George H. Warnock — Soteriology
b2 — Evening and Morning
Progressive Order of Salvation: Regeneration as Seed — Growth — Fruit
Warnock describes regeneration as the beginning of a progressive order of salvation, not as its endpoint:
“Silently does the Spirit of God come into the life and such a one is ‘born again’ by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. But it is really just the sprouting of the seed. It is a rebirth in the inner man.”
(Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 5)
On the necessity of complete fruit:
“Not merely for the seed rain of conversion (‘being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible…’), but also for the harvest rain of the FRUIT… the rains that bring forth the fruit that is exactly like unto the original seed that was planted. Anything less is utterly unacceptable to the Husbandman.”
(Warnock, ch. 5)
Interpretation: For Warnock, regeneration is the beginning of a salvific process that is only complete when the fruit of the Spirit is fully formed — Christ formed within the believer.
Justification by Imputation
Warnock affirms justification by imputation in parallel with Adam’s sin by imputation:
“We have God’s righteousness in Christ by imputation, just as we have Adam’s sin and death by imputation; and that as we grow up into Adam’s sin unto its horrible climax by reason of natural generation, by the same token WE GROW UP UNTO CHRIST IN ALL THINGS by reason of spiritual generation.”
(Warnock, ch. 2)
Interpretation: Warnock acknowledges the forensic foundation of justification (imputation), but immediately links it to progressive growth in Christ.
Grace as Greater Power than Sin (Rom. 5)
Warnock emphasizes the “much more” of grace over Adam’s sin:
“Five times in Romans 5 does the apostle Paul use the expression ‘much more’ relative to the power of the grace of God, in contrast to the sin of Adam. Shall we not believe that there is a much greater and a ‘much more’ potential in the Law of the Spirit of Life, than there is in the law of sin and death?”
(Warnock, ch. 2)
“Are we going to honor the power of Adam and Satan above the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit?”
(Warnock, ch. 2)
Warnock draws from this the soteriological conclusion that the church can reach the level of total victory:
“We inherit the power of grace from the Lord Jesus, as we inherit the curse of sin from Adam.”
(Warnock, ch. 2)
Sanctification: Conformity to the Image of God’s Son as the Divine Goal
Warnock explicitly states that the goal of salvation cannot be less than full conformity to the image of Christ:
“This divine ultimate we must state here and now to be nothing less than full conformity to the image of His Son, where He abides in us in all His fulness, and His Love is PERFECTED in us.”
(Warnock, ch. 4)
On the law of the Spirit as the measure of true freedom:
“God would make us completely free from law in this day of His glory. But it is only as we become captives of the Son that we are really made free.”
(Warnock, ch. 4)
Partial victory is for Warnock equivalent to defeat:
“Anything less than total conquest… anything less than a complete and final possession of the heavenly realm… anything less than complete conquest spells defeat.”
(Warnock, ch. 2)
Union with Christ
Warnock describes union with Christ as the foundation of salvific fulfillment, parallel to the unity of Father and Son:
“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that THEY also may be one in us… I in them, and thou in me, that THEY MAY BE MADE PERFECT IN ONE.”
(Warnock, ch. 5, citing John 17:21-23)
“The manner in which God manifested His fulness in the Lord Jesus is the same as the manner in which the Lord Jesus manifests His fulness in the Church, which is His Body.”
(Warnock, ch. 5)
Interpretation: Warnock employs an analogy between the incarnation (Father in the Son) and salvific fulfillment (Christ in believers): both involve total dependence and obedience, not inherent deification.
New Covenant as Heart-Inscription
Warnock describes the New Covenant not as an external document but as inner transformation:
“This is the New Covenant, the indelible inscription of the mind and will and heart of God upon the mind and will and heart of His people. ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them…’ (Heb. 10:16).”
(Warnock, ch. 5)
“It is not merely the heart feeling the impulses and the virtues of His grace, but it is in the heart being fashioned and molded in the Divine image, till man’s heart becomes the very heart of God.”
(Warnock, ch. 5)
The High Calling and Vocation
Warnock uses “the high calling” as a soteriological concept for the believer’s destiny:
“By defeat we mean some kind of a partial victory, or a falling short in some sense of the word from that high and holy calling by which and unto which we have been called.”
(Warnock, ch. 1)
“Pressing toward the mark of the ‘high calling.‘”
(Warnock, ch. 2)
The calling is universally defined as the manifestation of God’s excellencies:
“The people that were created to ‘praise the LORD,’ even to show forth and manifest His excellencies in the earth (Ps. 102:18).”
(Warnock, ch. 2)
Glorification: The Many Sons as the Fruit of Christ’s Ascension
Warnock describes the glorification of believers as the goal of Christ’s ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit:
“This time the purpose of God is to bring forth in the earth other sons, like unto His very own Son, and bring them back unto the heart of the Father in yet a greater fulness!”
(Warnock, ch. 5)
Christ’s obedience as the model for the believer:
“We, too, must learn obedience by the things which we suffer. We too must walk in the pathway of obedience as a servant, obedience unto death, obedience that leads us eventually into complete identification with His very own Cross.”
(Warnock, ch. 5)
Freedom through the Son (not through Free Will)
Warnock rejects the notion of ‘free will’ as an independent soteriological principle:
“Man is in no sense ‘free’ either as the seed of Adam or as the seed of Abraham. Jesus makes this abundantly clear. Only the Son can make one free, and this is the only true freedom that man can have (John 8:32-36).”
(Warnock, ch. 1)
“True liberty consists of vital union with the Son… in fact, in becoming bound to the Son with bonds of the Spirit which effectually and experimentally liberate one from the former bondage to sin and self.”
(Warnock, ch. 4)
[TENSION with standard Arminianism: Warnock explicitly rejects free will as the basis of freedom; freedom is only possible through the Son, not through autonomous human choice.]