Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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But, more importantly, it empowers others to enter the
same 'New Reality'. 2.5 In his life and death, Jesus
revealed God's power to overcome man's estrangement from
God, self, and world. 2.7 The most critical time in a
person's life is thus the moment when he, recognizing and
opening himself to the power of God as seen in Jesus as
the Christ, enters into the Being of Christ.2E'
Indeed, "the most important event of human history • .
[was) the moment in which one man dared to say to
another: 'Thou art the Christ.'"2"7"
Without its historical element, Christianity loses
Its foundation. 3 ° A Christian theology requires the
victory of the man Jesus. But, even if facts of Jesus'
life and death could be objectively verified (and they
cannot -51 ), they could never bridge the gap between God
and man.
Longing for God and a willed belief in Him are
essential to wholeness. But they too, though necessary,
are inadequate."
How then does one appropriate the New Being in
Christ? The word 'faith' offers a better answer. For
'faith' involves more than mind or will. It encompasses
the entire human personality. Yet even 'faith' cannot
'save'. "Not faith but grace is the cause of
justification, because God alone is the cause. Faith is
the receiving act, and this act is itself a gift of
grace."
One enters relationship with God only when he