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Part Four: The Doctrine of the Application of the Work of Redemption
I. Soteriology in General
A. CONNECTION BETWEEN SOTERIOLOGY AND THE PRECEDING LOCI.
SOTERIOLOGY deals with the communication of the blessings of salvation to the sinner and his
restoration to divine favor and to a life in intimate communion with God. It presupposes
knowledge of God as the all-sufficient source of the life, the strength, and the happiness of
mankind, and of man’s utter dependence on Him for the present and the future. Since it deals
with restoration, redemption, and renewal, it can only be understood properly in the light of
the original condition of man as created in the image of God, and of the subsequent
disturbance of the proper relationship between man and his God by the entrance of sin into the
world. Moreover, since it treats of the salvation of the sinner wholly as a work of God, known to
Him from all eternity, it naturally carries our thoughts back to the eternal counsel of peace and
the covenant of grace, in which provision was made for the redemption of fallen men. It
proceeds on the assumption of the completed work of Christ as the Mediator of redemption.
There is the closest possible connection between Christology and Soteriology. Some, as, for
instance, Hodge, treat of both under the common heading “Soteriology.” Christology then
becomes objective, as distinguished from subjective, Soteriology. In defining the contents of
Soteriology, it is better to say that it deals with the application of the work of redemption than
to say that it treats of the appropriation of salvation. The matter should be studied theologically
rather than anthropologically. The work of God rather than the work of man is definitely in the
foreground. Pope objects to the use of the former term, since in using it “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.” This is the very reason why a
Calvinist prefers to use that term. To do Pope justice, however, it should be added that he also
objects to the other term, because it “tends to the other and Pelagian extreme, too obviously
making the atoning provision of Christ a matter of individual free acceptance or rejection.” He
prefers to speak of “the administration of redemption,” which is indeed a very good
term.[Christian Theology, II, p. 319.]
B. THE ORDO SALUTIS, (ORDER OF SALVATION).
The Germans speak of “Heilsaneignung,” the Dutch, of “Heilsweg” and “Orde des Heils,” and
the English, of the “Way of Salvation.” The ordo salutis describes the process by which the work
of salvation, wrought in Christ, is subjectively realized in the hearts and lives of sinners. It aims
at describing in their logical order, and also in their interrelations, the various movements of
the Holy Spirit in the application of the work of redemption. The emphasis is not on what man