Friday, April 2, 2010

There is no Good Friday without Easter!

Since it is Good Friday I read the chapter, "Was crucified, Dead, and Buried, He descended into Hell," from Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline [an exposition of the Apostle's Creed]. His summary is
In the death of Jesus Christ God has humiliated Himself and rendered Himself up, in order to accomplish His law upon sinful man by taking his place and thus once for all removing from him to Himself the curse that affects him, the punishment he deserves, the past he is hurrying to meet, the abandonment into which he has fallen.
Barth stresses the importance of not separating Good Friday and Easter, described as theologia crucis and theologia gloria. There is a tendency to gravitate more towards one than the other.
But we ought not to erect and fix any opposition. ... there is no Easter without Good Friday, but equally certainly there is no Good Friday without Easter!

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