Sorry for the dearth of posting around here lately; things have been pretty busy. Among other things, I’m starting a new job this week, so I can’t promise the same level of scintillating content that VI readers are used to. We’ll have to see how things go.

However, this weekend I had the chance to read Reformed theologian Douglas John Hall’s Remembered Voices: Reclaiming the Legacy of “Neo-Orthodoxy” (which I picked up for a song at the very excellent Massachusetts Bible Society bookstore in downtown Boston). Hall argues that North American Protestantism hasn’t really learned the lessons of neo-orthodoxy and instead remains caught between a shallow liberalism and an untenable fundamentalism.

Each chapter profiles one of the major theologians of the movement. In particular, Hall commends the work of Emil Brunner, who today is perhaps best known as Barth’s sparring partner, but who was an important theologian in his own right. Brunner’s approach to revelation seems particularly promising. Unfortunately, according to Amazon, most of his books don’t seem to be in print.

Doing a little research on Brunner I came across an excerpt from his little book Our Faith. Brunner gives a very concise, but in my opinion very good, account of the meaning of Christ’s cross:

God will not wink at evil. He takes our guilt seriously. Even for Him it is nothing inconsiderable. He cannot and will not tear up the “manuscript.” He could no doubt do so, but for our sakes He will not. For we should then take guilt too lightly, and God desires to show us that what is written on the manuscript is correct. He will even carry out the judgment. But……over all stands His forgiving father love.

He will not destroy the manuscript that testifies against us, but He will destroy its power by a higher power. He has “nailed it to the cross” that we might see both our guilt and His even greater mercy; the earnestness of His holy will and the even greater earnestness of His fatherly love. That is the message of Jesus Christ, the Mediator.

Suppose a farmhand set fire to his master’s barn. The man is liable for the damages with all that he has. The master could take everything the servant has — shoes, clothing, money, and say, “All of this is only a small part of what my servant really owes me. And now let the scoundrel get out of my sight!” But the master does nothing of the sort, takes nothing away. He rather says to his faithless servant, “I will take everything upon myself; I will pay everything.” And then the servant opens his eyes in amazement; for he sees what a good master he has.

God dealt with us in this way through Jesus Christ. He has taken everything upon Himself; He has Himself borne the curse of sin that we should have carried. Jesus went to the cross, because man could not have endured the presence of God. In permitting himself to be crucified Jesus both brought God nearer, and himself showed man more clearly his distance from God. The manuscript that testifies against us, is there displayed, legible to all, our death sentence. And at the same time it is destroyed, God loves you in spite of all. God’s son had to go through this shambles really to come near to us. All this was necessary that we men might see God and ourselves, God in His love, and ourselves in our godlessness. Apart from the cross on Golgotha we should know neither our condition nor the boundlessness of God’s love. God and man can there be seen together — human misery and perdition, and God’s presence and ineffable love. Jesus reveals both us and God on the Cross. And by that act he accomplishes the greatest thing possible: he brings man back again to God.

He accomplishes “the atonement through his blood.” As a mother follows her lost child in all its misery, filth and shame, so, too, God in Jesus Christ came into our condition to be wholly with us. Thus Jesus, the crucified, is the promised “God with us” or “Immanuel” and Golgotha the one place in all the world where we may behold the mystery of divine Love. Who — we? I will say it more correctly — you, if you permit God to tell you by name that this was done because you need it, and because God loves you.