Participation in Christ, part 10 (experiencing our new humanity)

This post concludes a series looking at Adam Neder's excellent book, "Participation in Christ (An Entry into Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics)." To read other posts in the series, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

We come now to the last post in this series in which Neder summarizes Barth's view of how, through participation in Christ, we are given to progressively experience the fullness of the new humanity that exists already in Jesus Christ.

According to Neder, "Barth accounts for the transition from de jure [objective] to de facto [subjective] participation in Christ...with a Christocentric pneumatology and a theology of the resurrection of Christ" (p83). For Barth, our personal participation in the resurrected, glorified humanity of Jesus Christ occurs through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This participation, which is direct and free, is not limited to indirect means of grace (such as the sacraments). Though Barth viewed baptism and the Lord's Supper as important, he insisted that God is free and sovereign in bestowing his grace to us in direct, unmediated ways.

We are reminded here that Barth viewed grace not as a "what"---not a "substance" that God bestows. Rather he saw grace as a "who"--Jesus himself. Thus, "We receive Christ's benefits [grace]...to the extent that we are joined to him" (p84). By holding to this Christocentric view of God's grace, we insure that "Jesus Christ will never be displaced from his place of supreme importance, since believers remain dependent on him at every moment" (p84).

A key "place" where we must be tenacious in holding this view of God's grace is that of sanctification, which like all aspects of our salvation, Barth sees as a participation in Jesus' own life--in this case in his own sanctified humanity:

Both the old man of yesterday and the new man of tomorrow...is still the old and yet already the new, in complete and utter antithesis.... The vita christiana [life of Christ] in conversion is the event, the act, the history, in which at one and the same time man is still wholly the old man and already wholly the new---so powerful in the sin by which he is determined from behind, and so powerful the grace by which he is determined from before.... The old and the new man are simultaneously present (p85).

Though our old man is dead in Christ, yet somehow it is still here with us. At the same time, though our glorification lied ahead of us, somehow the glorified new man is here with us (see Paul's comment in 2Cor. 5:17). Here we have Barth's understanding of the "now, yet future" sense of eschatology as it pertains to sanctification. Already we are new people in Christ, and yet we do not experience that newness fully this side of glorification. Indeed, our true (fully sanctified) humanity is at the present time "hidden in Christ" (see Paul's comment in Col. 3:1-4).

By grace, we experience this new man--this new creation of humanity in Christ. And thus, according to Barth, the good works we accomplish in this life are not our own, but a sharing in the good works of the resurrected, ascended, glorified human Jesus. Our obedience to God takes place not by our "own caprice, but by the will and touch and address and creation and gift of the Lord" (pp85-6). In short, we should not view grace as some sort of a "transferred condition," but as our direct participation in the life and love of the man Jesus, who, himself, is God's grace.

Our ongoing life in Christ--our "journey with Jesus"--is thus not about merely mimicking Jesus' past behavior ("What would Jesus do?" some ask); nor is it about merely "cooperating" with God's grace. Rather, in union and communion with Jesus we have actual (real) participation in the ongoing, resurrected, ascended, glorified human life and love of of our Lord and Savior. And that participation comes by and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Jesus.

Barth's concept that participation in Christ is participation in the triune being of God is similar to the idea of deification (sometimes called theosis) taught by the Orthodox church and others, though Barth was careful to show that this participation realizes rather than replaces our humanity. Barth emphasized that as we participate in the glorified, humanity of Jesus, we will forever continue to be human. Indeed, it is that participation that makes us truly human. Here is how the apostle John put his understanding of this truth:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1John 3:2).

To that we add our grateful "amen," as we conclude this series looking at Neder's book. I recommend it to you highly.

Disciple-making as spiritual parenting

Unfortunately, disciple-making in our culture often is equated with conveying information: insert information, out pops Christian maturity. But for Jesus and his early followers, making disciples was a highly relational, life-on-life process that led to growth in maturity.

When Jesus called his followers "disciples" (mathētēs is the Greek word used in the Gospels and in Acts), he was using the word as it was understood in his first century Jewish cultural setting (for a helpful discussion about this, click here).

In that setting, disciple-making involved a relationship between a mentor (typically a Rabbi), the disciple-maker; and a protege, known as the "disciple." This relationship was not about mere information transfer. Rather the Rabbi shared his whole life with his disciple and in so doing, imparted his character (who he was), his knowledge (what he knew) and his skills (what he could do). You might say that the Rabbi gave his disciple his heart, head and hands.

Have you noticed that the word "disciple," which is used extensively in the Gospels and through chapter 21 in the book of Acts, is not found in the epistles of Paul, John and Peter? Did disciple-making cease at some point to be the practice of the church?

The answer is "no"---disciple-making continued, though the terms used to describe it did change. That change is helpfully explained by Mike Breen in his ebook, The Great Disappearance. Following is a lengthy quote; as you read it I encourage you to consider what Jesus, through the Spirit, is now doing in various cultural contexts to multiply his disciple-making followers. The quote begins with a passage from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 4:14-17

I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom /love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. 

Now it's clear from Paul's writing in the New Testament that he has discipled Timothy. You can even see that implicit understanding in this particular passage of correspondence with the Corinthian church. But if we peel back the contextual layers of this passage, we'll start to see some clues emerge. 

That word "guardians" is the Greek word pedagogos. It refers to a specific person who was hired by the parents and brought into the extended family (oikos---the Greek word for "household" making up 30-70 people extending to blood-and-non-blood­ relationships) to stay with the family from the time the child was weaned until the age of 12 or 13. This guardian would teach the child the classical Greek education of reading, writing, arithmetic, and logic. The guardian was there to provide the basic information. 

When the child turned 12, he or she went through a ritual, a moment of religious significance in the Greco-Roman household (oikos). The pedagogue brought a 12-year-old girl to her mother. Her mother, even though she lived with this appalling perspective of being a second-rate citizen outside the home, actually carried the most significant role inside it. She managed the whole household. Her role was to understand the complexity of the organic and organized components of the oikos. 

She knew how to deal with the sick. She oversaw the educational process. She managed the economic  infrastructure  and  cash  flow. She  was  the  business manager and the shaper of a hospitable environment  for guests. (Remember, pretty much all business was run through the home, and she oversaw this aspect of the business.) Make no mistake: This was a job. In fact, it was probably a job for three or four people. You had to be a professional dynamo to do this well. 

From that point on, the girl "stood at the shoulder" of her mother, discovering how all the information she had learned was actually grounded in everyday life. Once she married, she would either extend the oikos or, along with her husband, start a new oikos. 

A son at the age of 12 was brought, in a similar ceremony, to the shoulder of his father to learn the trade of the family. He would learn to ask, "What is it that this family produces?" He would come to understand the trade, craft, or business of the house. Paul's father was a tentmaker. How do we know that? Because Paul was a tentmaker! "What are you going to do when you grow up?" is an entirely new question of the last 100 years. Nobody ever asked that question of children previously. It would be ridiculous. Children were going to do what their parents did. It took such a rare set of circumstances for a son to do something else that he would never ask the question. From age 12 on, the son learned to imitate his father with the normal methods of apprenticeship in the craft and trade of the house. 

In this passage, Paul was referring to a pattern of life that everyone understood. He was shaping his message to a context so that people could comprehend it. 

So why the great disappearance? Why do we see the language of 'disciple' disappear from the pages of the New Testament? 

The reason is that the Gospel was moving away from the cultural heartland in the geographical area known as the Holy Land. The Gospel was moving from Israel---from Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria---and was now reaching the ends of the earth. In Corinth, there were very few (if any) rabbis and disciples. And the vast majority of the pagan cities such as Corinth, Ephesus, Alexandria and Rome had no understanding of what the word 'disciple' meant because that word was always used in reference to a Jewish rabbi. These people had no idea what a rabbi was. 

So Paul looked for an analogue, a guiding picture, that the church could understand, one that included all that was involved in discipleship to a rabbi. If you are being discipled by a rabbi, you certainly want to know what the rabbi knows. But a more important question is this: "How can I become who the rabbi is? Yes, I want to know  what he knows, but I also want to be like him!" 

Paul understood this relational context because he himself was a disciple of Gamaliel. Paul understood the world of rabbis and disciples, but suddenly he was on mission to people who didn't have a cultural reference point for it. I think he decided, "it's silly for me to try to explain this. There must be some cultural reference that I can use that gets to the heart of the discipleship process. They've got to get what spiritual formation looks like. They need to know how it happens." 

What metaphor did he use? The parent and the child. Paul didn't use this metaphor in a paternalistic sense, but in the sense of formation, growth, and development. He said, all of you have seen this picture. It's something you understand. As you are raised, there is a pedagogue who gives you the necessary information. It will be the foundation for all training later in life, but the parent offers the model to be imitated. And eventually, you'll start your own household and innovate on what you've learned." 

This was the perfect metaphor for Paul, and thus, for the rest of the New Testament. The scriptures replace the rabbi/disciple relationship with the parent/child relationship. 

Look at the rest of the New Testament, and in almost every book, you will see that the way the text understands spiritual formation is through the lens of parent and child.

For related information concerning a whole-life, relational approach to disciple-making, read the addendum below and download a helpful article about why disciple-making programs often fail by clicking here.

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Addendum

Here is the text of the article "Disciple" that appears in The New Bible Dictionary:

A disciple (from Lat. discipulus, ‘pupil, learner’, corresponding to Gk. mathētēs, from manthanō, ‘to learn’) is basically the pupil of a teacher. The corresponding Heb. term limmûḏ is somewhat rare in the OT (Is. 8:16; 50:4; 54:13; cf. Je. 13:23), but in the rabbinical writings the talmîḏ (cf. 1 Ch. 25:8) is a familiar figure as the pupil of a rabbi from whom he learned traditional lore. In the Gk. world philosophers were likewise surrounded by their pupils. Since pupils often adopted the distinctive teaching of their masters, the word came to signify the adherent of a particular outlook in religion or philosophy. 

Jewish usage is seen in the NT references to the disciples of the Pharisees (Mk. 2:18). The Jews considered themselves to be ultimately disciples of Moses (Jn. 9:28), since his teaching formed the basis of rabbinic instruction. The followers of John the Baptist were known as his disciples (Mk. 2:18; Jn. 1:35). The term was probably applied to his close associates. They practised prayer and fasting in accordance with his instructions (Mk. 2:18; Lk. 11:1), and some of them cared for him in prison and saw to his burial (Mt. 11:2–7; Mk. 6:29). 

Although Jesus (like John) was not an officially recognized teacher (Jn. 7:14f.), he was popularly known as a teacher or rabbi (Mk. 9:5; 11:21; Jn. 3:2), and his associates were known as disciples. The word can be used of all who responded to his message (Mt. 5:1; Lk. 6:17; 19:37), but it can also refer more narrowly to those who accompanied him on his travels (Mk. 6:45; Lk. 8:2f.; 10:1), and especially to the twelve apostles (Mk. 3:14). Discipleship was based on a call by Jesus (Mk. 1:16–20; 2:13f.; Lk. 9:59–62; even Lk. 9:57f. presupposes Jesus’ invitation in general terms). It involved personal allegiance to him, expressed in following him and giving him an exclusive loyalty (Mk. 8:34–38; Lk. 14:26–33). In at least some cases it meant literal abandonment of home, business ties and possessions (Mk. 10:21, 28), but in every case readiness to put the claims of Jesus first, whatever the cost, was demanded. Such an attitude went well beyond the normal pupil-teacher relationship and gave the word ‘disciple’ a new sense. Faith in Jesus and allegiance to him are what determine the fate of men at the last judgment (Lk. 12:8f.). 

Those who became disciples were taught by Jesus and appointed as his representatives to preach his message, cast out demons and heal the sick (Mk. 3:14f.); although these responsibilities were primarily delegated to the Twelve, they were not confined to them (Mk. 5:19; 9:38–41; Lk. 10:1–16). 

According to Luke, the members of the early church were known as disciples (Acts 6:1f., and frequently thereafter). This makes it clear that the earthly disciples of Jesus formed the nucleus of the church and that the pattern of the relationship between Jesus and his earthly disciples was constitutive for the relationship between the risen Lord and the members of his church. The word, however, is not found outside the Gospels and Acts, and other NT writers used a variety of terms (believers, saints, brothers) to express more fully the characteristics of discipleship after Easter. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. K. H. Rengstorf, TDNT 4, pp. 415–460; E. Schweizer, Lordship and Discipleship, 1960; M. Hengel, Nachfolge und Charisma, Berlin, 1968; NIDNTT 1, pp. 480–494.

Participation in Christ, part 9 (discipleship: the Christian vocation)

This post continues a series looking at "Participation in Christ (An Entry into Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics)" by Adam Neder. To read other posts in this series, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10.

Last time we looked at Neder's summary of Barth's dynamic Christology, noting that because Jesus is alive, all humanity (in an objective sense) is alive in him. In this post, we'll examine what Barth says about what this reality means (in a subjective sense) for Christians---those who hear and, in obedient faith, say "yes" to Jesus' call to be one of his disciples within the community of the church.

Barth believed that the call of Jesus "creates a confessing community that witnesses to him as Lord" (p75). Thus the church, formed by this call to discipleship, has its "being in action" (p76). Of course, all people, in an objective sense, have their being in Christ. Through the vicarious humanity of Jesus, all people are united to God; however....

...it is one thing to be elected for...[fellowship with God] and another thing to be set in it. The latter is the distinctive thing which takes place in the calling of man and makes him a Christian (p76).

Neder notes Barth's view of Jesus' approach in this calling:

The sovereignty of Jesus Christ's action [in calling a person to be one of his disciples] creates the intimacy of koinonia by liberating the individual to be who she is in him. Jesus Christ does not exercise his sovereignty by brute and overwhelming force. He does not coerce his disciples into obedience. Rather, he opens them up from the inside (p77).

According to Barth, this call to discipleship is a Christian's "most truly distinctive feature--the very center and basis of their existence." As Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, encounters those he calls, he...

...illuminates and awakens them to their true being--a being in the freedom of his service. In so doing he becomes the ruling principle of their lives, and as such he awakens them to the freedom and spontaneity of their own truest selves. It is precisely in ruling them in this way that Jesus Christ enters Christians and becomes one with them (p77).

In this way, Barth shows that by responding with obedience to the Lord's call to be a disciple, the Christian becomes subjectively (personally) what they already were objectively---a person in union with God in Christ (see p78). In short, what was true objectively already, is now subjectively realized (or, we might say, actualized). Neder comments:

As Jesus Christ calls Christians, he makes them alive by making them his witnesses. In doing so, he enters them and unites himself to them. Notice that Barth is not saying that Jesus Christ first makes people alive and then makes them his witnesses, but rather that he makes them alive by making them his witnesses. Union with Christ is not merely the privatistic reception of gifts. It is rather the perfect mutual coordination of Jesus Christ's active calling and the correspondingly active human response of witness to the grace and greatness of God (p79).

Thus discipleship is a vital aspect of Barth's understanding of Christian vocation. Indeed, discipleship is Christian vocation, which is our personal, active participation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Neder comments:

Jesus Christ is the perfect fellowship of...divine giving and human receiving. As such, he establishes the truth of human being and...summons those for whom this truth has been established to embrace it by joining themselves to him. This summons takes the form of God's good, sovereign, and definite command. As this command is heard and obeyed, [true] humanity in realized. And in the fellowship of this encounter, "we are united to Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ to God himself" (p80 quoting Barth).

In concluding his book, Neder makes this comment about Barth's trinitarian, incarnational perspective on discipleship:

Discipleship is a transition from death to life, an event altogether grounded in the objective conversion of humanity to God in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's history "reaches beyond itself" in such a way that the Christian is now a person to "whom Jesus Christ has given not just a potential, but an actual share in that history." Thus, Jesus Christ's history "is not sterile. It is a fruitful history which newly shapes every human life. Having taken place extra nos ["outside of us" and thus objectively], it also works in noblis ["within us" and thus subjectively], introducing a new being of every man (p82, quoting Barth).

Thus our true humanity, which objectively is in Jesus Christ, is experienced subjectively (personally) in discipleship---a life of active participation, through the Spirit, in the love and life and thus the ongoing ministry of Jesus Christ, who is our life.

[Note: to read more about this important topic, check out The Call To Discipleship by Karl Barth--an essay excerpted from Barth's Church Dogmatics.]

Participation in Christ, part 8 (Jesus is alive, and we are alive in him!)

This post continues a series looking at "Participation in Christ (An Entry into Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics)" by Adam Neder. To read other posts in this series, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10.

According to Neder, "the dynamic, active, historical, and covenantal character of Barths' Christology... sets it apart from all others and is its most distinguishing feature" (p58). Rather than seeing the union of God and humanity in the person of Jesus as a "static state," Barth sees it as a dynamic, continuing "event" or "act," which defines Jesus' very being. Indeed, Jesus "became" in the continuing act/event of the Incarnation (p60). Barth's point is that Jesus is alive and through his continuing divine-human life, we are alive in him.

It's important to grab hold of this vital and central truth of Barth's Christology, for it forms the core of his Trinitarian theology and soteriology:

The history of Jesus Christ--his own person and work--is the "mutual participation" of the human essence in the divine and the divine essence in the human. The event of this mutual participation is the event of his person...and the accomplishment of the exaltation of [all] humanity. The participation of humanity in Jesus Christ occurs objectively within this history of mutual participation and subjectively in a way that corresponds to this history (p61).

Neder comments further:

As God condescends and humbles Himself to man and becomes man, man himself is exalted, not as God or like God, but to God, being placed at His side, not in identity, but in true fellowship with Him, and becoming a new man in his exaltation and fellowship.

At the heart of the divine-human communion [participation/fellowship] is an irreducible distinction that will never be overcome because Jesus Christ will always be who he is. The hypostatic union [of the two natures in Jesus Christ] itself is an event of lordship and obedience, the perfect coordination of two distinct sets of actions, divine and human, which are never confused with each other (p62).

According to Neder, Barth emphasizes that the union of God and humanity in Jesus leaves no aspect of our humanity, and thus no individual human person, unaffected. All are included in and with the Son of God in this new humanity:

In the one person Jesus Christ, the Son of God takes to himself everything that belongs to human beings as covenant-breakers. In so doing, and simultaneously, he became the man who receives his being in response to this act of grace, that man whose "being in this exaltation can consist only in an action of the most profound human thankfulness." Thus, the self-offering and humiliation of the son of God is total as this man, and the grateful response of obedience of the Son of Man is correspondingly total. "The mystery of the incarnation consists in the fact that Jesus Christ is in a real simultaneity of genuinely divine and human essence, and that it is on this presupposition that the mutual participation is also genuine" (p63).

Thus Barth tells us that the present, objective state of humanity is exalted--recreated as a new humanity in Jesus. Individuals then personally (subjectively) participate in that new humanity as they walk in a faith (trust) that corresponds with the objective reality of humanity in union with Jesus. This faith (which is Jesus' own faith shared with them), ushers them into a life in which they are free to obey--free to be who they truly are in Christ (p69).

This concept of being given freedom in Christ, bringing forth a life that corresponds to the life of Jesus, is central to Barth's thinking concerning the Christian faith. In Barth's view, humans don't become God (Barth did not believe in deification); rather, in union and communion with Christ (who is the continuing, active, historical union of God and man), they become truly free human persons. It is thus essential to understand that Jesus remains incarnate forever. For it is in this living union of the two natures in Jesus that is "located" our own glorified humanity.

The implications of all this for the church and its mission are stunning. We'll pick up these important topics next time.

Participation in Christ, part 7 (three-fold grace & our response)

This post continues a series looking at "Participation in Christ (An Entry into Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics)" by Adam Neder. To read other posts in this series, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10.

Neder highlights Barth's conviction that the triune God's work to convert our humanity into the likeness of Jesus has three aspects: justification, sanctification and vocation (calling). Believers respond to this grace of God by sharing in Jesus' own faith, love and hope (1Thes 1:3; 5:8). Through this response, motivated by gratefulness, believers actualize (experience/receive) their new humanity, which though now "hidden in Christ" (Col 3:24) is nevertheless a present reality. Here is how Neder unpacks the details:

1. JUSTIFICATION → faith

According to Neder, Barth defines justification as the verdict of God by which he...

...repudiates, displaces, removes, and pardons the being of sinful humanity and in its place establishes a new and truly human subject who receives the new humanity in faith as an act of pure and obedient gratitude. Justification is the effective sentence that has fallen on Jesus Christ instead of sinful humanity. This verdict abolishes sinful humanity as such, and in Jesus Christ declares, creates, recognizes, and accepts in its place God's new and faithful covenant partner (p52).

By faith we personally accept and thus yield ourselves to this verdict. Doing so brings our sinful humanity to an end and positively imparts to us the righteousness of Jesus. This subjective experience is possible only because our "sinful humanity has been [objectively] put to death and replaced by a new humanity" in Christ (p52). This is no legal fiction, nor mere possibility--it is a new creation (re-creation) that has actually occurred in the vicarious (representative-substitutionary) life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord. In and through his glorified humanity (which continues), humanity is not merely declared to be righteous, but actually is righteous. Neder comments:

According to Barth, justification--the replacement of the old human with the new--is an event in Jesus Christ prior to and apart from the faith of those for whom it is accomplished. Christian faith embraces the divine verdict, and in so doing the new humanity with which justification ushers in is realized in the lives of individuals (p53).

Of course, if we're honest in looking at ourselves, we don't see fully this new person. Instead, what we see often contradicts the reality of our new humanity found in Jesus Christ. That being so, our faith in Jesus means a corresponding lack of faith in ourselves. "Faith [in Christ] is the gift of the Holy Spirit and the actualization within the Christian of her being as it is in Christ" (p53).

2. SANCTIFICATION → love

Through justification, God places us as his child within the sphere of his kingdom. Through sanctification he leads us to live within that kingdom. Neder comments:

Jesus Christ is God's command to make use of the freedom which is ours as his children. Jesus Christ is our sanctification. He is God's direction, God's command to live as his children...to live as those who are in [God's kingdom] already.... (p54). 

Our response as believers to this aspect of God's grace in Christ is "the obedience of love," which is our acceptance of God's direction in our lives. To respond to God in this way means living out of the fellowship that Christ has created for us between humankind and God. This means living out of the reality of who we actually are in Christ. Like faith, this love is "a free act of pure gratitude" (p54).

3. VOCATION (CALLING) → hope

According to Neder, Barth's view is that "the one grace of God in Jesus Christ involves not only the verdict of the Father [justification] and direction of the Son [sanctification], but also the promise of the Spirit [our vocation/calling]" (p54). As is true of justification and sanctification, vocation is a reality in Jesus Christ. It is....

...an aspect of the reconciliation of God and humanity in him. No less than faith and love, hope is a form of de facto participation [meaning subjective participation--see p18] in Christ. In fact, vocation is the telos [goal, fulfillment] of justification and sanctification, and therefore "the being of man in Jesus Christ is a being not merely in possession and action but also in expectation." Thus, the new humanity "in its totality is teleologically directed, an eschatolgical being." Jesus Christ is himself God's promise of humanity's future, the revelation that "God has in fact a purpose for man in all of this" (pp54-55, quoting Barth). 

But what is that purpose? What is the "telos" (the end/goal) toward which this grace of God in Christ is directed? According to Neder, for Barth it is "eternal life," by which he means "life in action"--life with God, who, himself is active. That life is about an, as yet, unrealized, deep fellowship with God. Barth chooses the word "service" to characterize this life in that "service" denotes love-directed action. For Barth, eternal life is "a being in the service of God." It's about living life as God's "obedient partners within the covenant, and therefore in active response to this active ruler" (p55).

In this partnership--this eternal life of fellowship with God--we do not cease to be human. We will never be "merged into God.... The future of man in covenant with God...is to be the partner of God and to live as such" (p55).

Given that this is our future, our calling (vocation) now is "to seize this future even in the present and in so doing to move toward one's future being, indeed toward Jesus Christ himself--the one in whom this future is already present" (p55). This movement is our response of hope, which is...

...neither wishful thinking nor a promise one makes to one's self, because Jesus Christ is God's effective promise of eternal life and therefore hope rests entirely in him. "He Himself as the eternally living God is also the eternally living man," and as such is "the pledge of what we ourselves will be.... In the act of Christian hope the objective becomes subjective... In the act of Christian hope man lives not merely in the factuality of the decision made by God concerning his whole being [justification], but also in the factuality of his own corresponding thoughts and words and works in relation to the service of God" (pp55-56, quoting Barth).

CONCLUSION 

It is important to note in closing that Barth sees justification, sanctification and vocation as "events in Jesus Christ." And because Jesus is one, all these aspects are inseparable--of one piece. Said another way, our "new humanity is inseparable from Jesus Christ who is himself the new human." Moreover, our subjective realization of this new humanity through our response of faith, love, and hope is, at every point, the response of a being in relationship (union and communion) with the person of Jesus. Faith, love and hope are thus to be viewed as "modes" of this union and communion--as responses that correspond to the justification, sanctification and vocation, which have been accomplished already in Christ (see pp56-57).