Test 2 Flashcards
The problem of Christ’s humanity
1) Jesus was born into a world which had come to believe that matter was morally evil.
2) Plato (Platonic Dualism) - things in the material world were fleeting and temporary because they were simply manifestations of an ideal counter part.
3) It was believed that the human soul existed in this perfect spiritual world, “before it came to reside in a physical expel (
4) The thought was that it was impossible for God to become man because that would mean that God had to become imperfect.
**Cerinthianism
Jesus was born naturally as Mary had relations with Joseph or some other man.
For some reason God chose Jesus to put the christ’ spirit upon which occurred at Jesus’ baptism
The man Jesus was not God in flesh, but simply a vehicle for diving revelation.
**Docetism
Christ was a pure spirit who just appeared to be in human form but he was not truly human.
“Deko” - can have an ideal of to appear or to seem.
The Prologue of 1 John
Each of the clauses demonstrate the reality of the incarnation of Christ and the personal encounter John had with him.
The order of the verb (normally the verb appears before the object, here it appears after the object) - puts emphasis on what John wants to say rather than on the act of communicating.
**Four parallel clauses in the prologue of 1 John…
- that WHICH was from the beginning
- WHICH we have heard
- WHICH we have seen with our eyes
- WHICH we have looked upon and our hands have handled.
“That which was from the beginning” (prologue of 1 John)
- John is speaking about the incarnation or perhaps even the start of Jesus’ earthly mission.
- Logically, since John refers to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he is now going to speak of the apostles’ experience with the incarnate Christ. Therefore, he adds the second clause “which we have heard” because this refers to everything Jesus had said in his ministry.
“Which we have heard” (prologue of 1 John)
- Everything that Jesus had said in his ministry.
- Heard (perfect tense) because Jesus had ascended some 50 years prior to the writing of this letter.
- Perfect tense refers to a past action which has continuing effects in the present.
- Implies that when John wrote the message it was ringing in his ears.
“Which we have seen with our eyes” (prologue of 1 John)
- To see is even more compelling than to hear.
- John not merely saw Jesus, or glanced at him, but saw with understanding, becoming fully convinced.
“Which we have looked upon and our hands have handled” (prologue of 1 John)
- Another word for seeing (theaomai)
- Theaomi connotes a perception that is above what one merely sees.
- Handled-John is indicating in contradistinction to any who would deny the humanity of Christ that the divine Lord inhabited a physical body.
- Jesus used the same word as “handled” when he told doubting Thomas to touch him (a spirit cannot have flesh, wounds, holes, etc). Thomas touched and believed.
**Eternal Life
- Eternal life not only stresses duration, but the quality or kind of life (even those who will end up in Hell will have eternal life in Hell).
- John 17:3 (eternal life) - “This is life eternal, know God”
- When this “life” is called “eternal,” it means far more than an unending existence, but rather it is stressing that this process of knowing God which begins when I am saved and CONTINUES when I am someday in God’s presence.
- Life and eternal life are not to be equated with salvation.
- The highest experience of eternal life is possessed by the Son himself (Jesus knows God in a way that no one else has known him).
Fellowship with the Father and Son
- “that” in verses 3 and 4 denotes purpose.
- Jesus became a man so that we would have a way to have fellowship with God, to experience life, just as He had been for all eternity.
- “I write these things so that you [the readers] can have fellowship also.
- Stunning invitation to enjoy ongoing fellowship with God to enjoy eternal life with God on the basis of the incarnation.
The Humanity of Christ (negatives)
- The incarnation is a metaphor
- Christ was only a man
- Ebionism
- Nestorianism
- Monophysitism
- Apollinarianism
- Theophany/Christophany
Christ was only a man ….
This is the beliefs of Arius, Jehovahs Witnesses, Mormons, and the average person on the street.
**Ebionism
- Hebrew word meaning “poor”
- The Ebionites taught that Jesus was the son of Mary and Joseph who was chosen by God to bear the Christ Spirit.
- They rejected Paul’s epistles
- Dualistic in nature
- The Ebionites had their own gospel (the gospel of the ebionites).
**Nestorianism
- Nestorious was a monk in 400 AD, and was the bishop of Constantople
- Nestorious said that Christ was 2 persons (son of man and a divine person)
- No where in the NT do we have the human Jesus vying with the divine Jesus.
- This view had good intentions, but you end up with 2 natures which are not united into 1 person - sort of a schizoid Christ.
**Monophysitism
- Instead of separating the natures of Christ, they were fused in such a way so as to create a mixture…so that the human and divine come together so that the result is a 3rd substance.
- Divine + Human = one divine nature
- In the incarnation, a new person was NOT created (like when a husband and wife have a baby, there is a new person, a mixture of genes…this was NOT the case)
- There was no charge in the personality of the 2nd member of the God-head. He was the same person that he was in eternity past
**Apollinarianism
- Christ as God took on a human body; however, without a human mind. The human mind was displaced with the divine mind.
- Luke 2:52 - “Jesus increased in wisdom” - Jesus went through the normal processes of learning (talk, walk, dress himself).
Theophany/Christophany
- The incarnation of Christ is not equivalent to a theophany or a Christophany.
- In the OT there were times when God appeared to man in various forms. The incarnation is something entirely different. Christ was not just an appearance of God, but one who would forever exist in bodily form.
**Creed of Chalcedon
-In AD 451, Leo the Great asked the emperor to organize a council to settle and make a creed to hammer out a creed to state the relationship between the human and divine natures. The creed was mainly a denial of some of the false views mentioned with some positive statements regarding the union of Christ’s nature.
The Humanity of Christ (positives)
- Christ retained his full deity.
- Christ added humanity to his deity.
- Christ was fully man (this opposes Apollinarianism) but one person (this opposes Nestorianism) with two distinct natures (this opposes monophysitism).
- Christ assumed fallen flesh (or humanity) at the incarnation.
- Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus was not capable of sinning.
- Jesus will retain his humanity forever.
Christ retained his full deity…
In the incarnation, Christ retained his full deity. He never ceased to be God.
Christ added humanity to his deity…
In the incarnation Christ added humanity to his deity. There was no exchange, only addition.