The mystical union in the sense in which we are now speaking of it is not the judicial ground, on the basis of which we become partakers of the riches that are in Christ. It is sometimes said that the merits of . . . Continue reading →
Union with Christ
Union with Christ: It's Not That Difficult
Revised from 10 Jan 07 on the Old HB: Someone sent me these quotes and they’re worth posting. To set the ground of imputation in a clearer light, we must observe […] that the elect, before the righteousness of Christ is imputed . . . Continue reading →
The Pope a Protestant?
About once a week, the Bishop of Rome, Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), holds a ” general audience” in St Peter’s Square in which he gives instruction (catechesis) to Roman Catholics. In three of the more recent of these catechetical audiences he has . . . Continue reading →
Reformed Orthodoxy on John 15
The FV has appealed to no other text as frequently or as misguidedly as they appeal to John 15, as if it were patent evidence of their view of temporary, historical, conditional union with Christ effected by baptism. Todd has a nice . . . Continue reading →
Vos on Justification and Union with Christ
Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949) was a Dutch Reformed theologian who taught at the theological college of the Christian Reformed Church (later Calvin Seminary) and most famously at Princeton Theological Seminary. Though typically neglected by mainline (i.e., liberal and Barthian) writers because of his . . . Continue reading →
Fesko Reviews Garcia and Billings on Calvin's Doctrine of Union
At Ordained Servant. Dick Gaffin replies. John Fesko is the new Academic Dean at WSC. He begins his duties on 1 July. John has recently published perhaps the most important single study of the doctrine of justification since the 19th century. He . . . Continue reading →
Does Baptism "Save"?
Merrit asks this question: “Two friends and I have been talking about this verse (1 Peter 3:21) and passage for quite some time today. The more we seem to talk about it the more confused I seem to get about it.
Nick is Reading Fesko on Justification and Union
And he’s finding some interesting things in Calvin’s doctrine of justification.
What is Definitive Sanctification and is It Reformed?
Nick wrote under another post to ask about this doctrine. I first learned about the doctrine of definitive sanctification from Bob Strimple’s lectures on it in the early-mid 1980s in seminary and then from two short essays by the late John Murray. . . . Continue reading →
Has the Forensic Eclipsed Christ?
A friend pointed me to an interesting video (the link is now dead) by a WSC alumnus, Lane Tipton. The video is meant to be a discussion of Calvin and his doctrine of justification. I was quite pleased to hear him say, . . . Continue reading →
A "Decisive Break with the Ordo Salutis Thinking": A New Perspective on Union with Christ?
Consider this quotation from William B. Evans, Imputation and Impartation: Union with Christ in American Reformed Theology. Studies in Christian Thought (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008), 264-65:
Vos on the Relationship of the Mystical to the Forensic
Very interesting stuff at the OLTS
Online: "The New Perspective on Calvin"
This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking piece of research by the Rev Tom Wenger (MA, Historical Theology), a graduate of Westminster Seminary California on the way Calvin is being presented in some contemporary Calvin scholarship. This piece grew out of his 2003 . . . Continue reading →
Putting Existential Union with Christ into Perspective
Darryl does it nicely. John Owen is very helpful here in his Greater Catechism (1645) where he makes (existential) union with Christ one of the benefits of faith.
Don’t Miss the Next Heidelcast
Darryl G. Hart is the guest on the next Heidelcast. Don’t miss it. Subscribe in iTunes.
Union with Christ In Caspar Olevianus’ Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed
Since, then, in the Articles of the Faith, which contain a summary of the gospel, Christ the King Himself offers to us that kingdom of His; and since He effectually confederates us to Himself through faith by the power of His Spirit . . . Continue reading →
Was Warfield a Lutheran?
“There is no evidence presented here that the New Testament represents sanctification as received immediately by faith.” Read more»
Office Hours: Union with Christ
Office Hours talks with John Fesko, Academic Dean and Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at WSC, about his new book: Beyond Calvin: Union with Christ and Justfication in Early Modern Reformed Theology (1517-1700). There is some confusion about the Reformed doctrine . . . Continue reading →
Semi-Pelagianism and Faith as the Instrument of Existential-Mystical Union with Christ (Pt 1)
William Perkins (1558-1602), in his 1595 Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, on the question of effectual call, wrote: Againe, if the Vocation of every man be effectual, then faith must be common to all men either by nature, or by grace, or . . . Continue reading →
Semi-Pelagianism and Faith as the Instrument of Existential-Mystical Union with Christ (Pt 2)
Last time we saw that, according to William Perkins, semi-Pelagianism asserts that the will (or other faculties) are able to operate in salvation partly on the basis of nature, i.e., they are not entirely dependent upon grace. In contrast, the Reformed argue . . . Continue reading →