Brunner: sin as personal guilt

Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
    —John 16:7-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Evil can be interpreted as guilt only where human existence is understood as personal, and that means where the existence of man is understood to be in responsibility to the Divine Thou. This is the depth of human distress, that we are separated from God, that our communion with Him is destroyed, that man has emancipated himself (has taken himself out of the hand of God) and has become independent, his own master.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Word and the World, London: Student Christian Movement Press, 1931, p. 49-50 (see the book)
    See also John 16:7-11; Eccl. 2:24-25; Rom. 1:20-23; 1 Pet. 5:6-7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot direct my life in the way it should go; lead me in my life, through Your everlasting grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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