THE LIFE-GIVING CHRISTIAN
02/10/24 08:07
In the introduction to Alexandra Radcliff’s book on the Torrance’s contribution to our understanding of Kingdom life, we find, “[Our knowledge of salvation when] grounded in our participation in the vicarious humanity of Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit.. is a point of profound theological, and pastoral importance. The heart of the book.. expressing the salvation wrought by the Triune God of grace are filial, ontological, and objective.” (1)
A Gospel, if it is ‘This Gospel of the Kingdom’ and not some dilution, has the following qualities.
FILIAL: It reveals that in Christ we are in the Family of God. Not only in this family but the Holy Trinity is in us. Sonship means that the Holy Family have made their home in our being, so that we are included in God. This is the filial aspect of our inclusion as sons/daughters in God’s Fatherhood.
ONTOLOGICAL: Our inclusion in God is not a matter of talk or the citing of positions. It is a state of being in which we are personally made one with the Being of God. This is the Eucharist lived as our foundational reality. It means we are incarnated with the Being of God and included in their love.
OBJECTIVE FACT: This union is real as lived out in Palestine by Jesus and consummated in the real world of people living, walking and talking. The cross and resurrection are a historical fact as real as the ground on which we walk. The present reality is that Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit live in our being by the Spirit. Our incarnation – the trinity in us is the now reality – this is our life in the Spirit that we can live if we desire real life rather than just religion. The testimony of life-giving Christians is that Christ has come in their flesh.
(1)Radcliff, Alexandra S.. The Claim of Humanity in Christ: Salvation and Sanctification in the Theology of T. F. and J. B. Torrance (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 222) . Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
A Gospel, if it is ‘This Gospel of the Kingdom’ and not some dilution, has the following qualities.
FILIAL: It reveals that in Christ we are in the Family of God. Not only in this family but the Holy Trinity is in us. Sonship means that the Holy Family have made their home in our being, so that we are included in God. This is the filial aspect of our inclusion as sons/daughters in God’s Fatherhood.
ONTOLOGICAL: Our inclusion in God is not a matter of talk or the citing of positions. It is a state of being in which we are personally made one with the Being of God. This is the Eucharist lived as our foundational reality. It means we are incarnated with the Being of God and included in their love.
OBJECTIVE FACT: This union is real as lived out in Palestine by Jesus and consummated in the real world of people living, walking and talking. The cross and resurrection are a historical fact as real as the ground on which we walk. The present reality is that Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit live in our being by the Spirit. Our incarnation – the trinity in us is the now reality – this is our life in the Spirit that we can live if we desire real life rather than just religion. The testimony of life-giving Christians is that Christ has come in their flesh.
(1)Radcliff, Alexandra S.. The Claim of Humanity in Christ: Salvation and Sanctification in the Theology of T. F. and J. B. Torrance (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 222) . Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
