Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

40
His incarnation revealed the glory God intended
humanity to reflect. '5' His freely chosen vicarious
death, in which he took "the punishment which man was
bound to undergo," revealed the depth to which man had
fallen."' God was with us. And though in human form,
Jesus remained divine, truly revealing the holy and
merciful character of God." God was with us.
In Barth's thought, the Holy Scriptures stand as a
second form of God's self-disclosure. Here in the
recorded testimony of those who looked forward to the
Incarnation and those who witnessed the actual Event, God
speaks. The words of Scripture, though not revelation in
themselves, do bear witness to revelation in a unique
manner. "These writings . . . deserve and demand respect
and attention of an extraordinary order, since they have
a direct relationship to God's work and word [in contrast
to the indirect relationship between theolo gy and God's
Word]."12-
Readers of Scripture, Barth warned, must distinguish
between actual revelation (the Event) and the witness to
the revelation (finite words). When this witness is
heard, however, God through grace can enable the reader
to see and hear the same revelation the Biblical witness
saw and heard, and thus hear God's voice directly.1
God also chose a third method of revealing His Word
to the world: proclamation, which includes, as a primary
component, preaching. 2 '4 God's ultimate revelation was
in Jesus Christ. Scripture attests revelation and can