CHRIST ALL OUR LIFE
03/04/23 20:21
Thomas Torrance recognized the true nature of the church as existing only in Christ and spent his life seeking the theological renewal of the church. In this process, his life and work has become known as one of the largest theological dynasties Great Britain has ever produced…”
ONENESS
Torrance’s contribution to the Kingdom of God is found in His clarification of what it means to belong to the Body of Christ. He realised, as have others that all belong but that some belong less than others. He argued convincingly that belonging was not ours on account of proof-texting, the positing of a partisan gospel or the claiming of a theological ‘position.’ This is to say that it is scarcely found in fundamentalisms or ‘other gospels’, but it is found in a state of being – the state of oneness with God that is an extension of the kind of oneness that God enjoys in the ‘being of God.’ The church fathers describe this as perichoresis.
AUTHENTIC ONENESS
“Torrance argued that “old ways and habits” must be set aside in order to recover the true identity of the church. If the identity of the church remains in its practice and not in its very nature as the body of Christ, then the church will remain in disunity. But if the church can recover its true identity as the body of Christ, then church unity is possible.”
INCARNATION
Torrance explains how the atonement – the finished work of Christ produces the incarnation - in which we are drawn into the life of God and His life and being becomes us in spirit and in truth. Professor Elmer Colyer writes, “No theologian in the latter half of the twentieth century devoted more attention to the mystery of the incarnation than T. F. Torrance.” The incarnation, the result of the cross is the foundation and being of the Kingdom of God.
CHRIST OUR LIFE
Thus, our life in God as the church is not to be found in a re-invention of the church or in some aspect of church growth theory or even in church planting. The resurrection of the church is found in the living out of the incarnation. Less as us receiving Christ and more the actualisation of the truth that we have already been received into Christ’s life of oneness with God.
