5/15/14- The Person of Jesus Christ

When the fullness of time came God sent his Son, his eternal wisdom, the substance of his own glory, into this world, who took the nature of humanity from the substance of a woman, a virgin, by means of the Holy Ghost. And so was born the "just seed of David," the "Angel of the great counsel of God," the very Messiah promised, whom we confess and acknowledge to be Emmanuel, true God and true man, two perfect natures united and joined in one person.

4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,5so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.… (Galatians 4:4,5)

Thoughts: Knox elaborates on the person of Christ on this section on the Incarnation of Christ.  Jesus is:
1) The Son- of the same essence and mind as the Father, yet separate.
2) His eternal wisdom- The Word (logos) of God is also the wisdom coming from God to us.
3) The substance of His glory- Jesus is the radiance of God's glory of the same essence/substance.
4) Took on the nature of humanity- Jesus was both divine and human. 
5) A Virgin by means of the Holy Ghost- The Spirit enabled Mary to conceive.  This was a both a supernatural and theological statement.  Jesus was not an ordinary human- but extraordinary.
6) Just seed of David- Jesus was from the line of David- and was the way in which David's line continues to rule. 
7) Angel of the Great Counsel of God- Jesus is the "messenger" (Angel means messenger) of God's great news of grace and care.  He is the Living message- the Living Word but also the Living Messenger. 
8) Messiah- anointed one- appointed and called to be our savior. 
9) Emmanuel- God with us- abiding and dwelling with us. 
10) True God and true man- not half and half;  not one more than the other- but fully of each. 
11) Two perfect natures united in one person- He was not two different beings- one divine for awhile and the other human for awhile.  He was not schizophrenic- divided in Himself.  Rather Jesus was perfectly whole- and shows us how to have peace within ourselves and with God.
These titles of Jesus emphasize that Jesus is not just a teacher, or a good man- as we might emphasize today.  Knox was not afraid to see God at work in extraordinary ways.  He experienced it in his own life.  If we think of it, we probably could also point to God working in extraordinary ways pointing us to the person of Jesus Christ. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to see you more clearly.  May my wisdom submit to your greatest Wisdom.  

12/28/12- Two natures in one person

³ regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, ⁴ and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thoughts: This passage sounds like some of the councils debating the nature of Christ- his humanity and divinity (like Chalcedon below).  Here Paul speaks of the human nature (of David) and the divine nature (declared by the Spirit and the resurrection).  Paul is explaining the theology of Christmas- God becoming man.  Jesus went to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of David. He was declared divine by the angels who appeared to Joseph, Mary, and the shepherds, and the guidance of the magi to Jesus.  Jesus was not just divine- he was born in all too human a fashion- left out- in poverty.  He later showed his humanity in weeping, suffering, hungering and thirsting, and the most human thing of all- dying. Jesus was not just human- with no supernatural signs of his divinity.  We follow Jesus' example of love and service as a human.
        We believe and trust in his ability to help us because he is not just human but divine.  Today some have no problem with Jesus being an angel-like being (Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims).  Others have no problem with his humanity- but think anything supernatural is just made up/myth (Marcus Borg, John Shelby Spong, Jesus Seminar leaders, deists, et al. ).  If God is God, we would and should expect Him to act and interact with His creation.  To say that this is unnecessary or impossible is to put ourselves in God's place.  On the other hand those who say that Jesus could not have become human because this is too mundane for God are unable to appreciate the great humility, servitude, and love of God.  We really need both to appreciate the richness of God.  

Prayer: Help me, O Lord to appreciate both your humanity and your divinity.  Help me to follow in your footsteps but also rely on you each step of the journey. 


Chalcedon's Definition of 451 says in part: 

"one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably;

the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God (μονογενῆ Θεὸν), the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ;"

[There was a time when the Coptic churches (mainly of Egypt), and the Jacobite churches (mainly of Syria and Armenia) rejected this definition entirely following Cyril of Alexandria's idea of oneness-miaphysite.  In recent times Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Batholomew I have restatted this position to include Cyril's and the miaphysite poisiton as part of orthodoxy].