Chapter 5: The Obstinate Toy Soldiers

I. The opposition of the bios to zoe
    A. Bios wants to be left alone.
    B. Bios is threatened by zoe.
    C. Zoe will kill the self-centeredness of bios if allowed.
II. The analogy of the tin soldiers
    A. Suppose one wanted the tin soldier to come alive.
    B. That would require replacing the tin with flesh.
    C. If the tin soldier did not like that, he would resist.
III. What God did
    A. The Son, the second person of the Trinity, was born into the world as a human being.
    B. In Jesus, human, created life became divine, begotten life.
    C. The human life of Jesus was killed.
    D. The natural life was taken into the divine life and restored.
    E. By analogy, a tin soldier came to life.
IV. The human family
    A. Individuals are not as separate as they look, but they are connected, like a single organism.
    B. Because God sustains them, individuals are not separate from God, either.
    C. Christ becoming man affects the whole mass of humanity.
        1. It affects those who came before Christ as well as those who came after.
        2. It affects those who have never heard of Him.
    D. The task of changing from a created being to a begotten one has been done for us.
        1. Humanity has been saved, in principle.
        2. We do not have to carry out that change by our own efforts.
        3. We have only to appropriate salvation.
        4. This is the “good infection” that we can “catch” from Christ if we get close to Him.
    E. Do not quarrel about which formula best expresses this idea.

Discussion Questions: (pp.178-182)
    1. In what sense must the natural life in us be killed? (Gal. 2:19-20) (p. 179)
    2. How does the Incarnation make a difference to those who came before Christ? and to those who have never heard of Christ? (pp. 180-181)
    3. How do we appropriate salvation? (p. 181)