a Grace Notes course

History of the Christian Church

By Philip Schaff

VOLUME 1. First Period – Apostolic Christianity 1

Chapter 11: Theology of the Apostolic Church

1 Editor: Warren Doud

History of the Christian Church VOLUME 1. First Period – Apostolic Christianity

Contents

VOL 1: Chapter 11. Theology of the Apostolic Church ...... 3 1.66 Literature...... 3 1.67 Unity of Apostolic Teaching...... 3 1.68 Types of Apostolic Teaching...... 6 1.69 The Jewish Christian Theology ...... 7 1.70 Peter and the Gospel of Hope...... 9 1.71 The Gentile Christian Theology. Paul and the Gospel of Faith...... 10 1.72. John and the Gospel of Love...... 21 1.73 Heretical Perversions of the Apostolic Teaching...... 26

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 3 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course

VOL 1: Chapter 11. Theology of the H. EWALD: Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott oder die Theologie des alten und neuen Bundes. Apostolic Church Leipzig, 1871–76. 4 vols. (More important for 1.66 Literature. the Old Test. than for the New.) A. IMMER: Theologie des neuen Testaments. Bern, I. Works on the Theology of the whole New 1877. Testament. J. J. VAN OOSTERZEE: Biblische Theol. des N. T. AUGUST NEANDER (d. 1850): Geschichte der (translated from the Dutch). Elberf., 1868. Pflanzung und Leitung der christl. Kirche Engl. transl. by Prof. G. E. Day. New Haven, durch die Apostel. Hamburg, 1832; 4th ed., 1870. Another English translation by Maurice J. 1847, 2 vols. (in the second vol.); Engl. transl. Evans: The Theology of the New Test., etc. by J. A. Ryland, Edinb., 1842; revised and London, 1870. corrected by E. G. Robinson, New York, 1865. Neander and Schmid take the lead in a BERNH. WEISS: Bibl. Theologie des Neuen historical analysis of the different types of Testaments. Berlin, 1868; 4th ed., 1884. Engl. Apostolic doctrine (James, Peter, Paul, John). translation, Edinb., 1883, 2 vols. SAM. LUTZ: Biblische Dogmatik, herausgeg. von R. II. Separate works on the doctrinal types of the Rüetschi. Pforzheim, 1847. several apostles, by W. G. SCHMIDT, AND BEYERSCHLAG, ON JAMES; BY MAYERHOFF, CHRIST. FRIEDR. SCHMIDT (an independent co- WEISS, AND MORICH, ON PETER; BY USTERI, laborer of Neander, d. 1852): Biblische PFLEIDERER, HOLSTEN, LEATHES, IRONS, ON Theologie des Neuen Testaments. Ed. by PAUL; BY REIHM, ON HEBREWS; BY FROMMANN, Weizsäcker. Stuttg., 1853, 2d ed. 1859. 2 vols. KÖSTLIN, WEISS, LEATHES, on John—quoted in (The Engl. translation by G. H. Venables, Edinb., previous sections. 1870, is merely an abridgment.) III. The doctrinal sections in the Histories of the EDWARD REUSS (Prof. in Strassburg): Histoire de Apostolic Church by LANGE, LECHLER, THIERSCH, la théologie chétienne au siécle apostolique. STANLEY, AND SCHAFF (PP. 614–679), BESIDES Strassb., 1852. 3d ed., Paris, 1864. 2 vols. NEANDER ALREADY MENTIONED. COMP. ALSO English translation from the third French ed. CHARLES A. BRIGGS: The idea, history and by Annie Harwood. London, 1872. 2 vols. importance of Biblical Theology, in the LUTTERBECK (a liberal Rom. Cath.): Die N. T. "Presbyterian Review," New York, July, 1882. lichen Lehrbegriffe, oder Untersuchungen über IV. For the contrast between the apostolic and the das Zeitalter der Religionswende. Mainz, 1852. rabbinical theology, see FERD. WEBER (a 2 vols. missionary among the Jews, d. 1879): System der G. L. HAHN: Die Theologie des Neuen Testaments. altsynagogalen paltästinsichen Theologie, aus Bd. I. Leipzig, 1854. Targum, Midrasch, und Talmud dargestellt. Nach H. MESSNER: Die Lehre der Apostel. Leipz., 1856. des Verf. Tode herausgeg. von Frz. Delitzsch und Follows in the path of Neander. G. Schnedermann. Leipz., 1880. P. CHR. BAUR (d. 1860): Vorlesungen über 1.67 Unity of Apostolic Teaching. neutestamentliche Theologie. Leipz., 1864. Published after his death, by his son. Sums up Christianity is not merely doctrine, but life, a the bold critical speculations of the founder of new moral creation, a saving fact, first the Tübingen School. The most important part personally embodied in Jesus Christ, the is the section on the system of Paul. incarnate Word, the God-man, to spread from W. BEYSCHLAG: Die Christologie des Neuen him and embrace gradually the whole body of Testaments. Berlin, 1866 (260 pages). the race, and bring it into saving fellowship THOMAS DEHANEY BERNSARD: Progress of with God. The same is true of Christianity as it Doctrine in the New Testament. Lectures on exists subjectively in single individuals. It the Bampton Foundation. London and Boston, begins not with religious views and notions 1867. simply; though it includes these, at least in germ.

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 4 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course

It comes as a new life; as regeneration, The life, the eternal life, which was from the conversion, and sanctification; as a creative beginning with the Father, and is manifested fact in experience, taking up the whole man to us, there comes upon us, as it were, with all his faculties and capacities, releasing sensibly, now as the mighty tornado, now as him from the guilt and the power of sin, and the gentle zephyr; now overwhelming and reconciling him with God, restoring harmony casting us down in the dust of humility and and peace to the soul, and at last glorifying penitence, now reviving and raising us to the the body itself. Thus, the life of Christ is joy of faith and peace; but always bringing mirrored in his people, rising gradually, forth a new creature, like the word of power, through the use of the means of grace and the which said at the first creation. "Let there be continued exercise of faith and love to its light!" maturity in the resurrection. Here verily is holy ground. Here is the door of But the new life necessarily contains the eternity, the true ladder to heaven, on which element of doctrine, or knowledge of the the angels of God are ascending and truth. Christ calls himself "the way, the truth, descending in unbroken line. No number of and the life." He is himself the personal systems of Christian faith and morals, revelation of saving truth, and of the normal therefore, indispensable as they are to the relation of man to God. Yet this element of scientific purposes of the church and of doctrine itself appears in the New Testament, theology, can ever fill the place of the Bible, not in the form of an abstract theory, the whose words are spirit and life. product of speculation, a scientific system of When we say the New Testament is no ideas subject to logical and mathematical logically arranged system of doctrines and demonstration; but as the fresh, immediate precepts, we are far from meaning that it has utterance of the supernatural, divine life, a no internal order and consistency. On the life-giving power, equally practical and contrary, it exhibits the most beautiful theoretical, coming with divine authority to harmony, like the external creation, and like a the heart, the will, and the conscience, as well true work of art. It is the very task of the as to the mind, and irresistibly drawing them historian, and especially of the theologian, to to itself. The knowledge of God in Christ, as it bring this hidden living order to view, and meets us here, is at the same time eternal life. present it in logical and scientific forms. We must not confound truth with dogma. For this work Paul, the only one of the Truth is the divine substance, doctrine or apostles who received a learned education, dogma is the human apprehension and himself furnishes the first fruitful statement of it; truth is a living and life-giving suggestions, especially in his epistle to the power, dogma a logical formula; truth is Romans. This epistle follows a logical infinite, unchanging, and eternal; dogma is arrangement even in form, and approaches as finite, changeable, and perfectible. nearly to a scientific treatise as it could The Bible, therefore, is not only, nor consistently with the fervent, direct, practical, principally, a book for the learned, but a book popular spirit and style essential to the Holy of life for every one, an epistle written by the Scriptures and inseparable from their great Holy Spirit to mankind. In the words of Christ mission for all Christendom. and his apostles there breathes the highest The substance of all the apostolic teaching is and holiest spiritual power, the vivifying the witness of Christ, the gospel, and the free breath of God, piercing bone and marrow, message of that divine love and salvation, thrilling through the heart and conscience, which appeared in the person of Christ, was and quickening the dead. secured to mankind by his work, is gradually realized in the kingdom of God on earth, and

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 5 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course will be completed with the second coming of The Holy Spirit does not supersede the gifts Christ in glory. and peculiarities of nature, which are This salvation also comes in close connection ordained by God; it sanctifies them to the with Judaism, as the fulfillment of the law and service of his kingdom. Inspiration, however, the prophets, the substance of all the Old is concerned only with moral and religious Testament types and shadows. The several truths, and the communication of what is doctrines entering essentially into this necessary to salvation. Incidental matters of apostolic preaching are most beautifully and geography, history, archeology, and of mere simply arranged and presented in what is personal interest, can be regarded as directed called the Apostles’ Creed, which, though not by inspiration only so far as they really affect in its precise form, yet, as regards its matter, religious truth. certainly dates from the primitive age of The revelation of the body of Christian truth Christianity. essential to salvation coincides in extent with On all the leading points, the person of Jesus the received canon of the New Testament. as the promised Messiah, his holy life, his There is indeed constant growth and atoning death, his triumphant resurrection development in the Christian church, which and exaltation at the right hand of God, and progresses outwardly and inwardly in his second coming to judge the world, the proportion to the degree of its vitality and establishment of the church as a divine zeal, but it is a progress of apprehension and institution, the communion of believers, the appropriation by man, not of communication word of God, and the sacraments of baptism or revelation by God. and the Lord’s supper, the work of the Holy We may speak of a secondary inspiration of Spirit, the necessity of repentance and extraordinary men whom God raises from conversion, of regeneration and time to time, but their writings must be sanctification, the final completion of measured by the only infallible standard, the salvation in the day of Jesus Christ, the teaching of Christ and his apostles. Every true resurrection of the body, and the life advance in Christian knowledge and life is everlasting—on all these points the apostles conditioned by a deeper descent into the are perfectly unanimous, so far as their mind and spirit of Christ, who declared the writings have come down to us. whole counsel of God and the way of The apostles all drew their doctrine in salvation, first in person, and then through common from personal contact with the his apostles. divine-human history of the crucified and The New Testament is thus but one book, the risen Saviour, and from the inward teaching of one mind, the mind of Christ. He illumination of the Holy Spirit, revealing the gave to his disciples the words of life which person and the work of Christ in them, and the Father gave him, and inspired them with opening to them the understanding of his the spirit of truth to reveal his glory to them. words and acts. Herein consists the unity and harmony of the This divine enlightenment is inspiration, twenty-seven writings which constitute the governing not only the composition of the New Testament, for all emergencies and for sacred writings, but also the oral instructions perpetual use, until the written and printed of their authors; not merely an act, but a word shall be superseded by the permanent state. The apostles lived and reappearance of the personal Word, and the moved continually in the element of truth. beatific vision of saints in light. They spoke, wrote, and acted from the spirit of truth; and this, not as passive instruments, but as conscious and free organs.

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 6 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course

1.68 Types of Apostolic Teaching. and apostles of the Gentiles or of the With all this harmony, the Christian doctrine uncircumcision. That this distinction extends appears in the New Testament in different farther than the mere missionary field, and forms according to the peculiar character, enters into all the doctrinal views and education, and sphere of the several sacred practical life of the parties, we see from the writers. The truth of the gospel, in itself accounts of the apostolic council which was infinite, can adapt itself to every class, to held for the express purpose of adjusting the every temperament, every order of talent, difference respecting the authority of the and every habit of thought. Like the light of Mosaic law. the sun, it breaks into various colors But the opposition was only relative, though according to the nature of the bodies on it caused collisions at times, and even which it falls; like the jewel, it emits a new temporary alienation, as between Paul and radiance at every turn. Peter at Antioch. As the two forms of Irenaeus speaks of a fourfold "Gospel." In Christianity had a common root in the full life like manner we may distinguish a fourfold of Christ, the Saviour of both Gentiles and "Apostle," or four corresponding types of Jews, so they gradually grew together into the apostolic doctrine. The Epistle of James unity of the catholic church. And as Peter corresponds to the Gospel of Matthew; the represents the Jewish church, and Paul the Epistles of Peter and his addresses in the Acts Gentile, so John, at the close of the apostolic to that of Mark; the Epistles of Paul to the age, embodies the higher union of the two. Gospel of Luke and his Acts; and the Epistles With this difference of standpoint are of John to the Gospel of the same apostle. connected subordinate differences, as of This division, however, both as regards the temperament, style, method. James has been Gospels and the Epistles, is subordinate to a distinguished as the apostle of the law or of broader difference between Jewish and works; Peter, as the apostle of hope; Paul, as Gentile Christianity, which runs through the the apostle of faith; and John, as the apostle of entire history of the apostolic period and love. To the first has been assigned the affects even the doctrine, the polity, the phlegmatic (?) temperament, in its sanctified worship, and the practical life of the church. Christian state, to the second the sanguine, to The difference rests on the great religious the third the choleric, and to the fourth the division of the world, before and at the time melancholic; a distribution, however, only of Christ, and continued until a native admissible in a very limited sense. The four Christian race took the place of the first gospels also present similar differences; the generation of converts. The Jews naturally first having close affinity to the position of took the Christian faith into intimate James, the second to that of Peter, the third to association with the divinely revealed that of Paul, and the fourth representing in its religion of the old covenant, and adhered as doctrinal element the spirit of John. far as possible to their sacred institutions and If we make the difference between Jewish and rites; while the heathen converts, not having Gentile Christianity the basis of classification, known the law of Moses, passed at once from we may reduce the books of the New the state of nature to the state of grace. The Testament to three types of doctrine: the former represented the historical, traditional, Jewish Christian, the Gentile Christian, and conservative principle; the latter, the the ideal or unionistic Christian. The first is principle of freedom, independence, and chiefly represented by Peter, the second by progress. Paul, the third by John. As to James, he must Accordingly we have two classes of teachers: be ranked under the first type as the local apostles of the Jews or of the circumcision, head of the Jerusalem wing of the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 7 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course conservative school, while Peter war, the Christian life in the fulfillment of the law of ecumenical head of the whole church of the love to God and to our neighbor; therein circumcision. meeting James from the opposite starting- point. 1.69 The Jewish Christian Theology James, the Christian legalist, lays great stress I. JAMES AND THE GOSPEL OF LAW. on good works which the law requires, but he The Jewish Christian type embraces the demands works which are the fruit of faith in Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude, the Gospels Him, whom he, as his servant, reverently calls of Matthew and Mark, and to some extent the "the Lord of glory," and whose words as Revelation of John; for John is placed by Paul reported by Matthew are the basis of his among the "pillars" of the church of the exhortations. Such faith, moreover, is the circumcision, though in his later writings he result of it new birth, which he traces to "the took an independent position above the will of God" through the agency of "the word distinction of Jew and Gentile. of truth," that is, the gospel. In these books, originally designed mainly, As to the relation between faith and works though not exclusively, for Jewish Christian and their connection with justification at the readers, Christianity is exhibited in its unity tribunal of God, he seems to teach the with the Old Testament, as the fulfillment of doctrine of justification by faith and works; the same. They unfold the fundamental idea while Paul teaches the doctrine of of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:17), that justification by faith alone, to be followed by Christ did not come to destroy the law or the good works, as the necessary evidence of prophets, but to "fulfill." The Gospels, faith. The two views as thus stated are especially that of Matthew, show historically embodied in the Roman Catholic and the that Jesus is the Messiah, the lawgiver, the evangelical Protestant confessions, and form prophet, priest, and king of Israel. one of the chief topics of controversy. On this historical basis James and Peter build The contradiction between James and Paul is their practical exhortations, with this verbal rather than logical and doctrinal, and difference, that the former shows chiefly the admits of a reconciliation which lies in the agreement of the gospel with the law, the inseparable connection of a living faith and latter with the prophets. good works, or of justification and JAMES, the brother of the Lord, in keeping sanctification, so that they supplement and with his life-long labors in Jerusalem, his confirm each other, the one laying the true speech at the Council, and the letter of the foundation in character, the other insisting on Council—which he probably wrote himself— the practical manifestation. James wrote holds most closely to the Mosaic religion, and probably long before he had seen any of represents the gospel itself as law, yet as the Paul’s Epistles, certainly with no view to "perfect law of liberty." Herein lies the refute his doctrine or even to guard it against difference as well as the unity of the two antinomian abuse; for this was quite dispensations. The "law" points to the unnecessary, as Paul did it clearly enough harmony, the qualifying "perfect" and himself, and it would have been quite useless "liberty" to the superiority of Christianity, and for Jewish Christian readers who were intimates that Judaism was imperfect and a exposed to the danger of a barren legalism, law of bondage, from which Christ has set us but not of a pseudo-Pauline liberalism and free. Paul, on the contrary, distinguishes the antinomianism. gospel as freedom from the law, as a system They cannot, indeed, be made to say precisely of slavery; but he re-establishes the law on the same thing, only using one or more of the the basis of freedom, and sums up the whole three terms, "to justify," "faith," "works" in

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 8 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course different senses; but they wrote from appears in James 2:14–26, as compared with different standpoints and opposed different Rom. 3:20 sqq.; 4:1 sqq.; Gal. 2:16 sqq. Paul errors, and thus presented two distinct says (Rom. 3:28): "Man is justified by faith aspects of the same truth. James says: Faith is apart from works of law", comp. Gal. 2:16 dead without works. Paul says: Works are and appeals to the example of Abraham, who dead without faith. was justified by faith before he was The one insists on a working faith, the other circumcised (Gen. 17:10). James 2:24 says: on faithful works. Both are right: James in "By works a man is justified, and not only by opposition to the dead Jewish orthodoxy, Paul faith", and appeals to the example of the same in opposition to self-righteous legalism. James Abraham who showed his true faith in God by does not demand works without faith, but offering up his son Isaac upon the altar (Gen. works prompted by faith; While Paul, on the 22:9, 12). Luther makes the contradiction other hand, likewise declares a faith worse by unnecessarily inserting the word worthless which is without love, though it allein (sola fide) in Rom. 3:28, though not remove mountains, and would never have without precedent (see my note on the attributed a justifying power to the mere passage in the Am. ed. of Lange on Romans, p. belief in the existence of God, which James 136). The great Reformer could not reconcile calls the trembling faith of demons. the two apostles, and rashly called the Epistle of James an "epistle of straw". James mainly looks at the fruit, Paul at the root; the one is concerned for the evidence, Baur, from a purely critical point of view, the other for the principle; the one takes the comes to the same conclusion; he regards the practical and experimental view, and reasons Epistle of James as a direct attack upon the from the effect to the cause, the other goes very heart of the doctrine of Paul, and treats deeper to the inmost springs of action, but all attempts at reconciliation as vain. (Vorles. comes to the same result: a holy life of love über neutestam. Theol., p. 277). So also Renan and obedience as the necessary evidence of and Weiffenbach. Renan (St. Paul, ch. 10) true faith. And this, after all, is the ultimate asserts without proof that James organized a standard of judgment according to Paul as Jewish counter-mission to undermine Paul. well as James. Paul puts the solution of the But in this case, James, as a sensible and difficulty in one sentence: "faith working practical man, ought to have written to through love." This is the Irenicon of Gentile Christians, not to "the twelve tribes," contending apostles and contending who needed no warning against Paul and his churches. doctrine. The Epistle of James stands at the head of the His Epistle represents simply an earlier and Catholic Epistles, so called, and represents the lower form of Christianity ignorant of the first and lowest stage of Christian knowledge. higher, yet preparatory to it, as the preaching It is doctrinally very meager, but eminently of John the Baptist prepared the way for that practical and popular. It enjoins a simple, of Christ. It was written without any earnest, and devout style of piety that visits reference to Paul, probably before the Council the orphans and widows, and keeps itself of Jerusalem and before the circumcision unspotted from the world. controversy, in the earliest stage of the apostolic church as it is described in the first The close connection between the Epistle of chapters of the Acts, when the Christians James and the Gospel of Matthew arises were not yet clearly distinguished and finally naturally from their common Jewish Christian separated from the Jews. and Palestinian origin. II. JAMES AND MATTHEW. The I. JAMES AND PAUL.. The apparent correspondence has often been fully pointed contradiction in the doctrine of justification

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 9 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course out by Theile and other commentators. James eminently deserves to be called "the Apostle contains more reminiscences of the words of of hope." Christ than any other Epistle, especially from I. Peter began his testimony with the the Sermon on the Mount. Comp. James 1:2 announcement of the historical facts of the with Matt. 5:10–12; James 1:4 with Matt. resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of 5:48; James 1:17 with Matt. 7:11; James 1:20 the Holy Spirit, and represents these facts as with Matt. 5:22; James 1:22 sqq. with Matt. the divine seal of his Messiahship, according 7:21 sq.; James 1:23 with Matt. 7:26; James to the prophets of old, who bear witness to 2:13 with Matt. 6:14 sq.; James 2:14 with him that through his name every one that Matt. 7:21–23; James 3:2 with Matt. 12:36, 37; believes shall receive remission of sins. The James 3:17, 18 with Matt. 5:9; James 4:3 with same Jesus whom God raised from the dead Matt. 7:7; James 4:4 with Matt. 6:24; James and exalted to his right hand as Lord and 5:12 with Matt. 5:34. According to a notice in Saviour, will come again to judge his people the pseudo-Athanasian Synopsis, James "the and to bring in seasons of refreshing from his Bishop of Jerusalem" translated the Gospel of presence and the restitution of all things to Matthew from the Aramaic into the Greek. their normal and perfect state, thus But there are also parallelisms between completely fulfilling the Messianic James and the first Epistle of Peter, and even prophecies. There is no salvation out of the between James and the apocryphal books of Lord Jesus Christ. The condition of this Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon. salvation is the acknowledgment of his See Plumptre, Com. on James, pp. 32 sq. Messiahship and the change of mind and 1.70 Peter and the Gospel of Hope. conduct from the service of sin to holiness. PETER stands between James and Paul, and These views are so simple, primitive, and forms the transition from the extreme appropriate that we cannot conceive how conservatism of the one to the progressive Peter could have preached differently and liberalism of the other. The germ of his more effectively in that early stage of doctrinal system is contained in his great Christianity. We need not wonder at the confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son conversion of three thousand souls in of the living God. A short creed indeed, with consequence of his, Pentecostal sermon. His only one article, but a fundamental and all- knowledge gradually widened and deepened comprehensive article, the corner-stone of with the expansion of Christianity and the the Christian church. His system, therefore, is conversion of Cornelius. A special revelation Christological, and supplements the enlightened him on the question of anthropological type of James. circumcision and brought him to the conviction that "in every nation he that fears His addresses in the Acts and his Epistles are God and works righteousness, is acceptable to full of the fresh impressions which the him," and that Jews and Gentiles are saved personal intercourse with Christ made upon alike by the grace of Christ through faith, his noble, enthusiastic, and impulsive nature. without the unbearable yoke of the Christianity is the fulfillment of all the ceremonial law. Messianic prophecies; but it is at the same time itself a prophecy of the glorious return II. The Epistles of Peter represent this riper of the Lord. This future glorious stage of knowledge. They agree substantially manifestation is so certain that it is already with the teaching of Paul. The leading idea is anticipated here in blessed joy by a lively the same as that presented in his addresses in hope which stimulates to a holy life of the Acts: Christ the fulfiller of the Messianic preparation for the end. Hence, Peter prophecies, and the hope of the Christian. Peter’s Christology is free of all speculative

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 10 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course elements, and simply derived from the and as a lively hope in his, glorious impression of the historical and risen Jesus. reappearance, which should make the He emphasizes in the first Epistle, as in his Christians rejoice even amidst trials and earlier addresses, the resurrection whereby persecution, after the example of their Lord God "begat us again unto a lively hope, unto and Saviour. an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, 1.71 The Gentile Christian Theology. Paul and that fadeth not away, reserved in and the Gospel of Faith. heaven," when "the chief shepherd shall be manifested," and we "shall receive the crown The Gentile Christian type of the gospel is of glory." And in the second Epistle he points embodied in the writings of Paul and Luke, forward to "new heavens and a new earth, and in the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews. wherein dwelleth righteousness." The sources of Paul’s theology are his He thus connects the resurrection of Christ discourses in the Acts (especially the speech with the final consummation of which it is the on the Areopagus) and his thirteen Epistles, sure pledge. But, besides the resurrection, he namely, the Epistles to the Thessalonians— brings out also the atoning efficacy of the the earliest, but chiefly practical; the four death of Christ almost as strongly and clearly great Epistles to the Corinthians, Galatians, as Paul. Christ "suffered for sins once, the and Romans, which are the mature result of righteous for the unrighteous, that he might his conflict with the Judaizing tendency; the bring us to God;" he himself "bare our sins in four Epistles of the captivity; and the Pastoral his body upon the tree, that we, having died Epistles. These groups present as many unto sins, might live unto righteousness;" he phases of development of his system and redeemed us "with precious blood, as of a discuss different questions with appropriate lamb without blemish and without spot." variations of style, but they are animated by Christ is to him the only Saviour, the Lord, the the same spirit, and bear the marks of the Prince of life, the Judge of the world. He same profound and comprehensive genius. assigns him a majestic position far above all Paul is the pioneer of Christian theology. He other men, and brings him into the closest alone among the apostles had received a contact with the eternal Jehovah, though in learned rabbinical education and was skilled subordination to him. in logical and dialectical argument. But his The doctrine of the pre-existence seems to be logic is vitalized and set on fire. His theology intimated and implied, if not expressly stated, springs from his heart as well as from his when Christ is spoken of as being "foreknown brain; it is the result of his conversion, and all before the foundation of the world" and aglow with the love of Christ; his "manifested at the end of the time," and his scholasticism is warmed and deepened by Spirit as dwelling in the prophets of old and mysticism, and his mysticism is regulated and pointing them to his future sufferings and sobered by scholasticism; the religious and glory. moral elements, dogmatics, and ethics, are blended into a harmonious whole. Out of the III. Peter extends the preaching, judging, and depths of his personal experience, and in saving activity of Christ to the realm of the conflict with the Judaizing contraction and departed spirits in Hades during the the Gnostic evaporation of the gospel be mysterious triduum between the crucifixion elaborated the fullest scheme of Christian and the resurrection. The descent into Hades doctrine which we possess from apostolic is also taught by Paul (Eph. 4:9, 10). pens. It is essentially soteriological, or a IV. With this theory correspond the practical system of the way of salvation. It goes far exhortations. Subjective Christianity is beyond the teaching of James and Peter, and represented as faith in the historical Christ

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 11 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course yet is only a consistent development of the provision for a universal salvation, but the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels. actual salvation of each man depends upon his faith or personal acceptance and THE CENTRAL IDEA appropriation of Christ. His doctrinal system, Paul’s personal experience embraced intense then, turns on the great antithesis of sin and fanaticism for Judaism, and a more intense grace. Before Christ and out of Christ is the enthusiasm for Christianity. It was first an reign of sin and death; after Christ and in unavailing struggle of legalism towards Christ is the reign of righteousness and life. human righteousness by works of the law, We now proceed to an outline of the leading and then the apprehension of divine features of his theology as set forth in the righteousness by faith in Christ. This dualism order of the Epistle to the Romans, the most is reflected in his theology. methodical and complete of his writings. Its The idea of righteousness or conformity to central thought is: The Gospel of Christ, a God’s holy will is the connecting link between power of God for the salvation of all men, Jew the Jewish Saul and the Christian Paul. Law and Gentile. and works, was the motto of the self- 1. THE UNIVERSAL NEED OF SALVATION.—It righteous pupil of Moses; gospel and faith, the arises from the fall of Adam and the whole motto of the humble disciple of Jesus. He is human race, which was included in him as the the emancipator of the Christian tree is included in the seed, so that his one act consciousness from the oppressive bondage of disobedience brought sin and death upon of legalism and bigotry, and the champion of the whole posterity. Paul proves the freedom and catholicity. depravity of Gentiles and Jews without Paul’s gospel is emphatically the gospel of exception to the extent that they are saving faith, the gospel of evangelical absolutely unable to attain to righteousness freedom, the gospel of universalism, and to save themselves. "There is none centering in the person and work of Christ righteous, no, not one." They are all under the and conditioned by union with Christ. He dominion of sin and under the sentence of determined to know nothing but Christ and condemnation. him crucified; but this included all—it is the He recognizes indeed, even among the soul of his theology. heathen, the remaining good elements of The Christ who died is the Christ who was reason and conscience, which are the raised again and ever lives as Lord and connecting links for the regenerating work of Saviour, and was made unto us wisdom from divine grace; but for this very reason they are God, and righteousness, and sanctification, inexcusable, as they sin against better and redemption. A dead Christ would be the knowledge. There is a conflict between the grave of all our hopes, and the gospel of a higher and the lower nature in man, and this dead Saviour a wretched delusion. "If Christ conflict is stimulated and brought to a crisis has not been raised then is our preaching by the law of God; but this conflict, owing to vain, your faith also is vain." His death the weakness of our carnal, fallen, depraved becomes available only through his nature, ends in defeat and despair till the resurrection. renewing grace of Christ emancipates us from Paul puts the two facts together in the the curse and bondage of sin and gives us comprehensive statement: "Christ delivered liberty and victory. In the seventh chapter of up for our trespasses, and raised for our the Romans, Paul gives from his personal justification." He is a conditional experience a most remarkable and truthful universalist; he teaches the universal need of description of the religious history of man salvation, and the divine intention and from the natural or heathen state of carnal

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 12 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course security (without the law, Rom. 7:7–9) to the of the divine will, and thus to excite the sense Jewish state under the law which calls out sin of the need of salvation. The law is in itself from its hidden recess, reveals its true holy and good, but cannot give life; it character, and awakens the sense of the commands and threatens, but gives no power wretchedness of slavery under sin (7:10–25), to fulfil; it cannot renew the flesh, that is, the but in this very way prepares the way for the depraved, sinful nature of man; it can neither Christian state of freedom (7:24 and Rom. 8). justify nor sanctify, but it brings the II. THE DIVINE INTENTION AND PROVISION knowledge of sin, and by its discipline it OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION.—God sincerely prepares men for the freedom of Christ, as a wills that all men, even the greatest of schoolmaster prepares children for sinners, should be saved, and come to the independent manhood. knowledge of truth through Christ, who gave (2.) The SALVATION ITSELF IS himself a ransom for all. The extent of COMPREHENDED IN THE PERSON AND Christ’s righteousness and life is as universal WORK OF CHRIST. It was accomplished in the as the extent of Adam’s sin and death, and its fullness of the time by the sinless life, the intensive power is even greater. The first and atoning death, and the glorious resurrection the second Adam are perfectly parallel by and exaltation of Christ, the eternal Son of contrast in their representative character, but God, who appeared in the likeness of the flesh Christ is much stronger and remains victor of of sin and as an offering for sin, and thus the field, having slain sin and death, and living procured for us pardon, peace, and for ever as the prince of life. Where sin reconciliation. "God spared not his own Son, abounds there grace super-abounds. As but delivered him up for us all." through the first Adam sin (as a pervading This is the greatest gift of the eternal love of force) entered into the world, and death the Father for his creatures. The Son of God, through sin, and thus death passed unto all prompted by the same infinite love, laid aside men, inasmuch as they all sinned (in Adam his divine glory and mode of existence, generically and potentially, and by actual emptied himself exchanged the form of God transgression individually); so much more for the form of a servant, humbled himself through Christ, the second Adam, and became obedient, even unto the death of righteousness entered into the world and life the cross. Though he was rich, being equal through righteousness, and thus with God, yet for our sakes he became poor, righteousness passed unto all men on that we through his poverty might become condition of faith by which we partake of his rich. In reward for his active and passive righteousness. God shut up all men in obedience God exalted him and gave him a disobedience, that he might have mercy upon name above every name, that in the name of all that believe. Jesus every knee should bow and every (1.) The PREPARATION for this salvation was tongue confess that he is Lord. the promise and the law of the Old Formerly the cross of Christ had been to the dispensation. The promise given to Abraham carnal Messianic expectations and self- and the patriarchs is prior to the law, and not righteousness of Paul, as well as of other set aside by the law; it contained the germ Jews, the greatest stumbling-block, as it was and the pledge of salvation, and Abraham the height of folly to the worldly wisdom of stands out as the father of the faithful, who the heathen mind. But the heavenly vision of was justified by faith even before he received the glory of Jesus at Damascus unlocked the circumcision as a sign and seal. The law came key for the understanding of this mystery, in besides, or between the promise and the and it was confirmed by the primitive gospel in order to develop the disease of sin, apostolic tradition, and by his personal to reveal its true character as a transgression

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 13 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course experience of the failure of the law and the mediates between Christ and the church as power of the gospel to give peace to his Christ mediates between God and the world; troubled conscience. be is the divine revealer of Christ to the The death of Christ appeared to him now as individual consciousness and the source of all the divinely appointed means for procuring graces through which the new life manifests righteousness. It is the device of infinite itself. "Christ in us" is equivalent to having the wisdom and love to reconcile the conflicting "Spirit of Christ." It is only by the inward claims of justice and mercy whereby God revelation of the Spirit that we can call Christ could justify the sinner and yet remain just our Lord and Saviour, and God our Father; by himself. Christ, who knew no sin, became sin the Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in for us that we might become righteousness of our hearts; the Spirit works in us faith and all God in him. He died in the place and for the virtues; it is the Spirit who transforms even benefit of sinners and enemies, so that his the body of the believer into a holy temple; death has a universal significance. those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God and heirs of salvation; it is by the law of If one died for all, they all died. He offered the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that we are his spotless and holy life as a ransom or price made free from the law of sin and death and for our sins, and thus effected our are able to walk in newness of life. Where the redemption, as prisoners of war are Spirit of God is there is true liberty. redeemed by the payment of an equivalent. His death, therefore, is a vicarious sacrifice, (4.) There is, then, a threefold cause of our an atonement, an expiation or propitiation for salvation: the Father who sends his Son, the the sins of the whole world, and secured full Son who procures salvation, and the Holy and final remission and reconciliation Spirit who applies it to the believer. This between God and man. threefold agency is set forth in the benediction, which comprehends all divine This the Mosaic law and sacrifices could not blessings: "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplish. They could only keep alive and and the of God, and the communion of the deepen the sense of the necessity of an Holy Spirit." This is Paul’s practical view of atonement. If righteousness came by the law, the Holy Trinity as revealed in the gospel. The Christ’s death would be needless and grace of Christ is mentioned first because in it fruitless. His death removes not only the guilt is exhibited to us the love of the Father in its of sin, but it destroyed also its power and highest aspect as a saving power; to the Holy dominion. Hence the great stress Paul laid on Spirit is ascribed the communion because he the preaching of the cross in which alone he is the bond of union between the Father and would glory. the Son, between Christ and the believer, and This rich doctrine of the atonement which between the believers as members of one pervades the Pauline Epistles is only a brotherhood of the redeemed. legitimate expansion of the word of Christ To this divine trinity corresponds, we may that he would give his life as a ransom for say, the human trinity of Christian graces: sinners and shed his blood for the remission faith, hope, love. of sins. III. THE ORDER OF SALVATION.—(1.) (3.) While Christ accomplished the salvation, SALVATION HAS ITS ROOTS IN THE the HOLY SPIRIT appropriates it to the ETERNAL COUNSEL OF GOD, HIS believer. The Spirit is the religious and moral FOREKNOWLEDGE and his principle of the new life. Emanating from God, FOREORDINATION ; the former an act of his he dwells in the Christian as a renewing, omniscient intellect, the latter of his sanctifying, comforting energy, as the higher omnipotent will. Logically, foreknowledge conscience, as a divine guide and monitor. He

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 14 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course precedes foreordination, but in reality both The human act which corresponds to the coincide and are simultaneous in the divine divine call is the conversion of the sinner; and mind, in which there is no before nor after. this includes repentance or turning away Paul undoubtedly teaches an eternal election from sin, and faith or turning to Christ, under by the sovereign grace of God, that is an the influence of the Holy Spirit who acts unconditioned and unchangeable through the word. The Holy Spirit is the predestination of his children to holiness and objective principle of the new life of the salvation in and through his Son Jesus Christ. Christian. He thus cuts off all human merit, and plants Faith is the free gift of God, and at the same the salvation upon an immovable rock. But he time the highest act of man. It is unbounded does not thereby exclude human freedom and trust in Christ, and the organ by which we responsibility; on the contrary, he includes apprehend him, his very life and benefits, and them as elements in the divine plan, and become as it were identified with him, or boldly puts them together. Hence he exhorts mystically incorporated with him. and warns men as if salvation might be (3.) JUSTIFICATION is the next step. This is a gained or lost by their effort. Those who are vital doctrine in Paul’s system and forms the lost, are lost by their own unbelief. Perdition connecting link as well as the division line is the righteous judgment for sin unrepented between the Jewish and the Christian period of and persisted in. of his life. It was with him always a burning It is a strange misunderstanding to make Paul life-question. As a Jew he sought either a fatalist or a particularist; he is the righteousness by works of the law, honestly strongest opponent of blind necessity and of and earnestly, but in vain; as a Christian he Jewish particularism, even in the ninth found it, as a free gift of grace, by faith in chapter of Romans. But he aims at no Christ. philosophical solution of a problem which the Righteousness , as applied to man, is the finite understanding of man cannot settle; he normal relation of man to the holy, will of God contents himself with asserting its divine and as expressed in his revealed law, which human aspects, the religious and ethical view, requires supreme love to God and love to our the absolute sovereignty of God and the neighbor; it is the moral and religious ideal, relative freedom of man, the free gift of and carries in itself the divine favor and the salvation and the just punishment for highest happiness. It is the very end for which neglecting it. Christian experience includes man was made; he is to be conformed to God both truths, and we find no contradiction in who is absolutely holy and righteous. To be praying as if all depended on God, and in god-like is the highest conception of human working as if all depended on man. This is perfection and bliss. Pauline theology and practice. But there are two kinds of righteousness, or Foreknowledge and foreordination are the rather two ways of seeking it: one of the law, eternal background of salvation: call, and sought by works of the law; but this is justification, sanctification, and glorification imaginary, at best very defective, and cannot mark the progressive steps in the time of stand before God; and the righteousness of execution, and of the personal application of Christ, or the righteousness of faith, which is salvation. freely communicated to the believer and (2.) The CALL proceeds from God the Father accepted by God. Justification is the act of God through the preaching of the gospel salvation by which he puts the repenting sinner in which is sincerely offered to all. Faith comes possession of the righteousness of Christ. It is from preaching, preaching from preachers, the reverse of condemnation; it implies the and the preachers from God who sends them. remission of sins and the imputation of

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 15 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course

Christ’s righteousness. It is based upon the justification to the reappearance of Jesus atoning sacrifice of Christ and conditioned by Christ in glory. On the part of God it is faith, as the subjective organ of apprehending insured, for he is faithful and will perfect the and appropriating Christ with all his benefits. good work which he began; on the part of We are therefore justified by grace alone man it involves constant watchfulness, lest he through faith alone; yet faith remains not stumble and fall. In one view it depends all on alone, but is ever fruitful of good works. the grace of God, in another view it depends The result of justification is peace with God, all on the exertion of man. and the state of adoption and this implies also There is a mysterious co-operation between the heirship of eternal life. "The Spirit itself the two agencies, which is expressed in the bears witness with our spirit that we are profound paradox: "Work out your own children of God: and if children, then heirs; salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so who worketh in you both to will and to work, be that we suffer with him, that we may be for his good pleasure." The believer is also glorified with him." The root of Paul’s mystically identified with Christ from the theory of justification is found in the teaching moment of his conversion (sealed by of Christ: he requires from his disciples a far baptism). He died with Christ unto sin so as to better righteousness than the legal sin no more; and he rose with him to a new righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, as life unto God so as to live for God; he is a condition of entering the kingdom of crucified to the world and the world to him; heaven, namely, the righteousness of God; he he is a new creature in Christ; the old man of holds up this righteousness of God as the first sin is dead and buried, the new man lives in object to be sought; and teaches that it can holiness and righteousness. "It is no longer I only be obtained by faith, which he (my own sinful self) that lives, but it is Christ everywhere presents as the one and only that lives in me: and that life which I now live condition of salvation on the part of man. in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God, (4.) SANCTIFICATION. The divine act of who loved me and gave himself up for me." justification is inseparable from the Here is the whole doctrine of Christian life: it conversion and renewal of the sinner. It is Christ in us, and we in Christ. It consists in a affects the will and conduct as well as the vital union with Christ, the crucified and risen feeling. Although gratuitous, it is not Redeemer, who is the indwelling, all- unconditional. It is of necessity the beginning pervading, and controlling life of the believer; of sanctification, the birth into a new life but the union is no pantheistic confusion or which is to grow unto full manhood. We are absorption; the believer continues to live as a not justified outside of Christ, but only in self-conscious and distinct personality. For Christ by a living faith, which unites us with the believer "to live is Christ, and to die is him in his death unto sin and resurrection gain." "Whether we live, we live unto the unto holiness. Faith is operative in love and Lord; whether we die, we die unto the Lord: must produce good works as the inevitable whether we live therefore, or die, we are the proof of its existence. Without love, the Lord’s." greatest of Christian graces, even the In Romans 12, Paul sums up his ethics in the strongest faith would be but "sounding brass idea of gratitude which manifests itself in a or clanging cymbal." cheerful sacrifice of our persons and services Sanctification is not a single act, like to the God of our salvation. justification, but a process. It is a continuous (5.) GLORIFICATION . This is the final growth of the whole inner man in holiness completion of the work of grace in the from the moment of conversion and believer and will appear at the parousia of

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 16 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course our Lord. It cannot be hindered by any power totality of the Gentiles (not all individual present or future, visible or invisible, for God Gentiles) will lead ultimately to the and Christ are stronger than all our enemies conversion of Israel. "A hardening in part has and will enable us to come out more than befallen Israel, until the fullness of the conquerors from the conflict of faith. Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be This lofty conviction of final victory finds saved." most eloquent expression in the triumphal With this hopeful prophecy, which seems yet ode which closes the eighth chapter of far off, but which is steadily approaching Romans. fulfillment, and will be realized in God’s own IV. THE HISTORICAL PROGRESS of the gospel time and way, the apostle closes the doctrinal of salvation from Jews to Gentiles and back part of the Epistle to the Romans. "God has again to the Jews. Salvation was first shut up all men unto disobedience that he intended for and offered to the Jews, who might have mercy upon all men. O the depth were for centuries prepared for it by the law of the riche" both of the wisdom and the and the promise, and among whom the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Saviour was born, lived, died, and rose again. judgments, and his ways past tracing out. For But the Jews as a nation rejected Christ and of Him and through Him, and unto Him are all his apostles, and hardened their hearts in things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." unbelief. This fact filled the apostle with Before this glorious consummation, however, unutterable sadness, and made him willing to there will be a terrible conflict with Antichrist sacrifice even his own salvation (if it were or "the man of sin," and the full revelation of possible) for the salvation of his kinsmen. the mystery of lawlessness now held in check. But he sees light in this dark mystery. First of Then the Lord will appear as the conqueror in all, God has a sovereign right over all his the field, raise the dead, judge the world, creatures and manifests both his mercy and destroy the last enemy, and restore the his righteousness in the successive stages of kingdom to the Father that God may be all in the historical execution of his wise designs. all. His promise has not failed, for it was not I. The PAULINE SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE has given to all the carnal descendants of been more frequently explained than any Abraham and Isaac, but only to the spiritual other. descendants, the true Israelites who have the Among the earlier writers Neander, Usteri, faith of Abraham, and they have been saved, and Schmid take the lead, and are still as individual Jews are saved to this day. And valuable. Neander and Schmid are in full even in his relation to the vessels of wrath sympathy with the spirit and views of Paul. who by unbelief and ingratitude have fitted Usteri adapted them somewhat to themselves for destruction, he shows his Schleiermacher’s system, to which he long-suffering. adhered. In the next place, the real cause of the Next to them the Tübingen school, first the rejection of the body of the Jews is their own master, Baur (twice, in his Paul, and in his rejection of Christ. They sought their own New Test. Theology), and then his pupils, righteousness by works of the law instead of Pfleiderer and Holsten, have done most for a accepting the righteousness of God by faith. critical reproduction. They rise far above the Finally, the rejection of the Jews is only older rationalism in an earnest and intelligent temporary and incidental in the great drama appreciation of the sublime theology of Paul, of history. It is overruled for the speedier and leave the impression that he was a most conversion of the Gentiles, and the profound, bold, acute, and consistent thinker conversion of the full number or the organic on the highest themes.

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 17 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course

They ignore the supernatural element of W. BEYSCHLAG Die paulinische Theodicee (Berlin, inspiration, they lack spiritual sympathy with 1868); the faith of the apostle, overstrain his R. SCHMIDT: Die Christologie des Ap. Paulus antagonism to Judaism (as did Marcion of (Gött., 1870); old), and confine the authentic sources to the DELITZSCH: Adam und Christus (Bonn, 1871); H. four anti-Judaic Epistles to the Galatians, LÜDEMANN: Die Anthropologie des Ap. Paulus Romans, and Corinthians, although (Kiel, 1872); recognizing in the minor Epistles the R. STÄHELIN: Zur paulinischen Eschatologie "paulinische Grundlage." The more moderate (1874); followers of Baur, however, now admit the A. SCHUMANN: Der weltgeschichtl. genuineness of from seven to ten Pauline Entwickelungsprocess nach dem Lehrsystem Epistles, leaving only the three Pastoral des Ap. Paulus (Crefeld, 1875); Epistles and Ephesians in serious doubt. R. KÖSTLIN: Die Lehre des Paulus von der The Paulinismus of Weiss (in the third ed. of Auferstehung (1877); his Bibl. Theol., 1881, pp. 194–472) is based H. H. WENDT: Die Begriffe Fleisch und Geist in upon a very careful philological exegesis in biblischen Sprachgebrauch (Gotha, 1878). detail, and is in this respect the most valuable II. The CHRISTOLOGY OF PAUL is closely of all attempts to reproduce Paul’s theology. interwoven with his soteriology. In Romans He divides it into three sections: 1st, the and Galatians the soteriological aspect system of the four great doctrinal and prevails, in Philippians and Colossians the polemical Epistles; 2d, the further Christological. His Christology is very rich, development of Paulinism in the Epistles of and with that of the Epistle to the Hebrews the captivity; 3d, the doctrine of the Pastoral prepares the way for the Christology of John. Epistles. He doubts only the genuineness of It is even more fully developed than John’s, the last group, but admits a progress from the only less prominent in the system. first to the second. The chief passages on the person of Christ Renan, who professes so much sentimental are: Rom. 1:3, 4;8:3; 8:32; 9:5; (but the admiration for the poetry and wisdom of punctuation and consequently the application Jesus, "the charming Galilaean peasant," has of the doxology—whether to God or to no organ for the theology of Paul any more Christ—are disputed); 1 Cor. 1:19, a very than Voltaire had for the poetry of frequent designation); 2 Cor. 5:21; 8:9; Phil. Shakespeare. He regards him as a bold and 2:5–11; Col. 1:15–18; 2:9; Tim. 3:16; Tit.2:13 vigorous, but uncouth and semi-barbarous ,where, however, commentators differ in the genius, full of rabbinical subtleties, useless construction, as in Rom. 9:5). speculations, and polemical intolerance even From these and other passages the following against good old Peter at Antioch. doctrinal points may be inferred: Several doctrines of Paul have been specially 1.The eternal pre-existence of Christ as to his discussed by German scholars, as divine nature. The pre-existence generally is TISCHENDORF: Doctrina Pauli apostoli de Vi implied in Rom. 8:3, 32; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 2:5; Mortis Christi Satisfactoria (Leipz., 1837); the pre-existence before the creation is RÄBIGER: De Christologia Paulina (Breslau, 1852); expressly asserted, Col. 1:15; the eternity of LIPSIUS: Die paulinische Rechtfertigunglehre this pre-existence is a metaphysical inference (Leipz., 1853); from the nature of the case, since an existence ERNESTI: Vom Ursprung der Sünde nach before all creation must be an uncreated, paulinischem Lehrgehalt (Wolfenbüttel, 1855); therefore a divine or eternal existence which Die Ethik des Paulus (Braunschweig, 1868; 3d has no beginning as well as no end. (John ed., 1881); carefully distinguishes between the eternal

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 18 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course h\n of the pre-existent Logos, and the from the mark as the interpretation of some temporal ejgevneto of the incarnate Logos, of the Nicene fathers (e.g., Marcellus) who, in John 1:1, 14; comp. 8:58.) This is not order to escape the Arian argument, inconsistent with the designation of Christ as understood prototokos of the incarnate Logos "the first-born of all creation," Col. 1:15; for as the head of the new spiritual creation. prwtovtoko" is different from prwtovktisto" 2. Christ is the mediator and the end of (first-created), as the Nicene fathers already creation. "All things were created in him, in remarked, in opposition to Arius, who the heavens and upon the earth, things visible inferred from the passage that Christ was the and things invisible ...; all things have been first creature of God and the creator of all created through him (di j aujtou' and unto other creatures. The word first-born him (eij" aujtovn); and he is before all things, corresponds to the Johannean monogenhv", and in him all things consist," Col. 1:15–18. only-begotten. "Both express," as Lightfoot The same doctrine is taught in 1 Cor. 8:6 says (Com. on Col.) "the same eternal fact; but ("Jesus Christ, through whom are all things"); while monogenhv" states it in itself, 10;9; 15:47; as well as in the Ep. to the prwtovtoko" places it in relation to the Hebrews 1:2: ("through whom he also made universe." We may also compare the the worlds" or "ages"), and in John 1:3. protovgono", first-begotten, which Philo 3. The divinity of Christ is clearly implied in applies to the Logos, as including the original the constant co-ordination of Christ with the archetypal idea of the created world. "The Father as the author of "grace and peace," in first-born," used absolutely (prwtovtoko" the salutations of the Epistles, and in such B]kror Ps. 89:28), became a recognized title expressions as, "the image of the invisible of the Messiah. Moreover, the genitive pavsh" God" (Col. 1:15); "in him dwells the fulness of ktivsew" is not the partitive, but the the Godhead bodily" (2:9): "existing in the comparative genitive: the first-born as form of God," and "being on an equality with compared with, that is, before, every creature. God" (Phil. 2:6). In two passages he is, So Justin Martyr (pro; pavntwn tw'n according to the usual interpretation, even ktismavtwn), Meyer, and Bp. Lightfoot, in loc.; called "God" (qeov"), but, as already also Weiss, Bibl. Theol. d. N. T., p. 431 (who remarked, the exegetes are still divided on refutes the opposite view of Usteri, Reuss, the reference of qeov" in Rom. 9:5 and Tit. and Baur, and says: "Da pavsh" krivsew" jede 2:13. Meyer admits that Paul, according to his einzelne Creatur bezeichnet, so kann der christology, could call Christ "God" (as Genii. nur comparativ genommen werden, predicate, without the article, qeov" not oJ und nur besagen, dass er im Vergleich mit qeov"); and Weiss, in the 6th edition of Meyer jeden Creatur der Erstgeborne war"). The on Romans (1881), adopts the prevailing words immediately following, John 1:16, 17, orthodox punctuation and interpretation in exclude the possibility of regarding Christ Rom. 9:5 as the most natural, on purely himself as a creature. Lightfoot, in his exegetical grounds (the necessity of a masterly Comm. (p. 212 sq.), very fully supplement to kata; savrka, and the position explains the term as teaching the absolute of eujlovghto" after qeov"): "Christ as pre-existence of the Son, his priority to and concerning the flesh, who [at the same time sovereignty over all creation. according to his higher nature] is over all, The recent attempt of Dr. Beyschlag even God blessed for ever." Westcott and (Christologie des N. T., pp. 149 sqq., 242 sqq.) Hort are not quite agreed on the punctuation. to resolve the pre-existent Christ of Paul and See their note in Greek Test., Introd. and John into an ideal principle, instead of a real Appendix, p. 109. personality, is an exegetical failure, like the similar attempts of the Socinians, and is as far

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 19 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course

4. The incarnation. This is designated by the preserves a gem of Christ’s sayings not terms "God sent his own Son (Rom. 8:3, comp. reported by the Evangelists, which shines like 8:32); Christ "emptied himself, taking the a lone star on the firmament of uncertain form of a servant, being made in the likeness traditions:, "It is more blessed to give than to of men" (Phil. 2:7). Without entering here into receive" (Acts 20:35). the Kenosis controversy (the older one III. PAUL’S DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION. between Giessen and Tübingen, 1620–1630, Eternal foreknowledge of all persons and and the recent one which began with things is necessarily included in God’s Thomasius, 1845), it is enough to say that the omniscience, and is uniformly taught in the Kenosis, or self-emanation, refers not to the Bible; eternal foreordination or incarnate, but to the pre-existent Son of God, predestination is included in his almighty and implies a certain kind of self-limitation or power and sovereignty, but must be so temporary surrender of the divine mode of conceived as to leave room for free agency existence during the state of humiliation. This and responsibility, and to exclude God from humiliation was followed by exaltation as a the authorship of sin. Self-limitation is a part reward for his obedience unto death (Phil of freedom even in man, and may be 2:9–11); hence he is now "the Lord of glory" exercised by the sovereign God for holy (1 Cor. 2:8). To define the limits of the purposes and from love to his creatures; in Kenosis, and to adjust it to the immutability fact it is necessary, if salvation is to be a of the Godhead and the inter-trinitarian moral process, and not a physical or process, lies beyond the sphere of exegesis mechanical necessity. Religion is worth and belongs to speculative dogmatics. nothing except as the expression of free 5. The true, but sinless humanity of Christ. He conviction and voluntary devotion. Paul appeared "in the likeness of the flesh of sin" represents sometimes the divine sovereignty, (Rom. 8:3); he is a son of David "according to sometimes the human responsibility, the flesh" (1:3), which includes the whole sometimes, as in Phil. 2:12, 13, he combines human nature, body, soul, and spirit (as in both sides, without an attempt to solve the John 1:14); he is called a man (a[nqrwpo") in insolvable problem which really lies beyond the full sense of the term (1 Cor. 15:21; Rom. the present capacity of the human mind. "He 5:15; Acts 17:31). He was "born of a woman, does not deal with speculative extremes; and born under the law"(Gal. 4:4); he was "found in whatever way the question be in fashion as a man" and became "obedient speculatively adjusted, absolute dependence even unto death" (Phil. 2:8), and he truly and moral self-determination are both suffered and died, like other men. But he involved in the immediate Christian self- "knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). He could, of consciousness," Baur, Paul, II. 249. "Practical course, not be the Saviour of sinners if he teaching," says Reuss (II. 532) to the same himself were a sinner and in need of effect, "will always be constrained to insist salvation. upon the fact that man’s salvation is a free gift Of the events of Christ’s life, Paul mentions of God, and that his condemnation is only the especially and frequently his death and just punishment of sin." resurrection, on which our salvation depends. There can be no doubt that Paul teaches an He also reports the institution of the Lord’s eternal election to eternal salvation by free Supper, which perpetuates the memory and grace, an election which is to be actualized by the blessing of the atoning sacrifice on the faith in Christ and a holy life of obedience. But cross (1 Cor. 11:23–30). He presupposes, of he does not teach a decree of reprobation or a course, a general knowledge of the historical predestination to sin and perdition (which Christ, as his Epistles are all addressed to would indeed be a "decretum horribile," if believing converts; but he incidentally

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 20 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course verum). This is a logical invention of me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is supralapsarian theologians who deem it to be prepared for the devil and his angels" the necessary counterpart of the decree of (25:41). The omission of the words "of my election. But man’s logic is not God’s logic. A Father," after "ye cursed," and of the words, decree of reprobation is nowhere mentioned. for you, "and, from the foundation of the The term disapproved, worthless, reprobate, world," is very significant, and implies that is used five times only as a description of while the inheritance of the kingdom is traced character (twice of things). Romans 9 is the to the eternal favor of God, the damnation is Gibraltar of supralapsarianism, but it must be due to the guilt of man. explained in connection with Rom. 10–11, IV. The doctrine of JUSTIFICATION. This which present the other aspects. The occupies a prominent space in Paul’s system, strongest passage is Rom. 9:22, where Paul though by no means to the disparagement of speaks of "fitted unto destruction," or rather his doctrine of sanctification, which is treated (as many of the best commentators from with the same fullness even in Romans Chrysostom to Weiss take it) the middle: (comp. Rom. 6–8 and 12–15). Luther, in "who fitted themselves for destruction," and conflict with Judaizing Rome, overstated the so deserved it; while of the vessels of mercy importance of justification by faith when he he says that God "before prepared" them unto called it the articulus stantis vel cadentis glory (9:23). He studiously avoids to say of ecclesiae. This can only be said of Christ the vessels of wrath: , which would have (comp. Matt. 16:16; 1 Cor. 3:11; 1 John 4:2, 3). corresponded to , and thus he exempts God It is not even the theme of the Epistle to the from a direct and efficient agency in sin and Romans, as often stated (e.g., by Farrar, St. destruction. When in 9:17, he says of Paul, II. 181); for it is there subordinated by Pharaoh, that God raised him up for the very gavr to the broader idea of salvation purpose that he might show in him His (swthriva), which is the theme (Rom 1:16, power, he does not mean that God created 17). Justification by faith is the way by which him or called him into existence (which salvation can be obtained. would require a different verb), but, The Pauline idea of righteousness is derived according to the Hebrew (Ex. 9:16, the hiphil from the Old Testament, and is inseparable of [;m'd), that "he caused him to stand forth" from the conception of the holy will of God as actor in the scene; and when he says with and his revealed law. But the classical usage is reference to the same history that God quite consistent with it, and illustrates the "hardens whom he will" (Rom. 9:18), it must biblical usage from a lower plane. The Greek be remembered that Pharaoh had already words are derived from jus, right, and further repeatedly hardened his own heart (Ex. 8:15, back from. divca, or div", two-fold, in two 32; 9:34, 35), so that God punished him for parts (according to Aristotle, Eth. Nic., v. 2); his sin and abandoned him to its hence they indicate a well-proportioned consequences. God does not cause evil, but he relation between parts or persons where each bends, guides, and overrules it and often has his due. It may then apply to the relation punishes sin with sin. between God and man, or to the relation In this mysterious problem of predestination between man and man, or to both at once. To Paul likewise faithfully carries out the the Greeks a righteous man was one who teaching of his Master. For in the sublime fulfils his obligations to God and man. It was a description of the final judgment, Christ says Greek proverb: "In righteousness all virtue is to the "blessed of my Father:" "Inherit the contained." kingdom prepared for you from the Righteousness is an attribute of God, and a foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34), but to corresponding moral condition of man, i.e., those on the left hand he says, "Depart from

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 21 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course man’s conformity to the will of God as relation of Paul’s doctrine of justification to expressed in his holy law. It is therefore that of James, see § 69 of this vol. identical with true religion, with piety and V. Paul’s doctrine of the CHURCH has been virtue, as required by God, and insures his stated in § 65 of this vol. But it requires more favor and blessing. The word occurs than one book to do anything like justice to (according to Bruder’s Concord.) sixty times the wonderful theology of this wonderful in all the Pauline Epistles, namely: thirty-six times in Romans, four times in Galatians, 1.72. John and the Gospel of Love. seven times in 2 Corinthians, once in 1 GENERAL CHARACTER. Corinthians, four times in Philippians, three The unity of Jewish Christian and Gentile times in Ephesians, three times in 2 Timothy, once in 1 Timothy, and once in Titus. Christian theology meets us in the writings of John, who, in the closing decades of the first Righteous is one who fulfils his duties to God century, summed up the final results of the and men, and is therefore well pleasing to preceding struggles of the apostolic age and God. It is used seventeen times by Paul (seven transmitted them to posterity. Paul had times in Romans), and often elsewhere in the fought out the great conflict with Judaism and New Testament. secured the recognition of the freedom and Dikaivwsi" occurs only twice in the New Test. universality of the gospel for all time to come. (Rom. 4:25; 5:18). It signifies justification, or John disposes of this question with one the act of God by which he puts the sinner sentence: "The law was given through Moses; into the possession of righteousness. grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Dikaivwma, which is found Rom. 1:32; 2:26; His theology marks the culminating height of 5:16, 18; 8:4 means a righteous decree, or divine knowledge in the apostolic age. It is judgment. Aristotle (Eth. Nicom., v. 10) impossible to soar higher than the eagle, defines it as the amendment of an evil deed, which is his proper symbol. His views are so or a legal adjustment; and this would suit the much identified with the words of his Lord, to passage in Rom. 5:16, 18. whom he stood more closely related than any The verb occurs twenty-seven times in Paul, other disciple, that it is difficult to separate mostly in Romans, several times in the them; but the prologue to his Gospel contains Synoptic Gospels, once in Acts, and three his leading ideas, and his first Epistle the times in James 2:21, 24, 25. It may mean, practical application. The theology of the etymologically, to make just, justificare; but in Apocalypse is also essentially the same, and the Septuagint and the Greek Testament it this goes far to confirm the identity of hardly, ever has this meaning " says Grimm, , authorship. and is used in a forensic or judicial sense: to John was not a logician, but a seer; not a declare one righteous. This justification of the reasoner, but a mystic; he does not argue, but sinner is, of course, not a legal fiction, but assert; he arrives at conclusions with one perfectly true, for it is based on the real bound, as by direct intuition. He speaks from righteousness of Christ which the sinner personal experience and testifies of that makes his own by faith, and must prove his which his eyes have seen and his ears heard own by a life of holy obedience, or good and his hands have handled, of the glory of works. For further expositions see my the Only-begotten of the Father full of grace annotations to Lange on Romans, pp. 74, 130, and truth. 136, 138; and my Com on Gal. 2:16, 17. On the John’s theology is marked by artless imputation controversies see my essay in simplicity and spiritual depth. The highest art Lange on Romans 5:12, pp. 190–195. On the conceals art. As in poetry, so in religion, the most natural is the most perfect. He moves in

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 22 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course a small circle of ideas as compared with Paul, THE CENTRAL IDEA. but these ideas are fundamental and all- John’s Christianity centres in the idea of love comprehensive. He goes back to first and life, which in their last root are identical. principles and sees the strong point without His dogmatics are summed up in the word: looking sideways or taking note of exceptions. God first loved us; his ethics in the Christ and Antichrist, believers and exhortation: Therefore let us love Him and unbelievers, children of God and children of the brethren. He is justly called the apostle of the devil, truth and falsehood, light and love. Only we must not understand this word darkness, love and hatred, life and death: in a sentimental, but in the highest and purest these are the great contrasts under which he moral sense. God’s love is his self- views the religious world. These he sets forth communication to man; man’s love is a holy again and again with majestic simplicity. self-consecration to God. We may recognize— JOHN AND PAUL in rising stages of transformation—the same fiery spirit in the Son of Thunder who called John’s type of doctrine is less developed and vengeance from heaven; in the Apocalyptic fortified than Paul’s, but more ideal. His mind seer who poured out the vials of wrath was neither so rich nor so strong, but it against the enemies of Christ; and in the soared higher and anticipated the beatific beloved disciple who knew no middle ground, vision. Although Paul was far superior to him but demanded undivided loyalty and whole- as a scholar (and practical worker), yet the souled devotion to his Master. In him the ancient Greek church saw in John the ideal highest knowledge and the highest love theologian. John’s spirit and style may be coincide: knowledge is the eye of love, love compared to a calm, clear mountain-lake the heart of knowledge; both constitute which reflects the image of the sun) moon, eternal life, and eternal life is the fullness of and stars, while Paul resembles the happiness. mountain-torrent that rushes over precipices and carries everything before it; yet there are The central truth of John and the central fact trumpets of war in John, and anthems of in Christianity itself is the incarnation of the peace in Paul. The one begins from the eternal Logos as the highest manifestation of summit, with God and the Logos, the other God’s love to the world. The denial of this from the depths of man’s sin and misery; but truth is the criterion of Antichrist. both meet in the God-man who brings God THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES. down to man and lifts man up to God. John is I. The doctrine of GOD. He is spirit (pneu'ma), contemplative and serene, Paul is aggressive he is light (fw'") he is love (ajgavph). These and polemical; but both unite in the victory of are the briefest and yet the profoundest faith and the never-ending dominion of love. definitions which can be given of the infinite John’s theology is Christological, Paul’s Being of all beings. The first is put into the soteriological; John starts from the person of mouth of Christ, the second and third are Christ, Paul from his work; but their from the pen of John. The first sets forth God’s Christology and soteriology are essentially metaphysical, the second his intellectual, the agreed. John’s ideal is life eternal, Paul’s ideal third his moral perfection; but they are is righteousness; but both derive it from the blended in one. same source, the union with Christ, and find in this the highest happiness of man. John God is spirit, all spirit, absolute spirit (in represents the church triumphant, Paul the opposition to every materialistic conception church militant of his day and of our day, but and limitation); hence omnipresent, all- with the full assurance of final victory even pervading, and should be worshipped, over the last enemy.

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 23 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course whether in Jerusalem or Gerizim or anywhere him; on the other hand he is himself else, in spirit and in truth. essentially divine, and therefore called "God". God is light, all light without a spot of This pre-existent Logos is the agent of the darkness, and the fountain of all light, that is creation of all things visible and invisible. He of truth, purity, and holiness. is the fullness and fountain of life, the true, God is love; this John repeats twice, looking immortal life, as distinct from the natural, upon love as the inmost moral essence of God, mortal life, and light (which includes which animates, directs, and holds together intellectual and moral truth, reason and all other attributes; it is the motive power of conscience) to all men. Whatever elements of his revelations or self-communications, the truth, goodness, and beauty may be found beginning and the end of his ways and works, shining like stars and meteors in the darkness the core of his manifestation in Christ. of heathendom, must be traced to the Logos, the universal Life-giver and Illuminator. II. The doctrine of CHRIST’S PERSON. He is the eternal and the incarnate Logos or Here Paul and John meet again; both teach the Revealer of God. No man has ever yet seen agency of Christ in the creation, but John God (qeovn, without the article, God’s nature, more clearly connects him with all the or God as God); the only-begotten Son (or God preparatory revelations before the only-begotten), who is in the bosom of the incarnation. This extension of the Logos Father, he and he alone (ekei'no") declared revelation explains the high estimate which him and brought to light, once and forever, some of the Greek fathers, (Justin Martyr, the hidden mystery of his being. Clement of Alexandria, Origen) put upon the Hellenic, especially the Platonic philosophy, This perfect knowledge of the Father, Christ as a training-school of the heathen mind for claims himself in that remarkable passage in Christ. Matthew 11:27, which strikingly confirms the essential harmony of the Johannean and The Logos revealed himself to every man, but Synoptical representations of Christ. in a special manner to his own chosen people; and this revelation culminated in John the John (and he alone) calls Christ the "Logos" of Baptist, who summed up in himself the God, i.e., the embodiment of God and the meaning of the law and the prophets, and organ of all his revelations. As the human pointed to Jesus of Nazareth as "the Lamb of reason or thought is expressed in word, and God that taketh away the sin of the world." as the word is the medium of making our thoughts known to others, so God is known to At last the Logos became flesh. He completed himself and to the world in and through his revelation by uniting himself with man Christ as the personal Word. While "Logos" once and forever in all things, except sin. The designates the metaphysical and intellectual Hebraizing term "flesh" best expresses his relation, the term "Son" designates the moral condescension to our fallen condition and the relation of Christ to God, as a relation of love, complete reality of his humanity as an object and the epithet "only-begotten" or "only- of sense, visible and tangible, in strong born" raises his sonship as entirely unique contrast with his immaterial divinity. It above every other sonship, which is only a includes not only the body, but also a human reflection of it. It is a blessed relation of soul and a rational spirit; for John ascribes infinite knowledge and infinite love. The them all to Christ. To use a later terminology, Logos is eternal, he is personal, he is divine. the incarnation is only a stronger term for the He was in the beginning before creation or assumption of humanity. The Logos became from eternity. He is, on the one hand, distinct man—not partially but totally, not apparently from God and in the closest communion with but really, not transiently but permanently, not by ceasing to be divine, nor by being

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 24 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course changed into a man, but by an abiding, eternal happiness. He is himself the Life and personal union with man. He is henceforth the Light of the world. He calls himself the the God-man. He tabernacled on earth as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In him the true, true Shechinah, and manifested to his the eternal life, which was from the beginning disciples the glory of the only begotten which with the Father, appeared personally in shone from the veil of his humanity. This is human form. He came to communicate it to the divine-human glory in the state of men. He is the bread of life from heaven, and humiliation as distinct from the divine glory feeds the believers everywhere spiritually in his preexistent state, and from the final and without diminishing, as He fed the five perfect manifestation of his glory in the state thousand physically with five loaves. That of exaltation in which his disciples shall miracle is continued in the mystical self- share. communication of Christ to his people. The fourth Gospel is a commentary on the Whosoever believes in him has eternal life, ideas of the Prologue. It was written for the which begins here in the new birth and will purpose that the readers may believe "that be completed in the resurrection of the body. Jesus is the Christ (the promised Messiah), Herein also the Apocalypse well agrees with the Son of God (in the sense of the only the Gospel and Epistles of John. Christ is begotten and eternal Son), and that believing represented as the victor of the devil. He is they may have life in his name." the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah, but III. THE WORK OF CHRIST (Soteriology). This also the suffering Lamb slain for us. The implies the conquest over sin and Satan, and figure of the lamb, whether it be referred to the procurement of eternal life. Christ the paschal lamb, or to the lamb in the appeared without sin, to the end that he Messianic passage of Isaiah 53:7, expresses might destroy the works of the devil, who was the idea of atoning sacrifice which is fully a liar and murderer from the beginning of realized in the death of Christ. He "washed" history, who first fell away from the truth and (or, according to another reading, he then brought sin and death into mankind. "loosed") "us from our sins by his blood;" he Christ laid down his life and shed his blood redeemed men "of every tribe, and tongue, for his sheep. By this self-consecration in and people, and nation, and made them to be death he became the propitiation for the sins unto our God a kingdom and priests." The of believers and for the sins of the whole countless multitude of the redeemed "washed world. His blood cleanses from all the guilt their robes and made them white (bright and and contamination of sin. He is (in the shining) in the blood of the Lamb." This language of the Baptist) the Lamb of God that implies both purification and sanctification; bears and takes away the sin of the world; white garments being the symbols of and (in the unconscious prophecy of holiness. Love was the motive which Caiaphas) he died for the people. He was prompted him to give his life for his people. priest and sacrifice in one person. And he Great stress is laid on the resurrection, as in continues his priestly functions, being our the Gospel, where he is called the Advocate in Heaven and ready to forgive us Resurrection and the Life. The exalted Logos- when we sin and come to him in true Messiah has the keys of death and Hades. He repentance. is a sharer in the universal government of God; he is the mediatorial ruler of the world, This is the negative part of Christ’s work, the "the Prince of the kings of the earth" "King of removal of the obstruction which separated kings and Lord of lords." The apocalyptic us from God. The positive part consists in the seer likewise brings in the idea of life in its revelation of the Father, and in the highest sense as a reward of faith in Christ to communication of eternal life, which includes those who overcome and are faithful unto

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 25 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course death, Christ will give "a crown of life," and a principle and power of sin. "Whosoever is seat on his throne. He "shall guide them unto begotten of God doeth no sin, because his fountains of waters of life; and God shall wipe seed abideth in him; and he cannot sin away every tear from their eyes." because he is begotten of God." Over him the IV. THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT devil has no power. (Pneumatology). This is most fully set forth in The new life is the life of Christ in the soul. It the farewell discourser, of our Lord, which is eternal intrinsically and as to duration. are reported by John exclusively. The Spirit Eternal life in man consists in the knowledge whom Christ promised to send after his of the only true God and of Jesus Christ—a return to the Father, is called the Paraclete, knowledge which implies full sympathy and i.e., the Advocate or Counselor, Helper, who communion of love. It begins here in faith; pleads the cause of the believers, directs, hence the oft-repeated declaration that he supports, and comforts them. He is "another who believes in Christ has (e[cei) eternal life. Advocate", Christ himself being the first But it will not appear in its full development Advocate who intercedes for believers at the till the time of his glorious manifestation, throne of the Father, as their eternal High when we shall be like him and see him even priest. The Spirit proceeds (eternally) from as he is. Faith is the medium of the Father, and was sent by the Father and communication, the bond of union with the Son on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Christ. Faith is the victory over the world, Spirit, the Mediator and Intercessor between already here in principle. Christ and the believer, a" Christ i" the John’s idea of life eternal takes the place of Mediator between God and the world. He i" Paul’s idea of righteousness, but both agree in the Spirit of truth and of holiness. He convicts the high conception of faith as the one the world, that is all men who come under his indispensable condition of securing it by influence, in respect of sin, of righteousness, uniting us to Christ, who is both and of judgment and this conviction will righteousness and life eternal. result either in the conversion, or in the The life of the Christian, moreover, is a impenitence of the sinner. The operation of communion with Christ and with the Father the Spirit accompanies the preaching of the in the Holy Spirit. Our Lord prayed before his word, and is always internal in the sphere of passion that the believers of that and all the heart and conscience. He is one of the future ages might be one with him, even as he three witnesses and gives efficacy to the is one with the Father, and that they may other two witnesses of Christ on earth, the enjoy his glory. John writes his first Epistle baptism, and the atoning death of Christ. for the purpose that his readers may have V. CHRISTIAN LIFE. It begins with a new birth "fellowship with the Father, and with his Son from above or from the Holy Spirit. Believers Jesus Christ, and that thus their joy may be are children of God who are "born, not of made full." This fellowship is only another blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the word for love, and love to God is inseparable will of man, but of God." It is a "new" birth from love to the brethren. "If God so loved us, compared with the old, a birth "from God," as we also ought to love one another." "God is compared with that from man, a birth from love; and he that abideth in love abideth in the Holy "Spirit," in distinction from carnal God and God abideth in him." Love to the birth, a birth "from heaven," as opposed to brethren is the true test of practical earthly birth. The life of the believer does not Christianity. This brotherly fellowship is the descend through the channels of fallen true essence of the Church, which is nowhere nature, but requires a creative act of the Holy even mentioned in John’s Gospel and First Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. Epistle. The life of the regenerate is free from the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 26 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course

Love to God and to the brethren is no mere weakness, trials, temptations, and sufferings. sentiment, but an active power, and manifests He completely identified himself with our itself in the keeping of God’s commandments. earthly lot, and became homogeneous with Here again John and Paul meet in the idea of us, even to the likeness, though not the love, as the highest of the Christian graces essence, of sin (Rom. 8:3; comp. Heb. 2:14; which abides forever when faith shall have 5:8, 9). "Flesh" then, when ascribed to Christ, passed into sight, and hope into fruition. has the same comprehensive meaning in John as it has in Paul (comp. also 1 Tim. 3:16). It is The INCARNATION is expressed by John animated flesh, and the soul of that flesh briefly and tersely in the phrase "The Word contains the spiritual as well as the physical became flesh" (John 1:14). life. I. Apollinaris confined "flesh" to the body, including the animal soul, and taught that the 1.73 Heretical Perversions of the Apostolic Logos occupied the place of the rational soul Teaching. or spirit in Christ; that consequently he was The three types of doctrine which we have not a full man, but a sort of middle being briefly unfolded, exhibit Christianity in the between God and man, half divine and half whole fullness of its life; and they form the human, not wholly divine and wholly human. theme for the variations of the succeeding This view was condemned as heretical by the ages of the church. Christ is the key-note, Nicene church, but renewed substantially by harmonizing all the discords and resolving all the Tübingen school, as being the doctrine of the mysteries of the history of his kingdom. John. But this heavenly body of apostolic truth is The incarnation was only an incidental confronted with the ghost of heresy; as were phenomenon in the unchanging personality of the divine miracles of Moses with the satanic the Logos. Moreover the flesh of Christ was juggleries of the Egyptians, and as Christ was not like that of other men, but almost with demoniacal possessions. The more immaterial, so at; to be able to walk on the mightily the spirit of truth rises, the more lake (John 6:16; Comp. 7:10, 15; 8:59 10:39). active becomes the spirit of falsehood. To this exegesis we object: "Where God builds a church the devil builds, a 1. John expressly ascribes to Christ a soul, chapel close by." But in the hands of John 10:11, 15, 17; 12:27, and a spirit, 11:33; Providence all errors must redound to the 13:21; 19:30. It may be said that pneuma is unfolding and the final victory of the truth. here nothing more than the animal soul, They stimulate inquiry and compel defense. because the same affection is attributed to Satan himself is that "power which constantly both, and because it was surrendered in wills the bad, and works the good." Heresies death. But Christ calls himself in John in a disordered world are relatively necessary frequently "the Son of man" 1:51, etc.), and and negatively justifiable; though the once "a man", which certainly must include teachers of them are, of course, not the less the more important intellectual and spiritual guilty. "It must needs be, that scandals come; part as well as the body. but woe to that man by whom the scandal 2. "Flesh" is often used in the Old and New cometh." Testament for the whole man, as in the The heresies of the apostolic age are, phrase "all flesh" (every mortal man), or John respectively, the caricatures of the several 17:2; Rom. 3:20; 1 Cor. 1:29; Gal. 2:16). In this types of the true doctrine. Accordingly we passage it suited John’s idea better than, distinguish three fundamental forms of because it more strongly expresses the heresy, which reappear, with various condescension of the Logos to the human modifications, in almost every subsequent nature in its present condition, with its period. In this respect, as in others, the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 27 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course apostolic period stands as the type of the licentiousness. The author, or first whole future; and the exhortations and representative of this baptized heathenism, warnings of the New Testament against false according to the uniform testimony of doctrine have force for every age. Christian antiquity, is Simon Magus, who 1. The JUDAIZING tendency is the heretical unquestionably adulterated Christianity with counterpart of Jewish Christianity. It so pagan ideas and practices, and gave himself insists on the unity of Christianity with out, in pantheistic style, for an emanation of Judaism, as to sink the former to the level of God. Plain traces of this error appear in the the latter, and to make the gospel no more later epistles of Paul (to the Colossians, to than an improvement or a perfected law. It Timothy, and to Titus), the second epistle of regards Christ as a mere prophet, a second Peter, the first two epistles of John, the epistle Moses; and denies, or at least wholly of Jude, and the messages of the Apocalypse overlooks, his divine nature and his priestly to the seven churches. and kingly offices. The Judaizers were Jews in This heresy, in the second century, spread fact, and Christians only in appearance and in over the whole church, east and west, in the name. They held circumcision and the whole various schools of Gnosticism. moral and ceremonial law of Moses to be still 3. As attempts had already been made, before binding, and the observance of them Christ, by Philo, by the Therapeutae and the necessary to salvation. Of Christianity as a Essenes, etc., to blend the Jewish religion with new, free, and universal religion, they had no heathen philosophy, especially that of conception. Hence they hated Paul, the liberal Pythagoras and Plato, so now, under the apostle of the Gentiles, as a dangerous Christian name, there appeared confused apostate and revolutionist, impugned his combinations of these opposite systems, motives, and everywhere, especially in forming either a PAGANIZING JUDAISM, i.e., Galatia and Corinth, labored to undermine his Gnostic Ebionism, or a JUDAIZING PAGANISM authority in the churches. The epistles of i.e., Ebionistic Gnosticism, according as the Paul, especially that to the Galatians, can Jewish or the heathen element prevailed. This never be properly understood, unless their SYNCRETISTIC heresy was the caricature of opposition to this false Judaizing Christianity John’s theology, which truly reconciled Jewish be continually kept in view. and Gentile Christianity in the highest The same heresy, more fully developed, conception of the person and work of Christ. appears in the second century under the The errors combated in the later books of the name of Ebionism. New Testament are almost all more or less of 2. The opposite extreme is a false Gentile this mixed sort, and it is often doubtful Christianity, which may be called the whether they come from Judaism or from PAGANIZING OR GNOSTIC heresy. It is as heathenism. They were usually shrouded in a radical and revolutionary as the other is shadowy mysticism and surrounded by the contracted and reactionary. It violently halo of a self-made ascetic holiness, but breaks away from the past, while the sometimes degenerated into the opposite Judaizing heresies tenaciously and stubbornly extreme of antinomian licentiousness. cling to it as permanently binding. It Whatever their differences, however, all these exaggerates the Pauline view of the three fundamental heresies amount at last to distinction of Christianity from Judaism, a more or less distinct denial of the central sunders Christianity from its historical basis, truth of the gospel—the incarnation of the resolves the real humanity of the Saviour into Son of God for the salvation of the world. a Doketistic illusion, and perverts the They make Christ either a mere man, or a freedom of the gospel into antinomian mere superhuman phantom; they allow, at all

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 28 Volume 1, Chapter 11 a Grace Notes course events, no real and abiding union of the the other." — Dean STANLEY (Apostolic Age, divine and human in the person of the p. 182). Redeemer. This is just what John gives as the mark of antichrist, which existed even in his day in various forms. It plainly undermines the foundation of the church. For if Christ be not God-man, neither is he mediator between God and men; Christianity sinks back into heathenism or Judaism. All turns at last on the answer to that fundamental question: "What think ye of Christ?" The true solution of this question is the radical refutation of every error. "It has often been remarked that truths and error keep pace with each other. Error is the shadow cast by truth, truth the bright side brought out by error. Such is the relation between the heresies and the apostolic teaching of the first century. The Gospels indeed, as in other respects, so in this, rise almost entirely above the circumstances of the time, but the Epistles are, humanly speaking, the result of the very conflict between the good and the evil elements which existed together in the bosom of the early Christian society. As they exhibit the principles afterward to be unfolded into all truth and goodness, so the heresies which they attack exhibit the principles which were afterward to grow up into all the various forms of error, falsehood and wickedness. The energy, the freshness, nay, even the preternatural power which belonged to the one belonged also to the other. Neither the truths in the writings of the Apostles, nor the errors in the opinions of their opponents, can be said to exhibit the dogmatic form of any subsequent age. It is a higher and more universal good which is aimed at in the former; it is a deeper and more universal principle of evil which is attacked in the latter. Christ Himself, and no subordinate truths or speculations concerning Him, is reflected in the one; Antichrist, and not any of the particular outward manifestations of error which have since appeared, was justly regarded by the Apostles as foreshadowed in