It Takes A God

A great Cur Deus Homo moment from Barth (Church Dogmatics, IV.1, 553):

“What we men must suffer – if it is to be suffered in accordance with the righteousness of God – can be suffered for us only by God Himself as man: if, that is to say, it is to take place validly and effectively for us all; if it is to be the one and total destruction of wrong and all wrongdoers; if it is to be the erasure of that blot from the world of God’s creation; if at the same time it is to be the keeping of His faith, the carrying out of His covenant with man, not to man’s destruction but to his salvation, to the justification of the unjust.”

Jesus does just that: “To suffer validly and effectively for us His own judgment upon us, He condescended to us, He humbled Himself so profoundly, He was willing to be so lowly, and in our flesh the eternal Son, the man Jesus of Nazareth, rendered the obedience of humility to the eternal Father, thus fully satisfying the righteousness of God on its negative side, the side of wrath.” Thus., “In Him our sin and we ourselves have perished,” but only so that in Him we may rise to new life.