The eschatological climax of God's historical self-communication, in which this self-communication becomes manifest as irreversible and victorious, is called Jesus Christ. Karl RahnerThe Israelite of the Old Testament lives with a certain fear that perhaps the favour of God will be withdrawn. You can see it in the people removing their ornaments and mourning at the prospect of Canaan without Yahweh. You can see it in David, pleading that God's Holy Spirit not be taken from him. You can see it in the final words of Lamentations.
In each case, the fear relates to human sin. The dreadful thought is two-fold: firstly, that the patience of God might be exhausted, and that this last sin might be the one which causes him to finally turn away in disgust; secondly, that the evil of humanity - my evil - might prove to be invincible, and that even if God continues to be patient, all his patience might be in vain, because I will not be changed.
Might God walk back on his covenant promise? Surely he would be justified.
Might my sin be such that his grace will find no foothold in me? Surely that fits with what I know of myself.
But in Jesus Christ, God shows himself absolutely committed to communicating himself to us in grace and mercy, and absolutely powerful to overcome our opposition to that grace and mercy. God has taken humanity to himself in his Son, uniting himself to us forever. Moreover, the Son has endured everything that this 'uniting' means for him: the death of the cross. And he has been raised, living again.
In the being of Jesus Christ, as it was lived out in Palestine two thousand years ago, we see God walking a path which is irreversible, committed to the point of death and beyond. Just as nobody can reverse the resurrection and the cross, so nobody can undo God's great love.
And we see God walking a path which is victorious. Just as nobody could keep Christ in the grave when his Father called him out, so nobody can prevent God's work in the lives even of dead-in-sin human beings.
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