A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

A History of Christian Doctrine
revealed Himself. . . . When the bearer of this name
becomes the object of our attention and thoughts,
when they are directed to Jesus Christ, then we see
God, and our thoughts are fixed on Him. . . .
God has not withheld Himself from men as true
being, but . . . He has given no less than Himself to
men as the overcoming of their need, and light in
their darkness—Himself as the Father in His own Son
by the Holy Spirit. . . .
God Himself, in His deep mercy and its great
power, has taken it upon Himself to exist also in human
being and essence in His Son. . . . We have to do with
God Himself as we have to do with this man. . . . God
Himself has assumed and made His own our human
nature and kind in His Son, just because God Himself
came into this world in His Son. . . .
The Holy Spirit is the coming of the man Jesus,
who is the Son of God, to other men who are not this
but with whom He still associates. . . .
It is the eternal God Himself who has given
Himself in His Son to be man, and as man to take
upon Himself this human passion. . . . He gives
Himself to be the humanly acting and suffering person
in this occurrence [on the cross]. He Himself is
the Subject who in His own freedom becomes in this
event the object acting or acted upon in it.
If we truly know God, said Barth, then we will obey
God. “Knowledge of God is obedience to God. . . .
Knowledge of God as knowledge of faith is in itself and of
essential necessity obedience. . . . This is obedience, the
obedience of faith.” 200
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