In Praise of Monergism - Barth, Romans and Reformation, pt.3

"The atonement that occurred in Him [i.e. Jesus] is an invisible atonement which is contrasted with any soul and sense relationship between us and Jesus as impossibility is contrasted with possibility, death with life, non-existence with existence. Compared with all that we are and have and do, it is - satisfactio vicaria." - Karl Barth, Romans, p.160

This is the passage that inspired me to write about Barth this time.

What did Barth mean that Christ's atonement is invisible? Not that Jesus did not die for us in space and time, visibly, but that WE CANNOT LOOK AT HISTORY OR KNOWLEDGE OR OURSELVES OR OUR LIVES OR FAITH OR RELIGION OR RIGHTEOUSNESS OR PRAYER OR ANYTHING ELSE to know that we are reconciled to God. It is not my experiences of faith that assure me that I am elect and atoned for and saved. It is not any proven "historical Jesus" that assures me I am right. It is no internally experienced "Christ of faith"in whom I have faith. Neither I do not place faith in my faith. I place my faith in Jesus Christ, the Revealed One who reveals and reconciles me to the Unapproachable, Unknown, and Holy One, who is God.