The things for which the words stand

I've been going through James Montgomery Boice's excellent commentary on Ephesians, and today came across a quote which could not be more relevant to our discussion.

In the early part of [the 20th century] B. B. Warfield, the distinguished professor of didactic and polemic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, delivered an address to incoming students in which he argued that "there is no one of the titles of Christ which is more precious to Christian hearts than 'Redeemer.'" ...

In his address Warfield proved his thesis not, as we might suppose, by impressive theological arguments but by references to the church's hymns in which, he maintained, the true devotional heart of God's people is most evident... Warfield listed twenty-seven such selections...

...but to be faithful to his essay, I must acknowledge that toward the end of the message he bemoaned the fact that (even in his day) this was ceasing to be the case. On the one hand, the concepts had been under attack by liberal scholars who scorned the simple gospel of redemption and were trying to divest the great theological terms of Scripture of their meaning. On the other hand (although Warfield did not spell this out specifically), they were being neglected by Christian people. Maybe they were regarded as too theological, too abstract, or too impractical.

Warfield said, "It is a sad thing to see words like these die,... and I hope you will determine that, God helping you, you will not let them die thus, if any care on your part can preserve them in life and vigor. But the dying of the words is not the saddest thing which we see here. The saddest thing is the dying out of the hearts of men of the things for which the words stand. ...The real thing for you to settle in your minds, therefore, is whether Christ is truly a Redeemer to you..."

I don't think I could sum it up any better. +David