos. 2d Series, vol. iv, Oct. 1840:408-428; Finney, Systematic Theology, 586-766; Peck, Christian Perfection; Ritschl, Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct 1878:656; A. T. Pierson, The Keswick Movement.

In reply, it will be sufficient to observe: (a) The theory rests upon false conceptions. The first misconception of the law, is a sliding scale of requirement graduated to the moral condition of creatures, instead of being the unchangeable reflection of God’s holiness.

The second misconception of sin is that it consists only in voluntary acts instead of embracing also those dispositions and states of the soul, which are not conformed to the divine holiness. The third misconception of the human will, is able to choose God supremely and persistently at every moment of life and to fulfill at every moment the obligations resting upon it, instead of being corrupted and enslaved by the Fall.

This view reduces the debt to the debtor’s ability to pay a short and easy method of discharging obligations. I can leap over a church steeple, if I am only permitted to make the church steeple low enough and I can touch the stars, if the stars will only come down to my hand. The Philistines are quite equal to Samson if they may only cut off Samson’s locks. So I can obey God’s law, if I may only make God’s law what I want it to be. The fundamental error of perfectionism is its low view of God’s law and the second is its narrow conception of sin. John Wesley: “I believe a person filled with love of God is still liable to involuntary transgressions. Such transgressions you may call sins, if you please. I do not.” The third error of perfectionism is its exaggerated estimate of man’s power of contrary choice. To say that, whatever may have been the habits of the past and whatever may be the evil affections of the present a man is perfectly able at any moment to obey the whole law of God, is to deny that there are such things as character and depravity. Finney, Gospel Themes, 383, indeed, disclaimed “all expectations of attaining this state ourselves and by our own independent, unaided efforts.” On the Law of God, see pages 537-544.

Augustine: “Every lesser good has an essential element of sin.” Anything less than the perfection that belongs normally to my present stage of development is a coming short of the law’s demand. R. W. Dale, Fellowship with Christ, 359 — “For us and in this world, the divine is always the impossible. Give me a law for individual conduct, which requires a perfection, that is within my reach and I am sure that the law does not represent the divine thought. ‘Not that I have already obtained or am already made perfect but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus’ ( Philippians 3:12) — this, from the beginning, has been the confession of saints.” The Perfectionist is apt to say that we must “take Christ twice, once for justification and once for sanctification.” But no one can take Christ for justification without at the same time taking him for sanctification. Dr. A.

A. Hodge calls this doctrine ‘Neonomianism,” because it holds not to one unchanging, ideal, and perfect law of God but to a second law given to human weakness when the first law has failed to secure obedience. (1) The law of God demands perfection. It is a transcript of God’s nature.

Its object is to reveal God. Anything less than the demand of perfection would misrepresent God. God could not give a law, which a sinner could obey. In the very nature of the case there can be no sinless capacity in this life for those who have once sinned. Sin brings incapacity as well as guilt.

All men have squandered a part of the talent entrusted to them by God and therefore, no man can come up to the demands of that law which requires all that God gave to humanity at its creation together with interest on the investment. (2) Even the best Christian comes short of perfection. Regeneration makes only the dominant disposition holy. Much affection still remains unholy and there remains the requirement to be cleansed. Only by lowering the demands of the law, making shallow our conceptions of sin and mistaking temporary volition for permanent bent of the will, can we count ourselves to be perfect. (3) Absolute perfection is attained not in this world but in the world to come.

The best Christians count themselves still sinners, strive most earnestly for holiness have imputed but not inherent sanctification, are saved by hope. (b) The theory finds no support in, nor rather is distinctly contradicted by, Scripture.

First, the Scriptures never assert or imply that the Christian may in this life live without sin. Passages like 1 John 3:6,9, if interpreted consistently with the context, set forth either the ideal standard of Christian living or the actual state of the believer so far as respects his new nature. 1 John 3:6 — “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him”; 9 — “Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God.” Ann. Par. Bible, in loco — “John is contrasting the states in which sin and grace severally predominate, without reference to degrees in either, showing that all men are in one or the other.” Neander: “John recognizes no intermediate state, no gradations. He seizes upon the radical point of difference. He contrasts the two states in their essential nature and principle. Either it is love or hate, light or darkness, truth or a lie. The Christian life in its essential nature is the opposite of all sin. If there be sin, it must be the after working of the old nature.” Yet all Christians are required in Scripture to advance, to confess sin, to ask forgiveness, to maintain warfare, to assume the attitude of ill desert in prayer, to receive chastisement for the removal of imperfections, to regard full salvation as matter of hope, not of present experience.

John paints only in black and white; there are no intermediate tints or colors. Take the words In 1 John 3:6 literally, and there never was and never can be a regenerate person. The words are hyperbolical, as Paul’s words in Romans 6:2 — “We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein” — are metaphorical; see E. H. Johnson, in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1892:375, note. The Emperor William refused the request for an audience prepared by a German-American, saying that Germans born in Germany but naturalized in America became Americans: “Ich kenne Amerikaner, Ich kenne Deutsche, aber Deutsch-Amerikaner kenne Ich nicht” — “I know Americans, I know Germans, but German-Americans I do not know.”

Lowrie, Doctrine of St. John, 110 — “St. John uses the noun sin and the verb to sin is two senses: to denote the power or principle of sin or to denote concrete acts of sin. The latter sense he generally expresses by the plural sins. The Christian is guilty of particular acts of sin for which confession and forgiveness are required but as, he has been freed from the bondage of sin, he cannot habitually practice it nor abide in it. Still less, can he be guilty of sin in its superlative form by denial of Christ.”

Secondly, the apostolic admonitions to the Christians and Hebrews show that no such state of complete sanctification had been generally attained by the Christians of the first century. Romans 8:24 — “For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth?’ The party feeling, selfishness and immorality found among the members of the Corinthian church are evidence that they were far from a state of entire sanctification.

Thirdly, there is express record of sin committed by the most perfect characters of Scripture, i.e. Noah, Abraham, Job, David and Peter.

Perfectionists urge us “to keep up the standard.” We do this, not by calling certain men perfect but by calling Jesus Christ perfect. In proportion to our sanctification, we are absorbed in Christ, not in ourselves. Self-consciousness and display are a poor evidence of sanctification. The best characters of Scripture put their trust in a standard higher than they have ever realized in their own persons, even in the righteousness of God.

Fourthly, the word te>lewv, as applied to spiritual conditions already attained can fairly be held to signify only a relative perfection, equivalent to sincere piety or maturity of Christian judgment. 1 Corinthians 2:6 — “We speak wisdom, however, among the perfect” or, as the Am. Revisers have it, “among them that are full-grown”; Philippians 3:15 — “Let us therefore, as many as are perfect be thus minded.” Men are often called perfect when free from any fault, which strikes the eyes of the world. See Genesis 6:9 — “Noah was a righteous man, and perfect”; Job 1:1 — “that man was perfect and upright.” On te>leiov , see Trench, Syn. N. T., 1:110.

The te>leioi are described in Reb.5:14 — “Solid food is for the mature telei>wn who on account of habit have their perceptions disciplined for the discriminating of good and evil” (Dr. Kendrick’s translation), The same word “perfect” is used of Jacob in Gen. 25:27 — “Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents” = a harmless man, exemplary and well balanced, as a man of business. Genung, Epic of the Inner Life, 132 — “‘Perfect’ in Job = Horace’s ‘integer vitæ,’ being the adjective of which ‘integrity’ is the substantive.”

Fifthly, the Scriptures distinctly deny that any man on earth lives without sin. 1 Kings 8:46 — “there is no man that sinneth not”; Ecclesiastes 7:20 — “Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not”; James 3:2 — “For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also”; 1 John 1:8 — “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not an us.”

T. T. Eaton, Sanctification: “ 1. Some mistake regeneration for sanctification; they have been unconverted church members. When led to faith in Christ and finding peace and joy, they think they are sanctified when they are simply converted. 2. Some mistake assurance of faith for sanctification but joy is not sanctification. 3. Some mistake the baptism of the Holy Spirit for sanctification. Peter sinned grievously at Antioch, after he had received that baptism. 4. Some think that doing the best one can is sanctification. But he who measures by inches for feet can measure up well. 5. Some regard sin as only a voluntary act whereas, the sinful nature is the fountain, stripping off the leaves of the Upas tree does not answer. 6.

Some mistake the power of the human will and fancy that an act, of will, can free a man from sin. They ignore the settled bent of the will, which the act of will does not change.”

Sixthly, the declaration: “ye were sanctified” ( 1 Corinthians 6:11) and the designation: “saints” ( 1 Corinthians 1:2), applied to early believers are, as the whole epistle shows, expressive of a holiness existing in germ and anticipation. The expressions deriving their meaning not so much from what these early believers were, as from what Christ was, to whom they were united by faith.

When N.T. believers are said to be “sanctified,” we must remember the O.T. use of the word. ‘Sanctify’ may have either the meaning ‘to make holy outwardly,’ or ‘to make holy inwardly.’ The people of Israel and the vessels of the tabernacle were made holy in the former sense; their sanctification was a setting apart to the sacred use. Numbers 8:17 — “all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine...I sanctified them for myself”; Deuteronomy 33:3 — “Yea, he loveth the people; all his saints are in thy hand”; 2Chron. 29:19 — “all the vessels...have we prepared and sanctified.” The vessels mentioned were first immersed and then sprinkled from day to day according to need. So the Christian, by his regeneration, is set apart for God’s service and in this sense is a “saint” and “sanctified.” More than this, he has in him the beginnings of purity, he is “clean as a whole,” though he yet needs “to wash his feet” ( John 13:10) — that is, to be cleansed from the recurring defilement of his daily life. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:551 — “The error of the Perfectionist is that of confounding imputed sanctification with inherent sanctification.

It is the latter which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:30 — “‘Christ Jesus who was made unto us...sanctification.’” Water from the Jordan is turbid but it settles in the bottle and seems pure until it is shaken. Some Christians seem very free from sin, until you shake them, then they get “riled.” Clarke, Christian Theology, 371 — “Is there not a higher Christian life? Yes, and a higher life beyond it and a higher still beyond. The Christian life is ever higher and higher. It must pass through all stages between its beginning and its perfection.” C. D.

Case: “The great objection to [this theory of] complete sanctification is that, if possessed at all, it is not a development of our own character.” (c) The theory is disapproved by the testimony of Christian experience. In exact proportion to the soul’s advance in holiness does it shrink from claiming that holiness has been already attained and humble itself before God for its remaining apathy, ingratitude and unbelief. Philippians 3:12-14 — “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.” Some of the greatest advocates of perfectionism have been furthest from claiming any such perfection although many of their less instructed followers claimed it for them and even professed to have attained it themselves.

In Luke 7:1-10, the centurion does not think himself worthy to go to Jesus or to have him come under his roof, yet the elders of the Jews say: “He is worthy that thou shouldest do this.” Jesus himself says of him: “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” “Holy to Jehovah” was inscribed upon the mitre of the high priest ( Exodus 28:36). Others saw it, but he saw it not. Moses knew not that his face shone ( Exodus 34:29). The truest holiness is that of which the possessor is least conscious yet it is his real diadem and beauty (A. J. Gordon). “The nearer men are to being sinless, the less they talk about it” (Dwight L. Moody). “Always strive for perfection; never believe you have reached it” (Arnold of Rugby). Compare with this, Ernest Renan’s declaration that he had nothing to alter in his life. “I have not sinned for some time,” said a woman to Mr. Spurgeon. “Then you must be very proud of it,” he replied. “Indeed I am I” said she. A pastor says: “No one can attain the ‘Higher Life,’ and escape making mischief.” John Wesley lamented that not one in thirty retained the blessing.

Perfectionism is best met by proper statements of the nature of the law and of sin ( <19B996> Psalm 119:96). While we thus rebuke spiritual pride, however, we should be equally careful to point out the inseparable connection between justification and sanctification and their equal importance as together making up the Biblical idea of salvation.

While we show no favor to those who would make sanctification a sudden and paroxysmal act of the human will, we should hold forth the holiness of God as the standard of attainment. The faith in a Christ of infinite fullness is the medium through which that standard is to be gradually but certainly realized in us ( 2 Corinthians 3:18).

We should imitate Lyman Beecher’s method of Opposing perfectionism by searching expositions of God’s law. When men know what the law is, they will say with the Psalmist: “I have seen an end of all perfection; thy commandment is exceeding broad” ( <19B996> Psalm 119:96). And yet we are earnestly and hopefully to seek in Christ for a continually increasing measure of sanctification: 1 Corinthians 1:30 — “Christ Jesus, who was made unto us...sanctification”; 2 Corinthians 3:18 — “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” Arnold of Rugby: “Always expect to succeed and never think you have succeeded.”

Mr. Finney meant by entire sanctification only that it is possible for Christians in this life by the grace of God to be consecrated so unreservedly to his service as to live without conscious and willful disobedience to the divine commands. He did not claim himself to have reached this point; he made at times very impressive confessions of his own sinfulness. He did not encourage others to make for themselves the claim to have lived without conscious fault. He held however that such a state is attainable and therefore that its pursuit is rational. He also admitted that such a state is one, not of absolute, but only of relative, sinlessness. His error was in calling it a state of entire sanctification. See A. H. Strong, Christ in Creation, 377-384.

A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 116 — “It is possible that one may experience a great crisis in his spiritual life that there is such a total surrender of self to God and such an in-filling of the Holy Spirit that he is freed from the bondage of sinful appetites and habits. He is enabled to have constant victory over self instead of suffering constant defeat. If the doctrine of sinless perfection is a heresy, the doctrine of contentment with sinful imperfection is a greater heresy. It is not an edifying spectacle to see a Christian worldling throwing stones at a Christian perfectionist.”

Caird, Evolution of Religion, 1:138 — “If, according to the German proverb, it is provided that the trees shall not grow into the sky. It is equally provided that they shall always grow toward it and the sinking of the roots into the soil is inevitably accompanied by a further expansion of the branches.”

See Hovey, Doctrine of the Higher Christian Life, Compared with Scripture, also Hovey, Higher Christian Life Examined, in Studies in Ethics and Theology, 344-427; Snodgrass, Scriptural Doctrine of Sanctification; Princeton Essays, 1:335-365; Hodge, Systematic Theology. 3:213-258; Calvin, Institutes, III, 11:6; Bib. Repos., 2d Series. 1:44-58; 2:143-166; Woods, Works, 4:465-523; H. A. Boardman, The “Higher Life” Doctrine or Sanctification; William Law, Practical Treatise on Christian Perfection; E. H. Johnson, The Highest Life.

II. PERSEVERANCE.

The Scriptures declare that, in virtue of the original purpose and continuous operation of God, all who are united to Christ by faith will infallibly continue in a state of grace and will finally attain to everlasting life. This voluntary continuance, on the part of the Christian, in faith and well doing we call perseverance. Perseverance is, therefore, the human side, or aspect of that spiritual process which, as viewed from the divine side we call sanctification. It is not a mere natural consequence of conversion but involves a constant activity, of the human will from the moment of conversion to the end of life.

Adam’s holiness was mutable; God did not determine to keep him. It is otherwise with believers in Christ; God has determined to give them the kingdom ( Luke 12:32). Yet this keeping by God, which we call sanctification, is accompanied and followed by a keeping of himself on the part of the believer, which we call perseverance. The former is alluded to in John 17:11,12 — “keep them in thy name. I kept them in thy name.

I guarded them and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition”; the latter is alluded to in 1 John 5:18 — “he that was begotten of God keepeth himself.” Both are expressed In Jude 21, 24 — “Keep yourselves in the love of God...Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling....”

A German treatise on Pastoral Theology is entitled: “Keep What Thou Hast” — an allusion to 2 Timothy 1:14 — “That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us.” Not only the pastor, but every believer, has a charge to keep and the keeping of ourselves is as important a point of Christian doctrine as is the keeping of God. Both are expressed In the motto: Teneo, Teneor — the motto on the front of the Y. M. C. A. building in Boston, underneath a stone cross, firmly clasped by two hands. The colored preacher said that “Perseverance means: 1. Take hold, 2. Hold on, 3. Never let go.”

Physically, intellectually, morally, spiritually, there is need that we persevere. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:27, declares that he smites his body under the eye and makes a slave of it, lest after having preached to others he himself should be rejected; and in 2 Timothy 4:7, at the end of his career, he rejoices that he has “kept the faith.” A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 115 — “The Christian is as ‘a tree planted by the streams of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its season’ ( Psalm 1:3). To conclude that his growth will be as irresistible as that of the tree, coming as a matter of course simply because he has by regeneration been planted in Christ, is a grave mistake. The disciple is required to be consciously and intelligently active in his own growth, as the tree is not, ‘to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure’ ( 2 Peter 1:10) by surrendering himself to the divine action.” Clarke, Christian Theology, 879 — “Man is able to fall and God is able to keep him from falling and through the various experiences of life God will so save his child out of all evil that he will be morally incapable of falling.” 1. Proof of the Doctrine of Perseverance.

A. From Scripture. John 10:28,29 — “they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand”; Romans 11:29 — “For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance”; 1 Corinthians 13:7 — “endureth all things”; cf. 13 — “But now abideth faith, hope, love”; Philippians 1:6 — “being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ”; 2 Thess. 3:3 — “But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil one”; 2 Timothy 1:12 — “I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day”; 1 Peter 1:5 — “who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”; Revelation 3:10 — “Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” 2 Timothy 1:12 — thkhn mou — Ellicott translates: “the trust committed to me,” or “my deposit” = the office of preaching the gospel, the stewardship entrusted to the apostle; cf. 1 Timothy 6:20 — “O Timothy, keep thy deposit” — thkhn ; and 2 Timothy 1:14 — “Keep the good deposit” — where the deposit seems to be the faith or doctrine delivered to him to preach. Nicoll, The Church’s One Foundation, 211 — “Some Christians waken each morning with a creed of fewer articles and those that remain they are ready to surrender to a process of argument that convinces them. But it is a duty to keep. ‘Ye have an anointing from the Holy One; and ye know’ ( 1 John 2:20)...Ezra gave to his men a treasure of gold and silver and sacrificial vessels, and he charged them: ‘Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them...in thy chambers of the house of Jehovah’ ( Ezra 8:29).” See in the Autobiography of C. H. Spurgeon, 1:225, 256, the outline of a sermon on John 6:37 — “All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise east out” Mr. Spurgeon remarks that this text can give us no comfort unless we see that: 1. God has given us his Holy Spirit,2. we have given ourselves to him. Christ will not cast us out because of our great sins, our long delays, our trying other saviors, our hardness of heart, our little faith, our poor dull prayers, our unbelief, our inveterate corruption, our frequent backsliding nor finally because every one else passes us by.

B. From Reason. (a) It is a necessary inference from other doctrines, such as election, union with Christ, regeneration, justification and sanctification.

Election of certain individuals to salvation is election to bestow upon them such influences of the Spirit as will lead them not only to accept Christ but also to persevere and be saved. Union with Christ is indissoluble; regeneration is the beginning of a work of new creation, which is declared in justification and completed in sanctification. All these doctrines are parts of a general scheme, which would come to naught if any single Christian were permitted to fall away. (b) It accords with analogy, God’s preserving care being needed by and being granted to his spiritual, as well as his natural, creation.

As natural life cannot uphold itself, but we “live and move and have our being” in God ( Acts 17:28), so spiritual life cannot uphold itself and God maintains the faith, love and holy activity, which he has originated. If he preserves our natural life, much more may we expect him to preserve the spiritual. 1 Timothy 6:13 — “I charge thee before God who preserveth all things alive” (R. V. margin) — zwogonou~ntov ta< pa>nta — the great Preserver of all enables us to persist in our Christian course. (c) It is implied in all assurance of salvation since this assurance is given by the Holy Spirit and is based not upon the known strength of human resolution but upon the purpose and operation of God.

S. R. Mason: “If Satan and Adam both fell away from perfect holiness, it is a million to one that, in a world full of temptations and with all appetites and habits against me, I shall fall away from imperfect holiness, unless God by his almighty power keep me.” It is in the power and purpose of God then, that the believer puts his trust. But since this trust is awakened by the Holy Spirit, it must be that there is a divine fact corresponding to it namely, God’s purpose to exert his power in such a way that the Christian shall persevere. See Wardlaw, Syst, Theol., 2:550- 578; N. W. Taylor, Revealed Theology, 445-460. Job 6:11 — “What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is mine end, that I should be patient?” “Here is a note of self-distrust. To be patient without any outlook, to endure without divine support — Job does not promise it and he trembles at the prospect but, none the less, he sets his feet on the toilsome way” (Genung). Dr. Lyman Beecher was asked whether he believed in the perseverance of the saints. He replied: “I do, except when the wind is from the East.” But the value of the doctrine is that we can believe it even when the wind is from the East, It is well to hold on to God’s hand, but it is better to have God’s hand hold on to us.

When we are weak and forgetful and asleep, we need to be sure of God’s care. Like the child who thought he was driving but who found, after the trouble was over, that his father after all had been holding the reins, we too find when danger comes, that behind our hands, are the hands of God.

The Perseverance of the Saints, looked at from the divine side, is the Preservation of the Saints and the hymn that expresses the Christian’s faith is the hymn: “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!” 2. Objections to the Doctrine of Perseverance.

These objections are urged chiefly by Arminians and by Romanists.

A. It is inconsistent with human freedom. Answer: It is no more so than is the doctrine of Election or the doctrine of Decrees.

The doctrine is simply that God will bring to bear such influences upon all true believers and they will freely persevere. Moule, Outlines of Christian Doctrine,47 — “Is grace, in any sense of the word, ever finally withdrawn? Yes, if by grace is meant any free gift of God tending to salvation or, more specially, any action of the Holy Spirit tending in its nature thither. But if by grace be meant the dwelling and working of Christ in the truly regenerate, there is no indication in Scripture of the withdrawal of it.”

B. It tends to immorality. Answer: This cannot be, since the doctrine declares that God will save men by securing their perseverance in holiness. 2 Timothy 2:19 — “Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his: and, Let every on that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness”; that is, the temple of Christian character has upon its foundation two significant inscriptions. The one declares God’s power, wisdom and purpose of salvation and the other declaring the purity and holy activity, on the part of the believer, through which God’s purpose is to be fulfilled; 1 Peter 1:1,2 — “elect...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ “; 2 Peter 1:10,11 — “Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

C. It leads to indolence. Answer: This is a perversion of the doctrine, continuously possible only to the unregenerate since, to the regenerate, certainty of success is the strongest incentive to activity in the conflict with sin. 1 John 5:4 — “For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.” It is notoriously untrue that confidence of success inspires timidity or indolence. Thomas Fuller: “Your salvation is his business; his service your business.” The only prayers God will answer are those we ourselves cannot answer. For the very reason that “it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure,” the apostle exhorts: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” ( Philippians 2:12,13).

D. The Scripture commands to persevere and warnings against apostasy show that certain, even of the regenerate, will fall away. Answer: (a) They show that some are apparently regenerate and will fall away. Matthew 18:7 — “Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh”; 1 Corinthians 11:19 — “For there must be also factions [lit. ‘heresies’] among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you”; 1 John 2:19 — “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us.” Judas probably experienced strong emotions and received strong impulses toward good under the influence of Christ. The only falling from grace, which is recognized in Scripture, is not the falling of the regenerate but the falling of the unregenerate from influences tending to lead them to Christ. The Rabbins said that a drop of water will suffice to purify a man who has accidentally touched a creeping thing but an ocean will not suffice for his cleansing so long as he purposely keeps the creeping thing in his hand. (b) They show that the truly regenerate, and those who are only apparently so, are not certainly distinguishable in this life. Galatians 3:18 — “men shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not”; Matthew 13:25,47 — “while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away...Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind”; 1 Kings 9:6,7 — “For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: neither, because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children”; Revelation 3:1 — “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.” The tares that were never wheat and the bad fish never were good, in spite of the fact that their true nature was not for a while recognized. (c) They show the fearful consequences of rejecting Christ to those who have enjoyed special divine influences but who are only apparently regenerate. Hebrews 10:26-29 — “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man that hath set at nought Moses’ law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Here “sanctified” = external sanctification, like that of the ancient Israelites, by outward connection with God’s people; cf. 1 Corinthians 7:14 — “the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife.”

In considering these and the following Scripture passages, much will depend upon our view of inspiration. If we hold that Christ’s promise was fulfilled and that his apostles were led into all the truth, we shall assume that there is unity in their teaching, and shall recognize in their variations only aspects and applications of the teaching of our Lord. In other words, Christ’s doctrine in John 10:28,29 will be the norm for the interpretation of seemingly diverse and at first sight inconsistent passages.

There was a “faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints,” and for this primitive faith we are exhorted “to contend earnestly” (Jude 3). (d) They show what the fate of the truly regenerate would be, in case they should not persevere. Hebrews 6:4-6 — “For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” This is to be understood as a hypothetical case, as is clear from verse 9 which follows: “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things which accompany salvation, though we thus speak.” Dr. A. C. Kendrick, Com. in loco : “In the phrase ‘once enlightened,’ the ‘once’ is a]pax = once for all. The text describes a condition subjectively possible, and therefore needing to be held up in earnest warning to the believer, while objectively and in the absolute purpose of God, it never occurs. If passages like this teach the possibility of falling from grace, they teach also the Impossibility of restoration to it.

The saint who once apostatizes has apostatized forever.” So Ezekiel 18:24 — “when the righteous turneth any from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity...in them shall he die”; 2 Peter 2:20 — “For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first.” So, in Matthew 5:13 — “if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” If this teaches that the regenerate may lose their religion, it also teaches that they can never recover it. It really shows only that Christians who do not perform their proper functions as Christians become harmful and contemptible (Broadus, in loco). (e) They show that the perseverance of the truly regenerate may be secured by these very commands and warnings. 1 Corinthians 9:27 — “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected” or, to bring out the meaning more fully: “I beat my body blue [or, ‘strike it under the eye’], and make it a slave, lest after having been a herald to others, I myself should be rejected” (‘unapproved,’ ‘counted unworthy of the prize’); 10:12 — “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” Quarles, Emblems: “The way to be safe is never to be secure.” Wrightnour: “Warning a traveler to keep a certain path, and by this means keeping him in that path, is no evidence that he will ever fall into a pit by the side of the path simply because he is warned of it.” (f) They do not show that it is certain, or possible, that any truly regenerate person will fall away.

The Christian is like a man making his way up-hill, who occasionally slips back, yet always has his face set toward the summit. The unregenerate man has his face turned downwards, and he is slipping all the way. C. H. Spurgeon: “The believer, like a man on shipboard, may fall again and again on the deck, but he will never fall overboard.”

E. We have actual examples of such apostasy. We answer: (a) Such are either men once outwardly reformed, like Judas and Ananias, but never renewed in heart.

But, per contra, instance the experience of a man in typhoid fever, who apparently repented, but who never remembered it when he was restored to health. Sickbed and deathbed conversions are not the best. There was one penitent thief, that none might despair, there was but one penitent thief, that none might presume. The hypocrite is like the wire that gets secondhand electricity from the live wire running parallel with it. This secondhand electricity is effective only within narrow limits and its efficacy is soon exhausted. The live wire has connection with the source of power in the dynamo. (b) Or they are regenerate men, who, like David and Peter, have fallen into temporary sin, from which they will, before death, be reclaimed by God’s discipline.

Instance the young profligate who, in a moment of apparent drowning, repented was then rescued, and afterward lived a long life as a Christian.

If he had not been rescued, his repentance would never have been known nor the answer to his mother’s prayers. So, in the moment of a backslider’s death, God can renew repentance and faith. Cromwell on his deathbed questioned his Chaplain as to the doctrine of final perseverance, and, on being assured that it was a certain truth, said: “Then I am happy, for I am sure that I was once in a state of grace.” But reliance upon a past experience is like trusting in the value of a policy of life insurance upon which several years’ premiums have been unpaid. If the policy has not lapsed, it is because of extreme grace. The only conclusive evidence of perseverance is a present experience of Christ’s presence and indwelling, corroborated by active service and purity of life.