The Subjective Effects of the Atonement
shuts out the obligation of personal obedience to the law of God.
However, imputation is no fiction, but Scripture truth, as appears from such passages as Rom. 5:18 ff.; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21. And this particular imputation does not in any way cancel the obligation of the sinner to keep the law of God. It merely sets him free from the law as the condition of the covenant of works. The final argument does not mean very much, since it is based on a restricted use of the word "satisfaction." The active obedience of Christ certainly served to satisfy the requirements of the law, and in that sense can be called satisfaction.
The Subjective Effects of the Atonement The atonement not the whole of Christ's redemptive work.
THE atonement is not the whole of the redemptive work of Christ, though it is fundamental. It is rooted in the Counsel of Peace and issues in peace with God and the spiritual renewal of the sinner. It is not merely an arrangement by which God makes salvation possible, but a very essential and even the most fundamental part of His saving work. It effects nothing short of the complete and perfect redemption of sinners. These results are in no way contingent on the uncertain obedience of men, but are absolutely sure. The fruits of the meritorious work of Christ are applied to all those for whom He paid the penalty and met the requirements of the covenant of works.
The immediate result is reconciliation.
The immediate result of the atonement is reconciliation. In Christ God is reconciled to the sinner. All the penal demands of the law are met and the judicial anger of God is averted. But this is not all; even the original covenant requirements are fully satisfied. And on the
basis of the completed work of Christ God now offers the sinner, not only the forgiveness of past transgressions, but also acceptance with Him and all the blessings of salvation. Through the gospel he is urged to be reconciled to God, that is, to accept the proffered reconciliation. He can do this only by faith in Jesus Christ. But even this faith, while a voluntary act on the part of man, is not contingent on his mere will. It is itself a gift of God in Jesus Christ, Eph. 2:8.
God endows with faith all those for whom Christ has made atonement, and thereby renders the appropriation of His redemptive work absolutely certain. By faith man accepts the righteousness of Christ as his own, and in virtue of this is both justified and sanctified.
The fruits of the atonement appropriated by faith.
The exercise of faith is therefore an important element in the subjective realization of the work of redemption. It is the only necessary condition to render the atoning sacrifice of Christ effective in the lives of sinners. Scripture does not leave us in doubt as to its importance. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,"
John 3:36. "To Him bear all the prophets witness, that through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive the remission of sins," Acts 10:43. "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house," Acts 16:31. "Even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ," Gal. 2:16.
The nature of saving faith.
It is quite evident that the expressions used (faith in, on, or into Jesus Christ) do not refer to a mere intellectual assent to the claims of Christ or to the truth of His doctrine, but also denote a reliance on and a trust in Him and His atoning work. In the exercise of this faith the sinner looks away from himself, and looks exclusively to Jesus
Christ for salvation. He ceases to rely on his own virtues and good works and reposes solely on the atoning blood and on the merits of the Savior. By faith he is so united with Christ that he can say that he
is in Christ, and that Christ liveth in him; that he is crucified and has died with Christ; and that with Him he is raised up and set in heavenly places. This rich and full conception of faith has no place in the other theories of the atonement. In the Socinian Example Theory faith is merely obedience to God and belief in the truth of Christ's message. In the Moral Influence Theory it is a bare assent to the message of the Redeemer and a willing submission to His spiritual influence. In neither of these can sinners truly be said to trust in Christ and to commit all their interests to His charge. Nor can it be said in any proper sense of the word that they are united to Him by faith. Even the Governmental Theory fails to do justice to the biblical concept of faith. It ignores the fact, stressed by Protestant theology, that in its fundamental nature faith is purely receptive, and represents it as the condition of salvation sovereignly imposed on man as a legal demand which he must meet, or as a work which he must perform, and which becomes the ground of his justification.
The sinner is justified by faith.
By faith the sinner appropriates the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Christ became sin on his behalf, and the sinner becomes the righteousness of God in Christ. The immediate effect of this is that he is justified. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to him as his own, and God declares that for him all the demands of the law are met.
His sins are pardoned, the sentence of condemnation is lifted, and he is restored to favor. God puts him in the position of a son and declares him to be an heir of everlasting life. Justification does not yet effect a change in the moral condition of man, but alters his legal standing completely. It is quite evident from Scripture that the words
"justify" and "justification" do not have a moral but a legal meaning.
They do not refer to a change of moral character, but to a change of legal relationship. By a declarative act God acquits the sinner and absolves him from the claims of the law, since they are met in the Mediator. The forensic or legal meaning of these terms appears from the fact that they are placed in opposition to "condemn" and "condemnation," as, for instance, in Deut. 25:1, "They shall justify
the righteous and condemn the wicked"; Prov. 17:15, "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to Jehovah"; Rom. 5:18, "So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life."
Negative element of justification: forgiveness of sins.
This justification includes two elements, the one negative and the other positive. The negative element is the forgiveness of sins. On the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ God pardons the sinner.
This is not a sovereign act of the Ruler of the universe, an act merely dependent on His free choice; but a judicial act of the supreme
Judge, which takes due recognition of the demands of the law and upholds its majesty. It is not a declaration of God that He will simply overlook sin and ignore the demands of the law (which would be unjust), nor that the sinner is innocent in himself (which would be untrue); but a judicial pronouncement that, as far as the sinner in question is concerned, the demands of the law are met and its claims will no more be held against him. God gives the sinner the assurance that by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ the guilt of sin, as liability to punishment, is removed, and that he is no more an object of wrath. Mercy and justice are combined and operate in perfect harmony.
This element in other Theories.
In all the purely subjective theories of the atonement the forgiveness of sins is simply a sovereign act of divine mercy, which takes little or no account of the demands of the law and of the penalty attached to transgressions. God is so loving and benevolent that He cannot find it in His heart to insist on strict justice and to inflict the threatened punishment. He simply overlooks or forgets about sin as if it were some insignificant thing, something like an offense against a mere private individual. Though this is regarded as an exhibition of the
great love of God, it really minimizes the manifestation of His love by assuming that the forgiveness of sins is a simple and easy thing. The real cost of it is not taken into consideration. Such a view of forgiveness does not impress the sinner with the seriousness and heinousness of sin. Neither does it satisfy his conscience, since the feeling remains that the demands of the law are not met and that punishment is still due. There is no sense of peace or security. Even a Unitarian like Drummond admits that the doctrine of vicarious atonement has an advantage here. Says he: "It emphasizes the heinousness of sin as a violation of God's eternal order. In doing so it repeats the verdict of conscience, which recognizes no human convention, but a Divine sanctity, in the moral law. It is this that makes sin the supreme evil, and brings it under the judgment of God.
Here, then, we find a truth that cannot be too strongly stated; and if the rebel against God can understand something of the divine disapproval of sin only under the figure of wrath, it is well that he should thus fling aside the idea that God is indifferent to sin."
Studies in Christian Doctrine, p. 353 f.
Positive element in justification: acceptance, adoption.
There is also a positive element in justification, consisting in acceptance with God or the adoption of children. The sinner is put in the legal position of a son and heir. He receives a clear title to all the blessings of salvation, so that his future state is secure and in no way contingent on his uncertain obedience. Scripture testifies to this blessing in more than one place. John speaks of it in his Gospel when he says, "But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name,"
John 1:12. Paul writes to the Romans, "For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," Rom. 8:15. In his letter to the Galatians he speaks in a very similar vein. Christ is born of a woman, born under the law, "that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying,
Abba, Father," Gal. 4:5, 6. The same truth finds expression also in Titus 3:7, "… that, being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." In virtue of their justification believers are entitled to all the blessings of the sonship in the present and in the future. They are heirs of God. This means that they receive what they have not themselves merited, and that they are yet more sure of all that their sonship includes than they would be, if it were contingent on their virtues or good works.
Arminian denial of this element.
Here again the Arminian denies what we affirm. He readily grants that we receive the forgiveness of sins for the sake of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, but considers this to be the whole of justification. We are not accepted or adopted as children on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ, but must establish our own righteousness before God. If we believe in Christ with a faith that includes evangelical obedience, we thereby lay the foundation for our acceptance with God; this faith is reckoned unto us for righteousness. But because faith may fail at any moment, this foundation is rather insecure, and the assurance of salvation is impossible. The child of God is bound to live in uncertainty and fear all its days.
Justification in Moral Influence Theory.
The advocates of the Moral Influence Theory of the atonement do not all speak of justification in the same vein. For some of them it is not a judicial declaration, but an act of spiritual renewal. "To justify" does not mean "to declare," but "to make just." According to Bushnell faith unites us to Christ and gives the power of Christ opportunity to work in us the work of renewal. "So the sinner is justified, and the justification is a most vital affair; 'the justification of life'." The Vicarious Sacrifice, p. 434 f. Justification is therefore a part of the process of renewal or of sanctification. Others continue to regard justification as a declarative act, but a declarative act based on
a spiritual proclivity or disposition in man, an initial submission to the operation of the Holy Spirit, and aspiration to do the things that are well pleasing to God. Says Stevens: "Justification by faith is God's acceptance of the will for the deed. Salvation is by aspiration, that is, by the choice and preference of the good. God accepts and treats us, not according to what we are, but according to what we would like to be." The Christian Doctrine of Salvation, p. 458. David Smith expresses himself in a way that reminds one now of the one and anon of the other view. Op. cit., p. 206 f.
Ethical bearings of the atonement.
They consider such representations necessary, in order to safeguard the ethical bearings of the atonement. But the Penal Substitutionary
Doctrine of the atonement does this just as effectively. In justification the sinner receives the absolute assurance that God will put him in possession of all the blessings of salvation, and this can be done and is done only in the way of spiritual renewal. The faith by which he is justified also unites him to Christ; in fact, it justifies him only because it unites him to Christ. And in virtue of the mystical union with Christ the complete spiritual renewal of the sinner is assured. The gift of Christ guarantees all further gifts, as Paul says in Rom. 8:32, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?"
And again in 2 Cor. 5:17, "Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new." When God adopts us to be His children, he also sends
"forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father,"
Gal. 4:6. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of renewal, which transforms the lives of all those who are united to Christ by faith.
"We all," says the apostle, "beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit," 2 Cor. 3:18. Whom God justifies, them
He also sanctifies and glorifies. Rom. 8:30.