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{"id":17893,"date":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2715"},"modified":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T00:00:00","slug":"easters-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/02\/easters-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter’s Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Raymund Schwager (Jesus in the Drama of Salvation<\/a>) puts it this way: \u201cThe action of the Father at Easter is to be understood as a judgment by which he takes up a position in the conflict between the claim of Jesus and the verdict of his opponents.\u201d By raising Jesus, the Father gave a \u201cverdict for his Son and against those who opposed him,\u201d who were \u201cconvicted as sinners\u201d (135). <\/p>\n

But Schwager reminds us who this Jesus is<\/em> that the Father approves: He is the Messiah who gave Himself up to death \u201cfor his opponents.\u201d He is the Jesus who offered Himself for sinners. And that means by approving Jesus, the Father is also passing judgment in favor of sinners: \u201cthe verdict of the heavenly Father is above all a decision for the Son who gave himself up to death for his opponents. It is therefore, when considered more deeply, also a verdict in favor of sinners. The opponents of the kingdom of God, closing themselves off, had the way to salvation once more opened for them by the Son, who allowed himself to be drawn into their darkness and distance from God.\u201d He \u201cgot around this hardening of hearts once more, insofar as he allowed himself to be made the victim of their self-condemnation\u201d (135).<\/p>\n

Thus, \u201cthe judge\u2019s verdict at Easter was . . . not only a retrospective confirmation of the message of Jesus, but it also contained a completely new element, namely, forgiveness for those who had rejected the offer of pure forgiveness itself and persecuted the Son\u201d (136). Schwager is wrong, however, to say that the Father acts differently from the master of the vineyard in Jesus\u2019 parable, who takes vengeance for his son. The Father does once again offer forgiveness, the kingdom is once again proclaimed as a message of grace, but those who reject it again are doomed. For all the value of Schwager\u2019s paradigm, his effort to delete judgment in the usual sense from the gospel story distorts the story.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"