Lieber sich dem Urteil des gerechten Gottes zu stellen und auf seine freie Gnade zu hoffen, als den erbarmungslosen Urteilen der Mitmenschen ausgeliefert zu sein. Diese Sätze haben mich in meiner heutigen “Studierzeit” sehr beschäftigt:
It is truly not Scripture alone that judges humans harshly. It is human beings who have pronounced the harshest and most severe judgment on themselves. And it is always better to fall into the hands of the Lord than into those of people, for his mercy is great. For when God condemns us, he at the same time offers his forgiving love in Christ, but when people condemn people, they frequently cast them out and make them the object of scorn. When God condemns us, he has this judgment brought to us by people—prophets and apostles and ministers—who do not elevate themselves to a level high above us but include themselves with us in a common confession of guilt. By contrast, philosophers and moralists, in despising people, usually forget that they themselves are human. When God condemns, he speaks of sin and guilt that, though great and heavy, can be removed because they do not belong to the essence of humanity. But moralists frequently speak of egoistic animal tendencies that belong to humans by virtue of their origin and are part of their essence.
Herman Bavinck. Reformed Dogmatics. Bd. 3. S. 124.
