Thomas F. Torrance and the Fallen God

“Perhaps the most fundamental truth which we have to learn in the Christian Church,” declares the great Scottish theologian Thomas F. Torrance, “or rather, relearn since we have suppressed it, is that the Incarnation was the coming of God to save us in the heart of our fallen and depraved humanity, where humanity is at its wickedest in its enmity and violence against the reconciling love of God.” If you are an Orthodox or Catholic (or perhaps even Protestant), you are probably wincing and thinking to yourself: “This guy sounds like he’s saying that Jesus became a sinner. And what’s all this talk about the Church suppressing a fundamental truth?” But Torrance brazenly continues:

That is to say, the Incarnation is to be understood as the coming of God to take upon himself our fallen human nature, our actual human existence laden with sin and guilt, our humanity dressed in mind…