JR Daniel Kirk, "The Sufficiency of the Cross (I): the Crucifixion As Jesus
THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE CROSS (I): THE CRUCIFIXION AS }ESUS' ACT OF OBEDIENCE J. R. DANIEL KIRK, BIBLICAL SEMINARY, HATFIELD, PENNSYLVANIA INTRODUCTION: AN INTRAMURAL DEBATE By all accounts, a lively discussion arose at the Westminster Assembly in September of 1643 when the commissioners set themselves to revise Article Eleven of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the article on justification.1 In particular, a day-long debate unfolded over the question of the active obedience of Christ. 2 The committee working on Article Eleven proposed that the original 'we are accompted [sic] righteous before God, only for the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' be changed to 'we are accounted righteous before God ... onely [sic] for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [sic] sake, his whole obedience and satisfaction being by The summary of the debate that follows is derived from Chad B. Van Dixhoorn, 'Reforming the Reformation: Theological Debate at the Westminster Assembly 1643-1652' (Ph.D. Dissertation: Cambridge University, 2004), 270-344. Previous summaries of the justification debate are dependent on Alexander F. Mitchell, M~nutes of the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (Edinburgh: .William Blackwood and Sons, 1874), lxv-Ixvii; and idem, The Westminster Assembly: Its History and Standards (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publications, 1884), 149- 56. Thus, recent works that comment on this discussion in the Assembly will all have to be re-evaluated to the extent that Van Dixhoorn's thesis (and the minutes appended to it) qualify and correct Mitchell's interpretation of the Assembly's minutes. These recent works include William S.
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