Church Dogmatics I/1, p.510 - "God the Son"

"In our inquiry into the NT doctrine of the divinity of Christ we ended with tautology, that for the men of the NT Jesus Christ is the Lord, because he is the Lord. We cannot set this tautology aside, but we can now describe it in this way: to them he is the Reconciler-God, by being the Creator-God. His judgment and his grace touch them because he touches their existence. Of course the reverse of the statement must also be made forthwith, that he touches their existence, because he touches them with his judgment and his grace. The meaning thus cannot be that in their existence, in their creaturely humanness, they possessed a canon given them previously, were pleased upon the application of this canon to accept his judgment and his grace, and on that score believed in him as Lord and the Son of God. Rather by his judgment and his grace, the way out, the way of escape into such a previously given and assured humanness is actually barred, every private canon wrested from our grasp and every private measurement spoiled." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics I/1, p. 510)

[In other words, the disciples never came to faith in Jesus as God because they were excellent Bible students. They also did not come to accept that he was God because they experienced his love and his "redemption." They somehow, beyond their capacity to understand, began to realize that He is Lord - and because He is Lord, He is able to redeem. (M.I. 4/19/09)]