Required reading
Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge (Vol 2) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Chapter 8 (Sin) by reading up to the heading '12. Realistic theory'.
My summary
Firstly this week Hodge teaches us about mediate imputation, which is not a denial of imputation of sin but simply makes it dependent on our participation of Adam's corrupted nature. Hodge outlines the origins of the doctrine and then gives reasons why mediate imputation is false.
Secondly Hodge discusses the doctrine of prexistence which assumes that men existed in another state of being before their birth in this world and having voluntarily sinned against God in that previous state of being, come into this world burdened with the guilt and pollution due to their own voluntary act. Once again Hodge provides reasons to reject such teaching.
What grabbed me
I liked this objection from Hodge regarding mediate imputation: ' It is a still more serious objection that this doctrine destroys the parallel between Adam and Christ on which the Apostle lays so much stress in his Epistle to the Romans. The great point which he there labours to teach and to illustrate, and which he represents as a cardinal element of the method of salvation, is that men are justified for a righteousness which is not personally their own. To illustrate and confirm this great fundamental doctrine, he refers to the fact that men have been condemned for a sin which is not personally their own. He over and over insists that it was for the sin of Adam, and not for our own sin or sinfulness, that the sentence of death (the forfeiture of the divine favour) passed upon all men. It is on this ground he urges men the more confidently to rely upon the promise of justification on the ground of a righteousness which is not inherently ours. This parallel is destroyed, the doctrine and argument of the Apostle are overturned, if it be denied that the sin of Adam, as antecedent to any sin or sinfulness of our own is the ground of our condemnation. If we are partakers of the penal consequences of Adam's sin only because of the corrupt nature derived by a law of nature from him, then we are justified only on the ground of our own inherent holiness derived by a law of grace from Christ. We have thus the doctrine of subjective justification, which overthrows the great doctrine of the Reformation, and the great ground of the peace and confidence of the people of God, namely, that a righteousness not within us but wrought out for us, — the righteousness of another, even the eternal Son of God, and therefore an infinitely meritorious righteousness, — is the ground of our justification be- fore God. Any doctrine which tends to invalidate or to weaken the Scriptural evidence of this fundamental article of our faith is fraught with evil greater than belongs to it in itself considered. This is the reason why the Reformed theologians so strenuously opposed the doctrine of La Place. They saw and said that on his principles the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness antecedent to our sanctification could not be defended. '
If we are condemned because of our own sin, then we are justified because of our own righteousness.
And that is terrible news for the totally depraved.
Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 8 (Sin) by reading up to the heading '13. Original sin'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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