A. A. Hodge Quotes on the Atonement, Scripture, Faith and Holiness
A. A. Hodge taught theology at Pittsburgh and then at Princeton, where he followed his father, Charles Hodge. Before that he was a missionary in India and a pastor for thirteen years. He wrote doctrine for ordinary believers as well as for students, and he had a gift for packing a large truth into one sentence.
Every quotation below is copied exactly from his books in TheWay Library, with the book and chapter it comes from. Hodge often quotes other theologians and the Westminster standards, and his father's life is full of his father's letters; those aren't his words, so they're left out. On Inspiration, which he wrote with B. B. Warfield, only quotes from Hodge's half are included. For his life, see who was A. A. Hodge. For a guide to his books, see A. A. Hodge books.
On Christ our substitute
Hodge's book The Atonement is his fullest work on the cross. These lines show the heart of it.
A substitute is not a different man in a different place, but a different man in the same place.
The Atonement, Christ's Sufferings Were Strictly and Definitely Vicarious
Christ must be made sin for us in precisely the same sense that we are made the righteousness of God in him.
The Atonement, The Orthodox Doctrine Proved from the Fact That the Scriptures Declare That Our Sins Were Laid upon Christ
The infinite justice and love of God both find their highest conceivable exercise in the sacrifice of his own Son as the Substitute of guilty men.
The Atonement, The Ultimate Motives of All God's Acts Are in Himself
As between God and the Mediator and sinful man, it is all free and amazing grace.
The Atonement, Statement of Doctrine
The whole earthly life of Christ, including his birth itself, was one continued self-emptying even unto death.
The Atonement, The Satisfaction Rendered by Christ Proved to Embrace His Active as Well as His Passive Obedience
Can such love as the death of Christ expresses, welling up and pouring forth from the heart of the omnipotent God, fail to secure the certain blessedness of its objects?
The Atonement, The Arguments Stated upon Which the Reformed Doctrine as to the Design of the Atonement Rests
He insisted that the love came first:
The love of God is everywhere represented as the ground of the gift of Christ, not the work of Christ the ground of the love of God.
Outlines of Theology, Predestination
On justification and faith
The instant we believe, the righteousness of Christ in all its fulness and federal rights is ours for ever.
The Atonement, The Orthodox Doctrine, as to the Nature of the Atonement, Proved from the Teachings of Scripture as to the Nature and Office of Faith
Justification is a declaration on the part of the infinitely wise and holy God that the law is satisfied.
Outlines of Theology, Justification
The first is of the essence of saving faith, and is the assurance that Christ is all that he professes to be, and will do all that he promises.
Outlines of Theology, Faith
Therefore, faith must be nourished by the truth, prayer, the sacraments and every means of grace.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of Saving Faith
To admit that men may be saved irrespectively of Christ, is virtually to deny Christ.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of Effectual Calling
On holiness
Hodge would not let anyone separate doctrine from life. A true faith, he said, makes a holy person.
A saved soul is a holy soul, and a holy soul is one whose faculties are all engaged in works of loving obedience.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of Good Works
An action to be good must have its origin in a holy principle in the heart, and must be conformed to the law of God.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of Good Works
Heaven could not exist except as a society of holy souls mutually obeying the law of love in all the good works that law requires.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of Good Works
The more holy a man is, the more humble, self-renouncing, self-abhorring, and the more sensitive to every sin he becomes, and the more closely he clings to Christ.
Outlines of Theology, Sanctification
Sin is seen to be exceeding sinful in the light of the divine holiness, the law of God, and especially of the cross of Christ.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of Repentance unto Life
As God does not make a man come to Christ, so he does not constrain him to continue in Christ irrespective of his will.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of the Perseverance of the Saints
On new birth
Regeneration is the creative act of the Holy Spirit, implanting a new principle of spiritual life in the soul.
Outlines of Theology, Sanctification
Every believer, when brought to the knowledge of the truth, enters into a covenant with his Lord, which he renews in all acts of faith and prayer.
Outlines of Theology, The Covenant of Grace
On the Bible
Hodge and Warfield's essay Inspiration is still one of the best-known statements of the Bible's authority. These lines come from Hodge's half of it, and from his other books.
Thoughts are wedded to words as necessarily as soul to body.
Inspiration, Statement of the Doctrine
Every element of Scripture, whether doctrine or history, of which God has guaranteed the infallibility, must be infallible in its verbal expression.
Inspiration, Statement of the Doctrine
We receive the Old Testament just as Christ handed it to us, and on his authority.
Inspiration, Statement of the Doctrine
He also warned against making the gospel hang on any one theory:
Nor should we ever allow it to be believed that the truth of Christianity depends upon any doctrine of inspiration whatever.
Inspiration, Presuppositions
The Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is the only adequate expounder of his own words, and he is promised to all the children of God as a Spirit of light and truth.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of the Holy Scripture
On God and prayer
The God whom nature veils while it reveals him, stands before us unveiled in all the perfection of wisdom, holiness, and love in the person of Christ.
Outlines of Theology, The Origin of the Idea of God and Proof of His Existence
In its general sense, prayer is used to express every act of the soul engaged in spiritual intercourse with God.
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath-Day
Reading Hodge for yourself
The best way to read these lines is in the books, where Hodge sets each one inside a careful argument. Start with A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, then go to The Atonement and Outlines of Theology. All five of his books are on the A. A. Hodge author page. For his co-author, see our B. B. Warfield quotes.