Responding to Charles Hodge, a Reformed systematic theologian of the 19th
century on the Calvinist claim that imputed righteousness is the “grounds of
justification,” one critic of Protestant soteriology wrote the following with
respect to the intercessory work of Christ:
[With respect
to Rom 8:34] the main
question that arises in this case, is why Christians need an “intercessor” for
their sins if indeed, as Protestant theology teaches, that Christ has
‘once-for-all paid for their past, present of future sins’? The whole notion of
Christ being an “intercessor” for sin to appease God’s wrath should be superfluous
in Protestant theology. We grant, as Protestants teach, that a sinning
Christian can be “out of fellowship” with God and thus needs to be restored,
but as we have already seen in 2 Corinthians 5-6, 13, the “intercession of
Christ “ and the “reconciliation of The Christian” are not limited to “fellowship”
but include the very salvation of the Christian. In light of this, there are
two important points concerning the “intercession” of Christ. First, as used in
Rm 8:33-34, Christ’s intercession is in the context of justification. In Rm 8:33 Paul says, “It is God who justifies” and then says in the next sentence that “Christ
Jesus who died…is at the right hand of God interceding for us.”
This is why Paul can say in the next verse, “Who can separate us from the love
of Christ?” Because Christ is continually interceding for us
and justifying
us before the Father, nothing can separate
us from God, unless, of course, Christ stops interceding and the justification
is taken away. This occurs when we sin mortally.
Second, when the
Scripture speaks elsewhere of Christ’s intercession it is in the context of
final salvation. Hb 7:25 states: “Therefore he is able to save completely those
who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” According
to the grammar, Paul is explaining to us that because of Christ’s continual
intercession to God, he is able to complete the salvation of those who come to
God.[433] Simply put, the reason they can have their salvation completed is
that Christ makes continual intercession for them. For Hodge, this presents a
dilemma. On the one hand, he says the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ is
sufficient to remit all past, present, and futures sins of the Christian. Yet
Hodge admits above that is illogical to remit the punishment for sins that have
not yet been committed. We will recall that his solution to this problem was to
say that God did “not to deal with the Christian according to his transgressions”
rather than to say the sins are forgiven ahead of time.
Thus, we would
have to conclude concerning Hodge’s view that the continual intercession of
Christ is for the very purpose of maintaining the promise of God not to deal
with the sins of the Christian as he normally would have, i.e., with death. But we ask, why must the intercession be performed? Why
is the forensic, once-for-all imputation of justification insufficient to
maintain that promise of God itself? If the single act of imputation put in
place the “irreversible justification,” does this not make the intercession of
Christ, in the context of sin, superfluous? Other Protestants cannot help Hodge
by saying that the intercession of Christ is only for the purpose of “fellowship
with God.” The context of Hb 7:25 and Rm 8:33-34 will not allow such a
dimension. These contexts deal with justification and final salvation, not “fellowship,” per se. Once again, Hodges’ dilemma vindicates the
Catholic position. Christ’s continual intercession is necessary because we
continually need God’s grace to forgive our sin, especially if we fall into
mortal sin. Hodge was right in one sense – we do appease an angry God against
sin through the intercession of Christ, but it happens every day of our lives.
Christ “begins” our salvation at baptism, but he “completes” it in his role as
intercessor. As some translations say, “he saves us to the uttermost.”
Note for
the Above:
433. The word “completely” is from the Greek εἰς τὸ παντελὲς which is used again only in Lk 13:11. There
it refers to a woman not being able to lift herself up completely. The lexical
definition can vary between “complete, perfect, fully” and “forever, for all
time.” The phrase “because he always lives to intercede” is εἰς τὸ ἐντυγχάνειν , in which the preposition governs the
infinitive with the article to denote purpose. The word “come” is the Greek
present participle προσερχομένους which
refers to those presently approaching.
Source:
Robert A. Sungenis, Not by Faith Alone:
The Biblical Evidence for the Catholic Doctrine of Justification (2d ed.:
Catholic Apologetics International Publishing Inc., 2009), 348-49
