By William Burt Pope, D.D.,
THE ADMINISTRATION OF REDEMPTION.
THIS sentence better than
any other defines that comprehensive department of theological
science which is occupied with the subjective aspect of what is
sometimes called
SOTERIOLOGY. If we use the
phrase APPLICATION OF REDEMPTION
we are in danger of the
Predestinarian error which assumes that the finished work of
Christ is applied to the
individual according to the fixed purpose of an election of
grace. The phrase
APPROPRIATION OF SALVATION
tends to the other and Pelagian extreme, too obviously
making the atoning provision of Christ matter of individual free
acceptance or rejection
The term
The distinction between Objective and Subjective Soteriology, or
Redemption as once for
all accomplished by Christ and Redemption as administered by the
Holy Spirit, has been
again and again referred to. But its importance is so great that
it may once more be
impressed with advantage at this point. A careful consideration
of the bearings of this
distinction would itself be a defense, and a sufficient defense,
against many of the most
serious errors that have troubled and still trouble the faith of
Christianity. We shall find
illustrations of this in abundance. It is sufficient now to
assert and vindicate the
distinction itself, as it reigns throughout the New Testament.
The offices of the Second
and of the Third Persons of the Holy Trinity in the work of
man's salvation are not more
carefully separated than the one redemption wrought out by the
Former is separated from
the personal application of it, which is the province of the
Latter. The term Soteriology
fairly embraces both; but it has not been naturalized in English
theological works, and it
is not without a certain ambiguity |
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