11 May 2008

Good Quote on the Hiddenness of God

In the face of this God, theology can only speak of the God who speaks to us through the history of Christ. It refuses to reconcile the inscrutable hiddenness of God and his tangible promise, which does lament death and brings about life through death. It does not try to comprehend God's hiddenness rationally but recognizes that it will always remain a mystery to us this side of the grave. Theology cannot even identify it with his wrath and judgment, because God's wrath and judgment are forms of his love. Therefore, theology cannot even understand it in the light of the distinction and inseparability of law and gospel, the gospel's promise of life and the law's threat of death. -- Oswald Bayer, *Theology the Lutheran Way* pp. 95, 96

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