Christian existence shaped around the reality of cross and resurrection

In his comment Tony notes the important link between the nature of God the Creator and the redemptive response to the fallenness of creation by God. Self emptying and other-giving love is the characteristic and outward movement of God. In the gift of life, created and redeemed, self-emptying love reveals what is eternally true of the heart of the Triune God.

The central thrust of Gorman's book is that kenotic love is characteristic of God, Father, Son and Spirit, and such kenosis is not passive surrender but takes intentional cruciform shape. Christian existence, defined by our being in Christ and Christ in us, and thus by the indwelling of individual Christian and Christian communities, is therefore shaped around the reality of the Cross. "To be truly human is to be Christlike, which is to be Godlike, which is to be kenotic and cruciform." (Gorman page 39) Gorman understands Philippians 2.6-11 to be Paul's master story about Christ, and with others such as NT Wright, Stephen Fowl, Richard Bauckham, translates "though he was in the form of God" as meaning not only "though" but "because". Kenosis, self-emptying love, is not a one off act of unilateral obedience – it is of the very nature of God. Heaven is not surprised by the self-emptying love of the Son – kenosis is only to be expected in a Triune relationship of self giving love in eternal communion. It is human beings whose default view of God insists power, sovereignty and exalted status are of the essence, the core realities of who God is; on the contrary, "divinity has kenotic servanthood as its essential attribute" (Gorman, 31).

The cross and resurrection of Jesus, as actions of self-emtpying love and its vindication, reveal the heart of God through a narrative of surrendering love absorbing rather than inflicting violence, loving enemies rather than destroying them, but yet doing all this in a way that absorbs finally and fully, the fatefull consequence of sin and negating them by God's great Yes in Christ. The political and ecclesial implications of Christian witness being shaped by such cruciform kenosis, vindicated and energised by God's raising of Jesus, are yet to be worked out by the 21st Century Church often obsessively concerned about its own relevance, influence and even survival. Such a theology of cross and resurrection, as self-emptying love, points to a radically different discipleship, and in our time, a radically different way of being the Body of Christ.

Recognising some will be uneasy at the apparent loss of power and majesty implied in the notion of a self-emptying cruciform God, Gorman approves an important comment by John Webster( Professor of Systematic Theology in Aberdeen – and for me essential reading):

"Webster rightly defines God's holiness, not as pure majesty, but as "majesty in relation". Because God's majesty and God's relationality cannot be separated, we must understand  God's majesty in light of God's revealed relationality. We do not simply hold the majesty and relationality of God in tension; with Paul, we must see them in concert, a unison revealed in the power of the cross. God is not a God of power and weakness but the God of power in weakness…we must always keep the divine activity and divine atributes together: God's actions  are self revelatory, the expression of God's essence and character. Thus if the cross is theophanic [God revealing], God must be understood as essentially cruciform." ( Gorman page 33)

I'm not finished with this book yet!