The Word of God addresses us with sovereign power, rendering us—and indeed the church and the world—hearers of this Word, claiming our very being, and deciding upon and asking after our obedience or disobedience in response. The characterization of the nature of the Word of God which Barth deploys here is mystery, as he writes that ‘Our concept of God and His Word can only be an indication of the limits of our conceiving’ (I/1, 164). The Word of God is never at our disposal as an object in the world.
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