Guest Essay: The Gap Between God and Man

December 9, 2023 Guest Author

The Gap Between God and Man

by Fr. Scott Adle

"The gap between God and man is caused by the sin or lack of holiness in man and not because God is creator and man the creature. In contrast to the Lutheran position, Reformed theology holds that the creator-creature relationship is the cause of the gap between God and man. God as creator is so far removed from His rational creatures that He never can bridge the gap perfectly. An example of this approach is Michael Horton . . . The creator-creature distinction and a transcendental definition of God are fundamental to Reformed theology and appear in a defective Christology and sacramentology. Lutheran theology sees man created as God's companion and friend, and thus sin is more than a moral infraction: it is a traitorous act. In the first transgression man betrayed the confidence God placed in him. Condescension describes not how the creator comes to the creature but how the sinless God approaches sinful man by appearing in the form of a sinful man. Incarnatus est is the great miracle, and homo factus est is the greater miracle."

David P. Scaer, Law and Gospel, pp 43–44, note 2.

While reading Scaer’s Law and Gospel and the Means of Grace, I came across this footnote (n. 2, pg 43), and it made me think (and perhaps rebuked me a bit). To be sure, the Creator and creature are different, but – especially at this time of year! – we can rejoice in the fact that we shouldn’t draw such a sharp distinction between God and man that the rest of the Scriptures are at odds with a crude understanding of that bare statement.

In the beginning, God made man in His image, in His likeness. What is emphasized there is not the difference, but the likeness of man and God. Couple this with the multiple places in Scripture where it is stated that man was made for God. And the purpose of being for God was not merely as a tool or toy, something to use or be played with while it amuses. No, the intention was much higher than that.

To that purpose, not only the Scriptures, but nature itself testifies. In the world, marriage is perhaps the greatest Natural Law image of the love that Christ has for us. This is plainly stated in Ephesians five, but Paul makes the point there that it was already evident in chapter two of Genesis, where verse 24 is primarily about Christ and His bride, and only secondly applies to everyone else who is married. It is not only an outline of most humans’ lives. Firstly, it is an outline of the divine plan.

And that plan is for Christ/man to be united to His bride/church/woman. So, Creator and creature can’t be so different it makes that end absurd. Christ Himself became man, and this is, as Scaer emphasizes, notcondescending or humiliating. It is somehow fitting, or it would still be unfitting for Christ to be man now.

It is not that God was surprised by man’s Fall, and then decided to take on flesh. No, it was the plan all along. He chose this way before the foundation of the world, before the Fall. Yet, as Scaer also points out, in taking on flesh, and humiliating Himself to the form of a sinful man, the Son of God also comes to take on that which does separate us, namely, sin, and to wash us clean of that stain – in order that we would be married!

He chose us. He chose man. He chose to become man. And He never gives it up. To be sure, many sermons have made the following point, but to reiterate: as God put Adam into a deep sleep, and took from his side to make a bride meet/proper/fit for him, so also when Christ was asleep, from His side comes that which creates the bride meet/proper/fit for Him.

Just as it would be wrong to draw such a sharp distinction between the fact that men and women are different, and conclude they couldn’t possibly go together, so also it is true of God and man.