God declares: He declares His Righteousness to be the Truth behind and beyond all human righteousness and unrighteousness. He declares that He has espoused our cause, and that we belong to Him. He declares that we, His enemies, are His beloved children. He declares His decision to erect His justice by the complete renewal of heaven and earth. This declaration is creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. Uttered by God from His tribunal, it is grounded in Him alone, and is without occasion or condition. Such creation is assuredly genuine creation, the creation of the divine righteousness in us and in the world. When God speaks, it is done. But the creation is a new creation; it is not a mere new eruption, or extension, or unfolding, of that old ‘creative evolution’ of which we form a part, and shall remain a part, till our lives’ end. Between the old and the new creation is set always the end of this man and of this world.
—Karl Barth,
The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns (London: Oxford UP, 1933), 101-102
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