Only Jesus 1

Guest Sat 24 Nov 2007, 6:05 pm

Jesus as God’s Revelation.

The divine utterance of God’s Word is termed as His Revelation. Karl Barth perceives revelation as ‘Revelation is God’s sovereign action upon man or it is not revelation’[1].

Inclusivists and pluralists might argue that God has spoken to Humans in different times and in different religions. But this statement is not totally agreed upon by some exclusivistic theologians, such as Karl Barth and Hendrik Kraemer, as they see Jesus Christ as God’s Revelation, through whom and in whom God has fulfilled His will- what God is and What he desires[2]. Here a pluralist such as Arnold Toynbee will say that all religions are God’s revelation and therefore they represent some facet of God’s truth[3].But this type of statement is questioned by exclusivist and to some extent by inclusivist theologians[4].Coming back to Barth and Kraemer, they appear to be very firm and assertive when they make their point and claim[5], but when they are asked that, God does speak out side Christianity then, they seem to be reluctant in their approach. This can be seen when Hendrik Kraemer acknowledges that, God does work outside the sphere of the Biblical revelations, which he called general revelations, but, such revelations can only be effectively discerned in the light of the ‘special revelation’ of Jesus Christ.[6]

Now the question arises, How Jesus is special and why the revelation given to him is special ? Here Barth will answer that Jesus is special because God has made him a prototype, showing through him who and what man is, and all potential and actual relationship with God is derived from Jesus[7]. But what he means when he calls Jesus a prototype? A prototype means a standard the first one, from whom rest are derived or originate, and as God has revealed his will also to people before Jesus, then how can he be a prototype? For this the answer given is that, Jesus is the incarnated Word of God, therefore he is the prototype and the receiver of special revelation from God. One can also refer to the verse in Gospel of John 1:1,14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…….
And if we turn back to 2^nd and 3^rd century, some of the early church fathers also held the same view. They expressed various views about the relation of Jesus to God. Most of these views are centred on identifying Christ with the logos: God’s mind – God is knowable only through the logos. Justin martyr, held that the logos was a kind of second God incarnated in a historical person, Jesus, for the salvation of human beings.[size=12]Irenaeus, on the other hand, held that logos, which became incarnate in Jesus Christ, was the divine agent of revelation. Tertullian also claimed that although God is one, God has three activities or personae- a unity of substance but a Trinity of manifestations. In Jesus, he said, the word became incarnate. The logos inspired the Greek philosophers and Jesus is the Logos, the guide to all humanity