88. God in Christ
If we speak only of Christ suffering and dying, we overlook the initiative of the Father. If we speak only of God suffering and dying, we overlook the mediation of the Son. The New Testament authors never attribute the atonement either to Christ in such a way as to disassociate him from the Father, or to God in such a way as to dispense with Christ, but rather to God and Christ, or to God acting in and through Christ with his whole-hearted concurrence.
--From "The Cross of Christ" (Leicester and Downers Grove: IVP, 1986), p. 156.
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--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 54, by permission of InterVarsity Press.
I think this addresses the tendency of some groups of Christians who, maybe only in their diction, focus on God and seem to forget about Jesus, and other groups who focus so much on Jesus that they forget to acknowledge God. I'm sure neither forgets either the Father or the Son, but I often think about the outsiders, who sometimes don't get a full picture of the trinity. And even here we have not mentioned the Holy Spirit...but I guess I've taken this a step or three beyond what Stott was trying to address.
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