Christology Flashcards
Human birth (Matt 1), Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.” Luke 2 – Jesus grew (human body) and increased in wisdom (human mind). Heb 5:8 Jesus learned to obey. Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
- Human birth (Matt 1), Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.” Luke 2
- Jesus grew (human body) and increased in wisdom (human mind). Heb 5:8 Jesus learned to obey. Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
Divinity of Jesus
Direct claim in John 1:1, John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” John 20:28 “Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!””, Jesus forgives sins Matt 9/Mark 2, “who can forgive sins except God?” John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.””
Hypostatic Union
The union of Christ’s human and divine natures in one person
Impeccability of Christ
Scripture affirms that Jesus was truly tempted and did not sin: Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Scripture also affirms: James 1:13 “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” Because of Jesus’s divine nature, although he was truly tempted, he was not able to sin.
Non posse peccare (impeccability) vs posse non peccare (peccability).
Incarnation
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Docetism
The heretical teaching that Jesus was not really a man but only seemed to be a one (from the Greek verb δοκέω “to seem, to appear to be”). 1 John 4:2 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
Nestorianism
A fifth-century heresy that taught that there were two separate persons in Christ, a human person and a divine person.
Apollinarianism
The fourth-century heresy which held that Christ had a human body but not a human mind or spirit, and that the mind and spirit of Christ were from the divine nature of the Son of God.
Monophysitism
The fifth-century heresy which held that Christ had only one nature which, that being a mixture of divine and human natures (from the Greek μόνος, G3668, “one,” and φύσις, G5882, “nature”
Eutychianism
Another term for monophysitism, named after the fifth-century monk Eutyches.
Monothelitism
The position that Jesus had only one will, a view that was rejected as heretical at the council of Carthage (681 AD)
Salvation
Salvation is the rescuing people from the penalty of their sins on account of their faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Penal, substitutionary atonement
The view that Christ in his death bore the just penalty of God for our sins as a substitute for us. 1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”” 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Is. 53
Extent of the atonement
Limited, Unlimited, Multiple Intentions (Bruce Ware)
Limited Atonement
The Reformed view that Christ’s death actually paid for the sins of those whom he knew would ultimately be saved. A preferable term for this view is “particular redemption or definite atonement” in that the power of the atonement is not limited, but rather it is fully effective for particular people.) John 10:11, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, Eph 5:25, the groom dies for the bride, Hebrews 10:14 “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Act 20:28, Jesus obtained the church “with his own blood.”
Unlimited atonement
The view that Christ’s death actually paid for the sins of all people who ever lived. The effectiveness of the atonement is limited, though the extent is not. 1 John 2:2 “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Reconciliation
The removal of enmity and the restoration of fellowship between two parties. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
Redemption
Christ’s saving work viewed as an act of “buying back” sinners out of their bondage to sin and to Satan through the payment of a ransom (though the analogy should not be pressed to specify anyone to whom a ransom was paid. Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””
Propitiation
A sacrifice that bears God’s wrath to the end and in so doing changes God’s wrath toward us into favor. Romans 3:23-25 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
Ransom to Satan Theory
Origen, Christ paid redemption to Satan in whose kingdom we all were
Christus Victor
some fathers and Gustaf Aulen – victory over bondage: sin, death, and the devil
Satisfaction Theory
Anselm, God’s justice needed to be satisfied
Recapitulation Theory
Ireneaus, Christ, the new Adam, succeeds where Adam failed
Substitutionary Theory
Scholastic
