Half baked jottings on nature / grace / creation / salvation / sacraments and incarnation and so on

So, we know that we are not meant to be Gnostics. Creation is good.

We must always remember the Creator-Creation distinction, but it is not so much our creatureliness that makes it hard for us to relate to God. Indeed, God made us in his image for relationship with Himself.

The barrier or problem in relating to God is (chiefly?) due to sin.

Creation is God's good work which proclaims his glory. It is a work of art which reflects its maker.

Unfallen creation could be said to contain the sacraments of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Assuming for a moment that it is sensible to speak this way and that we can speculate about such things, some have argued that the incarnation would have taken place even if the fall had not.

The relationship between nature and grace is a complex and controversial matter. Creation / nature is always already a matter of grace - God's generous and unforced, undeserved choice to share his overflowing life.

But this side of the fall, talk of incarnational and sacramental ontology must take account of sin, perhaps more fully than is sometimes the case. This, the Reformed might especially bring to the party. How does God's saving intervention transform creation?

Salvation fulfils creation. It is more than a restoration. Because of the fall radical resurrection life must be given entirely from outside.

(vaguely prompted by mulling over bits of Vanhoozer, After Babel, e.g. roughly pp48-55)