Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/249

ATONEMENT. Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) and his followers inaintaiiK'd Anselm's opinion of the infinite value of the blood of Christ, rendering it more than sullicient; while the Scotists maintiiined that it was sulhcient only because God was pleased to regard it as sufficient. Here the con- troversy rests among Catholics. The prevailing view among Catholic theologians is that of Saint Thomas's development of Saint Anselm's position. Wc now come to the period of the Reforma- tion, when the doctrine of the atonement began to be speculatively viewed from the standi)oints of the various reformers (the foremost of whom was Luther) and their followers. In the writings of Luther, one will only with difficulty arrive at his intellectual appreliension of this doctrine in its scientific form; but setting out with the consciousness of sin, one will every- where discover how he realized that in Christ all sin is 'vanquished, killed, and buried, and righteousness remaineth a conqueror and reign- eth forever.' The following is an outline of the Lutheran doctrine, as laid down in the Con- cordiciiformel : It is alone by faith that we can receive the blessings given to us in the Gospel by the Holy Ghost. Faith justifies, because it appropriates the merit of Christ. Therefore, the righteousness which is imputed to the believer, simply by the grace of God, is the obedience, the suffering, and the resurrection of Christ, by which He has satisfied the claims of the law and atoned for our sins. For as Christ is not merely man, but God and man in one person, He was, as Lord of the law, no more subject to it than He was subject to suffering and death. For this reason His twofold obedience — that which he rendered, on the one hand, by His sufl'ering and death; and, on the other, by His righteous fulfillment of the law on our behalf^is imputed to us, and God acquits us of our sins, and regards us as just, in view of His complete obedience in what He did and suf- fered. This obedience embraces the entire exist- ence of Christ upon earth, and is so complete that it fully covers the disobedience of men, so that it is not reckoned against them for con- demnation. Christ is our righteousness, there- fore, only in so far as in His entire person the most perfect obedience is exhibited, which He was able to render, in that He was neither God alone nor man alone, but both in one, God and man.

According to Calvin I Institutes, 1559), if one asks how Christ has reconciled us with God, and purchased a righteousness which made Him favorable to us, it may be answered, gen- erally, that He accomplished this by the whole course of His obedience. But although the life of Christ is to be regarded as paying the price necessary for our deliverance, the Scriptures ascribe our redemption especially to His death. Calvin attached great importance to the par- ticular mode of His death — any other mode of death would not have rendered the same satis- faction to God. He, however, says little or nothing about Christ's fulfilling the law for us, but dwells upon His delivering us from its cur.se. He does not, therefore, exhibit His active obedience separated, as an essential part of His satisfaction for sin, from His passive obedience. The importance attached to the obedience of His life arises from its natural and necessary con- nection with His suftering and death. And the great importance attached to His death is dravm rather from the view of its subjective necessity than from the idea of the divine righteousness — namely, that without such a death there would have been no sufficient ground for the subjective realization of deliverance from sin and guilt. Calvin's view difl'ers from that of the Lutheran C'oncordienformel in that he does not regard the relationship of God to man merely from the standpoint of punitive and satisfying righteous- ness, which alwaj's leads to the merely negative notion of a redeemer from guilt and punish- ment; but looks upon Christ as the highest mediator, through whom the nature of God is communicated to man. There was a necessity for Christ's incarnation, not merely because, apart from the suffering of the God-man, the divine righteousness could not be atoned, but also because without such a divine mediator there could be no vital relation between God and man. "Had man remained free from all taint, he was of too humble a condition to pene- trate to God without a mediator."

Socinus (De J. C. Servatore, 1577) endeav- ored to prove the falseness of this theory. He shares with the Protestants the subjective prin- ciple, which the period of the Reformation estab- lished, but developed it in a one-sided manner. Socinianism represents man as attaining to one- ness with himself and with God by his own moral energy. It rejects that idea_ of the righteousness of God which makes it impossible for Him to forgive sin without satisfaction, as imposing finite limitations upon the Divine Being; and also objects to the doctrine of satis- faction, on the ground that satisfaction for sin and forgiveness of sin are incompatible with each other; and, moreover, objects that sin and punishment are of so personal a nature as not to allow of their being transferred. It further opposes the doctrine of the active and passive obedience of Christ, on the ground that the one excluded the other. Another objection main- tained the actual impossibility of Christ's ren- dering the supposed satisfaction for sin.

The doctrine it sought to establish in the place of the one it attempted to overthrow may, in brief, be stated as follows: Man is recon- ciled to God by repentance and reformation. Only from an act of man changing his disposi- tion, and not from an act of God changing His relation to man, follows his reconciliation with God. God is, in Himself, ever the same toward man — reconciled for all eternity; man alone has to assume a new relation. As soon as he does this, he is immediately reconciled; by this act of his will he is at one with God. Only in man's moral state is there any obstacle to his recon- ciliation. This greatest and holiest accomplish- ment — the reconciliation of man with God — is achieved by an act of his will.

In this purely subjective theory, repentance occupies the place of faith in the orthodox doctrine, and faith becomes identical with obedience ; for repentance and reformation are regarded as but the two sides of the same act of the will. It follows from this that justification is of works as well as reconciliation. A necessity for the sufferings of Christ is shown for the following objects: That he might become our example; better fitted to render us help; that we might have a pledge and guarantee of the