- Grace is represented by the simple formula X = X*. Being – also – is represented by the same formula. Therefore, grace is the law of being.
- X = X* is the law of miracle; this formula expresses the necessity of multiple filling. Everything is necessarily more than itself. Every space is necessarily filled completely more than once in the same sense and at the same time.
- Nowhere as in the idea of the Holy Trinity, the overcoming of the principle of narrow or strict (self-)identity comes to light. The Father is really different from the Son and from the Holy Spirit, nevertheless the three persons amount to one God. Therefore, the space of the only deity is multiply (thrice) filled. The Father fills completely the entire space of deity: there is no more room for the Son and for the Spirit. Nevertheless, the Son and the Spirit find place: that is grace. Grace is therefore not only and not primarily a mode of relationship between God and mankind; grace is the rule of God. Inasmuch as grace is the law of the divine being, an image of grace is likewise the law of being qua being.
- Grace is not sacrifice. On the contrary, grace is the opposite of sacrifice in the field of religious language (and experience). If the Father were to reduce himself in favour of the Son, we would have not grace, but sacrifice. The Father does not shrink to make room to the Son and the Holy Spirit. Shrinking would be sacrifice, but there is no sacrifice in God. The Father takes place and there is no room for anyone else. Then the Son arrives, and lo: the entire space of deity is now at his disposal (Where did the Father end up? He ends up nowhere, he doesn’t disappear. The Son is added, but God doesn’t become greater, since the addition [*] does not come from the outside). Sacrifice can be at the most an implementation of grace. We can metaphorically say that the Father empties himself, that He allows the Son to pass through ahead of Him. This means translating grace into the ethical logic of sacrifice.
Filling the Void or Filling the Full? On the Concept of Grace