The Surprising God

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...

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 so...

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 e...

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 , 7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 . In chapter 4, Neder unpacks Barth's view that reconciliation-salvation is a relationship occurring in and through Jesus Christ by which humanity is drawn into and thus participates in the divine life. Neder provides this representative quote from Barth: ....What unites God and us men is that He [God] does not will to be God without us, that He creates us rather to share with us and therefore with our being and life and act His own incomparable being and life and act, that He does not allow His history to be His and ours, but causes them to take place as a common history " (p44, emphasis added). It is through this "common history," which Barth sees as an ongoing event, that God shares himself with us. Thus reconciliation-salva...

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 ,  6 , 7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 . In chapter 3, Neder addresses Barth's biblically-informed, Trinitarian anthropology, noting that it views Jesus' humanity as inclusive of all humanity: The ontological determination of humanity [meaning the determination of humanity's fundamental being] is grounded in the fact that one man among all others is the man Jesus ...[he] alone establishes and reveals human nature... Barth's anthropology is an attempt to take this thought seriously, to follow it wherever it may lead, and to resist the temptation to either deviate from it or stop short of saying what must be said on the basis of it (p29, emphasis added). Accordingly, to know what human nature is, we "look to the place where it has been once and for all enacted and ...

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 , 5 , 6 , 7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 . For Barth, our participation in the love and life of Jesus Christ is by a grace that involves obedience. Though obedience is sometimes construed in ways that are antithetical to God's grace, Barth sees obedience and grace linked within the covenant that is ours with God in Christ, our Lord: In showing His grace, God proves Himself both Savior and Helper... [His] exercising of lordship is kind as well as good... [Grace] rules by offering God to His covenant partner as Lord of the covenant (Neder, p19). Paradoxically, the covenant "rest" (freedom) we are given in Christ (by grace) is realized in obedience to Christ as Lord. According to Barth, God's grace sets us free first to hear Christ and then to obey what we hear him tell u...

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 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 . In his chapter titled, Election and Being in Christ , Neder examines Barth's "Christocentric treatment of election as an aspect of the doctrine of God..." (p15). For Barth, these two core doctrines are deeply and intrinsically connected for Jesus himself is the content of election. Therefore, according to Barth, Jesus should be the church's sole criterion when thinking about the topic of election. If this were the case, Barth believes that the result in the church would be... ...joy, not terror; incomprehensible light, not incomprehensible darkness; clarity, not obscurity, [understanding that] ...in Jesus Christ God is freely and graciously for humanity rather than against it... This is not merely one variation of God's wil...

This post is from  Charles Fleming , mission developer for GCI in the Caribbean. The most practical definition of mission that I know is this: Mission is joining Jesus in crossing a frontier (geographic, cultural, generational, life-experience) with tangible expressions of Jesus’ love (word and deed).  To illustrate, I want to share a powerful story told by pastor Ty Grigg on  The Ecclesia Network . It's titled It Starts with Lamenting . Pastor Ty's story Angela stood up to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper. Normally, during our worship liturgy, we watch an “icon,” that is, a short video or projected artwork that reveals something about the way the world is and the ways God reveals his glory in our world. This Sunday, we would hear a story of lament from Angela: My cry today, my lament today is for the Church, the bride of Christ, to be a voice--a beacon of hope, a light, a refuge in this time. By this time, I mean post-Trayvon Martin. As Angel...

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 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 . According to Neder, "Barth's conception of dogmatics is grounded in his understanding of revelation, which governs his doctrine of participation in Christ..." (p1). Barth stressed the priority of the Word of God, understood in its ultimate sense to be Jesus Christ, who "establishes an orderly fellowship between himself and human beings" (p1). Thus, "revelation is inseparable from reconciliation" (p1) as "an event of divine-human union" (p3). This equating of revelation with reconciliation, accomplished through the continuing event of the Incarnation, has significant implications, including that in Jesus, God "speaks to human beings in a creaturely form... through creaturely media" (p3). For Bart...

This post begins a series looking at Professor Adam Neder's helpful book, " Participation in Christ (An Entry into Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics )." To read other posts in this series, click on a number: 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 . Perhaps you've read parts of Barth's Dogmatics and found it rather difficult and daunting (6 million words in 13 volumes!). I'm thankful to Dr. Neder for writing this accessible book, which shows how  participation in Christ is a key concept in Barth's theology. Neder comments: According to Barth, revelation, election, creation, reconciliation and redemption all take place "in Christ," and their meaning and content may only be rightly comprehended in him. In fact, the very being of all humanity itself is objectively included in the being of Jesus Christ, and is likewise subjectively (i.e., by individual people) realized in him. In these acts of inclusion and realization, the creature is incorp...

A friend recently asked me some related questions: How should Christians think of other religions? I know that we are supposed to love our neighbors and even our enemies, and I believe that all humanity, in Jesus, is included in God's love and life. But how do we convey this truth to those who follow other religions if we are not supposed to offend them? I feel my friend's angst here because, in part, he is reacting to the cultural trend that says we must be tolerant of all viewpoints and critical of none. Perhaps he also wrestles with the idea that God has reconciled himself to all people despite their religious beliefs. First, let me comment on the idea that God has reconciled all humanity to himself. This universal reconciliation is entirely God's work of grace, in Christ, apart from any effort or merit of our own. This means that people are not reconciled to God because of their religious belief or practices, Christian or otherwise. This reconciliation was accomp...

The video embedded below is of a helpful lecture from David McGregor, sharing Karl Barth's insights concerning the essential connection between God's nature and Christian ethics. When talking about ethics, Barth always started with God. His belief was that God's being (as the tri-personal God who is love) and God's doing, are inseparably linked. In  Church Dogmatics he proclaimed: "God is who He is, and lives as what He is, in that He does what He does." Barth then noted that we have in the person (being) and work (doing) of the Incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, the definitive revelation of who God is and what God does. Barth then noted that through our relationship (union and communion) with Jesus we participate by grace in God's own being and doing. Thus Barth approached Christian ethics as our participation in the love (being) and life (doing) of Christ himself. This relational view of ethics, grounded in a tri-personal, relational view of God, ...

Early church theologians often mentioned a belief in the concept of  theosis , (from  apotheosis  in Greek, sometimes referred to as deification or divinization  from  deificatio in Latin). The concept flows from the biblical teaching that humans, in union with Christ and through the enablement of the Spirit, may participate in the divine nature (see, for example,  2Pet 1:4 ). Hold on Tight by Liz Lemon Swindle (used with artist's permission) As noted by Myk Habets in Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance , T.F. frequently made reference to the idea of theosis. Here is a quote from Habet's book: Torrance’s earliest mention of theosis occurs amidst a discussion of Christology, when, commenting on the relevance of the hypostatic union for men and women he writes, "And in this God-Man we partake in grace, as members of his body, reconciled to God through him and in him, and even it is said, are incomprehensibly partakers of Divine...

Ed Stetzer Recently on  The Exchange  blog, missiologist Ed Stetzer summarized a Trinitarian theological perspective on mission. His post was titled "What Mission is and Why it Matters." Here are excerpts (and click here for a similar previous Surprising God post): During the past half-century, there has been significant shift from understanding mission as simply the geographical expansion of the Christian faith from the West to the non-Christian world towards a more expansive understanding of mission as God's mission--particularly within a Trinitarian theological framework. This tenant has become known as the  missio Dei...   In short, "mission" refers back to its fixed basis - to the movement of the Father in sending His Son and Spirit. God, who is ontologically "missionary" and, as God is the acting subject in His self-revelation, He maintains the initiative in this activity. This divine missionary activity includes yet another noteworth...

The Trinitarian theology of Karl Barth, T.F. Torrance and others is sometimes referred to as "dialectic" or "dialectical" theology, meaning that it seeks to integrate the tensions, paradoxes and ambiguities that are inherent in Christian theology. Though Barth objected to using this term (it has a wide array of meanings), it might be helpful for Surprising God readers to understand the concept, since incarnational Trinitarian theology does teach that inherent in the revelation of Jesus Christ are viewpoints that, to our limited human understanding, do seem irreconcilable. This is particularly so with respect to the "dialectic tension" between the objective (universal) and subjective (personal) aspects of the union that God has forged with all humanity in and through the God-man, Jesus Christ. From an objective/universal viewpoint, Scripture declares that God has reconciled (past tense) all humanity to himself through one one God-man Jesus Christ ( ...

Check out this short GCI video with Ray Anderson discussing how a narrative/trinitarian theology helpfully frames pastoral ministry.   For an earlier Surprising God post that quotes Anderson, click here . I highly recommend Anderson's book The Soul of Ministry .

In Bone of His Bone, Going Beyond the Imitation of Christ, missionary F.J. Huegel notes that our calling as Christians is not to imitate Christ but to participate in Christ. Rather than merely semantic, this distinction between "imitation" and "participation" is fundamental to understanding our calling as Christians. It also is a corrective to viewing Christian living (ethics) in a way that tends toward legalism, which then can lead to despair and burnout. Huegel begins his analysis by noting some of the "oughts" in Scripture often cited in addressing Christian behavior: We are to walk as Jesus walked (I John 2:6). We are to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). We are to forgive as Jesus forgave - even as He who in the shame and anguish of the Cross looked down upon those who blasphemed Him, while they murdered Him, and forgave (Col. 3:13). We are to be aggressively kind towards those who hate us, yes, we are actually to pray for those who despitefully use u...