We have before us the fiendishness of business competition and the world war, passion and wrongdoing, antagonism between classes and moral depravity within them, economic tyranny above and the slave spirit below.
Thus in this oneness Jesus Christ is the Mediator, the Reconciler, between God and man. Thus He comes forward to MAN on behalf of GOD calling for and awakening faith, love and hope, and to GOD on behalf of MAN, representing man, making satisfaction and interceding. Thus He attests and guarantees to God's free GRACE and at the same time attests and guarantees to God man's free GRATITUDE.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes Jesus Christ's role as the mediator between God and humanity, highlighting the importance of faith, love, and gratitude.
In this quote, Karl Barth articulates the theological perspective that Jesus Christ serves as a bridge between God and mankind. He highlights how Christ intercedes on behalf of humanity to God by representing our needs and expressing our gratitude, while simultaneously conveying God's expectations of faith, love, and hope back towards humanity. This dual representation underscores a relationship of reciprocity and grace between the divine and humanity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing the role of faith in personal growth, this quote can be referenced.
More from Karl Barth
All quotes →When we speak of our virtues we are competitors, when we confess our sins we become brothers.
Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.
That the zeal for God's honor is also a dangerous passion, that the Christian must bring with him the courage to swim against the tide instead of with it... accept a good deal of loneliness, will perhaps be nowhere so clear and palpable as in the church, where he would so much like things to be different. Yet he cannot and he will not refuse to take this risk and pay this price... he belongs where the reformation of the church is underway or will again be underway.
In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.
Christian worship is the most momentous, most urgent, most glorious action that can take place in human life.
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Whatever skills I have acquired, whatever gifts I have been given, I place them at Your service.
I don't like the word 'strong,' because a strong character is never an interesting character. A character is made interesting by their vulnerabilities and their weaknesses.
When a man is in God's grace and free from mortal sin, then everything that he does, so long as there is no sin in it, gives God glory and what does not give him glory has some, however little, sin in it. It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty.
Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle; the other two are shame and stigma. This grim coalition combines to inculpate women themselves of the crimes committed against them.
I would do what I pleased, and doing what I pleased, I should have my will, and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is contented, there is no more to be desired; and when there is no more to be desired, there is an end of it.