Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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all limitations of human existence. At the same time,
however, they gave primary emphasis to the freedom found
in Christian faith. Man could reach a satisfying
fulfillment, an actualization of potential, despite the
limitations of life in this world. The following
statements document such opinions:
The way the believer becomes what he
already is consists therefore in the constant
appropriation of grace by faith, which also
means, in the concrete, 'obedience.' which is
henceforth possible. • . . 'Spirit' is the
quintessence of the non-worldly. invisible,
uncontrollable, eternal sphere . . . which
becomes the controlling power for and in him
who orients his life 'according to the
Spirit.' ="3 --Bultmann
Divinity in Jesus is not a different kind
of divinity from that in us. :7-5. It isn't a
difference in kind [between Jesus and the rest
of humanity]. and I think that is exactly what
Christ is saying. 'Be ye perfect as I am
perfect.'"' When a man becomes a real
Christian he is supposed to move over into that
small, creative, sacrificial minority seized
upon by visions of a better world and standing
for them until they shall permeate mankind with
their truth/4° --Fosdick
You have experienced His life and power
flooding your own, changing it and transforming
it, infusing power into it, turning your
defeats into victories and liberating you from
the power of sin/4 -'2 God in His infinite
grace has imparted to us His own nature.44.--5
--Lloyd-Jones
The Church recognized itself (in the New
Testament era and since then) to be a new
eschatological humanity. . . . The
eschatological hope was present fact, and the
Church was vibrating . . . with the identical
power which God had exerted in taking Christ
out of the arave."4'4 There is the
spontaneously creative power of the experience
of redemption, the sanctifying force of the
divine justifying initiative. --Stewart
In contrast to these statements of optimism in