PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST
ERICKSON
DOGM221 PEC

One of the most controversial and yet crucial topics of Christian theology is the deity of Christ. It lies at the heart of our faith; for our faith rests on Jesus’s actually being God in human flesh, and not simply an extraordinary human, even the most unusual person who ever lived.

The Biblical Teaching
As with other doctrines, our primary source is the witness of Scripture.

What we do find, however, are claims that would be inappropriate if made by someone who is less than God.
For example, Jesus said that he would send “his angels” (Matt. 13: 41); elsewhere they are spoken of as “the angels of God” (Luke 12: 8– 9; 15: 10). That reference is particularly significant, for he spoke not only of the angels but also of the kingdom as his.

well. In Matthew 25: 31– 46 he speaks of judging the world. He will sit on his glorious throne and divide the sheep from the goats. Certainly this is a power only God can exercise.

We see Jesus also claiming an unusual relationship with the Father,
particularly in the sayings reported in John.
For example, he claims to be one with the Father (John 10: 30), and that to see and know him is to see and know the Father (John 14: 7– 9).

In some respects, the clearest indication of Jesus’s self-understanding is found in connection with his trial and condemnation. The charge, according to John’s account, was that “he claimed to be the Son of God” (John 19: 7). Matthew reports the high priest to have said at the trial, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God” (Matt. 26: 63).

time. Time and again he says, “You have heard that it was said, . . . But I tell you . . .” (e.g., Matt. 5: 21– 22, 27– 28). Here Jesus presumes to place his word on the same level as Old Testament Scripture. Jesus is claiming to have the power in himself to lay down teaching as authoritative as that given by the Old Testament prophets.

Perhaps the most emphatic statement is found in his words to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11: 25).

The Gospel of John When we examine the whole of the New Testament, we find that what its writers say about Jesus is thoroughly consistent with his own self-understanding and claims about himself. The Gospel of John is, of course, noted for its references to Jesus’s deity.

Hebrews
The book of Hebrews is also very emphatic regarding Jesus’s divinity. In the opening chapter the author speaks of the Son as the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of his nature (Heb. 1: 3).

Paul
Paul frequently witnesses to Jesus’s deity. In Colossians 1: 15– 20 Paul writes that the Son is the image of the invisible God (v. 15);
he is the one in whom and through whom and for whom all things hold together (v. 17).

Jesus, being God, emptied himself, became human, and then was again exalted to the status of deity or of equality with the Father.[

First, in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) kyrios is the usual translation of the name Jehovah and of the reverential ’adonai which was ordinarily substituted for it.

The Evidence of the Resurrection

Ebionism

The Ebionites, a sect of heretical Jewish Christians, denied the real or ontological deity of Jesus. Jesus was, according to the Ebionites, an ordinary human possessing unusual but not superhuman or supernatural gifts of righteousness and wisdom.

Ebionism had to ignore or deny a large body of scriptural material:
all of the references to the preexistence, the virgin birth, and the qualitatively unique status and function of Jesus. In the view of the church, this was far too great a concession.

The Father alone is uncreated and eternal. The Word is therefore a created being, although the first and highest of the beings. While the Word is a perfect creature, not really in the same class with the other creatures, he is not self-existent.

Functional Christology Not all modifications of the doctrine of the full deity of Jesus are found in the first centuries of the history of the church. One of the interesting christological developments of the late twentieth century was the rise of “functional Christology.”

Implications of the Deity of Christ

2. Redemption is available to us. The death of Christ is sufficient for all sinners who have ever lived, for it was not merely a finite human, but an infinite God who died. He— the Life, the Giver and Sustainer of life, who did not have to die— died.

4. Worship of Christ is appropriate. He is not merely the highest of the creatures, but he is God in the same sense and to the same degree as the Father. He is as deserving of our praise, adoration, and obedience as is the Father.