----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan Hughes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lance Muir" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: April 25, 2005 19:38 Subject: Torrance
> I know I sent this to you a few weeks ago but it is so good I am sending > it again. > > JBH > > “The covenant between God and Israel was not a covenant between God and > a holy people, but precisely the reverse. It was a covenant established > out of pure grace between God and Israel in its sinful, rebellious and > estranged existence. Hence, no matter how rebellious or sinful Israel > was, it could not escape from the covenant love and faithfulness of God… > There were evidently critical moments in Israel’s history when it seemed > ready to do anything to flout the will of God in hope of breaking loose > from the grip of his unswerving love and of escaping from the painful > transformation of its existence that relations with ‘the Holy One of > Israel’ involved. No, the covenant was not made with holy people, nor > did its validity depend upon a contractual fulfillment of its conditions > on the part of Israel, for its was a unilateral covenant which depended > for its fulfillment upon the unconditional grace of God and the > unrelenting purpose of reconciliation which he had pledged to work out > through Israel for all peoples. And therefore…it depended upon a > vicarious way of response to the love of God which God himself provided > within the covenant—a way of response which he set out in the liturgy of > atoning sacrifice and which he insisted on translating into the very > existence of Israel in its vocation as ‘servant of the Lord.’ > > “…the more fully God gave himself to this people, the more he forced it > to be what it actually was, what we all are, in the self-willed > isolation of fallen humanity from God. Thus the movement of God’s > reconciling love toward Israel not only revealed Israel’s sin but > intensified it. That intensification, however, is not to be regarded > simply as an accidental result of the covenant but rather as something > which God deliberately took into the full design of his reconciling > activity, for it was the will and the way of God’s grace to effect > reconciliation with man at his very worst, precisely in his state of > rebellion against God. That is to say, *in his marvelous wisdom and love > God worked out in Israel a way of reconciliation* which does not depend > on the worth of men and women, but makes their very sin in rebellion > against him the means by which he binds them for ever to himself and > through which he reconstitutes their relations with him in such a way > that their true end is fully and perfectly realized in unsullied > communion with himself. > > “That is the way in which we are surely to interpret the Incarnation, in > which God has drawn so near to man and drawn man so near to himself in > Jesus that they are perfectly at one. In Jesus the problematic presence > of God to Israel, the distance of his nearness and the nearness of his > distance, which so deeply trouble the soul of the psalmists and prophets > alike, was brought to its resolution” (T.F. Torrance, /The Mediation of > Christ/, pp. 28-29). > > ---------- "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.
