RE POSTED CHRISTOLOGY --- THE DOCTRINE OF JESUS CHRIST Christology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that focuses on the person and work of Jesus Christ. While focusing primarily on the person of Jesus Christ, Christology also considers the work of Christ to some extent because who Christ is will determine what He is able to do. Christology seeks to answer the following questions:Who is Jesus Christ?What does the Bible say about Jesus Christ?What does history say about Jesus Christ?What do other religions say about Jesus Christ?Why is the Christian view of Jesus the correct view?How important is Jesus Christ to the individual and to the world?There are a number of 1st Century philosophers and historians who wrote about Jesus, including Flavius Josephus. However, most of the detailed information about Jesus is recorded in the New Testament of the Bible, especially in the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is Almighty God incarnated into human flesh. Before the incarnation, Jesus Christ existed from eternity past in Heaven as the Word of God, possessing the full nature of God (John 1:1). The Word worked together with the other two Persons of the Holy Trinity to create all things in heaven and in earth (Genesis 1:26, 27; John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17). He was the chief messenger of God during Old Testament times as He was called the Angel of the Lord (Genesis 22:11-18; Exodus 3:2; 23:20, 21; Judges 13:18), who spoke to Abraham, Jacob, Moses and others. Though He was of the nature of God, the Word emptied Himself of His divine prerogatives and took on a human nature, but He never ceased to be fully God as He dwelt among humanity (John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-9). Jesus was born of a virgin woman named Mary, after the Holy Spirit conceived Him inside the virgins womb (Matthew 1:18-21; Luke 1:31-35). While on earth, Jesus was born in the Judean town of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1) and was called by the Hebrew name Yeshua HaMashiach. He was also called Jesus the Nazarene or Jesus of Nazareth, because He was raised in the Galilean town of Nazareth (Matthew 2:23). From the time of His birth to the time of His death, Jesus was perfect, sinless and holy in all His ways and in every aspect of His being, and now Jesus remains perfect forever (John 8:29; Hebrews 4:15; 9:28; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; 2:22, 23; 1 John 3:5). Jesus was baptized and received the Holy Spirit at about thirty years old, and He began His great ministry at that time (Luke 3:21-23). Jesus began His ministry His ministry in Galilee, and He traveled throughout Palestine into Judea, Samaria, and even non-Jewish regions like Tyre and Sidon. He purposefully chose at least twelve apostles to help Him in the ministry. Many miracles and supernatural signs were performed by Jesus, including the expulsion of demons, healing various sickness like leprosy, restoring sight to the blind, restoring hearing to the deaf, raising dead people back to life, and multiplying a small amount of food to feed thousands of people. Even as Jesus performed miracles, He preached the Gospel of salvation to everyone around Him, without caving in to criticism from His enemies. Jesus message of salvation and His parables were unpopular among His fellow Jews, plus He courageously exposed the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders. Though some accepted Jesus message and believed on Him, the Jewish nation as a whole rejected Jesus as their Messiah and called for the Romans to crucify Him on a cross. This set the stage for the ultimate reason why Jesus came into the world, and that is to give His life as a ransom and a propitiation for the sins of humanity (Matthew 20:28; Romans 5:6-11, Galatians 3:13, 14; Colossians 2:13-15; 1 Peter 2:24, 25; 1 John 4:9, 10). Jesus was bodily resurrected from the dead with a glorified body three days after His crucifixion (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4). He ascended to Heaven forty days after His resurrection, an He now sits at Gods right hand (Acts 1:9-11; Hebrews 1:3; 10:12). Jesus twelve apostles picked up where He left off in His ministry, and, after they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they spread Jesus Gospel from Jerusalem to the surrounding regions, and then to Gentiles all over the world (Acts 1:8). Jesus promises to return to earth in the future to rapture the Church, and to deliver the Jews of the nation of Israel, and to render judgment on unrepentant sinners (Romans 11:25-27; 1 Thessalonians 1:7-10; 4:16-18). Jesus fulfilled more than 330 Bible prophecies during His 33 1/2 years of life on earth, and more prophecies will be fulfilled by Him in the future.Christology is perhaps the most important theological focus of the Word of God, since Jesus Christ is the centerpiece and executor of Gods plan of redemption from sin. Jesus is the only Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). Everything that God has ever done for humanity, is currently doing for humanity, or will ever do for humanity is through Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ. Paul gives the sweeping assertion of Christ being the Sum Total of humanitys redemption and the focus of all of Gods dealings with humanity in Colossians 1:13-19. All of these facts place Jesus far above the miniature position which so much of modern false religion places Him, and sets Him forever apart and infinitely higher than the so-called religious leaders of the world. Jesus is not merely another religious leader or Ascended Master; He is not merely one of many ways to God and salvation; instead, Jesus is the ONLY WAY. Jesus is not merely another expounder of truth; instead, He is THE TRUTH. Jesus Himself gives full meaning to the worship of God the Father with the statement, I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. No man comes to the Father except through ME. (John 14:6). Jesus emphasizes the error and futility of all the other man-made approaches to God by man-made religions in trying to sneak up some other way as Liars and Thieves; (John 10:1-9).Christology is not only among the most important areas of Christian theology, it is also one of the most debated. This is because Jesus the Son of God is the most attacked of all the three Persons of the Trinity. Jews and Muslims reject the deity of Jesus Christ, plus Pseudo-Christian cults like Mormons, Christadelphians, Jehovahs Witnesses, and the UPCI reject the full deity of Jesus Christ and the Trinity as well. Virtually everyone who reads the Bible would agree that the Father is God, but so many people question whether or not the Son, Jesus Christ, is God. Jesus foretold that many false prophets and antichrists would come pretending to be Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:5). The apostles also foretold that Satan would deceive people by using preachers that preach a false Jesus and deny the Christ as truly come in the flesh (2 Corinthians 11:3, 4; 1 John 4:1-3).Among those who accept the deity of Jesus Christ, there are at least two views that dominate: Chalcedonian and Miaphysitism. The Chalcedonian view is the most commonly held view in the Christian churches, and it is derived from the Creed of Chalcedon. The Chalcedonian view holds that Jesus is a hypostatic union of two distinct natures: 100% God and 100% human, not half God and half human. Jesus humanity and divinity are not mixed or dissolved into each other; instead, the two natures are united without loss of separate identity. Jesus sometimes operated within the limitations of His humanity, while at other times He operated in the unlimited powers of His deity. In both natures, Jesus actions were from His one Person. Jesus had two natures, but only one personality that was in control of all His actions. However, miaphysitism holds that Jesus has only one nature that is a fusion of God and humanity. Miaphysitism holds that, in the one person of Jesus Christ, the nature of God and the human nature are united in one single nature, the divine and the human are united without separation, without confusion, and without alteration, like a solution of salt and water. The one nature is God incarnate. In this way, all the attributes of God and humanity are displayed in the one person of Jesus Christ. It should be noted that miaphysitism is not the same as monophysitism, which teaches that Jesus had only one nature in which Jesus humanity was completely overtaken by the divine nature. Miaphysitism is embraced by Oriental Orthodox Churches in parts of Asia and Africa. The Chalcedonian view is preferred by most Christians because it maintains that God remained infinite and completely unchanged at the incarnation, despite clothing Himself with a human nature. The Chalcedonians believe that miaphystism would render Jesus unable to act as Mediator and unable to truly atone for our sins.Radically heretical views about the person of Jesus Christ include arianism and modalism. Arianism is a heresy teaching that Jesus is not of the same nature as God the Father, but is instead a created being exalted above all other creatures. Some arians teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, while other arians teach that Jesus was a human who was eventually adopted as the Son of God and granted a certain amount of deity. Modalism (Sabellianism) is a heresy teaching that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are just modes of the single person who is God; that is Jesus. In other words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not coexistent and distinct Persons but consecutive modes of the one person Jesus Christ. There are many more proofs in the Holy Bible that give irrefutable proof of the deity of Jesus Christ, but I will not discuss all of them in this one note because there are so many of them. One thing for certain is that Jesus NEVER ceased to be God after His taking on a human nature, because if Jesus were ONLY a created being (angel or human) at the time of His crucifixion on the Cross of Calvary, His ransom sacrifice would NOT have been sufficient enough to pay for the many sins of everyone seeking salvation. The ransom for sin had to be infinite because the eternal punishment for sin is infinite, and God is the only one qualified to pay an infinite price without being totally consumed and defeated in the process.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 05:00:58 +0000
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