Christ

Since I have been in my systematic class, we have had to write several position papers on the various areas of theology. One of them reminded me of my conversation with Marcel. It was on the person of Christ and what He means to us as Christians. I am posting it on here in its entire content.

The dogma of the nature of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of His kenosis are both key elements to having a sound, biblical theology. Their study and discussion ultimately affects or helps to formulate what we will believe about other doctrines and dogmas.
I believe that it was necessary for Jesus to be both fully God and fully man for a number of reasons but I will expand on only a few. One is the human need for a mediator between God’s holy justice and our sinful natures. God’s law requires perfection and no fallen human can ever measure up to that standard. Therefore, we need reconciliation or a settlement of our case before the Great Judge. It is important to remember here that “the reconciliation that was needed was between God and human beings” (Sproul 7) and not any other species. Jesus becoming human then makes sense, because it was the human race that was in need of reconciliation and in order to have full reconciliation, the Reconciler had to be able to bring about a complete reunion between God and man which could only be done through the possession of both human and divine natures. The way in which Jesus accomplished His role as mediator was through the Redemption. Through His act of complete obedience, Jesus did what Adam failed to do as the first mediator. “The failure was rectified by the perfect success of Christ, the God-man” because “He entered into a corporate solidarity with our humanity” (Sproul 7).
The other reason is to affirm the promises of God and through the affirmation bring glory to God’s name. Paul tells us clearly in Romans 15:8-9a “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy”. We see that the vindication of God’s truth (the true nature of God) and His promises was the purpose of Jesus becoming a “servant to circumcision”; in essence, fully incarnate man. But we must also remember that Jesus could not have fulfilled divine promises by just being human; he had to possess a fully divine nature as well. What do promises have to do with the redemptive work of Christ? Everything, because it was the promise that a Redeemer, a Messiah, a Savior would come into the world that had sustained the Jewish people for centuries. Even when it seemed that the word or promises of God had failed because many of the Jews rejected the redemptive work of Christ, Paul states in Romans 9:6 “It is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel”. What Paul seems to be saying here is that the promises of God will not fall short because the true receivers of the promise will see it fulfilled. “In other words, within Israel there is an elect Israel, and these will be saved and the word of God - the word of promise - will stand and never fail those whom he sovereignly plans to save” therefore “the word of God stands because Christ came into the world and did the work that had to be done to save the elect” (Piper).
In the beginning of Christianity, many heresies abounded concerning the nature or
two natures of Christ. Most of the heresies persist today, although under different forms and names. The major heresies denying the divine nature of Christ were: Ebionism-denied Christ’s deity in the 2nd century. Taught the Holy Spirit came on man Jesus at the baptism. They were particularly Jewish Christians. Arianism- Christ created by the Father-not God but more than man. Arianism was condemned at Council of Nicea -321. Nestorianism-declare Christ had two different natures. He had no union between them. Regarding the human nature of Christ, the major heresies were: Docetism-they totally denied the humanity of Christ-taught he was just a phantom. Appolinarianism-taught that Christ’s humanity was incomplete. Monotheism-Christ had one divine will. Adoptionism -Christ adopted humanity. Eutychianism-was a hybrid. Christ had a “theanthropic nature”. Also called the Monophysite heresy.
All of these heresies tried to honor God by emphasizing one side of Christ’s nature or the other. Why they fell into heresy is because they failed to see that it was an emphasis of Christ’s two separate but equal natures in complete union with each other that was correct and pleasing to God.
In considering the Kenosis doctrine, I think we must take great caution because when we start discussing the possibilities of how Jesus limited Himself, we tend to go to one extreme or the other. The options we debated in class are all viable except for the belief that Jesus gave up all His divine attributes. If this were true, He would not have been God. However, I believe we should focus more on the obedience of Christ in the kenosis than anything else. It is the complete and perfect obedience of Christ which defined Him as the “suffering servant”. His obedience contains two realms; the passive and the active. Donald Macleod, professor of systematic theology at Free Church College, defines it as “the passive obedience of Christ is His suffering on the cross; His active obedience is His performing all the duties required by the Law” (Macleod 13). The danger of deciding which type of obedience accomplished certain acts of Christ is avoided by adopting the stance of Calvin and other theologians: “From the moment He put on the person of a servant, He began to pay the price for our redemption” and He accomplished it “by the whole course of His obedience” (Calvin’s Institutes). Disputes may continue about what Christ’s form as a servant consisted of, but the crucial point is that He came in faultless obedience of the Father and lived His life out in that obedience even unto the death. His obedience gave glory to the Father, recompensed our sins, met the standard of God’s divine justice, ransomed the church, and secured victory over sin and death for all time (Macleod). By His grace and mercy, we have become the recipients of all that He accomplished.

Today

Today I had an interesting conversation with my friend from Brazil. Marcel was asking me about the validity of preachers (to use such a term is being very generous) such as Benny Hinn and the like. I bluntly told him that I believed they were teachers of a false gospel and were condemning people to Hell. He was rather surprised and asked why I thought that. I told him it was because they were creating their own version of the gospel which made it all about man when it is supposed to be all about God. He talked alot about his own spiritual feelings and how he had been going to a church that was encouraging him to speak in tongues. Not withstanding the fact that I am not sure of Marcel's own eternal status, I told him that the focus of our spiritual life should not be on our own experiences and what God can do for us but rather on who God is and what His true nature is and the glory in all of that. I told him that this is the reason that so many people are shallow or even false Christians; because it is all about ME and what MY religious feelings are. He told me that he had been reading alot in the Bible lately and I encouraged him to continue to do so because this is the only source that he will get the true understanding of who God really is and how He essentially is all we need for our salvation. Marcel is a very confused guy who is struggling with the myriad perspectives that our American denominations are throwing at him in addition to the animistic Catholicism background that he has brought with him from Brazil. Throughout the years I have known him, he has been on a quest for the real Truth and I have attempted in my feeble way to point him in the right direction. I pray that one day his eyes will be opened to the full glory and light of salvation and he will find in God his ultimate treasure.

A Start

Most people would laugh in my face for attempting this again...however, I will make the effort. I have learned alot over the past few months and I would like to share a little. I have been reading other blog posts by a certain person and have realized what an impact a few short sentences can have on people. I am not trying to enlighten or influence society as a whole, just "shine in my place" (to quote one of my favorite fictional characters).