Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/636

 PAUL

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PAUL

malediction of the Father. These are the extrava- gances which have cast bo much discredit on the theory of substitution. It has been rightly said that the transfer of a cha.stiseinent from one person to another is an injustice and a contradiction, for the chastisement is inseparable from the fault and an undeserved chastisement is no longer a chastisement. Besides St. Paul never said that Christ died in our stead (i'^0, but only that he died for us {virip) because of our sins (Tf/).

In reality the three standpoints considered above are but three aspects of the Redemption which, far from excluding one another, should harmonize and combine, modifying if necessary all the other aspects of the problem. In the following text St. Paul as- sembles these various aspects with several others. We are "justified freely by his grace, through the Redemption, that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to the shewing of his [hidden] justice, for the remission of former sins, through the forbearance of God, for the shewing of his justice in this time; that of himself may be [known as] just, and the justifier of him, who is in the faith of .Jesus Christ" (Rom., iii, 24-26). Herein are designated the part of God, of Christ, and of man: (1) God takes the initiative; it is He who offers His Son; He intends to manifest His justice, but is moved thereto by mercy. It is there- fore incorrect or more or less inadequate to say that God was angry with the human race and that He was only appeased by the death of His Son. (2) Christ is our Redemption (dTroXiir/jMa-is), He is the in- strument of ex-piation or propitiation (iXo<rr^pio^), and is such by His Sacrifice (^i- tiJ) airou aiixan), which does not resemble those of irrational animals; it de- rives its value from Christ, who offers it for us to His Father through obedience and love (Phil., ii, 8; Gal., ii, 20). (3) Man is not merely passive in the drama of his salvation; he must understand the lesson which God teaches, and appropriate by faith the fruit of the Redemption.

F. The Subjective Redemplion. — Christ having once died and risen, the Redemption is completed in law and in principle for the whole human race. Each man makes it his own in fact and in act by faith and baptism which, by uniting him with Christ, causes him to participate in His Divine life. Faith, accord- ing to St. Paul, is composed of several elements; it is the submission of the intellect to the word of God, the trusting abandonment of the believer to the Saviour Who promi.ses him assistance; it is also an act of obedi- ence by which man accepts the Divine will. Such an act has a moral value, for it "gives glory to God" (Rom., iv, 20) in the measure in which it recognizes its own helplessness. That is why "Abraham be- lieved God, and it was reputed to him unto justice" (Rom., iv, 3; Gal., iii, 6). The spiritual children of Abraham are likewise "justified by faith, without the works of the law" (Rom., iii, 28; cf. Gal., ii, 16). Hence it follows: (1) That justice is granted by God in consideration of faith. (2) That, nevertheless, faith is not equivalent to justice, since man is justi- fied "by grace" (Rom., iv, 6). (3) That the justice freely granted to man becomes his property and is in- herent in him. Protestants formerly asserted that the justice of Christ is imputed to us, but now they are generally agreed that this argument is unscrip- tural and lacks the guaranty of Paul ; but some, loth to base justification on a good work (tpyov)^ deny a moral value to faith and claim that justification is but a forensic judgment of God which alters absolutely nothing in the justified sinner. But this theory is un- tenable; for: (1) even admitting that "to justify" signifies "to pronounce just", it is absurd to suppose that God really pronounces just anyone who is not already so or who is not rendered so by the declaration itself. (2) Justification is inseparable from sauctifi-

cation, for the latter is "a justification of life" (Rom., V, 18) and every "just man livelh by faith" (Rom., i, 17; Gal., iii, 11). (3) By faith and baptism we die to the "old man", our former selves; now this is im- possible without beginning to live as the new man, who "according to God, is created in justice and holi- ness" (Rom., vi, 3-5; Eph., iv, 24; 1 Cor., i, 30; vi, 11). We may, therefore, establish a distinction in definition and concept between justification and sanctification, but we can neither separate them nor regard them as separate.

G. Moral Doctrine. — A remarkable characteristic of Paulinism is that it connects morality with the sub- jective redemption or justification. This is e.^ipecially striking in chap.vi of the Epistle to the Romans. In baptism "our old man is crucified with [Christ] that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer" (Rom., vi, 6). Our in- corporation with the mystical Christ is not only a transformation and a metamorphosis, but a real cre- ation, the production of a new being, subject to new la%vs and consequently to new duties. To under- stand the extent of our obligations it is enough for us to know ourselves as Christians and to reflect on the various relations which result from our supernatural birth: that of sonship to God the Father, of consecra- tion to the Holy Ghost, of mystical identity with our Saviour Jesus Christ, of brotherly union with the other members of Christ. But this is not all. Paul says to the neophytes: "Thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but have obeyed from the heart unto that form of doctrine, into which you have been delivered. . . . But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end fife everlasting" (Rom., vi, 17, 22). By the act of faith and by bap- tism, its seal, the Christian freely makes himself the servant of God and the soldier of Christ. God's will, which he accepts in advance in the measure in which it shall be manifested, becomes thenceforth his rule of conduct. Thus Paul's moral code rests on the one hand on the positive will of God made known by Christ, promulgated by the Apostles, and virtually accepted by the neophyte in his first act of faith, and on the other, in baptismal regeneration and the new relations which it produces. AH Paul's commands and recommendations are merely applications of these principles.

H. Eschatology. — (1) The graphic description of the Pauline parousia (I Thess., iv, 16-17; II Thess., i, 7-10) has nearly all its main points in Christ's great eschatological discourse (Matt., xxiv; Mark, xiii, Luke, xxi). A common characteristic of all these passages is the apparent nearness of the parousia. Paul does not assert that the coming of the Saviour is. at hand. In each of the five epistles, wherein he expresses the desire and the hope to witness in person the return of Christ, he at the same time considers the probability of the contrary hypothesis, proving that he had neither revelation nor certainty on the point. He knows only that the day of the Lord will come un- expectedly, like a thief (I Thess., v, 2-3), and he counsels the neophytes to make themselves ready without neglecting the duties of their state of life (II Thess., iii, 6-12). Although the coming of Christ will be sudden, it will be heralded by three signs: general apostasy (II Thess., ii, 3), the appearance of Anti- christ (ii, 3-12), and the conversion of the Jews (Rom., xi, 26). A particular circumstance of St. Paul's preaching is that the just who shall be living at Christ's second advent will pass to glorious immor- tality without dying [I Thess., iv, 17; I Cor., xv, 51 (Greek text); II Cor., v, 2-5].

(2). Owing to the doubts of the Corinthians Paul treats the resurrection of the just at some length. He does not ignore the resurrection of the sinners, which he aflirmed before the Governor FeUx (Acts, xxiv, 15),