Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921)
The
following review appeared in The Princeton Theological Review, Vol. XVII, No. 2
(April, 1919).
marked up
by Lance George Marshall
Greek and Hebrew fonts used in this document can be downloaded at BibleWorks
A Review of Lewis Sperry Chafer's "He That Is Spiritual"
Mr.
Chafer is in the unfortunate and, one would think, very uncomfortable condition
of having two inconsistent systems of religion struggling together in his mind.
He was bred an Evangelical, and, as a minister of the Presbyterian Church,
South, stands committed to Evangelicalism of the purest water. But he has been
long associated in his work with a coterie of "Evangelists" and
"Bible Teachers," among whom there flourishes that curious religious
system (at once curiously pretentious and curiously shallow) which the Higher
Life leaders of the middle of the last century brought into vogue; and he has
not been immune to its infection.
These two
religious systems are quite incompatible. The one is the product of the
Protestant Reformation and knows no determining power in the religious life but
the grace of God; the other comes straight from the laboratory of John Wesley,
and in all its forms modifications and mitigations alike remains incurably
Arminian subjecting all gracious workings of God to human determining. The two
can unite as little as fire and water.
Mr.
Chafer makes use of all the jargon of the Higher Life teachers. In him, too, we
hear of two kinds of Christians whom he designates respectively "carnal
men" and "spiritual men," on the basis of a misreading of I Cor.
ii. 9 ff (pp. 8, 109, 146); and we are told that the passage from the one to
the other is at our option, whenever we care to "claim" the higher
degree "by faith" (p. 146). With him, too, thus, the enjoyment of
every blessing is suspended on our "claiming it" (p. 129).
We hear
here, too, of "letting" God (p. 84), and, indeed, we almost hear of
"engaging" the Spirit (as we engage, say, a carpenter) to do work for
us (p. 94); and we do explicitly hear of "making it possible for God"
to do things (p. 148), a quite terrible expression. Of course, we hear
repeatedly of the duty and efficacy of "yielding" and the act of
"yielding ourselves" is quite in the customary manner discriminated
from "consecrating" ourselves (p. 84), and we are told, as usual,
that by it the gate is opened into the divinely appointed path (pp. 91, 49).
The quietistic phrase "not by trying but by a right adjustment,"
meets us (p. 39), and naturally such current terms as "known sin" (p.
62), "moment by moment triumph" (pp. 34, 60), "the life that is
Christ" (p. 31), "unbroken walk in the Spirit" (pp. 53, 113),
"unbroken victory" (p. 96), even Pearsall Smith's famous "at
once": the Christian may realize at once the heavenly virtues of
Christ" (p. 30, the italics his). It is a matter of course after this that
we are told that it is not necessary for Christians to sin (p. 125) the
emphasis repeatedly thrown on the word "necessary" leading us to
wonder whether Mr. Chafer remembers that according to the Confession of Faith
to which, as a Presbyterian minister, he gives his adhesion, it is in the strictest
sense of the term not necessary for anybody to sin, even for the "natural
man" (ix, I).
Although
he thus serves himself with their vocabulary, and therefore of course repeats
the main substance of their teaching, there are lengths, nevertheless, to which
Mr. Chafer will not go with his Higher Life friends. He quite decidedly repels,
for example, the expectation of repetitions of the "Pentecostal
manifestations" (p. 47), and this is the more notable because in his
expositions of certain passages in which the charismatic Spirit is spoken of he
has missed that fact, to the confusion of his doctrine of the Spirit's modes of
action. With equal decisiveness he repels "such man-made, unbiblical terms
as 'second blessing,' 'a second work of grace,' 'the higher life,' and various
phrases used in the perverted statements of the doctrines of sanctification and
perfection" (pp. 31, 33), including such phrases as "entire
sanctification" and "sinless perfection" (pp. 107, 139). He is
hewing here, however, to a rather narrow line, for he does teach that there are
two kinds of Christian, the "carnal" and the "spiritual,"
and he does teach that it is quite unnecessary for spiritual men to sin and
that the way is fully open to them to live a life of unbroken victory if they
choose to do so.
Mr.
Chafer opens his book with an exposition of the closing verses of the second
and the opening verses of the third chapters of I Corinthians. Here he finds
three classes of men contrasted, the "natural" or unregenerated man,
and the "carnal" and "spiritual" men, both of whom are
regenerated, but the latter of whom lives on a higher plane. "There are
two great spiritual changes which are possible to human experience," he
writes (p. 8), "the change from the 'natural' man to the saved man, and
the change from the 'carnal' man to the 'spiritual' man. The former is divinely
accomplished when there is a real faith in Christ; the latter is accomplished
when there is a real adjustment to the Spirit. The 'spiritual' man is the
divine ideal in life and ministry, in power with God and man, in unbroken
fellowship and blessing." This teaching is indistinguishable from what is
ordinarily understood by the doctrine of a "second blessing," "a
second work of grace," "the higher life."
The
subsequent expositions only make the matter clearer. In them the changes are
rung on the double salvation, on the one hand from the penalty of sin, on the
other from the power of sin "salvation into safety" and
"salvation into sanctity" (p. 109). And the book closes with a
long-drawn-out "analogy" between these two salvations. This
"analogy" is announced with this statement: "The Bible treats
our deliverance from the bond-servitude to sin as a distinct form of salvation
and there is an analogy between this and the more familiar aspect of salvation
which is from the guilt and penalty of sin" (p. 141). It ends with this
fuller summary:
"There
are a multitude of sinners for whom Christ has died who are not now saved. On
the divine side, everything has been provided, and they have only to enter by
faith into His saving grace as it is for them in Christ Jesus. Just so, there
are a multitude of saints whose sin-nature has been perfectly judged and every
provision made on the divine side for a life of victory and glory to God who
are not now realizing a life of victory. They have only to enter by faith into
the saving grace from the power and dominion of sin. . . Sinners are not saved
until they trust the Saviour, and saints are not victorious until they trust
the Deliverer. God has made this possible through the cross of His Son.
Salvation from the power of sin must be claimed by faith" (p. 146).
No doubt
what we are first led to say of this is that here is the quintessence of
Arminianism. God saves no one He only makes salvation possible for men.
Whether it becomes actual or not depends absolutely on their own act. It is
only by their act that it is made possible for God to save them. But it is
equally true that here is the quintessence of the Higher Life teaching, which merely
emphasizes that part of this Arminian scheme which refers to the specific
matter of sanctification. "What He provides and bestows is in the fullest
divine perfection; but our adjustment is human and therefore subject to
constant improvement. The fact of our possible deliverance which depends on Him
alone, does not change. We will have as much at any time as we make it possible
for Him to bestow" (p. 148).
When Mr.
Chafer repels the doctrine of "sinless perfection" he means, first of
all, that our sinful natures are not eradicated. Entering the old controversy
waged among perfectionists between the "Eradicationists" and
"Suppressionists," he ranges himself with the latter, only
preferring to use the word "control." "The divine method of
dealing with the sin-nature in the believer is by direct and unceasing control
over that nature by the indwelling Spirit" (p. 134). One would think that
this would yield at least a sinlessness of conduct; but that is to forget that,
after all, in this scheme the divine action waits on man's. "The Bible
teaches that, while the divine provision is one of perfection of life, the
human appropriation is always faulty and therefore the results are imperfect at
best" (p. 157). God's provisions only make it possible for us to live
without sinning. The result is therefore only that we are under no necessity of
sinning. But whether we shall actually sin or not is our own affair. "His
provisions are always perfect, but our appropriation is always imperfect."
"What he provides and bestows is in the fullest divine perfection, but our
adjustment is human. . . The fact of our possible deliverance, which depends on
Him alone, does not change. We will have as much at any time as we make it
possible for Him to bestow" (pp. 118, 149).
Thus it
comes about that we can be told both that "the child of God and citizen of
heaven may live a superhuman life, in harmony with his heavenly calling by an
unbroken walk in the Spirit," that "more Christians may realize at
once the heavenly virtues of Christ" (p. 39); and that, in point of fact,
he does nothing of the kind, that "all Christians do sin" (p. 111). A
possibility of not sinning which is unillustrated by a single example and will
never be illustrated by a single example is, of course, a mere postulate
extorted by a theory. It is without practical significance a universal effect
is not accounted for by its possibility.
Mr.
Chafer conducts his discussion of these "two general theories as to the
divine method of dealing with the sin-nature in believers" on the
presumption that "both theories cannot be true, for they are
contradictory" (p. 135). "The two theories are irreconcilable,"
he says (p. 139). "We are either to be delivered by the abrupt removal of
all tendency to sin and so no longer need the enabling power of God to combat
the power of sin, or we are to be delivered by the immediate and constant power
of the indwelling Spirit." This irreducible "either-or" is
unjustified. In point of fact, both "eradication" and "control"
are true. God delivers us from our sinful nature not indeed by
"abruptly" but by progressively eradicating it, and meanwhile
controlling it. For the new nature which God gives us is not an absolutely new
"somewhat" alien to our personality, inserted into us, but our old
nature itself remade a veritable recreation, or making of all things new. Mr.
Chafer is quite wrong when he says: "Salvation is not a so-called 'change
of heart.' It is not a transformation of the old; it is a regeneration, or
creation, of something wholly new, which is possessed in conjunction with the
old so long as we are in the body" (p. 113). That this furnishes out each
Christian with two conflicting natures does not appal him. He says, quite
calmly: "The unregenerate have but one nature, while the regenerate have
two" (p. 116). He does not seem to see that thus the man is not saved at
all; a different, newly created, man is substituted for him. When the old man
is got rid of and that the old man has to be ultimately got rid of he does
not doubt the saved man that is left is not at all the old man that was to be
saved but a new man that has never needed any saving.
It is a
temptation to a virtuoso in the interpretation of Scripture to show his mettle
on hard places and in startling results. Mr. Chafer has not been superior to
this temptation. Take but one example. "All Christian love," he tells
us (p. 40) "according to the Scriptures, is distinctly a manifestation of
divine love through the human heart" a quite unjustified assertion. But
Mr. Chafer is ready with an illustration. "A statement of this is
found," he declares, "at Rom. v, 5, because 'the love of God is shed
abroad (lit., gushes forth) in our hearts by (produced, or caused by) the Holy
Spirit, which is given unto us.'" Then he comments as follows: "This
is not the working of the human affection; it is rather the direct
manifestation of the 'love of God' passing through the heart of the believer
out from the indwelling Spirit. It is the realization of the last petition of
the High Priestly prayer of our Lord: 'That the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them' (John xvii, 26). It is simply God's love working in and
through the believer. It could not be humanly produced, or even imitated, and
it of necessity goes out to the objects of divine affection and grace, rather
than to the objects of human desire. A human heart cannot produce divine love,
but it can experience it. To have a heart that feels the compassion of God is
to drink of the wine of heaven."
All this
bizarre doctrine of the transference of God's love, in the sense of His active
power of loving, to us, so that it works out from us again as new centres, is
extracted from Paul's simple statement that by the Holy Spirit which God has
given us His love to us is made richly real to our apprehension! Among the
parenthetical philogical comments which Mr. Chafer has inserted into his
quotation of the text, it is a pity that he did not include one noting that
ekgeo is not eiskeo, and that Paul would no doubt have used eiskeo, had he meant
to convey that idea.
A
haunting ambiguity is thrust upon Mr. Chafer's whole teaching by his hospitable
entertainment of contradictory systems of thought. There is a passage near the
beginning of his book, not well expressed it is true, but thoroughly sound in
its fundamental conception, in which expression is given to a primary principle
of the Evangelical system, which, had validity been given to it, would have
preserved Mr. Chafer from his regrettable dalliance with the Higher Life
formulas. "In the Bible," he writes, "the divine offer and
condition for the cure of sin in an unsaved person is crystallized into the one
word, 'believe'; for the forgiveness of sin with the unsaved is only offered as
an indivisible part of the whole divine work of salvation. The saving work of
God includes many mighty undertakings other than the forgiveness of sin, and
salvation depends only upon believing. It is not possible to separate some one
issue from the whole work of His saving grace, such as forgiveness, and claim this
apart from the indivisible whole. It is, therefore, a grievous error to direct
an unsaved person to seek forgiveness of his sins as a separate issue. A sinner
minus his sins would not be a Christian; for salvation is more than
subtraction, it is addition. 'I give unto them eternal life.' Thus the sin
question with the unsaved will be cured as a part of, but never separate from,
the whole divine work of salvation, and this salvation depends upon
believing" (p. 62).
If this
passage means anything, it means that salvation is a unit, and that he who is
united to Jesus Christ by faith receives in Him not only justification
salvation from the penalty of sin but also sanctification salvation from
the power of sin both "safety" and "sanctity." These things
cannot be separated, and it is a grievous error to teach that a true believer
in Christ can stop short in "carnality," and, though having the
Spirit with him and in him, not have Him upon him to use a not very lucid
play upon prepositions in which Mr. Chafer indulges.
In his
attempt to teach this, Mr. Chafer is betrayed (p. 29) into drawing out a long
list of characteristics of the two classes of Christians, in which he assigns
to the lower class practically all the marks of the unregenerate man. Salvation
is a process; as Mr. Chafer loyally teaches, the flesh continues in the
regenerate man and strives against the Spirit he is to be commended for
preserving even to the Seventh Chapter of Romans its true reference but the
remainders of the flesh in the Christian do not constitute his characteristic.
He is in the Spirit and is walking, with however halting steps, by the Spirit,
and it is to all Christians, not to some, that the great promise is given,
"Sin shall not have dominion over you," and the great assurance is
added, "Because ye are not under the law but under grace."
He who
believes in Jesus Christ is under grace, and his whole course, in its process
and in its issue alike, is determined by grace, and therefore, having been
predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son, he is surely being
conformed to that image, God Himself seeing to it that he is not only called
and justified but also glorified. You may find Christians at every stage of
this process, for it is a process through which all must pass; but you will
find none who will not in God's own good time and way pass through every stage
of it. There are not two kinds of Christians, although there are Christians at
every conceivable stage of advancement towards the one goal to which all are
bound and at which all shall arrive.
Princeton.
Benjamin B. Warfield.
