"The communicative relationship between God and humans that is salvific and not destructive is grounded in the word and takes the form of an exchange of words (in sermonibus tuis). When Luther emphasizes that "Christ is present" in this word, he is defining the mediation more precisely. Christology explicates who is connected, the basis of the connection, and the medium of this connection. To put it more precisely, it identifies who is active and who is passive, who comes and who is brought, who makes the connection and who is connected. The three "offices" of Christ are nothing else than the three interrelated aspects of the one office of mediator (munus triplex). The prophetic office especially is the means of mediation (the word), the priestly office shows who is mediated (God and humans), and the royal office is the power of mediation: Christ's victory over hell, death, and devil. The saving communicative relationship between God and humans is an exchange of words. This is no harmless self-evident correlation and correspondence, but the felicitous outcome of a life-and-death struggle."-Oswald Bayer, Theology the Lutheran Way, trans. Jeffrey Silcock and Mark Mattes (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007), 19.
2 comments:
What a gem!
What insight ... Lutheran theology never ceases to amaze me ... especially coming from the pen of Bayer and the Lutheran theologians of the Luther Rennaisance.
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