I have been reflecting a bit more on the vicarious humanity of Christ and faith and the ecclesial context in which this is worked out. This is nothing groundbreaking by any means but i think it is a simple, elegant truth which we can be rather glib about. Torrance and Gunton, to me, treat the ecclesial context of faith quite nicely in relation to the vicarious humanity of Christ. The following is part of an essay which has been adapted so please excuse any references to things ‘above’ or that have been argued already.
“The context in which this is worked out is always ecclesial. The way in which this faith is worked out is within the context of the believing community through the sacraments and the proclamation of the Gospel. The sacraments function to acknowledge our participation in Christ.
Baptism functions in such a way that as it is “administered to those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ and to their children, [it] proclaims to them that they are saved by Christ alone and not even in a subsidiary way through their own repenting and believing.” Baptism then seals the fact that the believer no longer lives out of a centre in them but is now identified with the death and resurrection of Christ so as to be freed of their old self and found anew in the resurrection life of Christ.
The Eucharist likewise functions in the life of the believer as a continual reminder of the Gospel of Christ. So that “in Holy Communion the Gospel of Christ is communicated to us in an enacted form, for as surely as we eat the bread and drink the wine and they become a part of our flesh and blood existence, so surely are we made to partake of Jesus Christ himself in his body in a way no mere words can convey.” Thus in the Lord’s supper we are given a way to continually remind ourselves that we live out of a centre in him and not in ourselves.
Torrance sees the word and sacraments belonging together. The way in which the sacrament functions is as a visible reminder of what has taken place and is proclaimed by the church. This ecclesial dimension of the vicarious humanity of Christ is indispensible to a full grasp of what Torrance is arguing for.
Faith and understanding, as we have outline above, are inseparable. As this is true, so too is the fact that Torrance sees this being worked out in the community of believers in the sacraments and the proclamation of the word. We could then surmise that there is an essential ecclesiastical element to the way in which theological knowledge is obtained. Theological activity must constantly be undertaken from within a community grounded in the reality of the Gospel. Colin Gunton notes helpfully that:
“It is not so much individual Christians who know, as the Church. Creeds and confessions more often than not are expressed in the first person plural… Individual believers know even more ‘in part’ than the community of faith, which to that extent represents them in the world and before God.” This cannot of course be separated from the individual “Being ‘in Christ’ [which] involves form of personal knowledge of God realised by the participation in the worship and life of the Church.”
Gunton elucidates a dynamic which is at work in the Church’s knowledge in faith. It is the community of believers participating in the knowledge of God in faith which is the context in which all theological activity is undertaken. However, individual knowledge is not disregarded but always brought into the worship and life of the wider Church community. In this way, one cannot be a fruitful theologian or Christian for that matter, without participating in the life and worship of the Church. But the Church is sustained by the vicarious humanity of Christ in the Spirit.”
Scott Kirkland
