We now come to the period of the reformation, when the of jective speculations of the schoolmen are brought under the subjective requirements of -human souls, and the doctrine of the A. is viewed in this light. In the writings of Luther, one will only with difficulty arrive at his intellectual apprehension of this doctrine. in its scientific form;. but setting out with the consciousness of sin, one will everywhere discover how lie ; ized that in Christ all sin is "vanquished, killed, and buried, and righteousness remaineth n conqueror and reigneth forever." The following is an outline of the Lutheran M.etrine, _ as laid down in the Coneordienformel: It is alone by faith we can receive the blessings presented 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,ohedience,. the suffe„rin,,,e. .441th-the resurrection of *In Oi et1W '11 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, twoftild obedience—that which lie rendered, on the one hand, by his suffering 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 suffered. This obedience embraces the entire existence 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 condemnation. Christ is our righteousness, therefore, 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: if one asks how Christ has reconciled us with God, and pur chased a righteousness which made him favorable to us, it may be answered generally, that lie 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 Scrip tures ascribe our redemption especially to his death. Calvin attached great importance to the particular mode of his death—any other mode of death would not have rendered the same satisfaction to God. He, however, says little or nothing about Christ's fulfilling the law for us, but dwells upon his delivering us from its curse. lie does not, there fore, 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 connection with his suffering and death. And the great importance to his death is drawn 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 deliv erance from sin and guilt. Calvin's view differs from that of the Lutheran Concorckm formel in that he does not regard the relationship of God to man merely from the stand-point of punitive and satisfying righteousness, which always leads to the. merely
negative notion of tl Redeemer from guilt and punishment, 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 sufferinn. of, the God-man, the divine rigeteousness could not be atoned, but also because, without such a divine Mediator, there could be no vital relation between God and man. "lIad man remained free from all taint, he was of too humble a condition to penetrate to God without a Mediator." While the reformers established the doctrine of the A. on the theory of AnSelm, and extended it so as to make the sufferings of Christ include the divine curse, and introduced distinctions between Christ's active and passive obedience, Socinus endeavored to prove the falseness of Anselm's theory. He shares with the Protestants the subjective princi ple, which the period of the reformation established, but developed it in a one-sided manner. Sochi anism represents man as attaining to oneness 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 satisfaction, 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 obedi e ice of Christ, on the ground that the one excluded the other. Another objection. mlintained the actual impossibility of Christ's rendering the supposed satisfaction for Si n.
The doctrine it sought to establish Pm the place of the one it attempted to overthrow may in brief be stated as follows. Man is reconciled to God by repentance and reformation. Only from an act of man changing his disposition, and not from an act of God changing his relation to man, follows his reconciliation with God. God is in himself ever the.. sametowards man—reconciled from all eternity; man alone has to assume a new rela tion; as soon as he does this, be is immediately reconciled; by this act of his will, lie is at one with God. Only in man's moral state is there any obstacle to his reconciliation. This grentestand holiest accomplishment, 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 divine for giveness; and as conditioning his resurrection and ascension to glory.