Sermon Tone Analysis

Andrew Hodge                                                                                                 5th February 2006

 

 

CMI Dogmatology Seminar 17

 

 

The Humanity of God the Son

 

 

L.P.Chafer "Systematic Theology" Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Dallas Theological Seminary 1948 and 1976  *I*, 365-372  /God the Son: His Humanity/

/ /

/ /

 

/Examine the errant views of Jesus’ humanity:/

In a true sense, the Trinitarian controversies attacked the Deity and humanity of Christ, and their union into one nature (see Seminar 12).

The following chart gives a summary of the major errant views:

| *PERVERSIONS OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST*14* * |

| *Party* | *Time* | *Reference* | *Human**Nature* | *Divine**Nature* |

| Docetists | Late 1st century | 1 John 4:1–3 | Denied | Affirmed |

| Ebionites | 2nd century | Irenaeus | Affirmed | Denied |

| Arians | 4th century | Condemned at NiceaA.D. 325 | Affirmed | Reduced |

| Appollinarians | 4th century | Condemned at Constantinople,A.D. 431 | Reduced | Affirmed |

| Nestorians | 5th century | Condemned at Ephesus, A.D. 431 | Affirmed | Affirmed15 |

| Eutychians | 5th century | Condemned at Chalcedon, A.D. 451 | Reduced | Reduced16 |

[1]

The charts appended to my notes for Seminar 15 give a much fuller treatment of this.

Docetism was historically (1st Century) the initial category of error.

Docetists denied the genuine humanity of Christ ie Christ appeared to be human but was really just divine.

This concept was associated with the inherent ‘evilness’ of the physical world and ‘goodness’ of man as taught by Marcion and the Gnostics.

Although they affirm Christ’s deity, clearly He could not redeem humanity if He were not also human (Hebrews 2:14, 1 John 4:1-3).

The Ebionites (2nd Century) believed that Christ was not pre-existent and received the Spirit at His baptism.

The proponents of this view were Judaizers who were legalists.

Although clearly monotheist, they denied the genuine Personal Deity of Christ.

Only a fully Divine Christ is worthy of worship (John 1:1, 20:28), only a Divine Christ can satisfy the just demand of an infinitely holy God (1 John 1:9), and God and scripture would be lying when they affirm Jesus’ pre-existence (John 1:1-2, Hebrews 13:8).

The Arians also denied the genuine Deity of Christ, limiting Him to being the first and greatest created Being.

I had accepted that this prerogative belonged to Satan (Ezekiel 28:12).

Being created, Christ then could not be fully God, co-equal in a Trinity, but subordinate to the Father instead.

He was only /homoiousia /(like) rather than / homoousia /(consubstantial).

This logically extends to a form of polytheism.

The same objections apply to this as to the Ebionites - only a Divine Christ is worthy of worship, only a Divine Christ can save.

The Appollinarians (who followed Appollinarius, Bishop of Loadicea - not a good start [Revelation 3], although he did not teach until the 4th Century) denied the full humanity of Christ, giving Him instead the Divine /Logos /in place of a human mind, so that the man Christ had a human body and a human soul, but not a human spirit.

This view was a response to Arianism, the pendulum swinging to the opposite end of the Deity-humanity spectrum.

Justyn Martyr was one of the prominent proponents of this doctrine, but it was condemned at three Councils (Antioch in AD 378 and 379, Constantinople AD 381).

This idea was associated with the assumption that the /Logos /of Christ was the same as the capacity to reason in every man (which is clearly heretical; although we are admonished to ‘have the mind of Christ’, we don’t have it as a matter of course).

The Appollinarians did at least affirm the Deity and humanity of Christ, but failed to recognise that if Christ did not have a human mind, He could not be truly human (Hebrews 2:14, 1 John 4:1-3).

This view is clearly contrary to Scripture - see below.

The Nestorians (5th Century) denied the full unity of the two natures of Christ - union was ‘moral’ not ‘organic’.

Hence there were two persons, with the Divine in control over the human.

This view was condemned by the Synod at Ephesus 431AD because the bishops wanted to guard against the heresy that Christ was ‘adopted’ by Mary.

Instead they affirmed that Mary was /theotokos /ie ‘the one who bore the Son of God’, which has been twisted down through the ages by Catholicism to mean ‘Mother of God’.

Nestorius at the Ephesus synod argued for /‘Christotokos’/ which in many respects, looking back, would have been preferable.

Perhaps the only argument for Nestorianism is that the human Jesus, who died, is distinguished from the Divine Jesus who could not die, as an aid to understanding the ‘union’ between the two natures.

This of course means that the Divine side of Christ was not involved in the sacrifice of the Cross, could not therefore satisfy the Father’s justice and we could not be saved (Revelation1:12-18).

The Eutychians (5th Century) denied any distinction between the two natures, the human being swallowed by the Divine to create a third entity which was different from either of the two original natures.

This is termed /monophysitism /, fundamentally the opposite of Nestorianism.

This view must accept that Christ was neither fully God nor fully man, and could not therefore fulfil the tasks of either.

From October 8th to November 1st 451 AD, a large church council convened at Constantinople and produced the Chalcedonian Definition which guarded against Appollinarianism, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.

2Wayne Grudem "Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith" Abridged by Jeff Purswell  Intervarsity Press, Leicester, England 1999 pp243-244

3ibid p244

 

 

To this day this definition has been the standard orthodoxy on the Person of Christ2.

The complete Definition may be found in Grudem3 and is an excellent description of the Scriptural view of the hypostatic union.

/Chart and explain the prophecies of a human Messiah:/

The two following charts are taken from H. Wayne House4:

| *32.

Messianic Prophecies Fulfilled in Christ *(Presented in the Order of Their Fulfillment) |

| *Scripture Stating * | *Subject of * | *Scripture Stating * |

| *Prophecy * | *Prophecy * | *Fulfillment * |

| Genesis 3: 15 | Born of the seed of a woman | Galatians 4:4 |

| Genesis 12:2-3 | Born of the seed of Abraham | Matthew 1: 1 |

| Genesis 17: 19 | Born of the seed of Isaac | Matthew 1:2 |

| Numbers 24:17 | Born of the seed of Jacob | Matthew 1:2 |

| Genesis 49: 1 0 | Descended from the tribe of Judah | Luke 3:33 |

| Isaiah 9:7 | Heir to the throne of David | Luke 1 :32-33 |

| Daniel 9:25 | Time for Jesus' birth | Luke 2: 1-2 |

| Isaiah 7:14 | Born of a virgin | Luke 1 :26-27, 30-31 |

| Micah 5:2 | Born in Bethlehem | Luke 2:4-7 |

| Jeremiah 31 : 15 | Slaughter of the innocents | Matthew 2: 16-18 |

| Hosea 11:1 | Flight to Egypt | Matthew 2: 14-15 |

| Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3: 1 | Preceded by a forerunner | Luke 7:24, 27 |

| Psalm 2:7 | Declared the Son of God | Matthew 3:16-17 |

| Isaiah 9:1-2 | Galilean ministry | Matthew 4: 13-17 |

|   | .

|   |

| Deuteronomy 18: 15 | The prophet to come | Acts 3:20, 22 |

| Isaiah 61:1-2 | Came to heal the broken hearted | Luke 4:18-19 |

| Isaiah 53:3 | Rejected by his own (the Jews) | John 1: 11 |

| Psalm 110:4 | A priest after the order of Melchizedek | Hebrews 5:5-6 |

| Zechariah 9:9 | Triumphal entry | Mark 11: 7, 9, 11 |

 

|   |

| I |

| ,...- |

| or |

| ,.. |

| .--

|

| ... |

| -- |

| •... |

| " |

| " |

| - |

| •... |

| •... |

| or |

| •... |

| -- |

| - |

| - |

| * * |

| *Scripture Stating * | *Subject of * | *Scripture Stating * | * * |

| *Prophecy * | *Prophecy * | *Fulfillment * | * * |

| Psalm 41 :9 | Betrayed by a friend | Luke 22:47, 48 |   |

| Zechariah 11: 12-13 | Sold for thirty pieces of silver | Matthew 26:15; 27:5-7 |   |

| Psalm 35: 11 | Accused by false witness | Mark 14:57-58 |   |

|   |   |   | .

|

| Isaiah 53:7 | Silent to accusations | Mark 15:4, 5 |   |

| Isaiah 50:6 | Spat upon and smitten | Matthew 26:67 |   |

| Psalm 35: 19 | Hated without reason | John 15:24, 25 |   |

| Isaiah 53:5 | Vicarious sacrifice | Romans 5:6, 8 |   |

| Isaiah 53: 12 | Crucified with transgressors | Mark 15:27, 28 |   |

| Zechariah 12: 1 0 | Hands pierced | John 20:27 |   |

| Psalm 22:7-8 | Scorned and mocked | Luke 23:35 |   |

| Psalm 69:21 | Given vinegar and gall | Matthew 27:34 |   |

| Psalm 109:4 | Prayer for his enemies | Luke 23:34 |   |

|   |   | .

|   |

| Psalm 22: 18 | Soldiers gambled for his coat | Matthew 27:35 |   |

| Psalm 34:20 | No bones broken | John 19:32-33, 36 |   |

| Zechariah 12: 1 0 | Side pierced | John 19:34 |   |

| Isaiah 53:9 | Buried with the rich | Matthew 27:57-60 |   |

| Psalm 16:10; 49:15 | Would rise from the dead | Mark 16:6-7 |   |

| Psalm 68:18 | Would ascend to God's right hand | Mark 16:19 |   |

 

|  I |

| 61 |

/                                                                                                                                   /4

It should be noted that the title of Messianic Prophecies of the OT fulfilled in the NT all predict a Messiah who comes physically to earth, is physically resurrected, and physically ascends to return to heaven, completely identifying with our humanity and in the process proving His own.