Humankind in Christ and Christ in Humankind: Salvation as Participation in Our Substitute in the Theology of John Calvin

Trevor Hart

doi:10.1017/S0036930600040539

Humankind in Christ and Christ in Humankind: Salvation as Participation in Our Substitute in the Theology of John Calvin

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009

Trevor Hart

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Trevor Hart: Affiliation:
Department of Systematic Theology, King's College, Old Aberdeen AB9 2UB

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The act of God in bringing salvation to the human race and summoning individuals into a community to serve him is due solely to the mercy and grace of God, mediated and manifested through Jesus Christ in his ministry, atoning death and rising again.1 This statement of belief, taken from the recently published ARCIC II document Salvation and the Church, is one to which Christians of most denominations could probably subscribe. Yet the very existence of the document is testimony to the fact that within the Christian Church there have been widely differing interpretations of the precise nature of salvation and its implications for humankind. At the time of the Reformation disagreement as to the theological import of terms such as ‘grace’, ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification’ was a major cause of division between Rome and the Protestant churches. Were they primarily to be given an objective or subjective, an extrinsic or intrinsic reference in relation to the believer? ARCIC II demonstrates that these are still live issues at the interface of ecumenical dialogue today, and must be resolved if real moves are to be made in the direction of Christian unity.

Type: Research Article
Information: Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 1989 , pp. 67 - 84

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0036930600040539 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1989

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References

^{page 67 note 1} ARCIC (Anglican Roman Catholic International Commissiion) II, Salvation and the Church, London 1987, p. 11Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 2} The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism, Fontana 1963Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 3} Ibid., p. 152.

^{page 69 note 4} Cf., for example, McGrath, Alister in Iustitia Dei, Cambridge 1986, vol. 1, p. 2Google Scholar: ‘Wherever the church commemorates, celebrates and proclaims the passion of her redeemer, and the benefits which she thereby receives, she rehearses her faith in the reconciliation he accomplished on her behalf, and which called her into being.’ (My italics.)

^{page 70 note 5} The terms are those employed by Campbell, J. McLeod in his The Nature of the Atonement, Macmillan & Co., London 1873Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 6} See e.g. Institute III.xi.6., Library of Christian Classics, vols. 20–21, ed. McNeil, J. T., Westminster Press, 1960Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 7} Commentary on Hebrews 9.12, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1963Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 8} Commentary on John 3.16, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1959Google Scholar. See further Commentary on Colossians 1.14, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1965Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 9} Sermon on Luke 1.39–44, quoted in Wallace, R. S.Calvin's Doctrine of Word and Sacraments, Oliver & Boyd, London 1953, p. 168Google Scholar.

^{page 72 note 10} Commentary on Hebrews 5.7.

^{page 72 note 11} Institute I.i.2.

^{page 73 note 12} Commentary on John 3.6.

^{page 73 note 13} Commentary on John 3.3.

^{page 73 note 14} Commentary on Ephesians 1.16–18, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1965Google Scholar.

^{page 73 note 15} Whilst in this paper I have tried to avoid the use of gender-specific language, there are times when the term ‘humanity’ in place of ‘man’ is ambiguous. In this particular instance the term ‘man’ is preferred simply to avoid the impression that Christ assumed some sort of ‘concrete universal’, and to insist upon the particularity of his humanity.

^{page 74 note 16} Commentary on I Corinthians 15.3–4, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1960Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 17} Commentary on Hebrews 5.7.

^{page 74 note 18} Commentary on Romans 10.7, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1961Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 19} Commentary on Romans 4.25.

^{page 75 note 20} Institute IV.xvii.2.

^{page 75 note 21} Commentary on I Corinthians 1.30. See further Commentary on Romans 8.13, etc.

^{page 75 note 22} Institute III.xiv.17.

^{page 75 note 23} Commentary on Colossians, introduction to the theme of the Epistle (my italics).

^{page 75 note 24} Commentary on John, 6.51.

^{page 76 note 25} Institute II.xv.5.

^{page 76 note 26} Commentary on I Corinthians 2.12 (my italics).

^{page 77 note 27} See Institute III.xi.4–12.

^{page 77 note 28} Institute III.xi.6.

^{page 78 note 29} Institute III.xi.9 (my italics).

^{page 78 note 30} Ibid., 11.

^{page 78 note 31} Ibid.

^{page 78 note 32} Ibid. (my italics).

^{page 79 note 33} Ibid. 23.

^{page 79 note 34} Commentary on Hebrews 5.2. See further on 5.17.

^{page 81 note 35} Institute III.xv.5 (my italics).

^{page 81 note 36} ‘I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.’ Romans 7.15 (N.I.V.).

^{page 81 note 37} ‘The True Partaking of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Holy Supper’ (my italics).

^{page 81 note 38} Institute III.ii.24.

^{page 82 note 39} Sermon on Titus 1.7–9.

^{page 82 note 40} Commentary on II Corinthians 1.20, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1964Google Scholar.

^{page 82 note 41} Commentary on John 3.16.

^{page 82 note 42} Van Buren, PaulChrist in Our Place, Oliver & Boyd, London 1957, p. 9Google Scholar.

^{page 82 note 43} Commentary on John 17.23.

^{page 83 note 44} Commentary on 1 Timothy 3.16, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1964Google Scholar.

^{page 83 note 45} Institute II.xii.1.

^{page 84 note 46} See e.g. Commentary on I Corinthians 3.23.

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Humankind in Christ and Christ in Humankind: Salvation as Participation in Our Substitute in the Theology of John Calvin

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