Introduction
The concept of Jesus being fully man but also fully God at the same time has been debated amongst scholars, both Christians and non-Christians alike for centuries. The doctrine and study surrounding the person of Jesus is known as Christology, and after extensive and often hostile debates the Church gave a concluding definition of its Christology in 451 CE at the Council of Chalcedon. It was stated that they affirmed the belief in Jesus Christ as ‘one Person in two natures, which are united without confusion.’ The early church was adamant that the Incarnation was one of the most important truths of the Christian faith.
Maurice Wiles, an Oxford patristic scholar summarised the Chalcedons’s aims as follows:
‘On the other hand was the conviction that a saviour must be fully divine; on the other hand was the conviction that what is not assumed is not healed. Or, to put the matter in other words, the source of salvation must be God; the locus of salvation must be humanity. It is quite clear that these two principles often pulled in opposite directions. The Council of Chalcedon was the church’s attempt to resolve, or perhaps rather to agree to live with, that tension.’ This essay will examine and critically analyse this stance alongside answering the question of would it matter if Jesus were not fully God and fully human? Five specific points will be looked at; Jesus is God, Jesus is man, Jesus is a sinless man, Jesus will be fully God and man forever, and
Also, there would not be Christianity without the incarnation, atonement, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when God took human form through his Son, Jesus became fully human and God. He was the Messiah that Gods people longed for to save humanity from a sinful life (“Lecture 4”, 2017). Also, it is important to understand as a Christian that before Jesus Christ died humanity could not enter Gods Holy Kingdom after they passed because humanity was sinful. God sacrificing his son was a way to lay a path for humanity to follow if they choose to and if they follow Gods commandments can join God in his holy Kingdom after they pass away (“Lecture 4”, 2017). The truth of the Bible is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Even though the incarnation was torturous Jesus knew it would be and God new how much torcher was needed to make clear that reconciliation accrued. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but he is also our Godhead or divine Trinity. He is humanity’s
Jesus was the son of God, who was created by God and the second person within the trinity. God is viewed as the father, the son, and the holy spirit, according to the Christian worldview. Jesus was created from God planting a seed in Virgin Mary. Jesus was thus born to spread the word about God and all the gospel. Jesus lived a life as a human as all of us do now. He experienced a lot of things we as human’s experience. Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins where he died on the cross. Jesus is important to the Christian worldview because he is the ultimate reason we are who we are today. “God is both holy and just, so although he created humanity to be immortal, he could not accept them into his holy kingdom in their sinful state (Lecture 5). After Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross, this served as redemption and it was then that god allowed them into the
Over the course of history, the historical information regarding Jesus Christ has been interpreted by many different individuals and has led to different beliefs and views regarding the existence of Jesus Christ as a real man. Today I will be interpreting this evidence and i will be attempting to answer the question “Was Jesus Christ a real man?”. The evidence I will be looking at to answer this question will be information regarding the context of Jesus Christ, the historical accounts of non-Christian authors as well as the evidence for the Bible which is the main source regarding the life of Jesus Christ.
The Christological controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries were debates regarding the nature of Christ, and in particular the issue of his humanity versus his divinity. Docetism is a position which undermines the integrity of the humanity of Jesus because it claims that Jesus is fully divine but not truly human, because he is God merely adopting the appearance of being human. Arianism is the belief that Jesus is superior to the rest of creation but not equal to God because Jesus was created by God and thus is not eternal unlike God. The Council of Nicaea in 325 was called to fight against Arianism. The Council
Jesus Christ is the central figure of Christianity, the only way of salvation and the second person of the Trinity. (Funk & Wagnalls, 2015) The Gospels Matthew and Luke introduce the birth and childhood of God’s one and only Son, Jesus. His story began when the Angel Gabriel visited His virgin mother, announcing that she would give birth to a son, and that she was to call Him Jesus, for He would be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:30-35) The incarnation of the Messiah, was the Word
In this passage Torrence explored the relation of the doctrine of the incarnation to questions of soteriology. Torrance explains, God’s “conception and birth of the Virgin Mary, apart from a human father, did not alter the fact that the birth of Jesus was truly of the flesh just like that of all other human beings.” Also on the grounds of Soteriology, Torrance explains that when the Son of God became man which effected our salvation through humanity, it was the ‘whole man.’ In this passage, Torrance shows the representation of a leading western theological to “evaluate and appropriate the emerging Christological consensus of the Greek patristic
The book has given special treatment to Christ, who, in this case, is the main determinant of political, legal and the national limits on the value of the human person, both
In 325, the Council of Nicea set out to formally characterize the relationship of the Son to the Father, in light of the dubious lessons of Arius. Driven by Bishop Athanasius, the gathering confirmed the precept of the Trinity as conventionality and censured Arius ' showing that Christ was the first making of God. The ideology received by the committee depicted Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father."
Faith plays an important role in the Mende’s road to freedom. When the word “faith” comes to mind, it is one that concerns a belief in some power and requires perseverance in that belief. The Mende people certainly showed faith in more ways than one, but an example that is true to the definition mentioned before is one where Cinque and one of his fellow Mende look over the Bible. After examining the pictures, the Mende man pieces together the story of Jesus Christ despite knowing very little English. He shows the story to Cinque, and both men see how Jesus had unrightfully died, yet in death he had arrived in a place more beautiful than the world on which he lived. As a response, Cinque and his friend mustered up the faith to propel them
The purpose of the paper is to differentiate between Christ of faith and Jesus of history. New Testament biblical scholars from the 19th Century have been preoccupied by the notion of Christ of faith versus Jesus of History. Jesus of history can be described as the quest for historical Jesus, while the Christ of Faith is the Christ of Christian belief either through the Church or historically. Some traditions even went ahead to argue that the Jesus of History could never be found and therefore the Christ of faith is the only way forward for Christians. On the other hand, those who have been promoting the Jesus of History have often assumed that the historical Jesus is much superior as compared to the Christ of Faith. Despite the key differences between Christ of faith and the historical Jesus, both these aspect have an implication for Western Christianity.
With so many views taken there was a need to resolve the problem. It was causing much division between the people, and turmoil for the Church. A firm understanding of Christ’s true nature was vital to unify the Christology into one understanding. As Christians it was important to have an overall understanding of Christ’s true nature. The Nicene Creed provided this for the people and established the beliefs that continue to be present today.
According to the Christian faith, Jesus Christ is the second person in the trinity of God. He is God in human form, the Son. He is God in the flesh. He is known as the God-man. He was fully human, yet fully God. (Theology for Today, Towns, 155) He experienced all of the trials, temptation, pain, suffering of being confined to a human body. Even so, Jesus was God almighty. By the word of His mouth he could perform miracles never seen before. There were
The title "Christ" is used most often for Jesus in throughout Luke and Acts. “Christ” also served as foundation in constructing Jesus’s journey from earth to him being exalted [1, pg 14]. It refers to Jesus as the Anointed One of the Lord, the Messiah. The title was first used in Luke 2:11, and the strength of this title was clearly outlined in Luke 1:31-35, which described the role of Jesus as the Messiah. Stating that he was the royal figure promised
Christians devote their lives to following the example Jesus Christ left for them. In order to better be like Christ a person must come to the conclusion of who Jesus was during his time on Earth. This a term known as Christology, which is defined as, “Christology is the name given to what we believe about Christ. It includes the beliefs about his personhood, his nature, and in what way he is a Savior or mediator between humanity and the divine” (Papandrea, 12). The Christology Debate does lays out two different foundations to the question, was Christ fully human and fully God while on Earth? This debate is usually split down the middle with only two different arguments. The first stance is called the Classical View, which believes Christ was fully human and fully divine, while on Earth.
Studies of Jesus primarily focus on the duality of Jesus and how he is able to be both human and divine at once. This subject was disputed at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 between the