The incarnation of the Son of God was motivated exclusively by mankind's sin.1.49 Redemption in Jesus Christ is to be understood in terms of satisfactio, expiatio and placatio. The guilt of sinful existence is reconciled. No new substance is added to creation and we are not redeemed from creation because creation is good.1.50 It is creation itself, in its totality that is saved. ``The redemptive work in Jesus Christ only happened in order that creation could again exist before the countenance of God.''1.51 The world has been redeemed and on the basis of Christ's merit we are pronounced just. But we have seen that this salvation is concealed and that is why the time of salvation is also the time of missionary work. In order to experience this world as the kingdom of Christ in the present, people must know that they are saved, that they are forgiven. Christ not only rules in the midst of his enemies, he rules for the sake of his enemies.
However the New Testament and the Creeds of the Church do not only talk of our present salvation but of a future kingdom of glory where there is no sin. At present Christ is our mediator, our substitute and he fills, spirituali modo, all in all (Eph. 1:23) but at the end he will give the kingdom to the Father so that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24,28). Then there will be direct communion with the triune God, and we will no longer need a mediator, a substitute. But Christ is understood purely in terms of his substitution for us and as mediator between us and God because of this substitution. Therefore Christ will be superfluous in the eschaton. Thus ``he ceases to be Messiah; he only causes things to be saved in order that in the joy of their existence they may praise God and the Lamb.''1.52 However three things must be remembered: firstly Jesus Christ is a means to an end, the end is more important than the means, but one cannot act as if the incarnation has already fallen away. In order to reach the eschaton we must be incorporated into him.1.53 Secondly the thesis that Jesus Christ was an emergency measure relates to the incarnate Son rather than the eternal Son. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity is not affected by it, and it has nothing whatever to do with subordinationism.1.54Thirdly, creation is respected as creation and God as God. Creation is saved as creation. In the kingdom of God nothing remains except the triune God and all things in their naked (redeemed) existence.1.55 It is true we must go through the unio mystica cum Christo but this is the means not the end. One could say that the proton returns in the eschaton, but not in the sense of a restitio in integrum - a plus must be acknowledged in the eschaton above the proton.1.56
Thus far in this chapter we have looked at the motive for the incarnation, the inseparability of the person and work of Christ and how this is to be understood functionally in Anselm's terms. It has been demonstrated that A.A. van Ruler's understanding of these doctrines corresponds to that of Creeds of the Reformed Church and various notable reformed theologians, for instance, Calvin, Berkouwer, Heppe, Melanchthon, Bavinck and J.H. Heidegger to name a few. This has been done in order to show that Van Ruler bases himself squarely on the tradition accepted by the Reformed Church and to make it clear whether he has remained true to this tradition.
Following these accepted doctrines we have given a brief overview of Van Ruler's doctrine of the messianic intermezzo.
Before we proceed with a closer look at the various ideas of this doctrine, and in order to give a deeper understanding of this theologoumenon of the messianic intermezzo we will end this chapter by considering some of the objections raised against it by J. Moltmann.