Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
156The Son of God was a man; he stands under the wrath and judgment of God,
he is broken and destroyed on God; he c onc edes that the Father is right in the will
and ac tion whic h leads him to the c ross. In him God did not merely affirm the
divine sent enc e on man but allowed it t o be fulfilled on himself. God bears t he
bitterness of the suffering. In short, in Jesus Christ the Lord is a servant, a slave.
Therein c an be learned the meaning of the deity of Jesus Christ. That he is God c an
be known in his bec oming flesh.
Bec oming and exist ing in t he flesh inc lude His obedienc e of suffering, i.e.,
(1) the obedienc e of the Son to the Father, shown (2) in his self-humiliat ion, his
way into the far c ountry, fulfilled in his death on the c ross.
That “the Word was made flesh” is a free divine ac t ivit y. God remains God in
his humiliation. He went into a strange land, but he never bec ame a stranger to
Himself. (Obviously, if God were not t ruly in Christ , t here would be no
rec onc iliat ion.) St ill, t his is a bold c laim. How is t his not blasphemous?
(a) Utter paradox; God against God (Barth rejects this)(b) No paradox in God. In Jesus Christ, God put into effec t the freedom of his
divine love. So this c orresponds to his nature.
Obedienc e. T he humilit y of Christ is proper, not alien, t o him. It is also a mat t er of
obedienc e and free c hoic e. This obedienc e within God c onfronts us with the mystery
of the deity of Christ.
(a) subordinat ionis m(b) economic modalism (both wrong)Three presuppositions regarding this:
(a) T he subjec t of rec onc iliat ion is Jesus Christ, the mediator, the one who
takes upon himself the judgment of the world and bears it away. I.e., the true God
is at work in him.
(b) The subjec t of the atonement as an event in the world. God takes the
world to himself, enters its sphere.
(c) It is a matter of the one true God being himself the subjec t of the act of
atonement in suc h a way that his presenc e and ac tion as the Reconciler of the
world c oinc ide and are indeed ident ic al wit h the existenc e of the humiliat ed and
lowly and obedient man Jesus of Nazareth.
The c ross shows the true humiliation of God. So, in Jesus Christ we speak of an
obedience of the one true God himself in his proper being. He obeys and is obeyed.
T he t hird (Holy Spirit ) holds t hese t ogether.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God who bec ame man, who as suc h is One with God
t he Fat her, equal t o Him in deit y, by t he Holy Spirit , in whom t he Fat her affirms
and love Him and He the Father, in a mutual fellowship.
God is t he one God in self-repet it ion, in three modes of being. He exists in
their mutual interc onnec tion and relationship. He is not threefold but triune.