I’m re-reading David W. Congdon’s Varieties of Christian Universalism in preparation for doing some talks at church on the topic, and I was struck this time by this fantastic thought from Karl Barth:

He [the Spirit] makes them Christians. He divides them from non-Christians. But He also unites them with non-Christians. He is the promise which is given them, and He sets them in the position of hope. He gives them the power to wait daily for the revelation of what they already are, of what they became on the day of Golgotha.

The Christian identifies with the world insomuch as those in the world are those for whom the promise is yet to be completely fulfilled, but the Christian is also the one who presently has the promise and as such is given “hope.”

I love this idea - that Christians today are the living promise to the unbelieving world of the hope that awaits it. What a beautiful thought.