event to be able to bear this burden of being the revelation of the hidden essence of God, it must maintain its place within an eternal event from which such a self-abandonment of God to the world can dare to be asserted despite all our anticipated reservations about so bold a move. If, in the Old Testament, creation is primarily a manifestation of God’s free power, in the New Testament, it is—without ceasing to be a clear witness to this omnipotence—at the same time a revelation of God’s self-surrender.