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Systematic Quiz 5

Terms in this set (30)

Jesus's Self-Consciousness
Jesus did not make an explicit overt claim to deity
-we do fin claims that would be inappropriate if made by someone who is less than God
-prerogatives Jesus claim: to forgive sins resulted in a charge of blasphemy against him, he speaks judging the world
-The authority Jesus claimed and exercised is also clearly seen with respect to the Sabbath
-Jesus also claiming an unusual relationship with the father: to be one with the Father; to see and know him is to see and know the Father
-The clearest indication of Jesus's self-understanding is found in connection with his trial and condemnation
-Not only did Jesus not dispute the change that he claimed to be God, but he also accepted his disciples' attribution of deity to him
-He juxtaposes his own words with the Old Testament
-He claims power over life and death
-Claimed to be the Son of God
-He understood himself as equal with the Father and as possessing the right to do things that only God has the right to do
The Gospel of John
He identifies the Word as divine and distinguished the Word from God
Hebrews
the Son as the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of his nature
-He upholds all things by his word of power; the Son is superior to angels, Moses, and the high priests
Paul
Paul writes that the Son is the image of the invisible God; he is the one in whom and through whom and for whom all things hold together
-Paul also confirms some of the claims Jesus had made earlier
The Term "Lord"
kyrios - several considerations argue that the term signifies divinity when it is applied to Jesus
-In the Septuagint, kyrios is the usual translation of Jehovah and reverential 'adonai
-Several NT references to Jesus as "Lord" are quotations of Old Testament texts employing one of the Hebrew names of God
-kyrios is used in the NT to designate both God the Father, the sovereign God and Jesus
The Evidence of the Resurrection
on purely historical grounds the probability of Jesus's resurrection - to show how the fact of Jesus's resurrection argues for his deity
-To the Jews of Jesus's time, his resurretion would have signified divinity
-Jesus's resurrection resulted in the emergence of Christianity
-The proclamation of the resurrection in Jerusalem so soon after Jesus's death is very significant. Within the earliest Christian community there must have been a reliable testimony to the empty tomb, there is no claim at all that Jesus's grave was not empty
Eboionism
Denied the real or ontological deity of Jesus
-Jesus was an ordinary human possessing unusual but not superhuman or supernatural gifts of righteousness and wisdom.
-They rejected the virgin birth
-The Christ descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. This was understood more as the presence of God's power and influence in the man Jesus than as a personal, metaphysical reality. Near the end of Jesus's life, the Christ withdrew from him
-Thus Jesus was primarily a human whom the power of God was present and active to an unusual degree
-Ebionism resolves the tension between belief in the deity of Jesus and the monotheistic view of God, but at the price of ignoring or denying all references to the preexistence, the virgin birth, and the qualitatively unique status and function of Jesus
Arianism (Jehovah's Witness)
Jesus is the absolute uniqueness and transcendence of God
-God alone possesses the attributes of deity. The Father alone is uncreated and eternal
-While the Word is a perfect creature, he is not self-existent
-Christ is inferior to the Father
-Semi-Arians, stress the similarity rather than the dissimilarity between the Word and the Father. They are willing to say that the Word is similar in nature to the Father, but not that he is of the same essences as the Father
Two major responses to Arian theology
1) to note that the types of evidence appealed to earlier in this chapter in substantiating the deity of Christ are either ignored or inadequately treated by the Arians
2) to take a closer look at the passages that have been appealed to in support of the Arian view
Functional Christology
An emphasis on what Jesus did rather than on what he is...claims to work on the basis of purely NT grounds rather than the more metaphysical or speculative categories of a later period of reflection
-It overlooks some features of the biblical witness and distorts others, and is not an adequate Christology for today
Implications of the Deity of Christ
-We can have real knowledge of God
-Redemption is available to us
-God and humanity have been reunited
-Worship of Christ is appropriate
The Importance of the Humanity of Christ
The human problem is the gap between God and us - it is ontological, but also spiritual and moral
-if there is to be fellowship between the two, they have to be united in some other way
-it is traditionally understood as being accomplished by the incarnation, in which deity and humanity were united in one person
-If Jesus was not really one of us, we cannot be saved
-Furthermore, he cannot really intercede as a priest must on behalf of those whom he represents
Biblical evidence: physical human nature
-He had a fully human body
-He was born
-He had a physical human nature: He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man
-Jesus had the same physiology and the same physical limitations as other humans
-Jesus used of himself terminology denoting humanity
-Christ's taking on flesh, becoming human, is mentioned
Biblical evidence: psychological human nature
Scripture attributes to him the same sort of emotional and intellectual qualities found in other humans
-some of Jesus's reactions were uniquely human
-one of Jesus's most human reactions occurred at the death of Lazarus
-He had some rather remarkable knowledge (past, present, future), yet this knowledge was not without limits
-Jesus had a human religious life; he felt dependent on the Father for guidance, strength, and preservation from evil
-for the disciples, there was no question about Jesus's humanity; he did everything they did except sin and pray for forgiveness
Docetism
Greek verb dokeo: to seem or appear
-Jesus only seemed to be human
-God could not really have become material, since all matter is evil, and he is perfectly pure and holy
-Jesus's humanity was simply an illusion
-Jesus was more like a ghost, an apparition, than a human being
-This particular Christology resolved the tension in the idea that deity was real and complete, the humanity was only appearance, but a too great a price: the loss of Jesus's humanity
Apollinarianism
Jesus was a compound unity: part of the composite was human, the rest divine.
-What he took was no the whole of humanity but only flesh, the body
-Divine Logos took the place of the human soul, thus Jesus was human physically, but not psychologically -- his soul was divine
-Jesus did not have a human will, he could not sin
The virgin birth
"virgin conception": not the result of sexual relationship
-Mary became pregnant through a supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon her
-Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-28
the virgin birth: theological significance
Some have argued that the doctrine is indispensable to the incarnation. Without the virgin birth there would be been no union of God?
-Jesus's being both divine and human did not depend on the virgin birth
The virgin birth was indispensable to the sinlessness of Jesus?
-then the father is the source of depravity or depravity comes from the sexual at by which reproduction takes place.
--And since the act of conception is not sinful in and of itself, we are left with the transmission of sin related to the father.
--There are no signs of greater sinfulness among men than women
If the entire human race is tainted by original sin, would not Mary have contributed some of its consequences to Jesus?
-It seems likely that the influence of the Holy spirit was so powerful and sanctifying in its effect that there was no conveyance of depravity or of guilt from Mary to Jesus
-Now if the Holy Spirit prevented corruption from being passed form Mary to Jesus, could he not have prevented it from being passed on by Joseph as well?
-It is concluded that Jesus' sinlessness was not dependent on the virginal conception
However, the virgin birth was of great value in terms of symbolizing the reality of the incarnation.
-The virgin birth was not necessary ontologically (for Jesus to be God), but it is necessary epistemologically (for us to know that he is God)
The doctrine of the virgin birth is a supporting doctrine
1. The doctrine of the virgin birth is a reminder that our salvation is supernatural
2. The virgin birth is also a reminder that God's salvation is fully a gift of grace
3. the virgin birth is evidence of the uniqueness of Jesus the Savior
4. Here is another evidence of God's power and sovereignty over nature
The sinlessness of Jesus
The bible is quite clear that he did not sin
-Jesus himself both explicitly and implicitly claimed to be righteous
-Other than blasphemy, no charge of sin was brought against him, and if he was God, then what he did was not blasphemy
-there are ample testimonies of his innocence of the charges for which he was crucified
-Could Jesus have sinned?
--One of the great mysteries of faith: Jesus's two natures....while he could have sinned, it was certain that he would not.
-Is a person who does not sin truly human?
--sin is not part of the essence of human nature
-The true humanity created by god has in our case been corrupted and spoiled
-Jesus's humanity is the standard by which we are to be measured
Implications of the Humanity of Jesus
1. The atoning death of Jesus can truly avail for us
2. Jesus can truly sympathize with and intercede for us
3. Jesus manifests the true nature of humanity
4. Jesus can be our example
5. Human nature is good
6. God is not totally transcendent
The unity of the person of Christ: Biblical material
There are no references to the duality in Jesus's thought, action, and purpose. However, there are indications of multiplicity within the Godhead as a whole.
-Jesus always spoke of himself in the singular
-There are references in Scripture that allude to both the deity and humanity of Jesus, yet clearly refer to a single subject
-The bridging of the metaphysical, moral and spiritual gap between God and the human race, and hence our very salvation, depends on the unity of deity and humanity within Jesus Christ
-Other references focus on the work of Jesus in such a way as to make it clear that it is the function not of either the human or the divine exclusively, but of one unified subject
-Several passages in which Jesus is designated by one of his titles are highly revealing
--a divine title is used in a reference to Jesus's human activity
--the kingly status of the Son of god is juxtaposed with the redemptive work of his bodily crucifixion and resurrection
Nestorianism
Observes that God cannot have a mother - she bore a man who was a vehicle for God
-Christ as a conjunction rather than a union
-the traditional picture of Nestorianism as a heresy that split the God-man into two distinct persons
Eutychianism
Declares that the Lord Jesus Christ after his birth possessed only one nature, that of God made flesh and become human
-rejects the idea of two natures as contrary to the Scripture and opinions of the fathers
-subscribes to the virgin birth and affirms that Christ was simultaneously perfect God and perfect human, but that there were two natures before the incarnation, and one after
-the humanity of Jesus was so absorbed into the deity as to be virtually eliminated
-Eutychianism was a form of Docetism
Adoptionism
the idea that Jesus was merely a human during the early years of his life
-at some point, probably Jesus's baptism, God "adopted" him as his son
-this is more a case of a human becoming God than of God's becoming human
-obstacles for this view: preexistence of Christ, the prebirth narrative, and the virgin birth
Kenoticism
Kenoo is Greek for "to empty" - that Jesus emptied himself of what was the form of God
-He laid aside his distinctly divine attributes and took on human qualities instead
-the incarnation consisted of an exchange of part of the divine nature for human characteristics
-His moral qualities were maintained
-Jesus is God and man not simultaneously but successively; He is God, then his is human, then God again
The Doctrine of Dynamic Incarnation
The presence of God in the divine-human Jesus was not in the form of a personal hypostatic union between the Second Person of the Trinity and an individual human, Jesus.
-The incarnation should be though of as the active presence of the power of God within the person of Jesus
-The difference between Christ and us is only quantitative, not qualitative; this does conflict with sever emphases of Scripture
Basic Tenets of the Doctrine of Two Natures in One Person
1. The incarnation was more an addition of human attributes than a loss of divine attributes (Jesus did not cease to be in nature what the Father was, but he became functionally subordinated to the Father for the period of his earthly life
2. The union of the two natures meant that they did not function independently
3. In thinking about the incarnation, we must begin not with the traditional conceptions of humanity and deity, but with the recognition that the two are most fully known in Jesus Christ
Conclusion
-As the image of God, the human is already the creature most like God
-It is important to think of the initiative of the incarnation as coming from above, rather than from below
-It is also helpful to thing of Jesus as a very complex person; if we imagine complexity expanded to an infinite degree, then we have a bit of a glimpse into the personality of Jesus
Six Basic Heresies regarding the Person of Christ
Ebionism: denies the genuineness of Jesus's deity
Arianism: denies the completeness of Jesus's deity
Docetism: denies the genuineness of Jesus's humanity
Apollinarianism: denies the completeness of Jesus's humanity
Nestorianism: divides his person as two distinct persons
Eutychianism: confuses his natures as a blended one
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