The
very sinlessness of Christ can be in a measure incorporated with our
humanity, and we should aim after the mind that was in Christ. We are
never fully united with Christ until we have a perfect spirit of
dependence. When this occurs, the soul is passing into the glorious
condition of the new birth. The church is the depository of that spirit
of Christ which every believer must enjoy in order to inherit eternal
life. The church, however, is not self-existent. Like the heavenly
bodies, whose motions are constantly maintained by infinite power, the
church is ever dependent upon Christ's agency for its very life. Christ
is the spirit moving in history and controlling all things for the
greatest good. The church is in some sense an organism of which Christ
is the head. This fact is the central point of theology, for without
Christ our faith is vain.[56]
Such teaching was what the times needed. The mind required to be
directed to Christ as the only remedy for skepticism. But we must
confess that, in the midst of some of the most evangelical expositions
of divine truth, Schleiermacher gave expression to serious doubts.
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