Christology
As
I glanced at the tract I was handed I could only smile and say to myself, well
at least they got it half right this time! Jesus was a man, fully human in
every aspect. He was conceived in the womb of his mother Mary and was born in a
town called Bethlehem.[1]
He shared the same feelings as any other man of his time, when he was hungry he
ate, tired he took a nap, when he saw an injustice being done he became angry.[2]
He was a man in every aspect but one, He never sinned. He was also called the
Son of God.[3]
Jesus
was born of a virgin conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, who
was betrothed to Mary, was told by an angel exactly how Mary would conceive,
and what he would name the baby![4]
The supernatural means of Jesus’ birth which was foretold hundreds of years
before is enough evidence for me to believe the deity of Christ. However,
Towns, in his book gives further evidence of the deity of Christ and lays out
for us eight aspects to Jesus’ claim to deity.
For the sake of brevity I’ll point out just a few: (1) In the Gospel of
John, Jesus used the Jehovistic I AM, that identified him with deity, (2) Jesus
claimed to be one with the Father (John 10:30), and (3) Jesus claimed to
forgive sins (Mark 2:5-7).[5]
Jesus claimed equality with God on numerous occasions and for that the
religious leaders accused Him of blasphemy and wanted to kill Him.
Many
people have a hard time believing that Jesus can be both God and Man at the
same time. The Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) focused on the relationship of
Christ’s humanity to his divinity which is known as hypostatic union. What Paul
tells us in Philippians 2:5-11, best describes this when he says:
Have this mind
among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the
form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made
himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men, And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus made himself
nothing He laid aside his rights as God and choose instead to live by the power
of the Holy Spirit. He did on occasion use His divine attributes such as
forgiving sin which God alone can do.[6]
He never ceased being fully God. He chose to live as we do by the power of the
Holy Spirit. For Jesus to be both God and Man maintains the unity of God. How
could God allow Jesus to be created any other way? God is perfect and complete,
having never sinned. If Jesus was created any other way, it would nullify the
holiness of God. His image would be tarnished and not be perfect.
Jesus needed to become incarnate because there was no
other substitute that would satisfy God’s wrath[7].
Jesus Himself was spotless, without blemish having never sinned. He was the
only sacrifice that would cleanse us from our sin and the sins of the whole
world[8].
Jesus Christ to some is no different than any other man.
Some assert than He was born naturally (Ebionitism) and which the Holy Spirit
came at His baptism.[9]
The Bible tells us in all four gospels that Jesus was born of a virgin. Arius
claimed that Jesus Christ did not have a human soul and that the Word was made
out of nothing before time.[10]
John tells us in John 1: 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.” Apollinaris denied that Christ had complete
manhood. Christ was composed of three parts: body, animal soul, and intellect
soul.[11]
Christ was God.
The humanity of Jesus Christ demonstrated to me the love
of God. Knowing that Christ was God-Man gives me hope. He experienced the same
things I am experiencing now and overcame them through the power of the Holy
Spirit. He wasn’t a super-hero able to leap over tall buildings like we see on
TV and that we will never achieve the likeness of. But Christ, He was a man,
simple carpenter who humble himself in the form of a man but never sinned. He
emptied himself on the cross, taking the form of a bond servant and conquered
death for my sake.
[1] Lk 2:4-7 (English Standard Version)
[2] Mk 14:33
[3] Lk 1:35
[4] Matt 1:18-21
[5] Towns, Elmer L. Theology for Today. Ohio: Cengage Learning, 2008, p 155
[6] Mk 2:1-7
[7] Rom 5:9
[8] 1 Jn 2:2
[9] Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology 2nd Ed, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2001, p. 241
[10] Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology 2nd Ed, p. 242
[11] Elwall, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology 2nd Ed, p. 242
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