Are we hearing the gospel?

We are able to participate in the working of God only because of his self-immolation on our behalf and in our place. It is not our spiritual journey that lies at the center of our faith; it is “the way of the Son of God into the far country,” as Barth calls it, claiming the language of Jesus’ parable in Luke 15:13. It is the journey of the incarnate One to us that enables our participation in the redemptive working of God. If this story is not told every time the people of God are enjoined to get busy, then we are no longer hearing the gospel.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 569