Karl Barth, CD IV/1: Revelation, Atonement, and the Divine Nature

This video is a deep dive into a passage from Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics IV/1, pp. 185-6. I read an extended quote and then discuss a few insights we might learn from it. The subjects include what it means for God to be God, the possibility of revelation, and the doctrine of atonement.
If this type of video is helpful, I will possibly do more deep dives like this into other sections of CD or other texts.

[@StephenDMorrison]

Here's the full quote I read if you want to follow along: "God gives Himself, but He does not give Himself away. He does not give up being God in becoming a creature, in becoming man. He does not cease to be God. He does not come into conflict with Himself. He does not sin when in unity with the man Jesus He mingles with sinners and takes their place. And when He dies in His unity with this man, death does not gain any power over Him. He exists as God in the righteousness and the life, the obedience and the resurrection of this man. He makes His own the being of man in contradiction against Him [God], but He does not make common cause with it. He also makes His own the being of man under the curse of this contradiction, but in order to do away with it as He suffers it. He acts as Lord over this contradiction even as He subjects Himself to it. He frees the creature in becoming a creature. He overcomes the flesh in becoming flesh. He reconciles the world with Himself as He is in Christ. He is not untrue to Himself but true to Himself in this condescension, in this way into the far country. If it were otherwise, if in it He set Himself in contradiction with Himself, how could He reconcile the world with Himself? […] "What [God] is and does He is and does in full unity with Himself. It is in full unity with Himself that He is also-and especially and above all-in Christ, that He becomes a creature, man, flesh, that He enters into our being in contradiction, that He takes upon Himself its consequences. If we think that this is impossible it is because our concept of God is too narrow, too arbitrary, too human-far too human. Who God is and what it is to be divine is something we have to learn where God has revealed Himself and His nature, the essence of the divine. And if He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ as the God who does this, it is not for us to be wiser than He and to say that it is in contradiction with the divine essence. We have to be ready to be taught by Him that we have been too small and perverted in our thinking about Him within the framework of a false idea of God. It is not for us to speak of a contradiction and rift in the being of God, but to learn to correct our notions of the being of God, to reconstitute them in the light of the fact that He does this.” - Church Dogmatics IV/1, 185-6. Ed. by G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010.

[@riverjao]

More Barth is always a plus! Thanks.

[@thestraightroad305]

I have watched just a few of your videos and enjoyed all of them, this one most of all. I’ve followed the Lord for almost 40 years and loved and studied scripture. I would consider myself as recovering from modern American evangelicalism…most of my desire centering on knowing God as He truly is, not as the sometimes alien being represented in modern church teaching. I recently became acquainted with T.F. Torrance and his work and have listened to James Torrance on the You’re Included series. This has opened up a wealth of understanding that so totally conforms with my longing to know God as He has revealed himself and as He desires to be known. Like many others, I find myself astonished that it has taken me this long to begin to learn of Him, as Jesus invites us to do in Matthew 11. I wish I could find a church where this way of understanding God and scripture is taught. Thank you so much for your work and I will continue to watch and listen. Subscribed.

[@StephenDMorrison]

Thank you for watching and for your kind comment! I am glad to hear you have benefited from my videos. T. F. Torrance was an important theologian for me early on and set me on this journey. I am glad you are enjoying his work, too. God bless you!

[@t-bonet-bone713]

You said you wish you could find a church that teaches what Mr. Morrison has shown you?, then the Eastern Orthodox Church is where you need to go. You may not get these teachings in the actual liturgy on Sunday, but if you’re going to read study and dig for the last eight months, you will find that their teachings are pretty much the same as Mr. Morrison‘s.

[@edwardbackman744]

I want to see more Church Dogmatics content! CD is a very intimidating piece of work for me and stuff like this really helps. Especially thay youve isolated passages which capture the ‘essence’ of Barths theology as a whole in a way, I especially appreciate that.

[@StephenDMorrison]

Thanks for watching and for your comment! I am glad to hear this was helpful. I do plan on doing more deep dives into CD like this one.

[@Beccaboo739]

My wondering here is how do we know an encounter with God is God and not a Kundalini or other occult Spirit if we have no foundation to compare it to? We are seeing so much of this in the Church today through a spirit of New Age, and the church doesn’t understand the difference! So, I think Barth’s point is important-especially since Kurt Gordel’s discovery of the incompleteness theory- as is also liberal/natural theology to defend the faith and understand God’s nature. If Barth says it can’t be liberal or natural Theology, isn’t Barth also contradicting himself by limiting God’s possibility of being utilized in this way? Or am I still missing things here…🤔🤔🤔

[@StephenDMorrison]

Sorry for a late reply. I agree there needs to be some criteria and for Barth that’s scripture and the church’s preaching, both of which bear witness to Christ. I am not sure why Barth rejecting natural and liberal theology would be a contradiction; for Barth they were linked. Barth doesn’t have an independent concept of religious experience. It is always connected with God’s reconciling and revealing acts toward us in Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The emphasis is on how God reveals Godself, not on experiences as such, if that makes sense. Thanks for watching and for your comment!