Bruce Demarest - The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation

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Other books in the
Foundations of Evangelical Theology Series

Published:

No One Like Him
JOHN S. FEINBERG,

To Know and Love God
DAVID K. CLARK

Forthcoming topics:

Scripture
Man and Angels
Christ
The Holy Spirit
Sin
The Church
Eschatology

FOUNDATIONS OF

EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY

THE
CROSS AND
SALVATION

THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION

BRUCE
DEMAREST

JOHN S. FEINBERG, GENERAL EDITOR

CROSSWAY BOOKS

A PUBLISHING MINISTRY OF
GOOD NEWS PUBLISHERS
WHEATON, ILLINOIS

The Cross and Salvation

Copyright 1997 by Bruce Demarest

Published by Crossway Books

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Jon McGrath

First trade paperback printing, 1997

First hardcover printing, 2006

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are generally taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Other Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version, the New American Standard Bible, the New English Bible, the Authorized Version, the Moffat translation, and the Phillips version.

Hardcover ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-812-6

Hardcover ISBN 10: 1-58134-812-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Demarest, Bruce A.

The cross and salvation / Bruce Demarest.

p. cm.(Foundations of evangelical theology ; vol. 1)

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 0-89107-937-8

1. Salvation. I. Title. II. Series.

BT751.2.D46 1997

234dc21 96-47760

SB 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 09 07 06

19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7

To the late Frederick Fyvie Bruce,
my mentor at Manchester University,
for the powerful example of
his superb scholarship,
winsome personality,
and godly life.

BY GENERAL EDITOR

W hy another series of works on evangelical systematic theology? This is an especially appropriate question in light of the fact that evangelicals are fully committed to an inspired and inerrant Bible as their final authority for faith and practice. But since neither God nor the Bible changes, why is there a need to redo evangelical systematic theology?

Systematic theology is not divine revelation. Theologizing of any sort is a human conceptual enterprise. Thinking that it is equal to biblical revelation misunderstands the nature of both Scripture and theology! Insofar as our theology contains propositions that accurately reflect Scripture or match the world and are consistent with the Bible (in cases where the propositions do not come per se from Scripture), our theology is biblically based and correct. But even if all the propositions of a systematic theology are true, that theology would still not be equivalent to biblical revelation! It is still a human conceptualization of God and his relation to the world.

Although this may disturb some who see theology as nothing more than doing careful exegesis over a series of passages, and others who see it as nothing more than biblical theology, those methods of doing theology do not somehow produce a theology that is equivalent to biblical revelation either. Exegesis is a human conceptual enterprise, and so is biblical theology. All the theological disciplines involve human intellectual participation. But human intellect is finite, and hence there is always room for revision of systematic theology as knowledge increases. Though God and his word do not change, human understanding of his revelation can grow, and our theologies should be reworked to reflect those advances in understanding.

Another reason for evangelicals to rework their theology is the nature of systematic theology as opposed to other theological disciplines. For example, whereas the task of biblical theology is more to describe biblical teaching on whatever topics Scripture addresses, systematics should make a special point to relate its conclusions to the issues of ones day. This does not mean that the systematician ignores the topics biblical writers address. Nor does it mean that theologians should warp Scripture to address issues it never intended to address. Rather, it suggests that in addition to expounding what biblical writers teach, the theologian should attempt to take those biblical teachings (along with the biblical mindset) and apply them to issues that are especially confronting the church in the theologians own day. For example, 150 years ago, an evangelical theologian doing work on the doctrine of man would likely have discussed issues such as the creation of man and the constituent parts of mans being. Such a theology might even have included a discussion about human institutions such as marriage, noting in general the respective roles of husbands and wives in marriage. However, it is dubious that there would have been any lengthy discussion with various viewpoints about the respective roles of men and women in marriage, in society, and in the church. But at our point in history and in light of the feminist movement and the issues it has raised even among many conservative Christians, it would be foolish to write a theology of man (or, should we say, a theology of humanity) without a thorough discussion of the issue of the roles of men and women in society, the home, and the church.