Saturday, December 4, 2021

Bryan Cross (Catholic) vs. Ligon Duncan (Reformed) on the soteriology of the Epistle to Diognetus

The following is taken from Ligon Duncan’s “Did the Fathers Know the Gospel?”:

 

Dr. Duncan’s second piece of evidence is from the Epistle to Diognetus. The date for this epistle is not exactly certain, but it was most likely written in the second century, possibly the third. At 57’07” into the video Dr. Duncan quotes from the ninth paragraph of the Epistle to Diognetus:

 

But when our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly shown that its reward, punishment and death, was impending over us; and when the time had come which God had before appointed for manifesting His own kindness and power, how the one love of God, through exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred, nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us, He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for those who are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! That the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors! (Epistle to Diognetus, 9)

 

Can a Catholic affirm this quotation from the Epistle to Diognetus? Again, most definitely. That Christ became a ransom for us is taught not only by Scripture, but also by the Catholic Catechism, which reads:

 

The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of “the righteous one, my Servant” as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin. (CCC 601) … Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers. . . with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake.” Man’s sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (CCC 602) The redemption won by Christ consists in this, that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28), that is, he “loved [his own] to the end” (Jn 13:1), so that they might be “ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [their] fathers” (I Pt 1:18). (CCC 622)

 

When the author of the Epistle to Diognetus says that only Christ’s righteousness was capable of covering our sins, he means that only Christ’s righteousness could make atonement for our sins. The author is not talking about Christians being simul iustus et peccator or possessing Christ’s righteousness by way of an extra nos imputation. The author is writing about Christ’s sacrificial atonement. Christ is the perfect Lamb, and because He is perfect, only He could offer to the Father on our behalf the perfect sacrifice that atoned for our sins, procuring for us the grace by which our sins are removed. The author of the Epistle to Diognetus explains this when he speaks of our wickedness being “hid in a single righteous One.” That is the sense in which Christ’s righteousness was “capable of covering our sins,” through His work of sacrificial atonement offered to God, not through an imputation of righteousness that hides our underlying wickedness. Such a notion would have been entirely repugnant to the Fathers. The doctrine being taught by the author of the Epistle to Diognetus is that Christ took our sins on Himself as our priest and mediator. Our sins were hidden in Him not by imputation, but by mediation. Christ made atonement for them by becoming our sacrificial lamb, and offering Himself in self-sacrificial love to the Father on our behalf. He is both perfect priest and perfect sacrifice. He as priest and perfect sacrifice takes upon Himself the burden of our iniquities, including suffering and death; we in turn receive from Him the grace and agape by which we are justified. That is the nature of the “sweet exchange” to which he refers. Christ freely gave Himself up to the Father, suffering in His body and soul for our sins (see here), and we in return receive the infused grace and agape by which we are justified. So this selection from the Epistle to Diognetus is not evidence of even an implicit Reformed conception of the gospel, because it is fully compatible with the Catholic doctrine of redemption, and best understood as teaching the Catholic understanding of Christ’s redemptive work.

 

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