The Faith of the Church. Karl Barth

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       SECOND ARTICLE

       Questions 30–37

       I. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND ARTICLE

      The second article treats of Jesus Christ. Before we tackle it we shall make two general remarks:

      REMARK I. On the Link Between the Three Articles of the Creed. The first article speaks of God, the father of Jesus Christ. God is God, above man. Already then, we had to speak of man. And in the third article, that of the Holy Spirit, we shall see that it deals again with God, but along with man, within man. The second article tells us: God himself is man. Therefore it is central, and from it we must interpret both the first and the third. The second article forms the pivot of this God-man relationship expressed also in the first and the third. In sum, it expresses the content of the whole Creed. The first article is only the presupposition of the second, and the third is its consequence. Thus, in the Christian sense, we may speak of God “in himself” only after we have understood his divine condescension whereby he became man in Jesus Christ. And, likewise, we cannot speak of the Christian “in himself,” for the Christian is only a consequence of that unity of God and man in Jesus Christ. Every theological error could be reduced to two basic types: an abstract theology of man, or, more exactly, of the man Jesus Christ (rationalism) and an abstract pneumatology of God in Jesus Christ, a “spiritualistic” doctrine which treats of an anonymous “Spirit” (various mysticisms, of which perhaps the most characteristic is Buddhism).

      If so, if the second article is central and capital and, in a word, primary, we might wonder why the Creeds of the early Church have the order: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; creation, redemption, sanctification. Two interpretations ought to be rejected at once: The point is not the order of experiences. One does not begin by understanding creation, then redemption, then sanctification. For one understands creation solely in Jesus Christ. Creation understood first by itself would never lead to redemption or to sanctification. No, if one wants to speak on the basis of experience, one should begin with the third article, that of the Holy Spirit who enlightens our hearts so that we understand both redemption and creation. Neither is the point the order of factual importance. For then we should begin with the second article. No, the point is rather the order of God’s essence, that is, of God’s Trinity. To these statements, we may well add that the order has nothing immutable about it. (Cf. 2 Cor. 13:13 where the order is: Jesus Christ, God the Father and Holy Spirit.) The important thing is that false consequences are not drawn from this order.

      REMARK II. On the Calvinistic Interpretation of the Second Article. In this connection we shall distinguish three points: