The Divine Claim
Barth's moral theology rests on the notion that Christ's accomplishment of the good in our place is not only God's provision for our failure to do what is morally required but is the source and content of the moral requirement itself. In his terms, ‘gospel’ takes the form of ‘law’: what God does for us claims us and our conduct. Is this notion even coherent? Can grace morally bind us? Is it still grace when it becomes a moral demand? This chapter examines Barth's convictions (1) that the law is the demand that we live by grace; (2) that because Christ has accomplished the good in our place and thereby made our true moral identity a matter of grace alone, the law is now truly capable of binding us; and (3) that the law frees and empowers us with what has already been done for us rather than what we are to do for ourselves.
Keywords: gospel, law, grace, freedom, obligation, permission, command of God
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