Christian Classics
‹ Doctrinal Theology
Contents
Preface to Reprint Edition.Introduction§ 2. Meaning of the terms, Natural and Revealed.§ 3. Religion, True and False.§ 4. Revelation, — not Reason, nor Tradition.§ 5 Excursus. Concerning the Use of Reason in Theology.§ 6. Of the terms, Holy Scriptures and Inspiration.§ 7. The Attributes of the Holy Scriptures§ 8. (1.) Authority.§ 9. (2.) Perfection, or Sufficiency.§ 10. (3.) Perspicuity.§ 11. (4.) Efficacy.§ 12. Of the Canon and the Apocryphal Books.§ 13. What are Articles of Faith?Part I. Of God.§ 15. Preliminary Statement.§ 16. (1). The Certainty of the Divine Existence.§ 17. (2). The Essence of God.§ 18. (3.) The Attributes of God.§ 19. The Doctrine is a Mystery. · Part 1§ 19. The Doctrine is a Mystery. · Part 2§ 19. The Doctrine is a Mystery. · Part 3§ 20. Creation a Divine Work.§ 21. The Doctrine taught by both Reason and Revelation.§ 22. When were they created?Part II. Of Man.§ 24. State of Integrity Defined.Chapter II. Of the State of Corruption.§ 25. Of Sin in General§ 26. Man’s First Transgression, and the State thereby produced. viz., Original Sin.§ 27. Of Actual Sins.§ 28. The Freedom of the Will.Part III. Of the Sources of Salvation.§ 30. Benevolence of God.Note 13.§ 31. Statement of the Subject.§ 32. Of the Personal Union.§ 33. Continuation. · Part 1§ 34. The Threefold Office of Christ.§ 36. The Sacerdotal Office. · Part 1§ 36. The Sacerdotal Office. · Part 2§ 36. The Sacerdotal Office. · Part 3§ 37. The Regal Office.§ 38. · Part 1§ 38. · Part 2§ 38. · Part 3§ 39. Preliminary Remarks.§ 40. The Agent, the Means, the Result.§ 41. I. Faith.§ 42. (2) Justification.§ 43. Concomitants and Consequences of Justifying Faith.§ 44. (1.) Vocation.§ 45. (2.) Illumination.§ 46. Regeneration and Conversion.§ 47. (4.) The Mystical Union.§ 48. (5.) Of Renovation.§ 49. Of Good Works.Part IV. Of the Means of Grace.§ 51. The Efficacy of the Word of God.§ 52. The Law and the Gospel.§ 53. Of the Sacraments in General.§ 54. Of Baptism.§ 55. (2.) The Lord’s Supper. · Part 1§ 55. (2.) The Lord’s Supper. · Part 2§ 55. (2.) The Lord’s Supper. · Part 3§ 56. Of the Church [1] in a Wider and a Narrower Sense.§ 57. The Church, Collective and Representative.§ 58. Of the Three Estates in the Church.§ 59. 1. Of the Ecclesiastical Estate, the Ministry.§ 60. 2. Of the Political Estate; [1] The Civil Authority.§ 61. 3. The Domestic Estate.§ 62. Preliminary Statement.§ 63. (1.) Of Death.§ 64. (2.) Of the Resurrection of the Dead.§ 65. (3.) Of the Final Judgment.§ 66. (4.) Of the End of the World.§ 67. (5.) Of Eternal Damnation and Eternal Life.Appendix I. Sketch of the Dogmaticians Cited.

Heinrich Schmid · 42 of 78

§ 36. The Sacerdotal Office. · Part 3

2. “If Christ truly died for all, the effect and fruit of His death must pertain to all” But (a) that alms be received, there must be not only a hand to give, but also a hand to take. It is not enough that the benefits of Christ, acquired by His death, are offered; they must also be received by faith. (b) This faith God ordinarily enkindles in the heart through the Holy Spirit, working in Word and ; but they who repel the Word, and resist the Spirit, are, by their own fault, deprived of the benefits of Christ’s death. (c) This is clearly shown from 2 Cor. 5:18, 19: “God hath us to Himself,” etc., i.e., has been made, viz., with respect to the acquiring of the benefit by Christ’s death, and yet, v. 18: “God hath given to us the ministry of ;” v. 20: “We pray you, be ye ,” i.e., is still to be made, viz., with respect to its application. (d) The argument rests on the hypothesis that the death of Christ does not belong to those who do not partake of its fruit. Were then Paul, the thief on the cross, and others, as long as they were unbelieving and impenitent, excluded from the number of those for whom Christ died? If this be denied, the universality of the proposition falls; if it be affirmed, it follows that in , the are either without the death of Christ, or that only then does Christ die for them. (e) This may be illustrated by an example: A hundred Christian captives are in bondage to the Turkish Emperor. A Christian prince pays a certain sum for the ransom of all. If any afterwards prefer to remain longer in captivity rather than enjoy the liberty acquired and offered them, they should ascribe this to themselves. For the universality of the ransom is not thereby invalidated.

3. “Christ made no satisfaction for those for whom He does not pray. But for the reprobate He does not pray, John 17:9.” But, while it is true, that the satisfaction of Christ is not for those, for whom He absolutely does not pray, this cannot be said of the reprobate, Is. 53:12; Luke 23:34. A distinction must be drawn between the general and the special ; also between the office of Christ, as a priest and as a prophet: as a priest, praying for all, when on the altar of the cross He offered His body as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world; but as a prophet, proclaiming that sins are retained against sinners impenitent and resisting.

4. “That for which there could have been no use, we must not believe to have been done by God. But there would be no use of a universal merit, since some of the reprobate for whom Christ would have then suffered were already in hell.” With equal reason we could conclude that Christ did not suffer for Abraham, Isaac, and the other of the Old Testament, since they had already attained that which is said to come through Christ’s passion. We should rather say, according to Rev. 13:8, that the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world, viz., with respect to the divine decree, the promise, the types in the sacrifices, and the efficacy; and that the fruit of Christ’s passion is not to be restricted to the moment of time in which it occurred, but extended to both past and future, the ancients said that “Christ’s passion was before it was.” We, therefore, are right in saying that Christ suffered and died also for those who, while He was suffering, were in hell; not as though Christ, by His suffering, would liberate them from hell, but because while they were still living, the promises concerning the Messiah ought to have been embraced, and the merits of His passion thus received, as patriarchs, prophets, and the rest of the godly under the Old Testament, were saved by faith in Christ.

[18] QUEN. (III, 253): “Satisfaction is an act of the sacerdotal office of Christ, the God-man, according to which, from the eternal decree of the God, out of His immense mercy, He cheerfully and voluntarily substituted Himself as the bondsman and surety for the entire human race, which, through sin, had been cast into incredible misery; and, having taken upon Himself each and every sin of the entire world, by His most perfect obedience and the suffering, in their place, of the penalties that men had merited, made satisfaction, on this earth, during the whole time of His humiliation, and especially in His last agony, to the Holy that had been most grievously offended; and, by thus making a satisfaction, acquired and earned for each and every man the remission of all sins, exemption from all penalties, and peace with God, eternal and salvation.”

[19] Concerning the relation of satisfaction and merit, HOLL. (736): “(1) Satisfaction precedes, merit follows; for Christ has merited and life eternal by rendering a satisfaction. (2) Satisfaction is made to God and His justice,; but Christ has merited salvation, not for God, but for us. (3) Merit precedes the payment of a price; satisfaction, the compensating of an injury. Therefore, by His satisfaction, Christ made a compensation for the injury offered to God, expiated , paid the debt, and freed us from eternal penalties; but, by His merit, He acquired for us eternal and salvation. (4) The satisfaction rendered by Christ is the payment of our debts, by which we were under obligations to God; but merit arises from the fulfilment of the Law and the suffering that is not due.” The entire obedience which Christ rendered avails for us, and Christ did not need to merit anything for His own person. This the Dogmaticians express in the following manner: “Christ, as a man, merited nothing for Himself, by His obedience; because, through the personal union, Christ was given all the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9), and was anointed with the oil of joy (the gifts of the ) above His fellows (Ps. 45:7). Therefore, it was not necessary that He should merit anything for Himself.” (HOLL. (749)).

[20] CONF. AUG. (XXI, 2): “The Scripture propoundeth unto us one Christ, the , propitiator, high priest, and .” AP. CONF. (III, 44): “Christ who sitteth at the Right Hand of the Father, and perpetually maketh for us.”

QUEN. (III, 264): “Of this priestly act in the type, we may read in Lev. 16:17, 18; Ex. 28:29, 35. Christ, the God-man, is our only , 1 Tim. 2:5.” (257): “The ground of this is the satisfaction and universal merit of the interceder Himself; for by and through His bloody satisfaction, or, by the virtue of His merit, Christ, as a priest, for us with God the Father.” A more specific explanation of is given in the following (ib.): “By the virtue of His merit, Christ truly and formally for all men, not indeed by acquiring anew for them and divine favor, but only according to the mode of His present state, which is that of exaltation, by seeking that the acquired blessing may be applied to them for and salvation.” GRH.: “ is nothing else than the application and continual force, as it were, of , perpetually winning favor with God.”

[21] QUEN. (III, 256): “He does not indeed for those who, having died in impenitence, are in hell, suffering eternal punishments (for He is not their , but the judge condemning and punishing them), but in general for all those who still live in the world, and still have the gate of divine standing open before them, whether they be or reprobate. For He for the , or His crucifiers, Is. 53:12; Luke 23:34.” HOLL. (750): “How He prays for the , we read, John 17:11. From which is inferred that Christ for the and , that they may be preserved from evil, be kept in the unity of faith, and be more and more by the Word of truth.” QUEN. (III, 257): “It is evident that Christ justly does not ask the peculiar blessings that have been recounted, the actual, saving enjoyment of which belongs to the faithful and godly alone, for the ungrateful, wicked and refractory world, in so far as it is and remains such, since it is incapable of these. These special blessings, Christ has not sought for such a world, by no means out of any absolute hatred against it, . . . but because of its wickedness, ingratitude, and contumacy . . . . The Saviour, therefore, in His prayers, does not commend to the Father the inflexible despisers and violent persecutors of the Gospel, but His own beloved disciples who received His Word; yet that this does not absolutely exclude the world either from His satisfaction or from His , is evident from John 17:21.”

[22] HOLL. (749): “The of Christ is not merely interpretative through the exhibition of His merits” (“as though Christ for us not by prayers, but by His merit alone, and its eternal efficacy” (QUEN. III, 257)); “for the word, εντυγχανειν, Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25, employed concerning the of Christ, means more than the real yet silent presentation of merits. . . . Therefore, the of Christ is not only real, but also, vocal and oral; not abject by submission” (“as though Christ, as a suppliant, with bent knees and outstretched hands, and a vocal lamentation, should entreat the Father as in the days of His flesh, for such an entreaty conflicts with Christ’s glorious state; therefore we must regard it in a manner becoming God (John 17:24), and not after the manner of the flesh or of a servant” (QUEN. III, 257), “but is expiatory and effectual for obtaining saving blessings for men (because whatever He asks of His Father is pleasing and agreeable to the Father, John 11:22). The of Christ is effectual to obtain for us salvation, although those who do not believe in Christ do not enjoy the effect. Hence, it is said to be effectual, by reason of the saving intention of Christ, and not by reason of the result in the unbelieving and wicked.” But BR. observes, in regard to the verbal (498): “Whether this be verbal, consisting in words and prayers presented either mentally or vocally, or whether it be only real, consisting in this, that, by the virtue of His merit and satisfaction formerly rendered, and of His prayers formerly made, Christ moves God to remit our sins, it is not necessary to determine.” [QUEN. (III, 271): “Elegantly has St. Augustine, on Ps. 85, said: ‘He prays for us, as our Priest; He prays in us, as our Head; He is prayed to by us, as our God.’ Let us, then, recognize our voices in Him and His voices in us.”]

[23] QUEN. (III, 258): “This will not be terminated by the end of the world, but will continue to all eternity, Heb. 7:25; Ps. 110:4; Heb. 5:6; 7:17. For it must not be thought that after the end of the world, when the have passed into life eternal, is superfluous; for He prays and , not that they may not by sin fall from eternal salvation, but that they may be kept in glory, which, as it must be regarded as having been received for merit, must also be regarded as having been received for Christ’s meritorious .”

As, in Rom. 8:26, mention is made of an by the Holy Spirit also, some of the Dogmaticians inquire what is to be understood by this, and how it differs from the that is offered by Christ. QUEN. (III, 259): “Some receive υπερεντυγχανειν by metalepsis and with respect to the result, so that He is said to pray and groan, because He causes us to pray and groan, shows and teaches us for what to pray and how to pray aright, and forms our prayers within us. But others also understand it literally as referring to the very person of the , viz., that the Himself, in His own person, prays and for us.” QUEN. decides for the former interpretation. And he thus states the difference between the two kinds of : “The one (that of Christ) is θεανθρωπικη [that of the God-man]; the other is purely θεικη [divine]. The one is mediatorial; the other is not. The of Christ is founded upon His suffering and death, which cannot be said of the of the .” (Ib. 260).

[24] HOLL. (751): “ is not simple, absolute, and metaphorical, but precious, satisfactory, and literal, 1 Cor. 6:19, 20; 1 Pet. 1:18; Matt 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:6.” Id. (752): “The former is liberation without any intervening price from a penalty that has been decided; the latter is that by which a guilty person is from his crime and the punishment, by the payment of a price . . . . For, properly speaking, to signifies to buy again, just as the Greek words λυτρουν, αγοραζειν, εξαγοραζειν, and the Hebrew words, גָאַל פָּרָה, denote purchase or repurchase, which occurs through an intervening price. Therefore, when, in the present argument, where we treat of the of the fallen human race accomplished by Christ, these Hebrew and Greek words from the holy volume are employed, we receive them in a literal sense, because no necessity appears to be imposed upon us of departing from the literal sense.”

The expressions used in Holy Scripture to denote are (a) in the Old Testament גְּאֻלָה. Lev. 25:24, 26, 29, 31, 32, 48, 51, 52; פִּדְיוֹן, Ex. 21:30; Ps. 49:8; (b) in the New Testament, λυτρωσις, Luke 1:68; 2:38; Heb. 9:12; απολυτρωσις, Luke 21:28; Rom. 3:24; 8:23; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:7, 14; 4:30; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15; 11:35; αγορασις, 2 Pet. 2:1; Rev. 5:9; 14:3; εξαγορασις, Gal. 3:13; 4:5.

[25] The Dogmaticians KG., QUEN., and HOLL., treat still more fully of , distinguishing (1) the captive (the whole human race). (2) The one holding the captive (God, Rom. 11:32; Gal. 3:22, to whom the ransom must be paid; and the devil who holds the wicked in the snares of sins, 2 Tim. 2:26, to whom not a price, but punishment is due). (3) The one the captive (Christ, the only and the universal Redeemer of the whole human race, availing by the right, strength, and will to , Rom. 3:24). (4) The chains from which Christ the human race (sins, offences against God, and temporal and eternal punishments). (5) The means of . (6) The end of (the final end, the glory of God; the intermediate, freedom from the guilt and dominion of sin). As, however, all the matters discussed under these heads have been included in the previous discussion their further citations could be dispensed with, and their presentation by the Dogmaticians above named is to be regarded as a mere recapitulation of what had been given before.