Devotions for Lent from Holy Bible: MosaicSample

Karl Barth (Switzerland, 1886-1968)

When we speak of grace, we think of the fact that [God's] favorable inclination towards the creature does not allow itself to be soured and frustrated by the resistance of the latter. When we speak of holiness, we think, on the other hand, of the fact that His favorable inclination overcomes and destroys this resistance.

To say grace is to say the forgiveness of sins; to say holiness, judgment upon sins. But since both reflect the love of God, how can there be the one without the other - forgiveness without judgment or judgment without forgiveness?

Only where God's love is not yet revealed, not yet or no longer believed, can there be here a separation instead of a distinction. In this case, forgiveness would be inferred in abstracto from sin, and judgment from condemnation. It would not be God's judgment in the one case or God's forgiveness in the other.

If we speak in faith and, therefore, in the light and love of God (and His forgiveness and judgment) as our insight grows, we shall distinguish but certainly not separate between God's grace and Holiness.

The link between the two is decisively summed up in the fact that both characterize and distinguish His love and therefore, Himself in His action in the covenant, as the Lord of the covenant between Himself and His creature.