Thursday, July 25, 2019

God's Freedom for Man


1. Jesus Christ the Objective Reality of Revelation
The New Testament makes a twofold confession concerning Jesus Christ: first, the Son of God is called Jesus of Nazareth; second, Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. The biblical witnesses did not have a prior understanding of divine sonship by which they judged candidates until they found Jesus. Instead, God’s presence in Jesus impressed itself upon them and then, on the basis of Jesus the person, they came to understand the meaning of divine sonship. In this way they avoided the danger of ignoring his humanity as unimportant.

Conversely, the biblical witnesses came to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Son of God. They did not do so because Jesus was to them an exciting hero, pious saint, or profound sage. They confessed that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ because in him they were confronted by God’s presence and through him heard God’s Word. In this way they avoided the danger of rejecting his divinity.

2. Jesus Christ the Objective Possibility of Revelation
Jesus Christ is truly divine and truly human. As such he is the objective revelation of God’s freedom to be with us and for us. To begin with, in Jesus Christ, God revealed that he could enter into our creaturely and even sinful realm and become fully human and still remain fully divine. Then, God revealed his freedom to be for us by revealing himself visibly in a form familiar to us. Finally, God revealed his freedom specifically by taking upon himself our flesh; that is, not only our natural limitations but the whole curse of sin—without himself sinning.

Copyright © 2019 by Steven Farsaci.
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