And what matters is this—if you think,
and there are no difficulties in this, of a world that has gone wrong, there
are two ways of putting things right that simply would not work. One is that
God should simply step in and stop all the folly and wickedness at a blow. Of
course, he could; but to do so would mean that we human beings were not
being treated seriously as moral and responsible beings. The other is that
we should simply get up and put things right ourselves, and of course we
couldn’t. The right way to do it is God’s way, and that is that he does what
only he can do, but in doing it associates humanity as an associate partner
with himself—“conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.’ Thanks
be to God for such a gift, and thanks be to God for taking us seriously. C.K. Barrett
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