The Vicarious Life and Death of the Mediator: Perhaps the most fundamental truth which we have to learn in the Christian Church, or perhaps rather relearn since we have suppressed it, is that the Incarnation was the coming of God to save us in the heart of our fallen and depraved humanity, where humanity is at its wickedest in its enmity and violence against the reconciling love of God. That is to say, the Incarnation is to be understood as the coming of God to take upon Himself our fallen human nature, our actual human existence, laden with sin and guilt, our humanity diseased in mind and soul in its estrangement or alienation from the Creator. This is a doctrine found everywhere in the early Church in the first five centuries, expressed again and again in the terms that the whole man had to be assumed by Christ if the whole man was to be saved, that the unassumed is unhealed, or that what God has not taken up in Christ is not saved. The sharp point of those formulations of this truth lay in the fact that it is the alienated mind of man that God had laid hold of in Jesus Christ in order to redeem it and effect reconciliation deep within the rational centre of human being." (The Mediation of Christ p39)TFTorrance I would suggest that this understanding of the Incarnation is the centre out of which we ought to engage in all of our thinking concerning both the Nature of God and the nature of God's Gospel. When we speak of one we are alreading tipping our hand on the other. Blessings ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: March 24, 2004 18:01 Subject: [TruthTalk] Torrance
> To whet your appetite for more, I share the following from Torrance's > book, "The Mediation of Christ": > > "All through the incarnate life and activity of the Lord Jesus we are > shown that 'all of grace' does not mean 'nothing of man', but precisely > the opposite: all of grace means all of man, for the fullness of grace > creatively includes the fullness and completeness of our human response > in the equation. But this is not something that can be understood > logically, for logically 'all of grace' would mean 'nothing of man', > which may tempt people to apportion the role of Christ and of the > believer by arguing for 'something of grace' and 'something of man', > something done for me by Christ and something I do for myself! All of > grace means all of man!" > > ... > > "How could the unconditional grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified > and risen again for us, how could 'all of Christ', ever mean a > depreciating of the very humanity he came to save?!" > > Peace be with you. > David Miller, Beverly Hills, Florida. > > ---------- > "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org > > If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed. ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
