I mentioned a few weeks ago, at the beginning of a series on Isaiah’s Servant Songs, that I’ve found benefit in memorizing Scripture passages that place me inside the mind of Christ in a fresh way. That idea is the seed of a much larger principle: we thrive best when we know Christ, and the better we know him, the more we experience the great blessings of life, especially grace, mercy, and peace. I’ve found that to be consistently true in my long (and inconsistent) walk with God.
For that reason I’m going to take a few posts to meditate on the person of Christ, and particularly the characteristic that makes him absolutely unique in the universe. I’m not going to go deep into theological terminology or systematic theology’s logical complexities (no Thomas Aquinas here), but I’m convinced that every Christian can benefit by engaging with the uniqueness and profoundness of the Son.
The theological term for the topic of this series is the “hypostatic union”—but that’s the last time you see the term here. The concept itself in simple, in the sense that it means simply that Jesus is both God and man. Every Christian child learns that truth in Sunday school. But when we consider how that works, or what it implies, we very quickly get well over our heads in the theological waters. What I’d like to do here is consider the topic, raise some questions, and conclude repeatedly that we cannot yet know their answers.
And my goal in doing that is to increase the wonder with which we all regard the Savior.
I’m going to reduce the whole topic to just three simple propositions:
- Jesus is God.
- Jesus is Man.
- Jesus is both.
I’m going to start with the deity of Christ because that’s the proposition most widely disputed.
The deity of Christ is rejected by a wide spectrum of groups, ranging from atheists (obviously, since they reject the deity of anyone) to two of the world’s largest religions (Judaism and Islam), to a large chunk of self-professed Christians (liberal Protestants), to an assortment of cults (most notoriously Jehovah’s Witnesses; Mormons officially believe that Jesus is God, but their definition of “God” is broad enough to include all of us, eventually).
It’s really no surprise that so many people reject the idea that Jesus is God. It’s an extraordinary claim, we could even say a preposterous one. If someone today announced that he was God, would you believe him? I wouldn’t. My first thought would be that he needs professional help, if you get my drift.
So I think it’s unreasonable to expect people to just buy in to this notion on first hearing. Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary evidence.
[Sidebar: I’m glossing over a significant theological dispute here. In Christian apologetics, I’m using the language of “evidentialism”: that people hear evidence and then believe. That approach would be rejected by “presuppositionalists,” who argue that no amount of evidence will convince an unbeliever; he’s dead in sin and must be moved to believe by an act of God. The latter group is represented by Cornelius Van Til, and the former by Josh MacDowell and Norman Geisler. I see value in both approaches. If the presuppositionalists are right, there’s still sanctifying benefit for believers in learning the evidences.]
Despite the assertions of cult members and liberal Protestants, the Bible is not at all ambiguous about this doctrine; there’s plenty of biblical evidence. And even for someone who rejects the Bible, we know that it has power all its own (He 4.12), and believers are not wasting their time when they cite biblical evidence to someone who rejects it.
I’ll also note that many unbelievers claim to be “more scientific” than to believe the “fables” of Christianity. I like to challenge them on that; if you’re going to be scientific, then don’t you need to face and respond to the evidence that challenges your beliefs? Evidence isn’t going to hurt you, is it?
Next time, we’ll dig into some of that evidence.
Part 2: Deity 1 | Part 3: Deity 2 | Part 4: Deity 3 | Part 5: Deity 4 | Part 6: Deity 5 | Part 7: Deity 6 | Part 8: Deity 7 | Part 9: Deity 8 | Part 10: Deity 9 | Part 11: Humanity 1 | Part 12: Humanity 2 | Part 13: Humanity 3 | Part 14: Humanity 4 | Part 15: Unity 1 | Part 16: Unity 2 | Part 17: Unity 3
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