A Basic Look at Christology, the Humanity and Deity of Jesus Christ

Secularists and other religions will claim the man of Christ.  They will celebrate in the examples He gave us, but only focus on His humanity.  These people will speak of Him in the same context as Gandhi, Mohammad, Buddha, and consider Him a great teacher, maybe even a prophet.  However, these same people will then deny the deity of Christ.  As C.S. Lewis explained;

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.[1]

Who therefore is Christ and what is important about Christology?

            In the New Testament there is ample evidence of Christ’s humanity.  The Apostle John in his first epistle addresses how he, and other witnesses, had “heard, seen, beheld, and handled the Word of Life”.[2] Peter speaks about Christ’s resurrection in his first epistle (1 Peter 1:3, 17-21).  In his second epistle, Peter stresses the fact that he and the others did not “follow cleverly devised tales…but were eyewitnesses”.[3]  The Gospels also give proof of the humanity of Christ.  Two of the four Gospels give an account of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem and all four gospels give an account of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.  Even the Old Testament addresses the need for Christ to come in the flesh (Gen. 3:15; Deut. 18:15-18, Isaiah 53).  The deity of Christ is probably the most problematic for most secularists and theologians.  Muslims and Jehovah Witnesses will claim that Jesus never claimed deity, and the Jehovah Witnesses have gone to great lengths to try to remove all claims of deity from their particular translation.  However, if one is willing to look at the “I Am” statements in the Gospel of John they will see Christ’s deity.  In the New World translation the major I am statements are left intact, an example: “Martha said to him: ‘I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her: ‘I am the resurrection and the life…”.[4] 

            Other key Scriptures are the “I AM” statements in John (John 4:26; 6:20, 35, 41, 48, 51; 8:12, 18, 28, 58; 10:7, 11; 11:25; 13:19; 14:6; 15:1; 18:5)  These are just some of many Scriptures that support the deity of Christ.

            Even in the Old Testament we see the deity of Christ.  Dr. Outland speaks about four scriptures that also identify the deity of Christ in the Old Testament. 

            Psalm 45 rejoices in one who is both royal groom and eternal Ruler.  Psalm 110 esteems the son of David who also towers over David as God’s final answer to worldwide human rebellion.  Isaiah 9 celebrates the birth of a child who, as our divine warrior and endless benefactor, will advance David’s kingdom successfully and infinitely. Daniel 7 reveals heaven’s decree of worldwide, eternal authority conferred on a celestial being who stands forth also as a man.[5]

            People who argue that Jesus could not be both fully-God and fully-man miss some key aspects of Christology.  Christ was “tempted in every manner as we are” yet also claimed the “ability to forgive sins” something only “God could do”.  Christ had omniscience as we see when he addresses Nathaniel, yet chose at times to restrict His knowledge in the situation of the woman suffering from a blood disease.  Christ could be fully-God and fully-man because He did not “empty Himself” of His deity, but simply of His glory.  The Hypostatic Union is basically “the deity and humanity of Christ exist without confusion, without change, without division, without separation”[6].

In Romans 7 the Apostle Paul explains the purpose of Christ becoming incarnate to save humanity.  Because sin entered into the world by a man, it was necessary for righteousness to also enter into the world through one man.[7]  This man had to be perfect, “tempted in every area as we are yet without sin”[8].    The writer of Hebrews goes on to explain that the “shedding of blood is necessary for the forgiveness”[9] of sins.  Jesus’ incarnation was necessary so that the payment of sin could be paid to satisfy the Law.

When one overemphasizes the deity of Christ it can devalue His sacrifice on the cross, and the fact that He “emptied Himself” for the sake of mankind.  To deny the deity of Christ brings into question the very character of Christ, and removes the possibility of Him being a good teacher.  When we overemphasize the humanity of Christ it disallows salvation from being accessible, and all people are therefore condemned.  To deny the humanity of Christ also denies the possibility of salvation to all people because there is no payment that has satisfied the demands of the Law.

Through Church history there have been several challenges to Christology.  As one evaluates these claims it appears there are two fronts of attack.  Dr. Buswell presents a chart where he demonstrates these attack fronts.[10]  The first front actually came from those who denied the humanity of Christ and would include the Docetists, Apollinarians, and Eutychians.  One simply needs to look at Philippians 2:5-11 and John 1:1-18.  The second front, which is the more common today, is the attack on Christ’s deity.  This doctrine was supported by the Ebionites, Arians, and Eutychians.  Christ clearly claimed deity in numerous incidents through the “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John.  A clear example is in John 8:48-59.

In my own personal life the humanity of Jesus is very important.  Even though He was fully God, still He spent great amounts of time in prayer.  He was about His Father’s business, and gives me an example of what I need to follow in bringing people the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As long as the LORD allows me, my desire is to be following after the example of Jesus. 

Bibliography

Buswell, J. Oliver. "The Person of Christ, His Deity and His Humanity." In Soteriology and Eschatology, 46. Vol. 2 of A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973.

Hall, J.H., ed. "Council of Chalcedon." In Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed, edited by Walter A. Elwell, 218.-19. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001.

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity: A Revised and Enlarged Edition, with a New Introduction, of the Three Books, the Case for Christianity, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. Macmillan paperbacks ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1952.

Morgan, Christopher W., and Robert A. Peterson, eds. "The Deity of Christ and the Old Testament." In The Deity of Christ, 58. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2011.

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[1] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: MacMillian Publishing Company, 1952), 56.

[2] 1 John 1:1 (New American Standard Bible)

[3] 2 Peter 1:16 (New American Standard Bible)

[4] John 11:24-25 (New World Translation)

[5] Raymond Outland, “The Deity of Christ and the Old Testament,” in The Deity of Christ, ed. Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 58-59

[6] J. H. Hall, “Council of Chalcedon,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company, 2001), 219

[7] Romans 5:12-19 (NASB)

[8] Hebrews 4:15 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

[9] Hebrews 9:15 (HCSB)

[10] J. Oliver Bushwell, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973), 46

A Short Essay on the Inerrancy and Inspiration of Scripture.

I am going to preface this particular post with a disclaimer.  This was an essay written for my Theology 201 class at Liberty University and as such there was s very strict word length, which I still ended up being above, although I substantially cut some of the words used.  This is in no way a complete and thorough evaluation of Inerrancy and Inspiration, but I do believe it presents some points worth considering.  With this disclaimer, I do hope you will read over my humble thoughts, and will be blessed.

Short Essay on Inerrancy and Inspiration

            The challenges of inerrancy and inspiration have plagued the Church for millennium.  Secularists and liberal theologians will challenge the entirety of Scripture while arguing that the Bible is still a good moral authority.  Even pastors in denominations that are fairly conservative will challenge the need for an inerrant and inspired account of God’s word.  In Theology for Today Dr. Towns quotes Dr. Robert Bratcher who stated, “To invest the Bible with qualities of inerrancy and infallibility is to idolatrize it, to transform it into a false God.”[1]   As the Bible is the Word of God, it seems not plausible, but necessary for the Bible to be authoritative, inerrant and inspired.

            2 Peter 1:3 says “seeing that His divine power has granted to use everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence”.  Joshua 1:8 says, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it;” Each of these two verses contains at least one very important word, “everything” in 2 Peter 1:3, and “all” in Joshua1:8. The Bible is what should direct the lives, through the power of the Holy Spirit, for every believer, and truly for all people.

As the very Word of God, the authority of the Bible is two-fold.  Christ, who was God in the flesh, used Scripture as He battled against Satan during His forty days in the desert.  For each of the tests Satan placed before Him the Son of God responded with Scripture to respond to each temptation (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10; Luke 4:4, 8, 12). In His use of the Scripture, Christ validated the “ontological authority” of the Scripture.  The Bible also obtains it’s authority from God, Himself.  “Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action),” (2 Timothy 3:16).  Scripture is God breathed, just as His spirit was put into man in Creation through the breath of God (Genesis 2:7).

Dr. Towns gives a great definition of Inspiration in relation to the Scriptures in his book Theology for Today, “Inspiration is the guidance or influence of the Holy Spirit on the human writers of Scripture so that God controlled them in such a way that what they wrote was exactly what God wanted them to write without error” (Towns 2001, 59).  Inspiration of the Scripture is directly taught by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16.  Christ supported the inspiration of the Scriptures in Matthew 5:17-18 when He addresses that He came to “fulfill the law” (Matthew 5:17), how until “heaven and earth pass away” not one portion of the law “will pass away” (Matthew 5:18).  Inspiration or dictation of God is also supported in 2 Peter 1:21 and 1 Corinthians 2:13.

P.F. Feinberg has a fairly solid definition of inerrancy.  “When all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms” (Elwell 2001, 156).  In his introduction to the Gospel he compiled Luke explains how he “carefully investigated everything from the first” (Luke 1:3).  Since God has provided us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3) the information has to be inerrant, and completely truthful.  Again in Matthew 5:18 Christ says: “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.”

There are four major arguments that Feinberg identifies when it comes to the discussion on inerrancy.  The first argument Feinberg identifies is “the Biblical Argument”.  In this argument the premise is that Scripture itself teaches its inerrancy, even if the word itself is never used.  This draws back to the point in the beginning of this essay that the Scripture cannot be a good book or profitable in some of its teaching and not in others because the Bible itself proclaims that “Every Scripture is God-breathed”.  This argument however, would seem to be easily rejected by those who are outside of the faith because it can appear as circular reasoning.  The second argument is “the Historical Argument”.  Many secularists and liberal theologians will say that the cannon of Scripture was not created until the Council of Nicaea.  In this argument though there is abundant evidence of the quotation of Scripture all the way back to 2^nd century Christian fathers as Dr. Towns points out in Theology for Today, pg. 78-79.    

Some would claim that the last two arguments are the weakest.  In the “Epistemological Argument” the challenge is that some of the scripture is not inerrant then there can be no sure indication of which portion is inerrant, and which portion is not.  “The Slippery Slope Argument” would then go a step further and argue that if you give up on inerrancy other doctrines will be more easily rejected.  This seems to be the most appropriate argument because what has been demonstrated in many mainline denominations that have moved into areas of much greater concern for example the Episcopalian Church and their acceptance of homosexuality after rejecting the inerrancy of the Scriptures.

The relationship between inspiration and inerrancy is that of a symbiotic relationship.  If the Scripture is indeed “inspired by God” who is perfect then the Words which He chose for His revelation must be inerrant not just as it relates to “faith and practice” but as Dr. Towns attests "There was no error in grammar, historical locations, sociological understanding mathematics, geology, geometry, or geography” (Towns 2001, 59).  If even one portion of Scripture is not inerrant, then all of Scripture needs brought into question as to whether it could be breathed by God. 

In taking the view of the absolute authority, inspiration, and inerrancy of Scripture means that one accepts it in its entirety as Peter suggests, that the Scripture is the revelation of Christ and therefore has “granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” (2 Peter 1:3).  It also verifies the Apostle Paul’s claim that the purpose of Scripture is “profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action),” (2 Timothy 3:16).  The Scripture is God’s perfect revelation to us, and as such will always point us to living for God's glory.

Bibliography

Blum, Edwin, Jeremy Royal Howard, and Holman Bible Editorial Staff, eds. Hcsb Study Bible, Black Genuine Leather. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2010.

Feinberg, Paul, ed. "Inerrancy and Infallibility of Bible." In Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed, edited by Walter A. Elwell, 156-59. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2001.

Ryrie, Charles C., ed. Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update. Expanded ed. Chicago: The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1995.

Towns, Elmer L. Theology for Today. 2nd ed. Nashville, Tenn.: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2001.

Zondervan. Amplified Bible. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.

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[1] Robert Bratcher, “Biblical Authority for the Church Today,” Christianity Today, (May 29, 1981): Quoted in Elmer Towns, Theology for Today. (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2008), 65

If You Have a Love Problem, You Have a God Problem: A Review of Marriage Matters

            No matter what culture says, there is no doubt that marriage is an important foundation of society.  Regardless of race, religion, political, or social background marriage exists and has existed in every society that we know of from the ancient Egyptians to every country in the world today.  Yet marriage is also greatly under assault.  Much of this is due to how we treat marriage; the proliferation of no fault divorce and adultery are just some examples of how we continue to attack this foundation. 

            I have been married for almost eleven years now and know with how little regard I have treated my marriage.  Although, through the power of Christ, I have made many strides to restore my marriage, and to again build upon a Biblical foundation there is no doubt that with the attacks I have leveled against my marriage I needed some guidance and insight into what I can do better.  Recently I received the opportunity to begin book reviews for another publishing house, New Growth Press, and this review will focus on a book I received from them, Marriage Matters: extraordinary change through ordinary moments by Winston T. Smith.

            Until recently I have never been a fan of marriage books, yet as I have been growing in my relationship with my wife it was a marriage book that ultimately helped me realize that I was no doing all that I could. Just prior to our middle daughter being born Jen and I got to take part in a couple study on Love and Respect.  This book was the beginning of turning me around in how I loved and treated my wife.  This does not mean I still have not struggled on loving her like I need to, but I began to see things that made sense to me.  When I saw Marriage Matters as one of the options for review, I decided to take a look at another marriage book to see what else I might learn.

            Smith starts off this book with sharing a personal story about his own marriage.  In brief summary he felt that his wife was not keeping his needs in perspective as she went out on a Saturday morning and early afternoon with her friends.  This particular day was a busy day, as any parents of two or more children can imagine.  He explains how one had to get to baseball practice, the other had to go to a birthday party, and Smith was trying to prepare for a Bible study that evening (Smith 2010).  How many of us have been in a similar circumstance?  We know that there are things we need to do, but our spouse is not home, or is tied up doing something.  Suddenly we do not care whether or not what they are doing is important after all they are messing with a schedule we had already agreed upon.  I know I have fallen into this cycle myself many times.  Smith describes these as the ordinary moments (Smith 2010).

            In these ordinary moments we often time questions the love our spouse has for us.  In all reality though we are not showing love to our spouse.  Instead we are thinking about ourselves, and the impact their supposed self-centeredness had on what we needed to accomplish.  We begin to treat our spouse in an unloving manner, either getting angry or withdrawing into ourselves.  Smith quotes from 1 John 4:7-12 as he begins to get into the meat of chapter 1. 

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  God’s love was reveled among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.  No one has ever seen God.  If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us (Holman Christian Standard Bible, HCSB).

Shortly after quoting this Scripture Smith makes a very interesting and powerful observation.  “A lack of love should prompt us to not just look more closely at our marriage but at our relationship with God.” (Smith 2010)  He then goes on to say, “The bad news: your love problems are bigger than you think because love problems are God problems.” (Smith 2010)  What a powerful observation, and one I was very oblivious to for the majority of my marriage thus far. 

            From this observation Smith begins to help show how the ordinary moments can be extraordinary.  Smith divides his book into three sections to help build upon this basic principle.  In the first section Smith focuses on “God in the ordinary moments.” The second section is “Extraordinary love in the details of marriage”, and then his final section is “Staying on the path”.  Each section is well built upon, and upon the ending of this book the reader does have a good picture of what it looks like to see “extraordinary change in ordinary moments.”

            In this book I see no weakness at all.  Smith does well using personal stories to explain his points in each of the chapters, and this book is filled with Scripture and Scripture references.  There are many strengths in this book which make it great for not only reading as an individual or couple, but also for small group or Bible Studies as a tool to help tackle the Biblical principles of marriage.  Each chapter contains questions to help the reader focus in on the picture that the chapter is trying to portray.  This is a book I will certainly read again.

            I find it very easy to rate this book 5 out of 5 for practicality and application, as well as insight and direction.  This book will benefit engaged couples as they prepare to enter into the challenges and joys of marriage as well as the veteran couple who have been married for decades.  I look forward to seeing the other books that are offered by New Growth Press.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from New Growth Press as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”