Studentenalmanak 1960 - pagina 220

providence in Biblical terms or in Biblical perspective.

Secondly, when the gospel is considered in its eschatological

orientation, one is afforded a vantage point from which one may

grasp with clarity and force the Biblical teaching that the work

of salvation is ultimately an action of sovereign power and grace.

If one were to evaluate salvation wholly or mainly in terms of actions

within the present age and, in particular, were to place in the

foreground the facts of human experience, with all of its feebleness

and imperfections, one might somewhat plausibly settle for a

synergistic view. But when one contemplates the transformation

eschatologically, and thus does not lose sight of the thoroughgoing

and comprehensive nature of the final salvation, nothing short of

a wholly gracious divine action will be recognized as necessary

to the full accomplishment of the divine purpose and attainment

of the divine goal.

N o r may one take refuge in a dichotomy of saving action, one that

is synergistic for this age and another that is monergistic for the

world to come. For such a dichotomy would involve us in an

intolerable dualism and antithesis within the very nature of salvation.

Salvation is ultimately unitary, not made up of disparate elements.

The transformation resulting from redemptive action is concerned

from beginning to end with making whole that which sin has

disrupted. The kingdom of God whose coming the gospel proclaims

is only one kingdom. T o be sure various aspects of the kingdom

may be distinguished, and corresponding differentiation in its

historical manifestation may be observed. There is progress in

the unfolding of the plan ot redemption even as there are distinctive

stages in the ministry of the Son of Man. But the basic oneness

of the goal and ministry guarantees and requires a single divine

action of salvation, one that reflects at every point, in the present

as well as in the future, the free sovereign operation of divine grace.

Thirdly, the cosmic scope and saeep of the Christian message of redemption

is never borne in upon one more strongly than when the gospel

is considered in its eschatological orientation. One need not quarrel

with those who accentuate the salvation of the individual rather

than „the social gospel," as defined by 19th and 20th century

Liberalism. The Scriptures do not for an instant allow the plight

ot the individual sinner, and his need of a radical transformation,

to be lost sight of or obscured. But the individual is not isolated

from his fellows nor detached from the world, whether he be

considered in terms of his creation, his fall or bis redemption.

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