Christology · Theology · Uncategorized

A Short Article on Christology.

  1. The Son always was.  His being never, not existed as the eternal Son, the second personage of the one triune God. The Son is not a created being.  He did not come into existence.  He has always been. (Eternality of the Son)
  2. Everything that exists, exists because it was brought into existence by the preincarnate Christ Jesus.  He was not diminished by creating.  He created everything out of nothing. (Ex nihilo)
  3. The Son needs nothing that He doesn’t already poses in the Godhead.  His being is not predicated on any other external sources, or origins. (Aseity of God)
  4. The incarnation was the joining of the nature of God with the nature of man, except the fallen nature that is a slave to sin.  This was accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit, forming a body inside Mary, for Christ Jesus.  The two natures were perfectly joined without mingling their essences in what is called by theologians the, “hypostatic union.”  This was necessary for Christ to be our stand in, substitute for the punishment of sin, and so that it could be accomplished.  A mere man would have died after tasting the slightest moment of the wrath of God, which he so justly deserves.  This is why Jesus had to be God.  Colossians 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,”  He had to be a man because God is eternal and immutable.  God does not die, nor does He change.  If Christ were solely God, He could not have died for our sins, nor could He have experienced the wrath of God. (Incarnation, Kenosis, Hypostatic Union, Penal Substitutionary Atonement, & Immutability)
  5. Jesus never sinned.  He obeyed all of God’s will, because He is God.  He was, and is righteous. (Righteousness of Christ, God incarnate)
  6. Jesus not only took our place, and punishment, He was punished as if He had committed all of the sins that we are guilty of.
  7. Jesus is our righteousness.  If a person will repent from their sins, and believe in the work of Christ to atone for their sins on the cross, then His righteousness is imputed to them.  They are seen by God to possess the righteousness of the Son. (Imputed Righteousness)
  8. Jesus fulfills the prophecies of scripture in regards to Himself, the Messiah.
  9. The Bible is called the word of God.  In the Old and New Testaments we read that Word of God is also referred to as the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son, the Christ. We also read that the Word was made flesh.  Jesus quotes His words from the Old Testament, in His rebukes and arguments, recorded in the New Testament.  All of the Bible is theopneustos, (θεόπνευστος) or God breathed.  It is the mind of Christ that we may know Him, by the illumining of the Spirit, according to the Father’s will.
  10. The Son condescended from the majesty of Heaven, to Earth and a joining of Himself in the man Jesus, at the incarnation.  He demonstrated humility by humbly uniting Himself at the incarnation in the form of man and becoming a servant. (Kenosis)
  11. Jesus, as the God/Man was truly tempted.  He was also assailed by Satan.  Satan threw every temptation he could at Jesus to entice Him to sin.  Jesus did not sin.  Under all of that stress, He remained sinless. (Impeccability of Christ)
  12. Christ ultimately died, after He completely paid for all of the sin of those who would be saved.  He experienced death, and was buried. He is man.
  13. Christ was resurrected back to life.  He laid it down voluntarily, and picked it up again by His own power.  He is God.
  14. Christ ascended and was exalted.  He makes intercession for us now with the Father.  He functions as our one and only Priest.  That is why we have no human Priests. He is our one and only Prophet, who gave us the scriptures.  He is our King, who rules us.  We must submit to Him.
  15. Jesus will return to conquer the forces of satan once and for all.  He is a conquering warrior King who returns in glory.

This is just a short article

9 thoughts on “A Short Article on Christology.

  1. We don’t have the incarnation of Jesus until his conception in the womb of the virgin and his birth in Bethlehem. So it would be anachronistic to talk about Jesus existing and doing things before his conception and birth.

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  2. Do you know of any books that are especially good in this area; that is, thoroughly orthodox and also quite readable?
    I am puzzled by the thought that Christ would be eternally in a state of incarnation. It seems at odds with the thought that He would return to the same condition of glory He originally had with the Father (Jn 17:5).

    (Also, a minor thing: the spelling of “possess” in item #7.)

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    1. When you say, “I am puzzled by the thought that Christ would be eternally in a state of incarnation.” do you mean pre-incarnation, or post incarnation? If post, do you mean after the ascension? Eternity is a difficult thing for us, because we live in time and space that unfolds. It is hard to say how those things are in eternity. We might have an ontological concept that doesn’t seem to make sense logically in our temporal existence, but otherwise would be very clear from an eternal perspective. From our point of view, before the incarnation, the Son was not joined to human nature as in the hypostatic union, until the incarnation, but from an eternal perspective I don’t know what that would look like. We think that logically there is a progression from one thing to another, but I don’t know how instances would work in an infinite instance, or ageless age. That part to me is a mystery. I am curious what the Puritans have to save about it. I’m still learning and studying. If you have studied it further, I’d appreciate your insights.

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      1. I have not studied it much, but have been taught that Christ will have His post-resurrection body throughout eternity. That just seems odd to me; it seems more reasonable that He would be in the same form as before the incarnation. (But this is strictly an academic question, as I cannot see how it would impact anything else in any way, so maybe it is best that I not invest energy in such things.)

        Thanks Bob.

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      2. Bob — Have you ever studied conditionalism/annihilationism? I was challenged to do so a couple of years ago and found that I could no longer hold to eternal torment for the unsaved.

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      3. I did a pretty thorough look into them a few years back. It convinced me even more of the justice of God in punishing unrepentant sinners in Hell for eternity. For God’s love to be perfect, so must His justice, and since He is infinitely authoritative and righteous, than any offense against Him deserves and infinite punishment.

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      4. Should you ever find that you again had the interest to explore the verses and passages involved I would enjoy interacting with you. Have a great week.

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