Romans 5:7-9

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Friday, March 26, 2010

A Comparison of Christ's Atonement in the Medieval Scholastic Period - Theological Comparisons: Abelard - 2


Theological Comparisons

Abelard

His comment begins regarding Rom. 3:21 and Abelard was quick to separate the formal, covenantal Law from the natural transcendent law of God and he then went on to make a contrast between the age prior to Christ when that formal Law ruled, and his present age, ruled, as he said, by grace, the age in which Christ has been manifest through the teaching of the gospel. And when we read further we see that Abelard made an additional contrast between the Law (be it formal or natural, it is not clear from his comments here) and love for God. Whereas, I believe the more orthodox position is that love for God is the fulfillment of God’s formal Law, not only an aspect of God’s natural law. Here is that contrast, “A righteousness, I say, imparted to all the faithful in the higher part of their being—in the soul where alone love can exist—and not a matter of the display of outward works.”[i] And then there are those passages that seem to exonerate Abelard of a justification by anything other than faith and show a doctrine of atonement more like that of Anselm than of Niebuhr or Tillich. “‘In his blood.’ [citing Paul’s letter to the Romans] This means by his death; and since this propitiation is set forth and established by God, not for all but only for those who believe, he adds, ‘Through faith’[citing Paul’s letter to the Romans]; for this reconciliation affects them only who have believed it and hoped in it.”[ii] But then, as one might expect, there are the occasions of his leaning toward what we now call the “Moral Influence” theory,
By the faith which we hold concerning Christ love is increased in us by virtue of the conviction that God in Christ has united our human nature to himself and, by suffering in that same nature, has demonstrated to us that perfection of love…So we, through his grace are joined to him as closely as to our neighbor by an indissoluble bond of affection...[iii]
And this comment further on in Rom. 3:26, “In other words, to show forth his love to us, or convince us how much we ought to love him who ‘sparred not even his own son’ [citing Paul’s letter to the Romans] for us…That is to say that through this righteousness [the showing of God’s righteousness or justice as in v. 26]—which is love—we may gain remission of our sins”[iv]
The common view of Abelard in the last 100 years or so can be summed up in the words of Sam Storms, “In fairness to Abelard, it would be a mistake to conclude that he omitted all reference to the sacrifice of Christ as a payment for our sin. Yet, his emphasis is clearly on the subjective effects of that sacrifice rather than its objective relationship to the wrath of God.”[v] Abelard’s primary emphasis therefore being the equation of love and righteousness (being justified), I believe the Abelardian theory of the atonement is positively stated, by God’s grace we are made lovers of Him and those who love God are justified before Him. Or, in the final accounting we are justified by faith and our love for the Father; the Father gives us this capacity to love Him, by His grace, therefore we are saved by grace through our love of God. It must be noted that “love for God” in the sense that Abelard used in his commentary on Romans in particular, encompasses faith; so there is no justification without love for God, there is no love for God without faith.


[i] Ibid., 278

[ii]Ibid., 279
[iii] Ibid., 278
[iv] Ibid., 279

[v] Sam Storms, “11) Anselm” [cited 13 March, 2010]. Online: http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/article/11-anselm/

No comments: