College Study #81: "Christology from Below"

‘Behold, the Lamb of God’

ide o amnos tou theou

College Study

81^st teaching

8.4.2014

 

“Christology from Below”

 

          Review:

                    What title for Christ served as the title for our study last week? Why does Paul call Jesus the last Adam? What are some comparisons or contrasts between Adam and Jesus? What is something we inherited genetically from Adam? What is something we inherit spiritual through Christ Jesus? What is the pre-Pauline creed, and where can you find it? What is an overarching theme to I Corinthians 15? Why did Paul call Jesus the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep? What was Paul’s analogy for explaining what our resurrected bodies will be like? Bonus question: in Japan, what represents the beautiful fragility of life? So we answered the question—what does it mean to be human?—by first asking what kind of human you are. There is an old creation under Adam, an old fallen humanity; and there is a new creation in Christ, a new kind of humanity that is being restored and transformed into His image. This is the only occasion we will ever have to choose which lineage we belong to. We can never choose who we want to be our parents, but we can choose to remain under Adam or to be in Christ, to be a part of an old creation or to take part in the new.

          End of Review

 

          Tonight, we’re returning for a second dosage of the Humanity of Christ. Last week, we touched on the subject from the specific perspective of Jesus as the Head of a new kind of humanity, as the last Adam. This week, we’ll take the subject head on, directly.

          Tonight’s study is entitled, then: “Christology from Below”, the counterpart phrase to Christology from Above, an approach to studying Christ that begins with His deity. Having considered His deity, His divinity, in the weeks past, we’re now turning our gaze to Christ’ humanity. But in considering both, this can be a tricky subject, as we shall see. This is a subject that is unprecedented. There is no other subject like Christ Jesus. Nobody else has ever been both God and man. Thus this is a subject rife with all kinds of theories of men. God give us wisdom to sift through them and discover the biblical truth.

          Let’s begin in Colossians 2:1-10. This short passage will introduce us to our subject tonight by showing a combination of the human and the divine in Christ, but I think this is also a great passage for young adults. I hope it resonates with you.

          v.1, the apostle Paul writes: “For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.”

          Paul makes it a point to mention that all wisdom and knowledge is hidden like a treasure in God the Father and in Christ. This apparently had something to do with the “great conflict”, the internal conflict of care and concern that he felt for the Colossian Christians.

          You see, this was a problem in the early church years. As Christianity was spreading in its infancy, there were many who came alongside the newborn Christians, who came even into the church, and said that what Paul was saying was true but they had something more to offer, some deeper hidden wisdom or knowledge. There were many false teachers in those early times who lured believers away from true Christianity by presenting some “new” hidden truth to them.

          Not much has changed in two-thousand years. This is still the method that cults use to fill up their ranks. Today, you still have to be really careful about any supposed “new” truth, “new” revelation, “new” prophecy, and “new” interpretation. We’ve got to be on our guard any time someone says to they’ve found the secret to Christianity or the secret to God. Guys, the “secret” is to search God’s Word. It’s all here. We don’t need something “new”. We need simply to walk in the way of the Lord, as Christians have done for two thousand years. So beware anytime someone tries to lure you into a group or a church or a bible study with something “new”.

          As we’ve said in the past, there are real discoveries to be made in theology and in biblical studies, but these are largely personal. Anything discovered isn’t going to be some radical “new” theology-changing truth. It will be something that has always been there, which merely escaped your notice for years.

          I remember Pastor Jon Courson saying it in a very matter-of-fact, black and white way: “If it’s new, it probably isn’t true. If it’s true, it isn’t new”. Beware of the deception of persuasive words.

          v.5, “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see you good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”

          In running any race, it isn’t enough to begin well. You also have to finish well. I remember my mother, who was a physical therapist, telling me that as a child when she put my large frame through the torture of running around the track. She explained that athletes would win races by reserving their energy for the final lap, so that they could finish well. I’d never understand that myself, since I never made it to any final laps, but that has some bearing upon our own spiritual race as Christians.

          Many of us here may have started well. Most of us, if I had to guess, have grown up in the church. We were perhaps saved at a young age through youth ministry or winter camps or evangelistic concerts. But it isn’t enough just to get saved at a young age, though that is a tremendously good thing. We’ve got to both receive Christ and then walk in Him, as Paul says. And this is where we may find ourselves trailing far behind, out of breath, out of energy, lethargic or even apathetic in our Christianity.

          Prayer is possibly the first thing to go under the excuse that it’s purposeless. Then, a book which once was a source of fascination and life perhaps becomes to you a boring, ceremonial religious text, the Bible. Church, once something you were excited about perhaps becomes just one more thing you’ve got to drag yourself out of bed for every week. Even God Himself, once your closest conversationalist and confidant, may feel distant and valueless. And we may find ourselves at the total opposite end of the spectrum of life, looking back at the days when we first received Christ and briefly, even without concern, wondering what happened to us.

          The Scripture knows full well what has happened. In Matthew 24, Jesus describes the symptoms of the end of the age and in describing what that time will be like, He said to His disciples: “…the love of many will grow cold.” Is that an accurate prediction of what we’re seeing occur on a national scale in the lives of young adults who “lose their faith” when entering college age? Perhaps so.

          We’ve got to walk in Him. We must be rooted and built up in Him, established. We have to go on from receiving a new life from Christ to abounding in this new life. Do you want to become one of those adults who thinks their justified in their actions just because they got saved at some youth event several decades ago? We cannot be defined by our past so much as we are defined by our present.

          We were saved, yes. That’s great. But can’t just camp on that original experience. We’ve got to continue to walk with Christ, all of our days.

          v.8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

          Here you go, the motto we ought to live under as we enter adulthood. For many of you that are learning more about the world through college and just through getting older, there is a danger in losing sight of Christ for all the deceptive philosophy, tradition and teaching of the world crowding in.

          But here’s what I think about this. I don’t say to you to stop learning. You’ve got to learn. You should learn. Christian’s shouldn’t be idiots. They should be more intelligent than the world around them. God has renews our minds. He gives us sound minds. Don’t check your brains at the church door.

          I had a teacher in Bible College who you could tell had done his fair share of research. He taught a class on cults. He once said to me, “I read the Satanic Bible, but like when handling any poison, I read it with gloves on”. He didn’t take that sort of thing to bed and have a little devotional reading in the Satanic Bible! No, of course not. He was, as we should be, a careful learner. If you’re studying biology or philosophy or anthropology or any number of things right now, be a careful learner. You should know these things, but you should beware in studying anything from the world as if you’re handling a deadly virus. All your life, be a careful learner. Don’t let anyone cheat you out of losing sight of Christ. Take everything back to the biblical truths.

          The things of the world can be seductive and alluring, but don’t let them seduce you, lead you away from your Shepherd.

          v.9, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”

          Here is our key verse. In Him, the man Jesus of Nazareth, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, of God’s nature and character. This is a perfect demonstration of the Deity in the Man, of the God-man, of Jesus being both divine and human. There’s a perfect union described here.

          There wasn’t two Christs, one divine and one human. He didn’t have two bodies, one spiritual and one fleshly. He didn’t have two personalities, one godly and one human. He was one Person with two natures. More on that in a bit.

          Now what we’re approaching here is a delicate matter, the subject of Christ’s Humanity in light of His Deity, so let’s ask a few questions tonight. These questions will serve as our points:

1.    Why did Jesus need to become human?

2.    How human was He?

3.    What made Jesus the perfect human?

 

1.   Why did Jesus need to become human?

          Now we’re asking about the necessity of His humanity. If God can do anything, being omnipotent, why both becoming a man? Why go through all the trouble of being born and growing up and suffering betrayal and torture and crucifixion, a laborious process which atheist Richard Dawkins called “petty”? Why go through all that if, being God, He could just snap His fingers or, better yet, just will it to be so that we would be redeemed? Why become human?

          While there are a number of reasons, definitely one of the most important of them is because if He did not become human He could not die. As we’ve discussed in the past, omnipotence means “all-powerful” but it does not mean able to do anything, even the intrinsically impossible. God may not create a triangular circle, because there is no such thing by definition. God may not create a rock so big He cannot lift it, because there is nothing bigger than the infinite God by definition of the word infinite. The Bible itself says that God cannot sin and that He cannot lie. That’s His impeccability. It is literally impossible for God to lie because He is perfect moral goodness.

          As the great C.S. Lewis with characteristically British wit: “His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose to say ‘God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,’ you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words ‘God can’… It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.”

          Another thing that it is impossible for God to do is die. God is called the Living God in Scripture. In the past, we discovered that God is self-existing and self-sufficient. He has Life and gives Life. He is eternal and timeless. He is free from all pain and suffering or harm. As an immaterial spirit, God cannot be wounded, murdered, slain, killed, tortured and certainly not nailed to a tree.

          Ah, but if God were to become man, flesh that can suffer, flesh that can feel pain, flesh that can be wounded, murdered, slain, killed, tortured and nailed to a tree, then that all becomes a possibility.

          In the ancient past, God had already established the necessity of the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. God had already illustrated the truth that life is in the blood and in order to forgive sins, there must be life for life, blood for blood. Justice had to be done and punishment had to shed blood in order to forgive a trespass.

          Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”

          Now why make such a thing true? Do you think that God made this rule up, the blood making atonement, and then realized “Aw man, now the only way to ultimately save humanity is by becoming flesh and blood myself and dying an excruciating death, dang it!” No. I doubt that.

          Rather, the blood of bulls and goats were temporary measures foreshadowing the blood of the Lamb of God that would be shed with finality for the taking away of our sins. Hebrews 10:4-5 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He [the Son of God] came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.”

          Why did Jesus need to become human? Why did God prepare a body for His Son? Bottom line, so that He could save us. There is no other method for the remission of sins besides for the shedding of blood, and without blood, God could not finally take away our sins, not until He took on flesh and blood Himself and being impeccable and sinless became the perfect sacrifice once and for all. If He were not human, our salvation would be impossible.

          Does that make Christ’s humanity an essential doctrine? Is this something you must believe in order to be a Christian? Yes, because if Jesus was not human than He could not die, and if He could not die than He did not die on the cross, and if He did not die on the cross then there is no salvation.

          The humanity of Jesus Christ has seldom been questions, but there have been several heretics that have tried throughout history to get rid of His humanity. They’ve tried to worm their way out of it, claiming that how could God become a man? how could flesh and divine spirit co-exist? And so they’ve attempted to explain it away by saying that the Divine-spirit left the human body on the cross. Or they’ve tried to say that there was only a likeness, a kind of shadow of humanity in Christ but not a real human nature. But each of these theories, the church has consistently rejected throughout the generations on the basis that they’re unbiblical.

          Henry Thiessen, in his book Lectures in Systematic Theology, wrote: “Since Christ must become a true man if He is to atone for the sins of men, the question of His humanity is not merely an academic one, but a most practical one.” If Jesus did not become flesh, you could not become saved. Practically, Christianity would fall apart without the Humanity of Jesus Christ. It is about as essential as it gets.

          In fact, the apostle John wrote in I John 4:2-3, “By this you know the Spirit of God—” in other words, this is true Christianity, this is the truth that only the Spirit of God will say: “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” Heresy can always be gauged against whether it claims that Jesus came in the flesh, or if He did not. Apparently, the Antichrist himself will make such a claim, probably that Jesus did not come in the flesh because He did not exist or something like that.

2.   How Human was He?

          I mean was He 50% God and 50% man? 90% God and 10% man? Theories have abounded, some which preserve both natures and others which discard one of the two for the sake of the other.

          One such theory I’d like to introduce you to is known as the “kenosis theory”. Check out Philippians 2:5-8.

          “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.”

          From this passage, some have derived the “kenosis theory” which suggests that Jesus emptied Himself of deity when He became man. It is as if Jesus left His Godhood up in heaven when He came to earth to become flesh. But this theory is an inadequate explanation for the balance of Christ’s two natures.

          While on earth, Christ still claimed to be God, not that He was God once upon a time or that He had emptied Himself of His divinity. On earth, He still accepted when anyone claimed that He was God as well. He even still displayed specific attributes unique to God while on earth.

          In the words of apologist Norman Geisler: “When Christ became man He never ceased being God. The incarnation was not the subtraction of deity; it was the addition of humanity.”

          Or as the church father Augustine said: “Christ added to Himself that which He was not; He did not lose what He was.” Humanity was taken on in addition to His divinity. He did not become less God because He took on flesh.

          So then how can we express this fusion of His two natures, the perfect balance of total deity and total humanity, complete divinity and complete humanity? There is a theological term that has been developed through history that helps to explain. The term is “the Hypostatic Union”.

          The painting known as Christ Pantocrator (Christ Almighty) was an attempt by the artist to represent this union. Interestingly, he tried to paint two different expressions into one face, hence the bizarre image. But this was an attempt to visually explain this hypostatic union.

          At first, that term sounds like an awful mouthful, needlessly complex and useless as a technical term to describe a beautiful mystery. And Christ’s nature is indeed a unique mystery. But this term is not unhelpful and not difficult to understand.

          The term “hypostatic union” comes from the Greek word hupostasis. The word hupostasis is used four times in the original Greek New Testament, such as in Hebrews 1:3 where hupostasis refers to the oneness of the Father and the Son, saying they are of the same nature. So think of hupostasis as oneness.

          But by the time Latin become predominant over Greek as a language, the word hupostasis came to refer to not the oneness in the Trinity but the distinctness of the three Persons in the Trinity. It began to represent something like our English word person. Basically, the hypostatic union affirms that Jesus Christ is a united Person: one Person, not two, though He has two natures. Two natures, One Person.

          Such a statement was made to shut down all the heresy about Christ being two different people, one divine and one human; or of Christ losing His deity when taking up His humanity; or of Christ Jesus only appearing human; or of Him separately being God in heaven and a man on earth. There is no separation. There is a personal oneness of the two natures in the One Person that is Jesus. In this way it can be said, as seen in Scripture, that Christ is both fully God and fully man.

          It’s a mystery as deep as the Holy Trinity. Three Persons, One God. It’s something that could be said to a child and they could believe it, and still the best of theological minds could spend their entire lives delving the profound depths of such a mysterious statement.

          Now when we studied the Trinity way back when, we attempted to use some analogies to help us understand what it is like. Certainly, there’s nothing exactly like the Trinity, so analogies are sometimes the best and only explanations. We discovered that some analogies are good and some worse. What about some analogies for the hypostatic union, the two natures in one person?

          Let me give you five, some bad analogies and some better analogies. Beginning with the worst analogy:

1.    The analogy of Jekyll and Hyde

          This analogy aims to explain the balance of Christ’s two natures by suggesting two personalities. To my mind, this is a bad analogy indeed. Christ was not schizophrenic. He didn’t swing from one nature to another like some people swing from one mood to another. His two natures are not moods or modes that He had to switch between. Unlike Jekyll and Hyde, who could only be one person or the other, Christ exists as both God and man simultaneously.

          So toss out that analogy. They didn’t do their homework.

2.    The analogy of a coin

          Christ has two natures and is one person. A coin has two sides but is still one coin. Sounds legit. But at best this analogy only holds up in showing the two natures of Christ, but it stops there. One side of the coin, say heads, is not the same or on the same side as tails. Heads is only half of the coin and tails the other half. But in Christ, humanity is not one half and deity the other. He is both fully, completely and simultaneously. It would be as if both sides of the coin were heads and tails at the same time, in a sense.

3.    The analogy of marriage

          In marriage, a man and a woman are two distinct people but they become one flesh. The two shall become one. As an analogy, that holds up pretty good. But even though the man and the woman become one, they are still distinct persons. I’ve been married for a little bit of time now and I can sometimes predict or guess what my wife is thinking or what she’s about to do. But I don’t think her thoughts. I don’t feel her feelings. I can’t because I’m still a separate individual though we’re one in marriage. Christ, however, is not two separate individuals with each a separate nature. That’s heresy. The Bible shows that Jesus is one individual, one Person, with two natures.

4.    The analogy of soul and body

          This was an analogy used by the early church councils and church fathers. Just like a soul is distinct but within a body, they surmised that divinity was in Christ. That’s a pretty good analogy, only problem is that soul and body are not two natures, since they’re both a human soul and a human body.

5.    The analogy of heat and iron

          Another interesting analogy used by the early church was the union of heat and iron. Heat remains hot in iron and iron remains iron in heat. Another good analogy, except that heat is not a substance while iron is. Whereas two categorically similar things (natures) existed simultaneously as both divine and human.

          This is the deepest of mysteries and maybe someday a better mind will come up with a better analogy. But what is most important is not how the union works, but that the union works, that God became flesh in order that He could die and that He could die for our sins.

3.   What made Jesus the perfect human?

          You’ve heard it said “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” But if to err is human, is it sinful to be a human? Are we human because we’re sinners, or sinners because we’re human?

          Because of Christ we recognize that it is not sinful merely to be human. He was human and never once sinned. Even Adam once existed in a state of perfect innocence before the Fall of Man. But Christ was human without ever erring, without ever sinning. The doctrine of His sinless humanity is all over the Scriptures. Paul says Jesus “knew no sin”.

          But what made Him so? What made Jesus sinless? Is it that He tried harder than everybody else? Was it a case of better genetics? Did He have a better upbringing?

          I think you know the answer. What made Jesus’ humanity a sinless humanity was because His is a humanity hand in hand with divinity. Because God cannot sin, Jesus could not sin. If Jesus sinned, being God in nature, it would mean that God too had sinned. And that’s impossible.

          The solution to perfected humanity is to combine it with divinity. God became flesh and dwelt among us and the God-man was without sin.

          In the same way, the solution is the same for us. How do you and I live a holy life walking after the Lord? How can we take part in this process of sanctification, being made holy? How can we learn to be like the Lord? Simply to let God’s divine spirit live in us and through us. Humanity was perfected in Christ because it was God dwelling in man’s flesh. Same thing for us.

          We are the temples of God. The Spirit of God lives in us. If we are to be the Christians God had intended us to be, we merely have to surrender our human natures to His divine nature.

          Jesus Christ gave us the perfect example. When He walked this earth in the flesh, He did nothing, took no a part in official ministry, before coming and being baptized by John when the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove. Jesus’ perfect human life was lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.

          In announcing His mission to the synagogue, He read out of Isaiah 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor…” Elsewhere, the gospels indicate that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit” or that He was “led by the Spirit”. It was the Spirit of God, the God-nature, that made for the best humanity this world has ever seen.

          If the church is to be effective by having effective Christian members, then you and I must be full of and led by the Spirit of God, the God-nature in a sense residing together with our human nature, almost analogous to the unique God-man, Jesus Christ. Don’t be silly in suggesting that I’m claiming we’re God. We’re not.

          But the Bible’s solution to our sinful natures was to take the God-man and crucify Him on our behalf and then to impart to us His divine Spirit to live inside of us, in a way that remotely shadows just how that God-man lived on this earth Himself.

          Deity in humanity was the cure for our sins on the cross. Deity in humanity is the cure for our sinful habits and lifestyles today, when we are led by the Spirit.

          Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

          One more thing before we finish. Earlier we read Paul’s words out of Colossians 2:9-10, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”

          I had said that I think this is a great passage for young adults. As we’re perhaps ironing out the last wrinkles in trying to find our place in the world, our identity, our careers and our unique personalities, we often find ourselves incomplete. The Bible says you are complete in Him. You are only complete when you are in Christ.

          All the single ladies (and single guys), I’ll tell you something that might be the opposite of what you hear most often as a single: don’t stop desiring marriage. Don’t go “Marriage won’t satisfy! I’ll become a monk!” No, marriage is a God thing. Marriage was designed by God. The Bible doesn’t ever make it out to be a sin to get married, obviously within certain boundaries, but you get the idea.

          But what needs to be said is this: marriage doesn’t solve the incompleteness problem. You can still only be ultimately complete in Christ, whether single or married. So single man or woman, don’t think marriage will be your cure-all. As sadly evidenced by so many around us, marriage is far from a cure for unhappiness and even, ironically, for loneliness. Some of the loneliest people I’ve met have been married people. You are complete in Him.

          It’s not some sappy, sentimental statement for women’s devotional books! It’s a fact of life! Saying you’re complete in Christ doesn’t simply express some modern idea of a romantic relationship with God, it expresses a reliance upon Him as your provider, as your joy and contentment, as the subject of your worship.

          As this is an immensely personal issue, I encourage you this week to think on that short phrase “You are complete in Him” and discover just what that means for you.