Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Trinune God: Systematics

Titel: The Triune God: Systematics

Stichwort: Vater, Sohn: Sendung, um die Menschen zu erlösen; Bibelstellen; Schlossfolgerung

Kurzinhalt: QUESTION 22 - Did God the Father send his Son to redeem the human race?

Textausschnitt: QUESTION 22 - Did God the Father send his Son to redeem the human race?

447a Our answer is that sacred scripture most clearly teaches that God the Father sent his Son to redeem the human race. Still, lest the question regarding the missions of the divine persons seem to be about concepts rather than realities, it is best to quote the following texts. (Fs)

Galatians 4.4: 'But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.'

447b St John has more fully expounded this same teaching. For the one who sends is God the Father (John 3.16-17, 5.23, 8.16, 14.24, 20.21), the living Father (6.57), the Father testifying (5.37), the Father drawing [people to Jesus] (6.44), the Father giving a command [to Jesus] (12.49), the only true God (17.3), whom the persecutors do not know (15.21). (Fs)

The Son who was sent teaches not a doctrine of his own but that of the one who sent him (John 7.16, 7.18, 8.28, 12.49, 14-24); similarly, the Son who was sent seeks not a will of his own but the will of the one who sent him (4.24, 5.30, 6.38, 8.29); indeed, the Son can do nothing by himself (5.19, 5.30). (Fs)

447c The Son was not sent to be alone (John 8.16, 8.29, 10.30, 38), nor did he come on his own (7.28, 8.42); but he knows the one from whom he is and who has sent him (7.29), and he can say, 'Whoever sees me sees him who sent me' (12.45), and finally, he goes to him 'who sent me' (7.33, 16.5). (Fs)

The Son was sent out of the Father's love (1 John 4.9; John 3.16; Romans 8.32), was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8.3), for the salvation of the world (John 3.17), that we might live through him (1 John 4.9), that the world might believe and know the Father who sends and the Son who is sent (John 5.24, 6.29, 11.42, 17.8, 21, 23, 25) and have eternal life (John 5.24, 17.3). (Fs)

447d This mission has its extension. For just as the Father sends the Son, so the Son sends the apostles (John 17.18, 20.21). 'Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me' (John 6.57; see 5.26). 'Whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me' (John 13.20; see Matthew 10.40, Luke 10.16); conversely, 'Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him' (John 5.23). (Fs)

449a It is clear, therefore, (1) that a divine person is the one sending, (2) that another divine person is sent, (3) that the divine person who is sent lives because of the one sending, teaches the doctrine of the one sending, wills the aim of the one sending, and performs the works of the one sending, (4) that the divine person is sent to human persons in order that they may live, believe, know, love, and perform greater works (John 14.12; see 9.3-4, 10.32, 10.37, 14-10-11, 15.24, 174), and (5) that through the mediation of others this mission extends to other human persons. (Fs)