Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
The object of faith is sometimes represented in the N. T., as
being God the Father. _John 5:24_—“_He that heareth my word, and
believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life_”; _Rom. 4:5_—“_to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness._” We can explain
these passages only when we remember that Christ is God
“_manifested in the flesh_” (_1 Tim. 3:16_), and that “_he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father_” (_John 14:9_). Man may receive
a gift without knowing from whom it comes, or how much it has
cost. So the heathen, who casts himself as a sinner upon God’s
mercy, may receive salvation from the Crucified One, without
knowing who is the giver, or that the gift was purchased by agony
and blood. Denney, Studies in Theology, 154—“No N. T. writer ever
_remembered_ Christ. They never thought of him as belonging to the
past. Let us not preach about the _historical_ Christ, but rather,
about the _living_ Christ; nay, let us preach _him_, present and
omnipotent. Jesus could say: ‘_Whither I go, ye know the way_’
(_John 14:4_); for they knew _him_, and he was both the _end_ and
the _way_.”
Dr. Charles Hodge unduly restricts the operations of grace to the
preaching of the incarnate Christ: Syst. Theol., 2:648—“There is
no faith where the gospel is not heard; and where there is no
faith, there is no salvation. This is indeed an awful doctrine.”
And yet, in 2:668, he says most inconsistently: “As God is
everywhere present in the material world, guiding its operations
according to the laws of nature; so he is everywhere present with
the minds of men, as the Spirit of truth and goodness, operating
on them according to laws of their free moral agency, inclining
them to good and restraining them from evil.” This presence and
revelation of God we hold to be through Christ, the eternal Word,
and so we interpret the prophecy of Caiaphas as referring to the
work of the personal Christ: _John 11:51, 52_—“_he prophesied that
Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but
that he might also gather together into one the children of God
that are scattered abroad._”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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