Thursday, December 12, 2019

But it's already here!

The [Johannine] prologue’s focus seems to be almost entirely on the latter notion (renewal) rather than on the former (judgment). Its focus also concerns more the past (remembering history) and the present (shaping identity) than the future. This is not to say that prologue does not suggest a particular vision of the future. It does. However, it is a future that is based on the present reality that the community is already experiencing. In theological terms, it is a realized eschatology. The community does not need to wait to see the glory of the exalted Jesus before whom every knee will bow and every tongue acknowledge his lordship (Phil 2:10). That glory has already been revealed in the recent past and the present: “we have seen his glory” (Jn 1:14). As Raymond Brown puts it, “The Gospel very clearly regards the coming of Jesus as an eschatological event which marked the change of the aeons.”—Matthew Gordley, New Testament Christological Hymns, pp. 171–72

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