As our teacher, Jesus is both the image that we copy and the image that makes us his copy. Schleiermacher referred to this former image as Vorbild, literally the image (bild) out in front of us (vor) for emulation. This is what people think of when they say he’s just a teacher. But because Jesus’ God-consciousness always had priority over his Self-consciousness, he also functioned as what Schleiermacher called Urbild, that is, the original (ur) image (bild) upon which humanity is patterned. As Vorbild, Jesus gives us the example of how to live. As Urbild, he exerts pneumatic power to form us
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