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Lately I started to read B. B. Warfields two-volume work, Studies in Perfectionism. Really these are two volumes of articles Warfield wrote about various theologians or theologies that deal with the doctrine of sanctification and someone else assembled into a book, but they are good none-the-less.

Follow up:

I have to admit that I have never read anything by Albrecht Ritschl- or really ever heard of him before- so reading an article by a theologian I admire is kind of a “historical straw-man” (something obscure drawn from history that is easily defeated in order to bolster one’s case). But as I read about Ritschl in the New Dictionary of Theology, it gives Ritschl high importance in the development of liberal theology between Schliermacher and Barth (both of which I have read before and know are important figures) so he must be worth learning about.

I would also like to admit that reading someone talk about someone else is theological hearsay- not heresy but it is never credible to take second-hand theological conversations without hearing something from the horse’s mouth. I understand this when reading Warfield, and take his criticism with a grain of salt. The value, however, is in Warfield’s theological methodology (which, in my humble opinion, makes him the greatest American theologian of the 19th century- but that is another story) and in learning about Warfield’s theology from how he interacts with others. I learned a lot from Warfield in these two articles.

At first reading I thought Warfield was being a little harsh. Sure Ritschl has taken all the supernatural out of Christianity and thereby had to redefine redemption to mean that we are set free from our guilt but not necessarily any culpability- since God is love and would never hold anything against us. But from what I was reading, it seemed that what Ritschl was saying might be true for Christians, although not for all men. As Warfield writes:

The “sense of guilt” is represented by Ritschl as really just distrust of God, and there is no ground for distrusting God…. He loves us continuously, with a love unconditioned by the intrusion of wrath. He experiences no change of attitude toward us, or of action toward us. We simply come to now that this is His attitude toward us; and our distrust of Him, the product of our unjustified sense of guilt passes away.

With some qualifications, this is true for all who have been justified by faith. When we who have been justified suffer from guilt, we are really distrusting God. This opinion of God towards us never changes because he loves us. Sure Ritschl makes the mistake to say this is true for everyone, not just the elect believers, but you could say this about every Chrisitan, right?

I thought that I had something until I kept reading. Later Warfield quotes an English theologian, Archibald Duff, Jr., who makes exactly the same claim. As Warfield begins to critique Duff’s positive reading of Ritschl, I began to see that I was in error,

Evangelical Christians, however, are not accustomed to suppose, that the fact that God looks on “reconciled” men “with full pleasure” infers their perfection. They think of Christ, and suppose that the satisfaction of God is with Him as Redeemer, rather than with them, the redeemed. They would by no means agree, therefore, that the faith of the soul “that God and it are reconciled is faith that at that moment God is satisfied with its being what it is.” They suppose on the contrary, that God is so little satisfied with what the soul is that He does not intent to leave it in that condition.

This seems to betray in me an ending of sotierology with justification- similar to Ritschl’s error. If we end our “redemption” with justification we imply God’s work is done and that we are perfect. We are not, even if we are justified. Undoubtedly our justification gives us a rest and peace and satisfaction in God because of what he has accomplished in Christ for us but we should also be unsatisfied with ourselves.

“satisfaction"… is so far from being the mark of the Christian’s life that it would be the signature of his death…. It is a much more powerful incitement to effort that he should know the evil of the case in which he is, the difficulty of the task which lies before him, the always increasing reward of the journey as it goes forward, and the supreme greatness of the final attainment.

As Warfield reminds us in this article,

…the Chrisitan life is a continuous repentance, that the believer is conscious of continual shortcomings which, he knows, deserve the wrath of God, and is continually receiving unmerited forgiveness

This is not “repugnant” as Warfield accuses Ritschl of thinking. It helps us to tap into the grace of Christ because we realize more and more what he has done for us because of his love. This will help us become more and more unsatisfied with ourselves and drive us to persevere toward sanctification.