The Federal trajectory reaches its logical conclusion in Berkhof. Justification and sanctification are completely separated from each other, even in the mind of God. The gratuity of justification has been preserved, but at a great cost, for the integration of Christian life and experience has been sacrificed. The linchpin of the Christian's relationship with God-justification-has been wholly abstracted from the life of faith and from union with Christ. Second, as the bifurcation of union with Christ became complete, the theme itself also become superfluous as an umbrella concept unifying justification and sanctification. To the extent that the theme of union with Christ remains present in the successors of the Hodges and Berkhof, it is largely vestigial.
The religious implication of this federal trajectory should also be carefully noted. There is, on this soteriological model, no real and complete forgiveness of sins, only an attenuated justification involving the satisfaction of a liability to punishment. The Christian can have no confidence that he or she really enjoys the favor of God, because the culpability and demerit of sin remain. Furthermore, with justification almost completely abstracted from the life of the church and from ongoing economy of faith, the problem of assurance is only heightened. Finally, the bifurcation of forensic and transformatory categories made it virtually impossible to grasp the essential unity of salvation, and the Christian is left with an unstable dialectic tending toward legalism on moment, and antinomianism the next. Such a soteriology was unlikely to appeal to many, and the eclipse of federal theology in the larger context of American religion in the early twentieth century must be seen in light of these developments.These two paragraphs conclude William B. Evans' book Imputation and Impartation that I am reading for a class that I am taking with Dr. Marcus Johnson called Sin & Salvation. (emphasis added by myself)
Johnson describes in this class how distanced reformed theology has strayed from the reformers in their separation of the person and the work of Christ. The problem then becomes that it is "as if" we had Christ righteousness and "as if" we were actually forgiven. This is serious language and it separates justification and sanctification and leaves the Christian with a way to salvation without a Savior. It is an interesting thought.
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