| Summary: | In this study we shall deal with the great affirmation of the Bible that the purpose of God which is manifested in the history of Israel is the same purpose on which the entire creation is founded. Being a redemptive purpose, it is conceived not as an abstract, immovable design, but as effective in itself, identical with the creator's word striving for fulfillment in the world. Jesus fulfills this all-inclusive purpose as the Messiah of Israel, bringing the chosen people of God, and in principle the entire cosmos, to a final crisis wherein divine judgment is enacted on human sin and the new humanity is brought into being. The new humanity, inaugurated in Christ's fulfillment of the creator's purpose, is an eschatological concept and offers man the possibility of becoming a complete man in Jesus Christ. Man's response to this offer involves the recognition of human solidarity, even cosmic solidarity, for, by divine intent, he lives not in isolation, but in a network of relationships to the rest of creation.
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