Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics: What Happens Next

Last week we attempted to follow Bavinck through the thick of Christology. He is an outstanding guide. Bavinck has insisted that the subtle nuance which takes Christ as a mere human personality steers him away from his place as the object of faith. This diminishes Christ’s teachings to formalities (and legalism) and constructs dogmatics as either a system of religious feeling or an ideal moral resource. This tendency does more than present formalities with little substance. For Bavinck it leads away from the life of God and renders the indwelling of the Spirit impossible.

The Old Testament anticipated the Messiah’s anointing of the Holy Spirit would be very unique (Isa. 61:1). Christ received the Spirit at baptism (without measure); the Spirit led him into the wilderness; gave him powers over spiritual authorities; and glorified his resurrected body (Rom. 1:4). He ascended into heaven, “to manifest himself to his own as life-giving Spirit who is the Spirit and who works by the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17-19).” This goes to the virgin birth, says Bavinck, for it is not miracle enough to be born of a virgin: it doesn’t prove sinlessness. Christ is not a product of humankind, but sent to humankind. He remained exempt from original sin by the conception of the Spirit, so he was truly the Son of the Father and not a natural descendant from Adam. The great riddle of the Testaments, the Messiah is both David’s son and lord, is solved in Joseph. Joseph is civilly and legally Jesus’ father who was able to contribute the right and titles of David’s pedigree. The conception by the Holy Spirit helps to explain Christ’s sinlessness. But the real beauty is that it was the only way, “in which he who already existed as a person and was appointed head of a new covenant could now also be born in a human way … and remain who he is: the Christ, Son of the Most High” (Polanus).

Bavinck is very adverse to any view remotely connected to pantheism. He sees it in the wings of the modernist movements that make any division between the perfect unity of Christ’s natures, and the unity between the Churches confessions and Pauline theology. Scripture does not exactly speak the language of “later theology” but Pauline Christology is certainly the mainline to the foundational statements of John 1. At the base of pantheism is Gnostic or other similar views* with a dualism pitching spiritual and natural against one another. The vast distinctions are virtually endless and equally subtle. Point is, says Bavinck, you can never have a true unity between human and divine (or scripture and theology) if God is not allowed to become truly human. Pantheism preaches that you have to lose yourself, lose your identity, and dissolve into “the oneness of the All.” Its incarnation in reverse: the divine (Logos) cannot completely fill one human being. Ergo the whole human race is the Christ. Divinity is humanity viewed from above, in this case, and becoming God is something that everyone potentially evolves into. What about sin? It’s a necessity due to the deficiency of matter and time. Hence the shift in emphasis on Christ’s divinity, not deity; Christ’s unity in God then is reinterpreted and understood in a moral sense of fulfilling God’s will and teaching others. Bavinck says it amounts to prototypical humanity and an ectype of divinity: a mere appearance and not the reality Scripture posits.

For Bavinck and the Reformed, this is all works itself into the language of self-improvement, salvation through education and social-redemption. Not to discount any good coming from it but as a view of salvation the divine and human never really connect. It’s like treating God as a policeman in your rearview mirror; you see him pass by and slow down, muttering, ‘yeah, yeah, I see you,’ and then off you go. The scriptural idea of redemption is completely undermined. But the Lord knows those who are his (2 Tim. 2:19). Assuming we know who he is, says Bavinck, we can proceed next to understand what he does.**
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* Cf. Apollonarianism, Arianism, Cabbalism, Marcionianism, Neo-Platonism, Nestorianism – through to Hegel, Kant, and Schleiermacher: Bavinck’s command of the literature is masterful.
** Be sure to catch our twin series on Wilhelmus á Brakel as a devotionally driven supplement to the rigors of dogmatic inquiry. It can also be viewed here .