By Schubert Ogden
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In the first place, a human being lives by the actuality, or event, of grace, whether this be the grace of creation or the grace of redemption. But on the assumption that God could not conceivably fail to act graciously both in creating and redeeming any world that could even possibly exist, every human being in every moment of his or her existence lives by the actuality of God's grace or, at any rate, has the possibility of so living, because God has always already – -- preveniently – -- acted graciously toward him or her individually here and now. This is the case, indeed, whether or not he or she is explicitly aware of it, and even if he or she may explicitly deny it.
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For Bultmann, however, this is already to say that a human being lives by the grace that is spoken to him or her in (or through) Jesus Christ. But, once again, there is another alternative, since one's need for grace to be explicitly represented could quite possibly be met by someone or something other than Jesus Christ, provided only that he is not the only event in which grace is spoken, which, of course, is precisely the question. Given the assumption that, because God could not conceivably fail to act graciously both in creating and redeeming everything that God creates, every human being in every moment of his or her existence either lives or has the possibility of living by the actuality of Gods grace, it is entirely reasonable to allow ' that the gift and demand of grace could be explicitly represented to one through someone or something other than Jesus Christ, even if, as a matter of fact, he is the only event in which grace is spoken to one.
The truth seems to be that Bultmann's entirely correct understanding of grace and faith as event rather than idea is so tied up with a traditional model of grace as given only in or through Jesus Christ that he never even considers certain alternatives – -- alternatives that would allow one to affirm what he wishes to affirm and is justified in affirming as well as to deny what this affirmation requires one to deny, even while not affirming or denying his own position.